Unbroken (7 page)

When Jake turned off the television around midnight and headed off to bed, he found himself thinking about Britney
once again.  The more time he spent with her, the more he found himself liking her.  When she let her guard down, he caught glimpses of a woman who was not only warm and friendly, but also funny and extremely down to earth.  In many ways, she was a refreshing change from the women of his usual acquaintance.  He thought of his last two girlfriends, both actresses and both extremely high maintenance.  He tried to picture either of them cleaning fish, but sadly, he couldn’t even imagine it. 

Two days later, Britney was sitting in the office finalizing the remaining details for the upcoming photo shoot when Jake appeared at the door.

“You busy?” he asked.

“Not really,” she said, clicking on the send button of the email she’d just finished. “Just wrapping up a few loose ends with the shoot.  Did you need something?”

“I was thinking I might head over to the pond.  Do a little fishing.”

“Oh, alright.  Is there something you’d like to go over before you leave?”

He shook his head. 
“Actually, I was wondering if you might want to come along?”

The unexpected
invitation caught her off guard and for a moment she just stared at Jake in surprise. Leaning casually against the doorframe, wearing a faded grey Nike t-shirt that outlined his muscular chest and with his hands tucked into the pockets of his form-fitting, faded denim jeans, Jake McCoy was every woman’s fantasy come to life. “Oh, well, um…sure,” she stammered.  “Sounds like fun.”

“Great.  I’ll load up
the gear and meet you out front in fifteen minutes.”

Less than an hour later, Britney stood
next to Jake at the edge of a small pond surrounded by pine tress, holding tightly to her fishing pole as she deftly reeled in their first catch of the day.

“
He’s a keeper,” Jake said approvingly, as he moved forward and grasped the fishing line, pulling the wriggling trout onto the grassy bank.  Reaching down, he grasped the fish and quickly removed the hook from its mouth.  He held it up, grinning as he turned to look at her.  “Nice job, Britney.”

“Thanks,” she said, smiling in return. 
She watched him as he bent down and put the fish onto the metal stringer, feeling for a moment like her old self again.  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so comfortable and at ease, and so…well…happy.  It felt good, really good.  “Would you care to make a wager?” she suggested impulsively.

Jake glanced up
in interest, eyeing her with a playful, calculating expression.  “What did you have in mind?”

She wrinkled her forehead, thinking it over for a few seconds before answering. 
“How about, whoever catches the biggest fish gets out of making dinner
and
cleanup duty for the next week.”

Jake pon
dered the wager for all of two seconds.  “You’re on,” he agreed eagerly.

And it was. 
They spent the next hour and a half engaged in lively, good-spirited competition.  They compared each new fish they caught to those that were already on the stringer, with Jake taking an early lead with his second catch, a large rainbow trout at least three inches longer than any of the others. 

“What do you say?  Another twenty minutes and we call it?” Jake asked
, after reeling in his fifth catch of the day.

“Fine,”
Britney replied with an exaggerated sigh.  She didn’t have a prayer of beating Jake’s biggest fish and she knew it.  It looked liked she was going to be on full kitchen duty for the next week, dinner
and
dishes.  In truth, she couldn’t have cared less.  The past hours with Jake had been amazing. They’d talked nearly non-stop the entire time, their conversation light and easy as they discussed everything from the weather to things they’d done as kids, current events and just about anything else that came to mind.  She felt great, better than she had in a very, very long time.

At present, they were
seated just a few feet apart in the two collapsible canvas chairs Jake had pulled from the back of his truck with an open cooler sitting on the ground between them.  “You’re not going to be a sore loser are you?” he teased, reaching down to pull a bottle of beer from the cooler.

“Don’t get too cocky, I’ve still got twenty minutes to haul in a monster,” she replied playfully, as she reached to grab a bottl
e of water from the open cooler, turning her head as she did.  She hadn’t realized that Jake was also reaching into the cooler until their heads were mere inches apart.  In the same moment their hands inadvertently brushed against each other and the warmth of his skin sent an unexpected shiver racing down her spine.  “Oops, sorry,” she murmured, grasping the water bottle and quickly pulling her hand away. 

