Wilde Times (12 page)

Twelve

Jake

“Don’t mess things up again,” Cooper says as he throws some banana slices in the blender for his morning smoothie.

“Or we’ll have to kill you,” Tucker adds as he pours himself a cup of coffee. “And I’m not kidding.”

“I know. I won’t.”

I got zero sleep because I’ve been rehearsing what I want to say all night. I know this is my last shot to salvage things with Harley. If I mess this up I’ll lose her forever.

And I can’t imagine living a life without Harley in it.

I sit down at the small kitchen table. Tucker takes a seat next to me and Cooper sits down across from us.

“Tucker and I were talking…” Cooper says.

“Should I be nervous?” I ask.

They eye each other than Cooper continues, “We always said that the Wilde brother who started a family first would take the house.”

I look back and forth between my brothers. “You’re getting married, Coop. And you’re having a baby, Tuck. So which one of you is going to call dibs on the house?”

Tucker clears his throat. “It looks like Gracie and I will be getting married with Cooper and Riley.”

I furrow my brow. “Since when?”

“Since the girls decided they wanted a double wedding,” Cooper replies. “And you know what Riley and Gracie want, Riley and Gracie get.”

“Thanks for keeping me in the loop,” I say sarcastically.

“You haven’t exactly been firing on all cylinders lately,” Tucker reminds me.

“Riley and I are going to be in New York for a while. We don’t know what’s going to happen with you and Harley…”

“I’m going to get her back,” I assure them.

“I hope so,” Cooper says. “But we know Tucker and Gracie are going to have a baby. So I think we should consider giving them the house.”

“I don’t want to admit that I’m a tad bit jealous. I’m the oldest. I always imagined I’d be the one to get the house. The one raising his family in the same place in which I grew up.”

“It’s not like you all won’t be here all the time anyway,” Tucker says. “Gracie and I will just be the ones living here on a daily basis.”

I take in a deep breath then exhale. “Fine. Take the house.”

Tucker pats my shoulder. “This means a lot to me, Big Bro. And it means a lot to Gracie.”

“I expect to play Uncle Jake on a regular basis.”

Tucker nods. “We probably need to start thinking about getting a nursery ready. I have no idea what any of that shit entails.”

“I’m sure you’ll find out very quickly,” Cooper jokes.

“When do you want me out?” I ask.

Tucker frowns. “It’s not like that. The baby isn’t due until the holidays.”

I nod. “I guess I’ll start looking for an apartment or some-thing. Maybe one of those places over on Third Street.” There are several small apartment buildings a few blocks from Haymakers. I could easily walk to work from there.

Thirteen

Harley

It takes me a moment to realize there’s someone standing over me. I wipe my eyes and look up at Jake. “What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?”

“I think I’ve said all there is to say.”

“Please.”

That’s a word that doesn’t come out of Jake’s mouth very often.

“Is there room on that tree for me?” He sounds desperate.

I move over just enough for him to sit on the tree next to me.

“I can’t believe you’re crying,” he comments.

“I can’t believe you’re sitting here next to me so I guess that makes us even.”

Jake lets out a single laugh. “We’ll never be even. But you already know that.”

I glance over at him. I’ve never seen him so solemn in my life. Jake’s Mr. Charisma. The guy who lights up a room with his smile. Now he looks like a little kid whose dog died. “What are you doing here, Jake?”

He swallows. Jake Wilde is rarely at a loss for words. Then he bites the side of his cheek for a few moments before he takes in a deep breath. “Why haven’t you left Old Town?”

I frown. “Because I’ve got a job at Haymakers.”

He shakes his head. “That’s not what I mean. You were the smartest girl in your high school class. You were the Valedictorian.”

I shake my head. “I was the Salutatorian. That’s second best.”

“You were still smart enough to give a speech at graduation. None of the Wilde boys ever did that. Not even Cooper. And he got a scholarship to Columbia.”

“So? What’s your point?” I don’t like the direction this conversation is taking. I can feel my cheeks starting to burn and I’m sure they’re getting red.

“You probably could have gotten a scholarship to any college in the country.”

“I know,” I admit. “Even though I insisted I wasn’t going to college, my guidance counselor, Mr. Little made me apply anyway. I got accepted everywhere I applied and got a number of scholarships.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“You know why, Jake.”

I look into his eyes. When I see how much pain he’s in it tugs on my heartstrings.

