Where She Belongs (Destiny Falls) Read online

  “Definitely.”

  She faced him. He leaned with one jacket-clad arm propped on the steering wheel. A lock of dark blond hair fell over his forehead, reminding her of the handsome teenager she’d worshipped in secret that summer.

  “I don’t know why Molly threatened to tell. Both of us were babysitting at that age. We could have stayed on the farm alone.”

  “Yeah, but my Aunt Sheila had put her foot down, and she can be a mean one to cross. So my tough-guy cousins caved.”

  Jess laughed. “Luke said he’d pay for the boys, but not for me and Molly—”

  “So we buried you girls in a ton of blankets in the back of Luke’s van and smuggled you into the drive-in. Later, we learned that six could have gotten in for the same price as four that night, because of a carload special—”

  “Which Molly had known about all along! What pests we were.”

  “Not to me. Granted, I could have done without Molly at that age, but you—” he brushed the tip of her nose with a finger, and a delicious ripple whispered through her “—were another matter. I’d met you at my uncle’s corral before, but that night at the drive-in was the first time I really saw you.”

  “Uh-huh.” She refused to take him seriously, or the effect his touch had on her. “That’s why you panted after the grade-twelve girls in the next car all night.”

  He shrugged. “I was seventeen. The other guys would have razzed me all summer if they’d known I had the hots for a girl entering grade nine. To a guy of seventeen, a fourteen-year-old girl is practically a baby.”

  “Unless said fourteen-year-old is as well-endowed as her grade-twelve counterparts.”

  “Yes, unless that.” His arm slid off the steering wheel. “Plus, my aunt would have killed me if she’d had any inkling how I felt about you. I’m talking wringing my neck, busting my kneecaps, and sending-me-home-incapable-of-fathering-kids killed me. And then my mom would have joined in. She had rules. My brother and I could date girls our own ages, one or two years younger at most.”

  Jess laughed. His mother sounded like her dad.

  “I liked you then, but you were far too young to even consider doing anything about it. Luckily, a few years have passed.”

  Jess arched her eyebrows. He sounded awfully self-confident. “Is that why you brought me here? To do something about it?”

  He shook his head. “This isn’t some master seduction scene, unless you want it to be. Even then, with you leaving in a month, I’m not sure we should pursue it.” He caressed a strand of her hair between two fingers. The gentle, pulling action tickled her scalp. “I packed some blankets in the cargo hold, some coffee and Kahlua. I thought we could sit back there with the door open, share a drink, and look at the stars. Anything else is your call.”

  Jess drew in a breath, deciding then and there that she could trust this man completely when it came to saying no to sex. He didn’t seem to have a dishonorable bone in his body. “I love hot coffee drinks.”

  “All right, then. Let’s go.”

  She let herself out and met him at the rear of the truck. Her skin prickled in the cool night air as he raised the cargo door and spread out a blanket on the rough carpeting. He helped her climb in, then sat beside her, unfolded another blanket, and wrapped it around her shoulders like a shawl.

  “I guarantee the premises to be free of dog hair,” he said once her legs dangled over the bumper and she’d unbuttoned her coat for comfort. He passed her two mugs from a bag. Then he pulled out a thermos and a small bottle of Kahlua. “I vacuumed before picking you up, and the blankets are clean.”

  He thinks of everything. “Impressive.”

  “Why, thank you.”

  She held out the mugs while he mixed their drinks. Accepting a mug, he raised it.

  “To Tim and Molly’s seventh anniversary, to you and I getting to know each other again, and to this romantic, abandoned drive-in its owner refuses to sell.”

  They tapped mugs. Jess sipped her coffee. “How did you and Molly become such good friends? Seeing as you ignored her when we were all teenagers, I mean.”

  Adam’s arm bumped hers through the blanket. The small scar on his eyebrow bobbed. “Maturity. Mine, not Molly’s. We all grow up eventually. When I did, thankfully Molly forgave me for tormenting her when we were kids.” He drank from his mug. “Living with her parents when I first came to work here helped.”

  “You lived with the McLeans? I didn’t know that.”

