All the Waters of the Earth (Giving You ... #3) (4 page)

“We’ll set it up,” he said, and then answered his phone. “Jake Slausen.”  He walked back into his duplex, giving me a little wave this time as he shut the door.

I didn’t see Jake the rest of the weekend. What I did do, however, was clean my house, take my kid to the park, and shop for Christmas presents. Normal mom stuff. I tried not to think too much about my next door neighbor.  I failed.  He was always there, just below my thoughts.

Hmm.  What was going on?  He was more than just a research project.

It was easy not to see him, though, because he was gone the entire weekend, probably working.  Right?

First thing Monday morning, still pissed about Carlos and his legal papers, I called my attorney and made an appointment to see her at the earliest time I could get, which was in a week. Great. One more week to worry and get pissed. After calling, I spent the morning and early afternoon writing.  I liked most of what I wrote. I especially liked the kisses between my characters, for some reason.  Then I picked up Rob from school—again, normal mom stuff.  He did his homework, we ate dinner, and I cleaned up. After dinner, at about eight o’clock, there was a knock at my door.

Would it be a hunk or a process server? I was seriously hoping for the former. The latter never needed to come again.

When I opened the door, I found Jake, rumpled in his suit, his tie undone slightly and his hair roguish. One exhausted businessman.

“Hey,” he said, those sapphire eyes regarding me.  God, he smelled good.  Even tired, he gave off an energy, pheromones.  All I wanted to do was touch him.

 “Hi.  Are you just finishing up work?”

“Yeah,” he said, resting an arm against the doorjamb over my head, making me react with a throb in my heart and other places.  He gave me a crooked smile. “I worked all weekend too. I wanted to bring you this, one of my clients makes it.” And he handed me a jar of salsa, a very good local brand.

“Thank you.  I love this brand, it’s delicious.”  He’d thought of me.  Nice.

“I’m glad.” He looked at me, then glanced over at his door and let out a breath. “Well, I don’t want to keep you. It was a long day.”  He looked like he wanted to say more.

Who took care of this guy? It didn’t seem like he had anyone looking out for him. “Did you get dinner?”

“I picked up something at work.  My usual. There’s takeout next door.”

“No, no, no.”  Eating out all the time wasn’t healthy.  “You need to start eating good food, home cooked, you know.”

“It’s hard when I work so late all the time. I loved your tamales, Lucy.”

Yay
.  The effort was worth it if it nourished him.  I had to sass him, though.

“You should try my
chile relleno
casserole. It’s a recipe from the Dairy Council of America, but it’s the shit.”

“MOM!” yelled Rob.

“Sorry,
mijo
,” I called back.

“Don’t swear, Mom,” he called back.

I ignored him and looked at Jake who had been observing me with amusement.  Then I took the next step, the one I normally avoided.  “You want to meet my son?”  I’d never kept it from people I dated, but it definitely was a damper on relationships.  
The
test to see if a guy could handle me.

But right now I didn’t hesitate or feel weird introducing Jake to my son or vice versa. We were neighbors. He was bound to find out that I had a son. 

Love me, love my son. That’s the way it worked.

But also with Jake, well, I wanted to get to know him and I wanted him to know me.  So I hoped he’d say yes.

Jake nodded. I let out a breath. So far, he passed. “Sure. Can I come in?” I stepped back and let him come in my home for the first time, his elegant but athletic frame dominating the front area.

“Roberto, come here and meet Mister Jake, our new neighbor.”

Rob came skidding up in his socks and slid right in front of Jake. Skinny, with bony knees and gangling arms, he hadn’t yet grown into himself. He had cheeks meant to pinch and dark brown eyes like his father. I ruffled his short, spiky hair.  “Whoa,” he said, when he looked up to Jake’s height.

“How do you do?”  Jake asked formally, extending his hand.

“Uh, fine,” said Rob, shaking his hand limply. Then he looked at me, big-eyed, panicking as to what to do next.

I laughed. “Okay, enough torture. Go back to the television.” Rob slid off in his socks and Jake’s eyes followed him, then returned to me.  He whispered.

“Good-looking kid.  Polite, too.”

Now the way to melt the heart of a mama is to compliment her kid.

“Thanks” was all that I managed in response.

“I’d better get in,” he said. “I’m beat. See you tomorrow?”

I nodded. “I hope so. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Looking around to see if Rob was watching, he bent over and kissed me, not slowly, not quickly, but enough to matter. I again felt the pulse through my body.  Then he kissed my nose and opened my door and left.

What was I going to do with my neighbor?

The following evening, after Rob went to bed, I sat outside on my porch in the dark, looking at the lights making the pool water dance and drinking a Skinny Girl margarita. Early winter in California meant a slight chill in the air, but I’d wrapped up in a sweater and enjoyed the peaceful evening. When I’d almost finished my drink, Jake’s sliding glass door opened and he came out, holding a bottle of 805 beer and wearing a tight, dark gray t-shirt and plaid pajama pants, barefoot. Even his feet were attractive.  He headed to the edge of the patio to look at the pool, not noticing me.

