Let It Snow(53)

Tessa opened her eyes and the digital clock told her that they had been parked there for over an hour. Pushing away from him, she wiped her eyes as she apologized. “I’m sorry. You’re going to be late. I don’t know where that came from.”

“Don’t be sorry. That was thirteen years overdue,” Jake said. Reaching up, he cupped her face and brushed his thumb across her still damp cheek.

She leaned into his hand, loving the feel of his skin against hers.

“I really wish I didn’t have to leave,” his strained voice rasped.

“Me too,” Tessa breathed.

Cursing under his breath, he pulled away from her and came around to open her door. Tessa shivered from the cold as they walked up the short path to the front door. She wished more than anything that Jake didn’t have to leave, but the heated floors and spa-quality shower were not bad consolation prizes. She could almost feel the water pouring down on her as if she were already standing under the pulsing stream of the showerhead.

“Are you going to be okay?” Jake asked as he opened the front door to let her in.

The last thing she wanted was Jake to be distracted at his job from worrying about her. Fighting fires was a dangerous occupation. He needed to have his head in the game. So attempting to put his mind at ease, she curled her lips up into her brightest smile as she said, “Oh yeah. That showerhead is calling my name.”

Need and hunger filled his eyes as his lips turned up into the exact same smile she’d seen spread slowly across his face the first time he’d seen her in her cheerleading uniform senior year. Now it held the added bonus of being surrounded by the panty-melting stubble sprinkled across Jake’s handsome face.

“Showerhead, huh?” His husky tone held just a dab of playfulness.

Tessa felt her eyes widen like saucers and her cheeks heat as she realized what she had said sounded like. “No, not like that! I just meant that I was going to take a shower.”

He winked at her as he shut the door. “Sure ya did.”

“Jake,” she laughed as she planted her hands on her hips and stood in her most indignant stance, but the door clicked shut as his name left her mouth.

She walked up the stairs as she heard him pulling out of the driveway. Her phone beeped in her pocket and she pulled it out. It was a text alert, and it was from Jake. It read: Have a nice shower…I never thought I would be so jealous of a showerhead.

Tessa laughed. She was tempted to put something flirty back but instead just went with a smiley face emoticon and the same sign off she used to use when she wrote Jake notes in high school: XOXO.





Chapter Nineteen




‡


It had only been twenty-eight hours since Jake had dropped Tessa off, but he felt like it had been a week since he’d seen her. Normally, he loved being at the firehouse. Jake loved his job and he loved the people he worked with.

They’d only had two calls, both of which were medical, and he’d been able to finally catch up on some of the paperwork that had been piling up on his desk. Which was a miracle in and of itself because the only thing that was occupying his mind was Tessa. He kept replaying every moment he’d spent with her since she’d walked into JT’s that rainy night almost a week ago.

Jake knew that if they spent any more time together things would get physical between them. What Jake didn’t know was if that was a good idea or not. His body had voted and it had come back with a resounding yes. His heart and mind were on the fence about the situation.

Logically, Jake knew that even if his heart and mind voted nay and it was two to one in favor of keeping things platonic between himself and Tessa, the second he saw her again, that would all be out the window. Their connection was just too strong, too real, too deep.

What Jake felt for Tessa was so much more than just crazy-strong attraction, being drawn to her like a magnet, or even craving her like an addict craves his next hit. No, with Tessa, it felt like she was a part of his soul’s DNA.

Which was why Jake had no idea how to even begin to process the fact that she would leave…again. The talk they’d had about the baby, about losing the baby, had made him feel closer to her than he ever had—a feat he would have thought was impossible. Sleeping with Tessa—or more accurately, making love to Tessa—would send things spiraling into an entirely different stratosphere.

Deciding that sitting here dwelling on it was not helping the situation or anyone involved in it, Jake decided to get the hell out of his office, which he’d been holed up in for hours. Things were quiet at the station house. It was two a.m., and the guys on his crew were upstairs sleeping. He knew he should really try and get some sleep as well, but every time his head hit the pillow, sleep was the furthest thing from his mind. All he could think about was the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl who had stolen his heart all those years ago and still owned it.