“Sorry,” Jake said
in nearly the same instant, as his fingers closed around the cold glass bottle and pulled it from the cooler.  In that moment, being in such close proximity, Jake realized that he’d never really seen Britney’s eyes up close before.  They were open wide and shockingly blue, framed by a mass of thick dark lashes. 
Damn
, her eyes were beautiful.  Huh, he’d never really noticed that before.  His fingers twitched, and for one crazy moment he wanted very much to wrench the oversized glasses from her face and toss them into the lake. 

M
omentarily spellbound by the sudden intensity of Jake’s gaze, Britney failed to note the slight tugging at the end of the pole she’d been holding loosely in her other hand.  A sudden, sharp jerk, however, nearly pulled the forgotten pole from her limp grasp.  Regaining her focus, she leaned back into her chair with a start, dropping the water bottle into her lap and grabbing tightly onto the wooden handle with both hands. 

His eyes moving to the
taut line, Jake’s attention was immediately diverted to the matter at hand.  “Uh oh,” he groaned, noting that Britney’s latest catch was putting up quite a fight.  “I think I might be in trouble.”

Britney
grinned and the mood seemed to lighten almost instantly.  “I think you might be right,” she said, rising to her feet as she worked the reel, skillfully hauling the wriggling fish to shore in short order, despite its stalwart resistance.

“Ha, it’s a carp,” Jake laughed, as the struggling fish flopped onto the grassy bank.  “I’m saved.”

“Oh no, not so fast, mister,” Britney retorted, reaching out to grab the slick, thrashing fish, that was nearly double the size of Jake’s largest trout.  With years of experience behind her, she held the huge carp to the bank with one hand and deftly removed the hook from its mouth with the other.  Once the hook was freed, she grabbed the squirming fish with both hands and hefted it upward, turning in Jake’s direction.  “The bet was who could catch the biggest
fish
,” she said, her expression deliberately smug.  “We never said what
kind
of fish.”  Turning her back on Jake’s incredulous expression, she walked over to the stringer and laid the carp next to the largest trout on the line.  It dwarfed the smaller fish, she noted with a smug smile.

“But carp isn’t
even edible,” Jake lamented as he came to stand beside her, looking down at the wriggling fish with a grimace of distaste.  

Britney
shrugged her shoulders.  “A bet’s a bet,” she replied.  Standing up, she struggled to contain her laughter.  Jake’s expression was priceless, a combination of consternation and reluctant defeat.  “You’re not going to renege are you?”

“I never renege on a bet,” Jake stated
adamantly, looking almost hurt by the suggestion.

“Good,
because I’m starving,” Britney said with an impish chuckle.  “When we get home you can start dinner while I take a shower.”

As they gathered up their things and loaded them into the back of his truck, four words kept repeating themselves in Jake’s head. 
When we get home, when we get home…
  For some strange reason, he really liked the sound of those words coming from Britney’s lips.

Britney Taylor
so
wasn’t his type, Jake thought to himself during the drive back to the cabin.  It wasn’t so much her appearance, though the ugly glasses and schoolmarm hairdo, combined with her affinity for drab colors and unflattering wardrobe choices, weren’t exactly a turn on, he had always considered himself above judging a woman solely on her physical appearance.  There are so many things far more important than physical beauty, his mother had said to him on more than one occasion, and he knew she was right.  Instead, it was more Britney’s general manner and her oft times quiet reserve that was so at odds with the women he was usually interested in.  Not that he
was
interested in Britney, because he wasn’t. 
Was he?
  No, not like that.  He liked her as a person, as a friend even; that was all it was. 

A f
riend?
  Yeah, he supposed he
was
starting to think of her as a friend.  Funny, but a week ago, spending the afternoon fishing with Miss Britney Taylor, aka The Ice Queen, and enjoying it immensely would have seemed entirely implausible.  But he
had
enjoyed it; he’d enjoyed it a lot.

Sitting quietly in the passenger seat as Jake drove along the narrow dirt road, Britney turned her gaze to the side, her eyes focused on the passing landscape.  She didn’t want to admit it, but there was simply no denying the truth.  She was falling and falling hard for Jake McCoy. Her silly little crush was quickly turning into something altogether different, something she never would have expected.  As foolish as it was, she realized that she was starting to develop real feelings for Jake.