I can see him start to blink back tears. I’ve seen Jake cry twice. First at his mom’s funeral and then at his dad’s. “I just wanted you to go. You deserve so much more than me, Harley. You know I’m never going to be anything but the manager of Haymakers. It’s in my blood. As my dad always told me, it’s what I was born to do. But it’s not what I want for you. You’re brilliant and so beautiful it hurts to even look at you. Why would you want to spend your life with someone like me? You could have so much more. You could go anywhere in the world. You could be anything. Why would you want to waste your life with someone like me?”

“Jake, why don’t you let me decide what I want to do with my life?”

“Don’t you want to go to law school? Or medical school? Don’t you want to go to New York like Riley and Cooper? Or to LA like Hunter?”

I shake my head.

“But why?”

“You know why.”

He bites his cheek again.

“One of these days you’re going to bite your way through your cheek to the other side. Then what’s going to happen? You’ll have a hole in your face. That’s what.”

That breaks the tension in the air just a bit and we both laugh.

When he looks at me again, his expression is serious. “I don’t deserve you.”

“You’re right. But I still love you.”

“You told me you hated me.”

“Is that why you decided to follow me on my date with Max? Because Jake Wilde can’t stand the thought of anyone not adoring him.”

He shakes his head. “I realized I can’t stand the thought of you not loving me. Just you, Harley”

“I’ve always loved you, Jake. And I hope you realize I always will. That’s why I couldn’t leave and that’s why I’ll never leave. Because you’re here.”

“I don’t want you to stay in Old Town just because of me.”

“I’m not. I’m staying because I want to. It’s my life. And it’s my choice. I love working at Haymakers and I’m really good at it. Maybe it was what I was born to do too. Did you ever think of that?”

“I just don’t want you to ever regret it.”

“It may be a little too late for that.”

“I know. I’m sorry. You were right. I knew that being with Regina would piss you off. I thought it would be the thing that would finally get you to leave. So you could have a real life.”

“Being here in Old Town. Being with you. It is a real life.”

“Obviously not much of one.”

“Well maybe if you’d quite being such a prick.”

When he doesn’t reply I think maybe my big mouth might have pushed the wrong button. He stands and then extends his hand to me. “Would you hold this for me while I take a walk?”

I smile and grab his hand. Even in the most difficult of situations he has no trouble pulling out a pick up line.

I think he might take me to his house, but instead we head toward mine. “Are your parents still at the Bike Rally?”

I nod. “For a few days.”

“Good.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to see your bedroom.”

Of course, Jake and all of the Wilde boys have been inside my house many times, but Jake has never been inside my bedroom. No guy except my dad has ever set foot inside there. My dad made sure of that.

“I don’t want us inside my bedroom anymore,” he adds after another round of cheek chewing.

That’s about the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. I’ve been inside Jake’s bedroom a lot. As have most of the females in Old Town.

“I want a fresh start. One that doesn’t include my bedroom.”

I narrow my gaze. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m finally going to try to be the man you deserve.”

“Would you be a little more specific?” I don’t want to jump to any conclusions. I also want him to say out loud what I think he’s trying to say.

He stops and grabs my other hand so he’s holding both of them. “If you’re really not going to leave despite all of my best efforts to run you out of town. If you insist on sticking with me despite my many flaws. If this is the life you really want. Me and Haymakers. Then you deserve to have all of me.”

I can feel tears start to run down my cheeks again as Jake places a soft kiss on each one of my knuckles.

“For being such a tough chick, you’re sure doing a lot of crying,” he teases.

I move to wipe the tears from my cheeks, but Jake beats me to it. He carefully wipes them away with his thumb. I’ve seen Tucker wipe the tears from Gracie’s face and I’ve seen Cooper wipe tears from Riley’s cheeks, but I never considered Jake to be the kind of sensitive and caring guy who would do something like that. 

And now he’s doing it for me.

Is it possible that he really does care about me after all?

“Come on,” he says as he pulls me toward my house.

My bedroom is messier than I’d like. But when I left this morning, I never in a million years thought I’d have anyone in here. Especially not Jake Wilde.

The room is a strange mashup of teenage girl fantasy stuff left over from my high school days and more serious decorations that reflect my foray into womanhood. My parents always allowed me to decorate my own room and the eclectic mixture of colors and styles reflects the various stages of my coming-of-age.

“It’s exactly how I imagined it,” Jake says as he glances around.

“You imagined what my bedroom looked like?” I laugh. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Why?” He’s actually serious.

I roll my eyes. “Like you care about my bedroom.”

