Raging Fires by Candace Camp

Chapter Twelve

Kelli’s eyes narrowed. She knew that look on Jake’s face. “What? What about that?”

“Gran says I have to move in here, too.”

“What?” Her shriek was so high-pitched a nearby dog began to bark. Jake began to repeat himself, and Kelli held up her hand to stop him. “No. I understood what you said. I meant ‘what’ as in: you are out of your mind if you think I’m going to live in that... that hobbit hole with you!”

“Yeah? Then you’d better tell Gran that,” Jake shot back. “Because she is dead set on it. She says it voids the trust or something if it’s only one of us. She says we won’t get the Blue Shack if we don’t.  And...” He held up a hand, a little smirk hanging at one corner of his mouth. “Before you ask, the way they’ll know is because Gran, my sweet old grandmother, your beloved grandmother-in-law, is going to rat us out. And don’t think you can fool her. She has spies everywhere. She knew we were making out last night during the dance. By the way, you ought to be careful what you do around Tiny; Gran owns him.”

“We were not making out,” Kelli retorted, a blush rising up her neck. Why, oh, why had she kissed him last night? Why had she danced with him? She’d known better. “It was one kiss.”

Jake snorted. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She planted her fists on her hips.

“It means,” Jake said in that obnoxious way of his, sticking his hands in his jeans pockets and leaning forward. “It was multiple kisses. It was you plastered to me like a second skin. It was my hand on your ass, and your hand under my shirt, and don’t tell me you weren’t ready to hit the sheets right there.”

Kelli made a strangled noise. “You are so disgusting. I was drunk.”

“Not that drunk. You forget. I know what you’re like when you’re hot for—”

“Stop it!” Kelli jumped at him, frustration and anger exploding in her. She’d had a ferocious headache all morning, then Jake had to come over and tell her that the next year was going to be ten times worse than the already awful one she’d envisioned. And now he was going to torment her with her foolish behavior.

She planted both hands on his chest and pushed him. But of course he didn’t move because he was rock solid and probably had at least a hundred pounds on her. Which made her even more infuriated. And he had that stupid, cocky grin on his face. “You’re an awful, horrible, pitiful excuse for a human being.” Kelli banged her fist against his chest.

Or, rather, she tried to, because Jake skated aside, and she missed. She lunged toward him, and he took off. Jake ran around the parking lot, cackling, with her on his heels. He dodged and ducked and turned to jog backwards so he could laugh at her. Kelli knew that he was so much faster than her that he was barely trying, just taunting her. That, too, was completely maddening.

Only somewhere along the way, as they circled his car, she started laughing, too. It was actually kind of fun to blow off some steam even if Jake was the most annoying person in the universe. She was getting a stitch in her side, though, and she put her hand on her waist, slowing down. “Stop! I give up.”

Jake started to slow down, too, still going in reverse, and his back foot landed on a patch of gravel. His foot went flying out from under him, and he fell backwards.

“Jake!” Kelli ran over and dropped down beside him on the gritty asphalt. “Are you okay?” She managed to say between pants.

He had a hand to his stomach and there was a funny look in his eyes, almost like panic, but then his chest heaved and he sucked in a lungful of air. “Knocked the wind out of me,” he gasped. “I hate that.”

“Thank God!” Kelli let out a huge sigh of relief and went limp, sliding down from her knees to sit cross-legged beside him. “Well, at least it’ll shut you up for half a second.”

“Hey, Kelli! You okay there?” Tiny called, and Kelli looked over to see that he and the other movers were all standing in front of her house, watching the show she and Jake had been putting on. Whatever. She was too tired to be embarrassed.

She called back, “Yeah, we’re fine.”

Jake lifted his hand without sitting up and waved.

“Okay. We’re going, then,” Tiny shouted back.

“Thanks, guys. Come by the bar tonight, and your rounds are on me.”

She turned back to Jake and laid her hand on his chest. His heart was a little fast, but he was breathing okay. “Did you hit your head?”

“Nah. I’m fine. Only thing wounded is my pride.”

“Yeah, you didn’t look exactly graceful.”

“At least I didn’t have a 260-pound linebacker on top of me.”

Kelli sighed, tapping her finger meditatively. “What are we going to do?”  She realized that her hand was still on his chest and she jerked it back.

“Judging from prior experience, we’ll do what Gran planned for us.” Jake stood up, brushing the dirt and grime off the back of his jeans.

Kelli brushed at the grit on his back. He was still all muscle, just like she remembered. She stepped away. “Well, I guess we better go look at what we’re facing.”

They walked over to the house. Jake patted the unfinished post as they went up the two steps to the tiny porch. “I’ll paint this.”

“You don’t have to.”

He shrugged. “It’ll give me something to do. It’s a long time till training camp.” He bounced on the balls of his feet on the top step. “Yeah, there’s the squeak. I’ll fix that too.” Jake paused, casting her a sly sideways glance. “Unless, of course, you’d rather have Tyler do it.”

“Oh, shut up. Tyler can’t drive in a nail straight. I hate to think what his painting job would look like. He’s a nice, helpful guy, but he is not a handyman.”

“Good thing I’m so handy,” Jake said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Kelli rolled her eyes and opened the door. She stopped just inside, looking around her in dismay. The room was filled with a couch and chair, a low coffee table, a tv, lamps, and stacks of boxes. She drooped.

“Wow, this is smaller than I remembered,” Jake said. “How big is this room, like two hundred square feet?”

“I don’t know.”  Kelli wound through the boxes. There was a narrow kitchen on the right, open to the living room, and next to it a little alcove where her breakfast table and chairs sat.

“Well, on the bright side, there’s a fireplace.” Jake pointed to the small fireplace set between two windows on the back wall.

Kelli eyed it doubtfully. “It’s a good thing we live in Arizona. I wouldn’t want to actually burn anything in that.”

“I’ll check the flue.”

Kelli gave him a look. “What do you know about a flue? I’ll give you being able to paint and pound boards together, but a chimney?”

“I’m always into learning new things,” he responded.

“What is up with you? Why are you being so cheerful?”

“I don’t know, Kell. Would you rather I start whining?” And there went their moment of peaceful co-existence.

She didn’t reply, just walked to the short hallway on the opposite end of the room. The bathroom was the first door down the hall, and the door at the end opened onto a small bedroom, crammed full of her furniture. Her clothes were piled all over the bed. Jake stopped beside her, taking in the scene.

“So... one bedroom, huh?” Jake said.

“Yes. One bedroom.” Kelli wanted to scream with frustration, but she couldn’t with Jake standing right there. 

“We are so screwed,” Jake said.