  He nodded. “A few weeks during the summer I was twenty-three. There were no vacancies at the apartments, so I stayed with my aunt and uncle. Molly and I spent a lot of time together. We’ve been close ever since.”

  Jess smiled at his mention of “the apartments.” She hadn’t heard that phrase in ages. “When did Tim move here?” She sipped her drink. The rich flavors of coffee and Kahlua lingered on her tongue... much like Adam’s nearness lingered on her senses.

  “The end of August that same year. Two vacancies had opened at the apartments, so I moved in, and that’s when Tim and Molly met. He was the other new tenant and quickly became my friend.”

  Jess giggled, and Adam looked at her.

  “Sorry,” she murmured. “It’s the way that building still gets called ‘the apartments.’ Like it’s ‘the town hall’ or ‘the recreation center.’ Except Destiny Falls doesn’t have a town hall or a rec center.”

  “Well, it is the only apartment building in town. Calling it the Park Avenue Gardens sounds a bit pretentious, don’t you think?”

  A tiny muscle flexed in his jaw. Had she insulted him? “You really like living here, don’t you?”

  “Of course, I do. It’s my hometown.”

  “You mean you think of it as your hometown.” She’d thought he hailed from Kamloops.

  “No, I mean it is my hometown.” He downed his drink. “I was born in Destiny Falls. My family didn’t start bouncing around the province until I turned six.”

  Something else she hadn’t known. “You moved a lot?”

  “Yep.”

  She finished her coffee, passed him the mug, and watched as he deposited it with his in the bag. “Why did your parents move so much?”

  “Pop’s job.” He shifted closer to her on the blanket. “I wasn’t happy about it. At the time, neither was my brother. In the end, we made do. Kevin and his family live in Merritt now, Mom and Pop in Louis Creek.”

  “No one’s in Kamloops?”

  He shook his head. “And no one’s here except me, Molly, and her folks.”

  “So you wanted to live where you were raised.”

  “Yeah. There’s no place like it. I’ve moved around enough to know. You were lucky, living in one place as a kid. I don’t know, it anchors you.”

  “I agree.” The sense of belonging she’d taken for granted before Dad and Danny died had felt rooted in the community. Despite its limitations, Destiny Falls was a wonderful place to grow up. “No kid wants to leave their friends or change schools.” An image of Adam as a little boy—all big blue eyes and tousled blond hair—popped into her mind.

  “Exactly.” His tone softened. “Kevin didn’t mind the moving as much as I did. I know it sounds cliché, but when I moved back here at twenty-three, I felt like I was coming home.” He gazed at her. Cupping her hand, he held it in her lap. “Looks like we have something in common, after all.”

  I don’t know about that. Jess closed her eyes briefly against the pleasurable friction of his thumb on her palm. Unlike Adam, she neither lived in Destiny Falls currently, nor did she desire to.

  In a way, she was just passing through. Anything that might happen between them would be just as fleeting and transitory.

  But, oh, at the moment, how she wanted it to happen.

  She tilted her face toward him, parting her lips, knowing she shouldn’t kiss him again and risk leading him on. However, a secret place inside her prodded her to let caution scatter like the stars in the ink-black sky.

  She had to taste him�
��like she had on the dance floor.

  She had to taste him one more time.

  Chapter Six

  ADAM SMILED AS if he could read her mind. His free hand lifted to her chin, his big fingers splaying along her jaw. Then the smile slowly faded from his lips and his mouth descended.

  His lips caressed hers, coaxing a response. Moaning, Jess shut her eyes again. His tongue slid along her lower lip, then dipped, warm and moist, into her mouth.

  Coffee. Syrupy Kahlua. Adam.

  Desire spiraled, dizzying her. Angling her head, she welcomed his kiss, and he gathered her into his arms with a groan.

  A bittersweet yearning tunneled through her. His hands roved over her back and shoulders before they settled on the unbuttoned front of her coat. He pushed aside the fabric and spanned her waist with his hands, his touch both protective and assertive: Mine. I want. You.

  A sensual shudder gripped her. She arched her back. His hands glided up her dress to cup her breasts. Too soon. Not soon enough. Her nipples tightened. She arched again, and the blanket fell, collapsing in a bulky heap behind them.