He grabs my elbow and pulls me close. “I think about everything to do with you, Harley Davis. I think about your bedroom. I think about what you’re doing at night when you’re not with me. I think about what you eat in the mornings. Every day I wonder what you’ll be wearing when you walk into Haymakers. I think about you all the time.”

I gulp. It never occurred to me that Jake thought about me at all except when he was horny. “But why? Why would you think about what I was eating for breakfast? Or what I was going to wear every day?”

When our eyes meet, Jake’s gaze is so intense, it nearly sucks all the breath right out of my lungs. “You know why, Harley.”

I shake my head. “I don’t.”

He pulls me so close that I can feel his breath on me. “You have no idea?”

“None.”

“Because I love you. I’ve always loved you. I just wanted you to have more. I wanted you to have everything you deserve. And I knew that was way more than I could ever offer.”

“I only want you, Jake. That’s all I ever wanted.”

“I just hope it’s not too late. For me to give you everything you want.”

“I just want you.”

“Are you sure I’m enough? That Haymakers is enough?”

I nod. “I’m sure.”

When Jake kisses me, it’s almost like a first kiss. It’s tentative and tender. He’s never kissed me that way before.

“I want things to be different,” he says as he strokes my cheek.

They already are. A lot different. “How?”

“Just you and me. From now on.”

“Just to be clear. You’re talking about sex.”

He laughs. “I don’t want to be with anyone but you. And yes, I am talking about sex.”

“Are you sure?”

“What do I need to do? Give you a ring to prove it?”

That stops me cold. Surely, he’s kidding. “No.”

He looks confused. “No?”

I shake my head. “I don’t need a ring to prove anything. I know things will be different.”

“But are you saying you wouldn’t take my ring. I mean, if I ever asked?”

“I’m not saying that. But you didn’t ask and you don’t have a ring so it’s kind of a moot point.”

He’s giving me a weird look. Like I’ve given him some kind of challenge. “You know we’ve got not one but two Wilde weddings in just a few weeks.”

“I’m well aware of that. I’m a bridesmaid in the first wedding and the maid of honor in the second. I’ve been doing a lot of dress shopping.”

He nods. But I can tell by the expression on his face the conversation may be over for now, but it’s far from completely over.

When he removes my bracelet from his pocket I cringe. I’m a little embarrassed that I threw it in his face. It was my most prized possession. I know it’s not even worth that much monetarily, but it meant everything because it was from Jake.

Without saying anything he takes my left arm and hooks the bracelet back in place. “Don’t take it off again.”

I swallow. I’ve never seen him so serious in my life.

He holds up his arm and I see he’s wearing the bracelet I bought him for Christmas. “I’ve never taken mine off, Harley.”

I’m not sure what to say. It’s a lot to process. All this time Jake was trying to push me away. To get to me leave Old Town because he thought I deserved more. All this time I questioned whether he cared about me at all and he actually loved me.

“We probably need to get ready for work,” he suggests, and it urges me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I agree, but I know I sound surprised. I guess I expected Jake to go for a quickie like he always does.

He leans down and gives me another kiss. This one is a bit more passionate and charged. I can feel the heat shoot right down to my toes.

“Do you want to ride with me to Haymakers?”

Jake has never given me a ride to Haymakers. He always takes his own car in case he wants to pick someone else up. It takes me a few seconds to remember that he’s not going to be picking anyone up because we’re together.

Like a real couple.

I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around it.

“Okay.” I hear the word coming out of my mouth, but it feels like someone else is talking. I guess I’m still trying to come to terms with the idea of actually being together as a couple. It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a teenager. Something I’ve longed for so long, I still can’t believe it’s real. I almost feel like I need to pinch myself.

“Is everything okay?” Jake asks. He looks concerned.

I nod. “I think it’s just going to take a while for me to believe that we’re together. Like dating. Or whatever. I don’t even know what to call it.”

He pulls me close and I can feel his erection pressing against me. “We’re doing more than dating.” His voice is hard and possessive. I’ve never heard that tone before. It both excites me and scares me a little.

He cups my face with his hands. “I’m yours, Harley. I hope you realize what that means. You have me. All of me. All yours. Now and always.”

This time when he kisses me, the fire between us is so intense it’s almost too much to bear. We’re a mash of lips and teeth and tongues. It doesn’t take long for our hands to join the party and we’re all over each other.

Jake and I have been together more times than I can count, but this is so different in some many ways, it feels like a first time all over again.