Smart Girls Think Twice (29 page)

“That doesn’t change the fact that you knew all along that you’d come here to find her but you never told me, never said a word. And that was before you knew about my book so you can’t use that excuse. You didn’t tell me because I didn’t matter to you.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“Somebody has to since you never talk about the things that are the most important to you.

Except for extreme sports. Sometimes you’ll talk about that.” She reigned in her anger and fell back on her logic. “You do realize that the intense excitement or stress you experience while doing all those wild extreme sports things releases a flood of dopamine to your brain, creating a feeling of well-being, right?”

“So?”

“So taking risks is a way of keeping the dopamine flowing. The behavior becomes addictive.”

“You like being logical.”

“Yes.”

“It excites you, being logical, right? So you’re addicted to logic because it keeps your dopamine flowing. See? We’re not that different after all.”

“Yes, we are. We are totally different. You love taking risks. I avoid them.”

“I love
you
. I didn’t see it coming. I knew you were special and that I cared about you more than I ever had about a woman before, but I didn’t know I was in love with you until I was.

And by then it was too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“To protect myself.”

She saw the vulnerability in his golden brown eyes, but she was afraid to believe it. She had to protect
herself
. She couldn’t risk getting hurt again. Could she?

“It hit me at McDonald’s,” he said. “I was headed for the closest airport, planning on going to an alpine resort in Peru and proving that I could get back on a snowboard. Then I saw the Dr Pepper logo and bam, that was it. Was I going to keep on running scared, or was I going to bare my soul to you and risk you stomping my heart to bits? Did I . . . did I really have the balls . . . the courage to do that?”

Her eyes shimmered with tears at his halting words. This was no smooth-talking charmer out to nail her. This was a man spilling his guts to her. A man who hated revealing his inner thoughts and emotions. “That was it?”

Jake nodded. “I knew I loved you. Knew I had to come back and fight for you.”

“Seeing the Dr Pepper logo made you realize you love me?”

“Yeah. Sounds stupid, I know,” he muttered.

It was the first time she’d ever seen him embarrassed. She doubted it would be the last. Her sisters and mom would see to that if she let him back into her life. Could she really do it?

Could she take a chance on him?

“Okay, now I know you’re telling the truth because no one could make up a story like that.

But how long until you take off again?”

“Don’t you get it? I’m more addicted to you than I am to extreme sports. You’re scared. I get that.

I’m scared too. All the people I care about die.” Jake’s voice was rough with pain. “That’s why I lit out of here the way I did. Because when I saw that truck headed straight for you . . . Hell.” He rubbed his hand over his face as if to erase that awful image. “That’s really when I knew I loved you, but I didn’t want to admit it even to myself.”

“It took Dr Pepper to make you see the light, huh?”

“Yeah.” For the first time since walking into the room, he looked hopeful.

For the first time she
felt
hopeful.

She might still be uncertain about a lot of things in her life, but she was sure that Jake was the man for her.

“Did you lock the door?” she asked.

“What?”

Emma walked over, locked it, and pulled down the shade on the door’s window.

Jake eyed her warily. “Do you plan on beating me with an eraser?”

“Have you been a bad student?” she asked in a sultry voice.

He grinned. “Yes, I’ve been very,
very
bad, teacher.”

She placed her hands on his muscular chest and back-stepped him up against the blackboard.

“You’re getting chalk on your T-shirt. Maybe we should take it off.”

“Are you just after my body?” His tone of voice was teasing, but there was an underlying thread of uncertainty there.

“I’m after your heart.”

“You already have it,” he vowed.

She kissed him. How could she not after a confession like that? He returned her kiss with fervent hunger and a newfound tenderness that he hadn’t expressed before. Off went his T-shirt. Off went her prim white blouse. Down went the zipper on his jeans. Up went her flowery summer skirt.

Emma reached into the back pocket of his jeans. “What are you looking for?” he murmured against her lips.

“A condom.”

He shifted her hand to his black briefs. “Look here.”

She moved her fingertips against his arousal. “How can you store a condom there?”