For the first time in nearly four years, Britney felt the urge to take off her glasses and
pull the pins from her hair outside of the safety and security of her home.  Astonishingly, she
wanted
a man to notice her.  No, that wasn’t exactly true.  She wanted one man in particular to notice her.  She wanted
Jake
to notice her.  It was stupid, she knew that.  He was a celebrity, not to mention smart and athletic and handsome enough to catch the eye of just about any woman on the planet.  Besides, even if she was able to capture his interest, it wouldn’t matter.  She was still damaged, at least emotionally.  And despite the physical attraction she felt toward him, it didn’t mean that she would be capable of acting on it, capable of entering into an intimate relationship with him, or any other man for that matter. 

After the horror she
had experienced, the viciousness and brutality she’d witnessed as Randy Littrell had repeatedly raped and tortured Molly before he’d killed her, well, she doubted that she would ever be able to have a normal sexual relationship now.  Maybe if she hadn’t been inexperienced it would be different.  Maybe if she’d been in a relationship, if she had known what sexual intimacy was like, what it could be like, what it should be like, before the nightmare in the cabin had warped and twisted it in her thoughts, she might be able to move past it.  But aside from casual dating, she’d never really had a steady boyfriend.  With her college ambitions, and then her parents’ untimely death, her focus had been on other things.  Now, it seemed she might be destined to spend the remainder of her life a traumatized, sexually repressed virgin.  Oddly enough, the notion hadn’t really bothered her all that much until now. 

S
he closed her eyes in silent frustration.  Tyler was right.  She probably should give therapy another try.

Standing at the large, double-bowled sink in the kitchen of Ben’s farmhouse the following evening, Britney pulled another plate from the soapy dishwater, handing it to Jake’s cousin, Rayanne, to be dried.  Rosemary had done most of the cooking, so she, Rayanne and Jake were on dish duty, while Ben and Rose entertained Rayanne’s daughters. 

Drying the plate on a white dishtowel, Rayanne handed it to Jake to put in the cabinet.

“A couple more and then we’re done,” Britney told them, as she fished one of the old-fashioned mason jar glasses out of the warm water and scrubbed it clean.

“Go on
, Jake.  I’ll put the rest of these away,” Rayanne told him, swatting him playfully with the dishtowel and then motioning him away from the sink. 

“
Well… I wouldn’t want to leave you two short-handed,” Jake said with exaggerated reluctance, even though he was already inching away from the counter. 

Rayanne rolled her eyes.
  “Go on.”

“
Considering that you’re on full kitchen duty for the next week, you should probably take her up on her offer,” Britney added with a teasing smirk. 

“Oh, that’s right,” Rayanne chuckled.  “
Thanks to Britney’s monster carp you’re going to be a busy boy for a while.”

“
Yeah, yeah, don’t remind me,” Jake groused good-naturedly.

“
Granddad is never going to let you live that down, you know.”

“Believe me, I know,” Jake said, shaking his
head woefully from side to side.

“
While we finish up here, why don’t you go and see what the girls are up to,” Rayanne suggested, turning back to the sink and grabbing another dish.

“If I know Rachel and Ruby
, they’re up in the attic digging into all of grandma’s old trunks.”

“
Yeah, you’re probably right,” Rayanne agreed.

“
I’ll never forget that fashion show they put on for everyone last Christmas,” he said as he made his way out of the kitchen.  “What a hoot.”

“So, Britney,” Rayanne said, leaning in and lowering her voice as Jake left the kitchen.  “I have been dying to ask you something all night.”

Britney regarded her curiously.  “Okay.”

“What’s it like working for one of the sexiest men on the planet?”

“Oh, well, um Jake’s great,” she answered, though the question seemed a little odd coming from his own cousin.

“No, not Jake,” Rayanne laughed, shaking her head.  “I meant, what’s it like working for Ian McNealy?” 

“
Oh.”  Britney felt her cheeks grow warm in embarrassment, but luckily Rayanne didn’t seem to notice.

“I saw him interviewed when
the Blades were in the playoffs last season,” Rayanne continued, pretending to fan herself.  “Is he as gorgeous in person as he is on television?”

Britney nodded.  “Believe it or not, he’s even better looking in person.”  She couldn’t help but smile as Rayanne regarded her with wide-eyed interest.

“Seriously, Britney, w
ith a boss who looks like that, how on earth do you get any work done?”

“Actually, it’s not as hard as you might think,”
she replied truthfully.  “Ian’s a fantastic guy and yes he’s extremely good-looking, but I guess I just don’t see him like that.” 
Now Jake on the other hand, that was another matter entirely.