  The crisp night air swept over her, raising tingling goose bumps along her skin. Adam mumbled something indecipherable against her mouth, then scattered kisses down her throat. Pausing at the hollow of her collarbone, he sucked her sensitized skin until her breath came in short gasps. Mind-numbing. Seeking. I want. From him. From her, too.

  She pulled back. She hadn’t known a simple kiss could take her so far so fast. “Adam.” She placed her hands on his chest, and he lifted his head. His blue gaze, so near, swirled through her. “I think I’d better call in my option.”

  “Call in your what?” His gaze fogged.

  “Before things get out of hand.” He’d said anything beyond a drink was her call. She’d believed him.

  He released a breath. “All right. Under one condition.”

  “Oh, so now there’s a condition?”

  “Just this.” His mouth claimed hers in one last, probing kiss. He smoothed her coat lapels over her breasts and latched the button at her waist, as if secreting away a present meant for another day. “This is a surprise for me, too, you know. When I brought you here, I didn’t intend to paw you like a horny teenager.” He touched a finger to her lower lip. “When you want to continue where we left off, please let me know.”

  A desperate aching filled her. She wanted to continue now. She wanted to pull him down on the blankets with her and make love beneath the sparkling dome of stars. But they’d already gone too far. Considering she’d stayed in Destiny Falls for reasons that had nothing to do with him, they’d already gone way too far.

  “Adam, I don’t think...” She tugged in a breath. “Wanting something and acting on it are two different things.”

  “Mm-hm.” He toyed with her coat. “The way I see it, we’re bound to wind up together sooner or later, while you’re here. I happen to be rooting for the sooner—now. I was fooling myself before.”

  “‘Together’ as in ‘sleeping together’ or ‘together’ as in ‘a couple’?”

  “Either works for me.”

  His handsome features settled into a casual mask she didn’t believe for a second. That long-ago summer aside, she’d only known him a week, but she understood him well enough to realize she had no business even fantasizing about sleeping with him. He didn’t do anything halfway, and she needed to devote all her attention to her mother in the short time she was home.

  “But that’s the problem.” She sat up straighter, accidentally jostling him. He repositioned himself next to her, planting an arm on a raised knee. “I can’t allow myself to become involved with you in either way.”

  “Why not?”

  “My mother.” Her chest knotted. “She really needs me right now, Adam. I won’t be here that long, but while I am, I can’t afford to split my focus between her needs and yours.”

  “Split your focus? That sounds impersonal.”

  “I’m sorry. But you strike me as a guy who expects a certain degree of attention in a relationship.”

  “If by that you mean spending a reasonable amount of time together, I agree.”

  “Well, I can’t do it.”

  “Jess, I admire your concern for your mother, but you’re telling me you can’t be there for Nora and still take some time out for yourself, too?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Although it didn’t sound as rational coming from him. Jumping onto the soft earth, she glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late. Thelma has probably left by now, and Mom might be waiting up for me. I need to go.”

  “Oh no, you don’t.” Pushing out of the cargo hold, he grasped her arm. “What’s going on here, Jess? You’re using your mother as some sort of excuse. I’m not sure why, but you are.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Let me go.” His grip slackened. She shook her arm free. “I think you’d better take me home now.”

  “What are you afraid of? I’m not the big bad wolf. I’m just a guy who wants to be with you.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this. My mother is who is important to me right now. She’s who I should be with. Not you. Not this.” She tramped to the passenger door. Yanking it open, she grabbed her purse. “I’m asking you to drive me home. If you won’t, I’ll walk. Either way, I’m going.”

  The mudroom door slammed. Nora glanced up from the sweater she was crocheting for Thelma’s forthcoming grandchild. The door had been making a racket for weeks. Peter had planned to fix it, but now it fell to her to assume the tasks he’d performed with love and caring.

  Her heart wrenched. Darling Peter. She missed him so.

  Thank God she had Jessie to lean on for a few weeks. How she wished they could erase the bad years and start over. Yet, sometimes working through the past was the only way to move forward. This was one of those times.