“I can’t. I just couldn’t go another second without you touching me.”

“Touching you like this?”

He growled his approval then moaned as she shoved his briefs completely out of her way.

He removed her panties with haste before brushing his thumb through the crisp curls guarding her moist feminine core. Tenderly, skillfully, erotically he caressed her until her knees trembled and pulses of sexual joy shot through her.

“Now,” she said. “I need you inside me now.”

He fumbled for his wallet, where he’d stashed a few condoms the last time they’d made love. She was the one who confidently rolled it on him, adding a few feathery caresses along the way.

Shaking with need, Jake slipped his hands beneath her bare bottom and lifted her in his arms so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Seconds later he entered her with a glorious rush. She was eye to eye with him, staring into his glorious golden brown eyes, watching him watching her.

The very first time she’d met him his brooding eyes made her think of orgasms.

And now here she was, merged with him in the most intimate of embraces. He moved deep within her, increasing her pleasure tenfold. Her hands clutched his bare shoulders. Her breasts were pressed against his bare chest.

He turned, pinning her between his body and the blackboard as he increased the rhythm of his powerful thrusts. Her orgasm slammed into her, the walls of her vagina clenching around him with fierce bliss.

Jake captured her scream with his mouth even as he captured her body with his. He arched against her as he reached his own climax.

When he finally lowered her to stand on her own she had to cling to him for a moment to regain her balance. Her skirt covered her naked lower torso, which still vibrated with the memories of sexual joy.

“I think we broke the blackboard,” she noted unsteadily.

“You’ll have to marry me now.”

She blinked. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. Marry me. Please.”

She stared at him in shock.

“What? You want me to go down on my knees to propose?”

She remained speechless.

“Okay. I’ll have to adjust a few things first . . .” He rearranged his briefs and jeans and then knelt before her. He gazed up at her with love in his eyes and a wickedly sexy devil in his heart as he caressed her ankle with his fingertips. “Emma . . .”

He slid his fingers up to the back of her knee and caressed her there.

“Emma . . .”

His fingers climbed higher beneath her skirt to the softness of her bare thighs, to the cave of her sex.

“Emma, will you marry me?”

“Are you trying to distract me with sex?”

He blinked at her and removed his hand.

“No, don’t stop.” She brought his hand back to her most intimate place and moved against his fingers. “Tell me why I should marry you. Besides the incredible, mmmmm, awesome sex . . . yes, right there, mmmmm.” She gripped his shoulder to stay upright and not collapse in a heap on the floor as she luxuriated in the undulating passion he was creating within her.

“Because . . . I love you and . . . you love me . . . and we were meant to be together.

Because I love the way you snort when you laugh. Take a chance on me.” He stopped caressing her. “Oh God, now I sound like an ABBA song.”

Emma laughed and tugged him to his feet. “Yes, I’ll marry you. That romantic proposal was too good to turn down.
You’re
too good to turn down.”

He put his arms around her. “I’m not letting you go.”

“You don’t have to.” She brushed his hair back from his forehead and trailed her fingertips down his stubble-darkened cheek.

“You’re sure? Your logical side won’t talk you out of it?”

“Are you sure? Your risk-taking side won’t talk you out of it?

“Never.” He pulled her close. “I found what I’ve been looking for. Jeez, now I sound like U2.”

“Then I guess we should stop talking.”

“You are so smart.”

“Yes, I am,” she said with the confidence of a woman who is well loved. “And so are you.”

Epilogue

One year later, Jake’s custom-built log home outside Rock Creek

“Out of all the places you could have gotten married—Aspen, Peru, Boston, even Stanley, Idaho—you pick this.” Maxie shook her head. “Who gets married on top of a mountain?”

“It’s not a big mountain,” Emma said.

“It’s big enough.” Maxie rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re marrying Jake on top of Gobsmacked Knob.”

Emma grinned. “Just be thankful we didn’t go with the glacier in Alaska plan, with everyone being flown in to the site by helicopter.”

“I must say, we’ve certainly had more than our fair share of weddings around here,” Maxie said.