“
Huh.  Don’t get me wrong,” Rayanne continued with a saucy grin.  “I absolutely adore my husband.  But if you ever want to trade places for a day, just let me know.”

“You got it.”  With a laugh, she pulled
the last of the dishes from the warm water.  Washing it, she handed it to Rayanne and then pulled the rubber stopper from the drain. “Thanks again for including me tonight,” she said appreciatively.  “That was really sweet of you guys.” 

Setting the plate onto the existing stack in the cupboard, Rayanne pushed the white-paneled door closed and
tossed the dishrag onto the counter.  “We loved having you, Britney, really,” she said with obvious sincerity. 

Rayanne had one of those cheerful, outgoing personalities that made you feel like you’d been friends for years, Britney thought, as they headed from the kitchen to the living room.  She could definitely understand why she and Jake were so close.

Stepping into the empty living room,
their attention was immediately drawn toward the screen door that led out onto the front porch and to the sound of voices and laughter coming from outside.  “Sounds like they’re all outside,” Rayanne said, already moving toward the door.

A few steps behind, Britney followed her out the door and onto the porch. 
Ben and Rosemary were seated on the porch in a couple of wooden rockers, and across the yard she saw that Jake was pushing the two girls on a large, rubber tire swing attached to a thick, sturdy-looking tree branch. 

Sitting across from one another, the girls squealed and laughed as Jake
pushed them in a wide-sweeping circle.  “Faster, faster,” they called between their high-pitched shrieks and giggles.

“Hold on tight,” Jake cautioned as he gave the tire another shove, spinning it faster.

Clutching the metal chains, the girls leaned their heads back, their long hair streaming out behind them as they spun around and around in obvious delight.

“Granddad put that old
tire swing up for Jake and me when we were kids,” Rayanne said with a fond smile toward Ben, as she moved to rest her hip against the porch railing.  “We used to swing on it for hours.”

“And those girls are enjoying it just as much as you two did,” Ben noted proudly.  “No batteries required.”

“Dad’s not a fan of all the electronic gadgets kids have these days,” Rosemary clarified, turning toward Britney with an amused look. 

Sitting down upon the wooden porch swing, Britney nodded in understanding.

“Video games,” Ben snorted and rolled his eyes.  “Silly bunch of nonsense.”

Setting the swing into motion with the toe of her shoe, Britney
suppressed the urge to chuckle.  Her own grandfather had felt the same way.  And though she wasn’t much of a video gamer, she had to admit that she
was
rather fond of certain electronic gadgets, including the cell phone silently vibrating in her pocket.  When she was certain Ben wasn’t looking, she covertly slipped it out of her pocket and peeked at the screen.  It was Tyler.  She’d call him back later.  Sliding the phone back into her pocket, she glanced up to see Jake give Rachel and Ruby one last push on the tire swing.

“
Alright, that’s it for me, girls.  Now you two have to take turns pushing each other,” Jake told them good-naturedly, before turning and walking back toward the porch.  Climbing the steps, he glanced to where Britney was seated on the porch swing.  “Do you mind?” he asked, motioning to the empty seat next to her.

“No, of course not,” she replied, stopping the swing with her foot and then sliding over
a few inches to give him more room. 

“Thanks,” he s
aid, dropping onto the seat.  Stretching his long legs out in front of him, he sighed contentedly as he set the swing back in motion.  “I sure do wish I had one of these back in the city.”

“Me too,” Britney said, nodding in agreement, loving
the feel of the gentle breeze against her cheeks as they swung slowly back and forth.  She knew that like her, Jake lived in a condo, the type of housing that unfortunately didn’t offer the leisurely indulgence of an old-fashioned front porch, nor the requisite swing that generally accompanied it.

They sat there for s
everal minutes, the five adults chatting genially as the girls alternated between playing on the tire swing and chasing Ben’s dog, Rowdy, around the yard.  It was nice, but it also reminded Britney of times gone by, the wonderful times she’d spent with her parents and grandparents on nights like this, and she couldn’t help feeling a bit wistful.  Sadly, she had no aunts or uncles and her only living grandparent, her mother’s father, now lived in Peru, his second wife’s native homeland. 

