AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Janet beamed at her. “Oh, Becca! I was so hoping that you might say something like that. He was one of my favorites. All the Jacobs kids were. I worried about them after their folks died. Jacob took it especially hard. He seemed lost after that. I worried that he’d hardened and that the happy little boy I used to know had gone.”
Becca had to laugh. “No, I know that losing his parents was hard on him, and he’s told me that he wondered if he’d lost the ability to care after they died. But that little boy is still in there. I can see it sometimes when he smiles big.”
Janet laughed. “He used to have the biggest smile. His dad used to call him smiley, we used to call him that in the teachers’ lounge, too.”
Becca loved that his teacher had loved him so much. It said a lot about who he was that even all these years later she still remembered him so fondly.
“Anyway,” Janet reached for the door. “As long as you’re okay, I’m okay. And if you’re happy then I’m happy.”
“Thanks, Janet.”
She was very pleasantly surprised when the older woman came back into the room and hugged her. She clung tight to her for a few moments. This was something that she missed since she’d moved out here – hugs from real friends.
“You tell Jacob that Mrs. Rivers says he’d better be good to you, or he’ll have me to answer to.”
Becca laughed. Janet might be a favorite with the kids, but she wasn’t a soft touch. She was one of the most feared teachers – you just didn’t mess with Mrs. Rivers. “Okay, I’ll tell him that – and watch him quake in his boots.”
Janet laughed with her. “You’d better believe it. He might betheJacob Jacobs these days, but I’ll still put him in his place if he needs it. Anyway, have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here, ready to do battle again on Monday.”
“You have a great weekend, too.”
As she crossed the parking lot, Becca pressed the button on the remote to unlock the Range Rover. She was amazed at how quickly she’d gotten used to driving it. It felt a bit disloyal to Fred, but she loved this big thing. She loved that she got to sit so high up and could see so much more. She loved the big comfy leather seat, and that she got to listen to whatever music she liked on the satellite radio. She even loved that it had a hands-free system so that she could take any calls that came in while she was driving. So far, Jacob had called her once and that was just to test that she knew how to use it. But she was looking forward to someone else calling, too – she used to hate it when her phone rang while she was driving Fred and she couldn’t even check to see who it was. She usually ended up pulling over as soon as she could because she convinced herself that it might be an emergency.
She climbed up into the driver’s seat and patted the steering wheel. “Hey, Grover. How was your day? I hope you don’t mind hanging out here at school with me.” She laughed. “I’m sure you’re used to a different class of car at Jacob’s offices but …” She shrugged. Jacob was happy to trade the company of the kind of women he was used to; she hoped that Grover would feel the same way about the cars in the teachers’ lot. She pressed her lips together. She also had to hope that Jacob wouldn’t mind that she’d named his car – or perhaps she’d do better to hope that he didn’t find out. She patted the steering wheel again. “We can keep that between you and me, right?”
She checked the time before she started the engine. It was almost five o’clock. The day had gotten away from her. But she wasn’t worried. She imagined that Jacob would still be at the office. She’d said that she’d call him when she was on the way home.
A rush of warmth spread through her chest. It had only been a few days, but she was already thinking of Jacob’s house as home. She’d lived in the townhouse for over six months and never called it home. It wasn’t about the house itself though. It was because Jacob was there. If he’d wanted to move into the townhouse with her, she didn’t doubt that it would quickly have begun to feel like home, too.
As she left the parking lot, she decided that she wouldn’t call him just yet. She knew that he’d finish work and head back to the house if she did, and she felt guilty about how much work he’d already missed because of her. She was going to head to the grocery store instead. She loved Elena, and she might be the best cook on the planet, but Becca longed to cook for Jacob herself. She didn’t want to interfere with Elena’s work, but she figured that she could pick up the makings for dessert and surprise him with … a pineapple upside-down cake. That sounded perfect.
She parked at the far end of the lot. She still wasn’t comfortable maneuvering Grover in tight spaces yet, and she so didn’t want him to get dinged by a shopping cart or some careless person opening their door against him, and besides, a bit of a walk would do her good.
She should ask Jacob if he wanted to walk after dinner. The estate was so beautiful. It’d be awesome to take a walk to see the vineyards. She grinned at the thought that maybe they could get a dog. She’d never felt like she could have one since she’d left home – she’d never lived in a place where she had enough room – or worked a job where she had the time to dedicate to a dog.
Hell, she didn’t even know if Jacob liked dogs. No, that wasn’t true. He loved Hannah’s puppy, Scooter. He’d even texted her a photo of them all at Hannah’s house on Christmas Day. Grady, Hannah, and Ava looked like such a cute little family. And Jacob and Xander were right there with them – making it a real family photo. And Scooter had been sitting on Jacob’s lap with a paw on his shoulder. That was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.
She reached into her purse to get her phone so she could look at the photo – of course, she’d saved it – but she stopped just outside the doors to the grocery store when she heard someone calling her name.
“Becca!” It was a guy’s voice that she didn’t recognize. She looked around with a frown but didn’t see anyone she knew. She went inside, thinking that either she imagined it, or they were calling to some other Becca.
Just as she collected a basket from the stack inside, a hand came down on her shoulder. Jacob did that to her all the time, and she loved it. But this felt different. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up – and not in a good way.
“Damn, girl! Don’t make it easy on a guy, do you?”
She frowned when she saw who it was – Jamie, one of Jacob’s pilots. She didn’t speak. There was nothing she wanted to say to him.
He cocked an eyebrow. Jacob did that all the time, too, but it was sexy as hell when he did it. Jamie just looked kind of creepy.
“I’m Jamie, remember?”
“Oh. Yes.” She went along with his mistaken belief that she didn’t recognize him. “Hi. Sorry. I’m in a hurry.”
She tried to turn away from him, but his grip on her shoulder tightened. “It’s okay. Relax. No one’s going to see us here.”
She didn’t know what he meant. She looked around at the people coming in through the doors. Lots of people could see them.
He sniggered. “You know what I mean. No one who matters. No one who’d tell the old man that we were together.”
