Waiting for You(10)

He’d find out what she meant by someone who might remember him, and then he’d clear out. He had the weather as an excuse, after all.

He followed Erin up her snowy steps and waited while she unlocked the front door. Once they were inside he stood for a moment, looking around, conscious that the snow that had fallen on him would soon be dripping onto the beautiful wood floors of Erin’s little house.

“There he is,” Erin said, taking his coat and hanging it on a hook beside the door, along with hers. He was distracted by her bare shoulders and didn’t look where she was pointing.

“Who?” he asked, finally registering what she’d said.

“An old friend,” she answered, nodding towards the staircase.

He looked, and saw a black cat on the bottom step, gazing up at them. He was sitting back on his haunches, his tail wrapped neatly around his front paws, and something about the tilt of his head…

“My God,” he said stupidly. “Is that Pepper?”

Erin nodded, crouching down to scratch the cat under his chin. “When I moved here a few years ago your mother gave him to me. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of me living alone, and she said Pepper would keep me company. And he does, don’t you, sweetheart?” she said softly as she picked up the cat and handed him to Jake. “Bring him into the living room and get reacquainted while I make us some tea.”

Erin disappeared into her kitchen and Jake did as she’d suggested, going into the living room and sinking down onto the navy blue upholstered couch. He settled Pepper on his lap, half expecting the old cat—he had to be fourteen by now—to jump down and run away. He hadn’t seen him in years, after all.

But he didn’t run away. Jake put a hand on the cat’s head and Pepper arched his neck, leaning into the caress just the way he used to. Then he rose up on his hind legs, resting his front paws on Jake’s chest and bumping his cold, wet nose against his face. Jake felt his rumbling purr vibrating all through him.

It hit him without warning. All these months he’d been able to resist human kindness, human concern…but the unquestioning love of an animal was something he had no defense against.

He’d been numb for so long that he wasn’t ready for the sudden wave of feeling that crashed through him. His heart swelled up inside him like a pent up river against a dam, threatening destruction.

He closed his eyes. He had to do something to stop this. It would shatter him, destroy his defenses—destroy the precarious balance he’d created for himself in the last few months.

He had to get out of here.

But Pepper kept purring, kept bumping his head against his jaw, and at that moment he heard Erin’s voice from a few feet away.

“Look at that! Oh, Jake, he remembers you.”

He opened his eyes, and Erin was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She was holding a blue mug in her hand and she looked like an angel.

And suddenly, without warning, his libido roared to life. His body hardened with an urgency he hadn’t felt in months. He wanted to bury himself inside Erin and forget that anything else existed.

He lifted Pepper off his lap and set him gently down on the couch. Then he rose to his feet and walked to the front door without saying a word.


Erin stared at him as he walked away from her. “Jake? Is something wrong?”

He didn’t answer until he reached the door. Then he turned to face her, his expression neutral. “Nothing’s wrong. I just need to head home. What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”

Something had happened, but Erin had no idea what. She set down the cup of tea she’d made and walked over to him. Jake’s eyes stayed cool, but she could feel his tension growing as she came closer.

She stopped when she was about a foot away. The hardness around his mouth and jaw were the only outward signs of the turmoil she could sense inside him.

She glanced out the window as a sudden gust of wind rattled the panes. The snow was coming down harder, and the wind was rising. She hated the idea of Jake going back out into that.

“You should stay,” she said. “The storm’s getting worse. You can sleep on my couch,” she added, to make it clear she wasn’t propositioning him or anything like that.

“I can’t stay.” His voice was harsh, and there was a flicker of something in his eyes, there and then gone.

“Jake, what’s wrong? What happened in the last five minutes?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”

She took a half step closer. She wanted so badly to touch him, to ease the tension in him somehow, that she couldn’t stop herself from laying a hand on his arm. Underneath his suit jacket, his muscles went rigid.