To distract her
self from her musings, she made a concerted effort to redirect her thoughts, turning her focus to the fact that she was sitting on a porch swing with Jake McCoy, their thighs only inches apart.  It worked.  Unfortunately, it worked a little too well.  As she watched the muscles in Jake’s thigh flex as he gently pushed the swing to and fro, she was completely oblivious to the fact that he’d just asked her a question.

“Britney?”

She looked up and saw Jake eyeing her curiously.  “Sorry, what?”

“I asked if everything was alright
,” Jake repeated.  “You seemed a bit distracted all of the sudden.”

Embarrassed, she realized that Rosemary, Ben and Rayanne were
all silently regarding her as well.  Good lord, how long had she been staring at Jake’s thigh, lost to her silent musings she wondered?  “Oh, um, it’s nothing.  I’m just a little tired I guess,” she murmured with an apologetic smile.

“Maybe we should
call it a night then,” Jake said, bringing the swing to a stop.

“Oh no, I’m fine really,” Britney assured him.  “There’s no need to cut the evening short on my account.”

“Actually, we should probably get going too,” Rayanne interjected.  “The girls are going to need baths tonight and I have to admit that I’m feeling a bit tired myself,” she continued, rising to her feet.  “Are you ready, Mom?”

“I suppose so,” Rosemary agreed.  “
With that group from Ohio I’ve got a full house and I’m sure they’ll all be wanting their breakfast bright and early tomorrow morning.”

“Come on
, girls.  It’s time to go,” Rayanne called.

Once Jake stood up, Britney followed,
glancing from Ben to Rosemary.  “Thank you so much for having me over Ben, and thanks again for making dinner, Rosemary.  The pot roast was delicious.”

“You’re welcome, dear.  I’m so glad you enjoyed it.”

Rising from his chair, Ben stepped forward and gently patted Britney’s shoulder.  “You’re welcome any time, honey,” he said earnestly. 

She smiled. 
“Thank you, Ben.”  He was such a dear.

“It was so nice meeting you,” Rayanne said warmly, as Britney turned
in her direction.

“You too,” she replied
with sincerity. 

“Hopefully we can get together again before the girls and I head back to Mountain Home.”

“I’d like that.”

“Thanks for dinner,” Jake said, patting his stomach.  “It sure was good, Aunt Rose.”

“Anytime, sweetie.”

“You might want to add an ext
ra hour to your workout tonight,” Rayanne teased as she looked pointedly at Jake’s midsection.  “How many pieces of pie did you have for dessert?  Three?”

“Nah,
I only had two,” Jake responded, giving Rayanne a playful grin as he moved toward the steps.  “But you’re probably right.  With all of Aunt Rose’s cooking I might need to ramp it up a bit.  Coach will have my head if I go into training camp packing an extra twenty pounds.”

“Oh, you leave him alone, Raya
nne,” Rosemary scolded.  “An extra piece of pie now and then isn’t going to hurt him.”

Following Jake toward the
porch steps, Britney couldn’t help grinning.  Rosemary sounded like such a mom.

“
I’ll see you later, Granddad.”

Good night, you two,” Ben replied, raising his hand in farewell.

“See you later, girls,” Jake called out as he made his way down the steps.

“Bye
Rachel, bye Ruby,” Britney said, waving to Rayanne’s daughters as she followed Jake down the steps and moved in the direction of his silver Dodge pickup.

“Bye Jake, bye Britney,” they called
back as they made their way across the yard.

“You have a really wonderful family,” Britney said to Jake minutes later, as they drove the short distance back to the cabin.

Jake nodded.  “Yeah
, they’re pretty great.  It’s too bad my folks couldn’t make it down.  They would have enjoyed seeing Rayanne and the girls.”

“Do you get to see them much?”

“Not as often as I’d like, but with my crazy schedule and my Dad’s unwillingness to retire, it can be tough finding time to get together.  But they fly in for games whenever they can, and we always try to spend the major holidays together.”

“That’s nice.”

“I’m sorry,” Jake said, glancing toward Britney, recalling that she’d lost her own parents years earlier.  “I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been for you, losing your parents so young.”

“It was
pretty tough,” she admitted.  “But it gets easier with time, and it helps knowing they’re together.”

Jake nodded solemnly.  Sometimes he forgot how truly fortunate he was.  “Well, I
know it’s not the same, but I hope that you’ll think of my family as your family while you’re here.”