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“Good to see me?” she asks in a strangled voice that causes me physical pain. “Jake, you’ve been MIA for six years, since Pete…” Her eyes fill with tears and it’s her turn to look away, her hand fluttering at her throat.
“Sheila, I’m sor—–” I begin, but she turns and grabs my biceps, digging her fingers into my muscles like she wants to hold me there in case I vanish before her eyes.
“Now hush. None of that.” Sheila shakes her head and blinks away her tears, the pain of losing her eldest child still etched on her soul. “You’re here and it’s wonderful to see you. You have to come to the house for dinner tomorrow.” She nods her head firmly and I know there’s no use arguing with her when she gets that look on her face. Pete had exactly the same expression when he volunteered to be last man out that night in the Afghan mountains.
“Thank you, I’d like that.” I nod slowly and feel her fingers loosen their grip on my biceps. “I see Mike’s still doing the carpentry thing.” I gesture over to their stall where Pete’s dad is dealing with a customer. His eyes keep flicking over to me, and I can tell he’s desperate to finish up and come over to talk. I hope it’s just talk and he’s not gonna tear me a new one like he did once when he caught Pete and me reading a girlie magazine in the treehouse.
The memory of him chasing us around the yard brings a faint smile to my face, but it’s quickly replaced with a grimace when a shrill cry and the sound of something hitting the sidewalk makes me spin around.
Standing there is the one person I definitely didn’t want to see.
Olivia Masters. Staring at me like she’s seen a ghost, the tray of iced coffees she was carrying forgotten at her feet, slowly ebbing into the gutter.
The last time I saw her she was weeping at her brother’s graveside, all long gangly legs, untamed black hair and a mouth full of braces. The woman who stands before me now is as far from that awkward teen as you can get. She’s tall like all of the Masters family, but she’s grown into it like a fucking Amazon. Her legs are long and muscular, and her hips flare out into an ass that just won’t quit. She’s developed curves in other places too, and I can’t seem to drag my eyes away from her full tits that strain against the Masters Carpentry polo shirt she’s wearing.
“Jake.” She says my name on a breath, her eyelids flickering wildly as if she’s checking that I’m not an apparition. Her eyes, that were always the same shade of blue as the ocean after a storm, fill with a million questions.
The sound of my name in her sweet voice makes my heart race and my palms sweat, I just can’t take my eyes off the beautiful woman she’s become. I realize I’m staring at her like the village idiot, but I’m caught in her crosshairs and there seems to be no escape.
“Oh look now, missy,” Sheila clucks, breaking the tension between us. “I’m parched and in desperate need of that iced coffee that’s now decorating the sidewalk.” Thankfully her annoyance at the loss of her drink releases me from my trance before I do something ridiculous and pull Olivia into my arms and taste those pouty pink lips.
Olivia seems to snap out of her shock at seeing me as well, and quickly drops down to pick up the now empty takeout cups and wipe her bare legs with a napkin.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” she says, her eyes constantly flicking toward me. “I’ll go and get some more.”
“You do that. Your father needs his caffeine hit so put an extra shot in his drink or else he’ll be asleep in that lawn chair before noon,” Sheila chuckles, rolling her eyes affectionately, throwing the ruined drinks into the trash can. “Hey, take Jake with you. I’m sure his military training gives him amazing reflexes. If you get surprised again, he’ll make sure our drinks make it back in one piece.” She winks at me and hands Olivia another twenty before turning back to help Mike on the stall.
Now that I’m alone with Olivia, I have no idea what to say to her. There’s an awkward silence as we stare at each other, both of us struggling to think of a way to start a conversation.
To my immense relief it’s Olivia who breaks the deadlock. “Come on.” She gestures with her hand for me to follow her. “Dreams Bakery does coffee now.”
Before she turns I see the grimace on her face at what she’s just said and I try hard to hide the secret smile that tilts up the corners of my mouth. Awkward little Livi Masters is still in there somewhere and it begins to warm my cold heart to think her life wasn’t completely ruined by what I did.
Chapter 4
Olivia
I’m quite literally the town moron. “Dreams Bakery does coffee now.”
Ugh, I mentally slap my palm into my forehead as Jake and I walk slowly back toward the bakery on the corner of Main and Franklin. We don’t speak and it’s so awkward I could just curl up and die. It’s like I’m a little kid again with a stupid crush, hanging around Jake and my brother like an annoying bug, trying to get him to notice me.
But why would he have ever noticed me as anything other than his best friend’s little sister? No, I’ll correct that, I was his best friend’s annoying, geeky, ugly duckling little sister. Whereas Jake was the captain of the football team, starting quarterback since his junior year, and dating the hottest cheerleader in school. He was popular, friendly to everyone, on the debate team, and so handsome I would literally lose all sense of time and space when he looked at me with those soulful brown eyes.
I’d have actual daydreams of what it would feel like to run my fingers through his floppy sandy blonde hair and feel his strong arms around me. I was too young and innocent to think further than that, but I even went so far as to practice writing my married name in the back of my journal—–Mrs. Olivia Hartman. It still sounds like a perfect name to me.
“So, you’re living back here now?” Jake’s deep baritone makes me jump slightly as we turn the corner, and he holds the door to the bakery open for me to enter first.
“Yeah, I moved back last summer after graduation,” I explain as we join the long line of people waiting to be served. “I’m a kindergarten teacher at Crescent Bay Elementary.”
I see a smile pull at Jake’s full lips, and he glances at me before returning his gaze to the floor.
“That’s great, Bug,” he says quietly, his voice so gravelly it makes my skin break out in goosebumps despite the warm weather. He’s using the nickname he gave me when I was just a little kid but somehow it feels different when he says it now. “You always wanted to work with kids so I’m glad you made it happen.”
I laugh to myself. “If I remember correctly, I wanted to be a dragon slayer when I was a kid.”
The rich, warm sound of Jake’s laughter rings out so loudly that several people in line turn to stare. It’s a sound I’ve missed so much. “Shit, that’s right. You used to make me and Pete dress up in that stupid costume and chase you round the yard so you could slay us.” His brown eyes twinkle at the memory and it comforts me that he still remembers things like that from our childhood.
“Yeah, you and Pete would always have to flip a coin to see who got to be the back end of the dragon,” I giggle.