After her sisters’ weddings, the marriage bug had taken hold in Rock Creek with winter weddings for Cosmic Comics store owner Algee and English high school teacher Tameka, as well as for Skye’s grandmother Violet and funeral home director Owen Dunback.

Nancy Crumpler eloping with mayor Bart Chumley had surprised everyone since no one even knew they were dating.

But it was her own wedding today that held Emma’s attention. The sunlight glinted off her engagement ring—a princess-cut diamond solitaire. The ceremony was going to take place in a mountain meadow covered in wildflowers and surrounded by trees. Only family and close friends would be attending.

“I was glad to see Lulu back in town. I can’t believe she’s got a graphic novel coming out next year. She and Oliver seem happy in Boston. You don’t miss teaching in Boston, do you?” Maxie asked.

Emma shook her head. “I enjoyed it while I did it, but it wasn’t the right fit for me.”

“And what you’re doing now is?”

She nodded. “I really love the research and writing.”

“And the traveling.”

“And the traveling with Jake, yes.” Emma couldn’t believe how much her life had changed in a year. Her article about her hometown’s rebirth had come out two months ago and created such a stir that her publisher wanted her to do more on the subject of small-town revitalization. Her book about risk takers,
Taking Chances
, had been published last month to great reviews and was already in its second printing. Her publisher also wanted her to write a sequel about the women who loved risk takers.

“I can’t believe how many people came to the ground breaking for Jake’s extreme sports resort last week,” Maxie said.

“It was quite a crowd.” A group of investors with deep pockets had gone in with Jake to create the environmentally friendly resort project, which would provide plenty of jobs for locals. The plans included a lodge, log cabins, a snowboard school, and snowboard runs from half-pipe to cross.

“Walt Whitman is still fuming that Jake is building it in the area near Rock Creek instead of Serenity Falls.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Sue Ellen said as she and Leena joined them. “He’s a bit of a drama king.”

Emma had to laugh at that commentary from her sister, the drama queen. But motherhood had softened her big sister’s temperament. She and her husband adored baby Donny Jr., who was now eight months old. Sue Ellen jiggled him on her hip. “He has my eyes I’ve decided.”

“And your mouth,” Leena said as Donny Jr. let out a yodel. “My dainty girl would never yell like that, right sweetie?” Adorable little Annelise responded by spitting up on Leena.

She then grinned at them all with a happy smile on her perfectly dainty bow-shaped lips.

Leena took it in stride. “Good thing we’re not wearing our bridesmaids’ dresses yet.”

Two hours later, Emma took her father’s arm as she prepared to walk down an “aisle”

comprised of rose petals. “You look beautiful, Sweet Pea,” he said gruffly.

Emma blinked back tears as she smoothed a hand down the Cinderella-style satin skirt of her wedding dress. She felt like a fairy-tale princess . . . with a sociology degree.

“Don’t say anything to make me cry,” her dad warned her.

Emma grinned at him. “Semper Fi!”

A harpist played the “Wedding March” as Emma walked down the aisle. Emma deliberately didn’t look at Jake. If she did, she’d cry. Instead she focused her attention on the people in the audience who’d come to share her special day—Skye and Nathan with their little girl Toni, Julia and Luke with their toddler Jayne Ann. Angel and her life partner Tyler, Zoe and Jerry, Cole and Jake’s dog Mutt.

Finally she risked a quick glance at Jake and almost tripped over the rose petals at the way he caressed her with his eyes. He was wearing a suit tailored to fit him to perfection. He wore the burgundy tie he’d used again last night to tie her to his bed’s headboard. Their passion hadn’t diminished in the past year. Instead they’d had the time to share so much more than physical intimacy. He never let her forget how grateful he was that she took a chance on a loner rebel like him.

Jake was a loner no more. His half sister Lulu proudly stood beside him as his best man and Oliver stood beside her as his second groomsmen.

Okay, so Jake was still a rebel and that was fine with her.

Because Emma was discovering that she had some rebel blood in her too. Jake was the one who brought out that side of her.

Jake reached out his hand to her.

She took it.