“Hey, neighbor,” I called out quietly.

“Lucy,” he responded, and walked over to me. He glanced at my drink, said “Cheers,” and leaned over the low wall that separated our patios, clinking his bottle with my margarita glass. “How was your day?”

“I got a lot of work done.”  I had and it felt so satisfying.

“Me too,” he said. “But now I need to unwind. You go in the pool, right?” I nodded, secretly laughing, thinking of how I’d met him in my bikini. “How’s the water?”

“It’s great. They heat it so you can swim all year long. You should try it.”

He looked at me. “Only if you come in with me.”

Okay.

“Now?”

“Sure,” he answered. “That is, if you want. It’s a nice night, you know?”  Even better with him.  “We should take advantage of the fact that we live in Santa Barbara.”  He looked at me like there was more that he wished he could take advantage of than just the amenities of the complex.

I nodded. “Okay.  I’ll change and meet you down there in five minutes.”

I went back inside, set my glass on the kitchen counter, and checked on Rob, who was fast asleep. Gotta be a mom first.  I taped a note to his door that said, “At the pool—Mom.” Then I quickly changed into my white bikini with red hearts all over it, piled my hair on the top of my head, grabbed a towel and the key to the pool, and tiptoed down to the pool in the quiet night.  Although units surrounded the pool, some with lights on, some without, it felt like everyone had gone to bed and we were all alone outside.

Jake paced on the coping at the edge of the pool, wearing his t-shirt and long, dark blue swim trunks. He didn’t see me approaching.

As I walked toward the pool fencing, he reached behind his head and pulled at the neck of his t-shirt, taking it off, and I responded physically.

Oh my.

My neighbor looked dapper in his suits.  But out of one? Now that was really something to talk about. A fit guy, his chest muscular, his stomach flat, he didn’t so much look like a bodybuilder, but rather a guy who simply kept in good shape. I gaped at his soft-looking skin, not as tan as mine.  I wanted to touch him, everywhere.  He turned toward me and saw me, his dark eyes catching mine in the half-lit night.  My eyes went to his chest.  A little bit of hair, not much, a little bit of hair below his belly button, extending into the low waistband of his swim trunks, not much.  Just right.  His broad shoulders and narrow waist formed that classic triangle. Toned arms and broad pectoral muscles rounded out the view. 

Yummy.

All I wanted to do was nestle myself into his arms and see what his chest felt like against my cheek, what his nipple felt like on my tongue, what his back felt like when I clawed at it.

Instead, as he watched me, I set my towel on a chaise lounge, took off my heeled sandals, and dipped a toe into the pool, which registered as a comfortable, warm temperature.

Then I turned around, away from him, and walked to the shallow end, feeling his eyes on my ass the whole time. I grinned to myself. If you got it, flaunt it. I wiggled in, and dog paddled over to where he stood on the side of the pool.

“Are you going to come?” I asked, blatantly embracing the innuendo.

“Yeah.” He smirked and dove into the pool next to me, splashing me and making me squeal, surfacing at the other end of the pool. He took off underwater and came right next to me, under the surface, pulling me down by my ankles.

“Jake! No! I don’t want to get wet!” I protested, wiggling around. He breached the surface like a mer-god in the middle of my squeals and grabbed me by my waist. He was so much bigger than me, but having him so close, wet and muscular? And playful?  Hot damn.

“You’re in the pool,” he laughed. “You are going to get wet.”  Yeah, that had already happened every time I thought of him.

“My hair!”

“It’s beautiful.”

“But I don’t want to get it wet.”  I never put my face in the water either, not wanting to wash off my makeup.

“Okay,” he relented, taking pity on me. Instead, he pulled me in close to him and kissed me, our bodies wet and close together, those muscles holding me tight. With only a thin layer of clothing separating us, I could feel him on my belly and I could tell that he was starting to get ideas.

More yummy.

He broke apart. “You are so fucking pretty, Lucy. I don’t know what comes over me. I can’t keep my hands off of you.”

“You don’t have to,” I gasped.

He held me in the water by my waist. I wrapped my legs around him, feeling his hardness against me, reveling in it, and he groaned. “You share custody of Rob?” he asked, sucking on my neck.

Rob, Rob who?  Then I chastised myself.  God, what kind of mom was I?  But Jake absorbed all of my attention when I was with him.  “Yeah, every other weekend his dad gets him.”  I ran my hands through Jake’s thick, wet hair.  He kissed my nose and looked at me.

“Then I’m looking forward to this weekend.”

Me too
.

The following evening, after dinner, dishes, and Rob’s bedtime, I heard the knock and opened my front door to Jake in a dark blue business suit paired with a sober red- and blue-striped tie, holding a bottle of wine. Since it was past his newly usual seven or eight o’clock visit time, I’d dressed for bed in a white tank top, with no bra, and cute, pink pajama short shorts. I hadn’t wanted to admit that I was waiting around for him, so I had gone about my night as usual.

Though I still had my makeup on.  So okay, I wanted more than just research for my book.  I liked the guy.