  She set her crocheting on the coffee table. Smoothing her slacks, she rose from the sofa and entered the kitchen. “Jessie?”

  “Hi, Mom.” Strain resonated in her daughter’s voice. Jessie hung her coat and purse on the mudroom pegs. “I noticed Thelma’s car isn’t here.”

  “She left thirty minutes ago.” Nora suppressed a frown. Color splotched Jessie’s cheeks and forced gaiety widened her eyes—problem signs Nora recognized from her daughter’s childhood. Whenever Jessie had felt troubled, she’d put on a brave face for Nora and confide in Frank. Unfortunately, Nora had encouraged the practice. Her guilt over her inability to provide Frank with the big family he’d always wanted had proven a harsh master.

  Twit.

  She approached her daughter. “Is something wrong?”

  “No. I had a great time.”

  “It’s... well, you look upset.” Lord, she was terrible at this. “Did something happen?”

  “Of course not.” Jessie brushed back her dark curls. “Besides, we need to focus on you.” She slipped her arm through Nora’s, and they strolled into the living room. “How was your night? Did you beat Thelma at crib?”

  “We each won two games, then had coffee.”

  “No best of five?”

  “Thelma wanted to talk. Our chat was nice. It helped me.”

  “I’m glad, Mom. It’s important for your friends to support you right now.”

  She nodded. “But it feels even more wonderful to have your support, Jessie. You don’t know what your being home means to me.”

  “It means a lot to me, too, Mom.” Warmth softened her daughter’s voice. They stopped in front of the dying fire. “Have you thought about the car repairs I mentioned at breakfast?”

  Nora blinked. How had her concern for her daughter evolved into a discussion about Peter’s car?

  Suddenly, a vision of her husband lying cold and still in the casket swamped her mind. A chill crawled over her. Peter.

  “Yes,” she managed. “I trust Adam. Peter respected him, and he—Peter loved that car. If it needs a new transmission to run well, that’s what I’d like t
o do.”

  “I’ll call the garage tomorrow.”

  Nora patted her daughter’s hand. “Now you, sweetie. We always talk about me. I’d like to talk about you.” For too long, she’d allowed Peter’s resentment of Frank’s only child to come between her and her daughter. She should have risen to Jessie’s defense more often, especially during the first years of her hasty second marriage.

  Stupidly, she’d hoped that Jessie’s difficulties with Peter would resolve over time. What an idiot she’d been. Her passive nature was a poor excuse.

  “Jessie?” she said when her daughter didn’t reply.

  “Mom, I told you, I’m not upset. Just tired.”

  There must be more. Nora’s maternal instincts weren’t that rusty. However, if she persisted, she could push Jessie further away. “You’re sure? If there’s something you need to talk about...”

  “There isn’t. I’m exhausted. Are you coming to bed?”

  “Not yet.” Her mother’s heart counseled patience. Jessie needed space. The least she could do was provide it. “The fire’s not out, and I’d like to finish my crocheting.”

  They exchanged goodnight kisses, and Jessie climbed the stairs. As she reached the top, she turned. “Please don’t worry about me, Mom. Everything’s fine.”

  Nora didn’t believe her.

  Adam sank into the recliner in front of the blaring TV and popped open an ice-cold beer. Stewing over his idiotic behavior with Jess, he reached over the armrest and scratched Sheba’s ears, then drank several slugs of the chilly brew.

  He plunked down the can on the end table and stared at the hand-hewn log walls of the great room in his large, comfortable home. A house built for children he’d yet to conceive, for a wife he’d never known. Although, once, he’d nearly held both within his grasp.

  Don’t think of that now.

  How could he not? At times like this, the emptiness of the big house taunted him. Crysta had confessed her pregnancy and, wham, he’d bought a ring, dug out blueprints, started dreaming. They’d live in the cabin on the five-acre property until he finished their home, he’d said. He hadn’t asked, he’d told her, describing his vision in detail. Part him: the logs, their rough edges, the huge beams. Part her: the airy, open spaces and contemporary, high ceilings. A perfect blending of him and Crysta.