Raging Fires by Candace Camp

Chapter Sixteen

Jake sat up stiffly. He ached in lots of places, particularly his neck. It wasn’t really surprising, he guessed, since he’d spent the night sleeping on the couch and before that had a monster workout. He stood up and twisted, letting things pop and stretch. He headed for the bathroom, but detoured to take a peek into Kelli’s room to make sure she was there. He had meant to stay up last night to walk with her from the bar—no matter how much of a badass Kelli thought she was, he didn’t like the thought of her walking around alone at 2:30 in the morning. But once he’d stopped putting stuff up and sat down, he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes open.

Next stop was the kitchen to make coffee. He was better in the mornings than Kelli was, but he needed a shot of caffeine. He thought about making some breakfast, but he didn’t want to look like he was trying to get back on her good side, and besides, there weren’t any eggs.

He filled the coffee maker and stood there waiting for it to work. He’d done a lot of thinking as he had worked yesterday. Apparently it was a consensus opinion that he had been an asshole back then. Which meant Kelli was probably right to divorce him. He’d thought about explaining to her how he had changed. But, really, what was the point in that? It wasn’t like she would come back to him, and he didn’t want her to, anyway.

The floor creaked and Jake looked across the kitchen bar to see Kelli standing in the hall doorway. She had on loose shorts and a tank top, and her hair was a mess. And all he wanted to do was pick her up and carry her back to the bed. He didn’t love her anymore, but she still turned him on like nobody else.

Business, Jake. This was all business. “Hey, Kell.”

“Hi.” Her voice was soft and still a little rough from sleep. “Thanks for doing all this.” She swept her hand around the room. “You didn’t have to unpack my stuff.”

“I did if I wanted to get to the bathroom,” he joked.

“Well, thank you anyway.” She turned and went back down the hall.

The next time she appeared, she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, which she also looked hot in, but unfortunately she’d put on a bra beneath her shirt. “Want some breakfast?” she asked as she came into the kitchen. “Oh, wait, no eggs.” She opened the refrigerator. “No milk either, so no cereal. Would you like some toast?”

“Sure.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, watching her get out small plates and slices of bread. “Though I have to tell you, there’s no butter either.”

“Damn. You’re right. Clearly I’m going to have to go to the grocery store this morning.”

“I can do that if you need to go to work,” he offered and she shot him a skeptical look. “Hey, I can find my way through a grocery store. If you give me a list.”

“Don’t you have football things you need to do?”

“Organized workouts haven’t started yet. I had a good workout yesterday. Today I’ll probably just run here in the neighborhood.” That way he could check it out to see how dangerous the area was these days.

Kelli’s was turned away from him, watching the toaster like it might explode or something. “Jake, listen... I’m sorry about yesterday.”

“No problem,” he cut her off before she could get into it. “Nothing I didn’t already know.” He turned toward the living room, so they were both talking to air. “Look. I realize this is all just a business arrangement. We don’t have to like each other, but it’d be better if we could get along.”

She cleared her throat. “Sure.”

“So I’m going to do like you said and follow the rules. I’m not going to tease you or scare off your boyfriends.”

“I don’t have any boyfriends.”

“Doesn’t matter. You will. Me too.”

“You’ll have boyfriends? That’s new.”

He grimaced. “You know what I mean. I’ll have dates, too.”

“Okay.”

“Anyway, I, uh, we won’t really have to be together all that much. I’ll work out and stuff.” Whatever stuff was. He’d find something to do. “You’ll be over at the bar a lot, and I’ll be here. We’ll only have to sleep together—I mean, you know, not together. At the same time.”

“I know.”

Jake suspected he was messing this up; talking had never been his strong suit. But he plowed on with what he’d rehearsed yesterday. “It’ll only be for two or three months. Training camp starts in July, and they have it in California. I’ll be away 4 or 5 weeks. Rookies and newcomers are a week early, then quarterback camp, and after that, full training camp. Then it’s the Season, and I’ll be gone all the time. You know how football is.”

“Yeah. I know.” The toast popped up, and Kelli put the slices on a plate, handing it over to him before she turned back to the toaster for another round. “Well. That ought to work out well this summer and fall.”

“Yeah.” The toast was some kind of weird health food deal made out of things that weren’t really supposed to be in bread, and without butter it was pretty hard to choke down. He took a big swig of coffee. “So… um, I thought I’d get that chest-of-drawers I was talking about out of my storage. And we could use my TV; yours is from about a hundred years ago.”

“It’s not that old. I bought it two years ago.”

“Yeah. From an antiques store. It doesn’t have USB ports. Hell, I’m not sure it has HDMI.”  He felt on more familiar ground now.

“Your television is 72 inches,” she told him.” It’ll be like sitting in the front row at the theater.”

“No, not the one from the media room. I’ll get one from one of the bedrooms. That’d be about right.”

“Seriously—you have a tv in every room?” Kelli seemed more at ease, too, now that they were engaged in low level, semi-friendly sniping.

“I don’t have one in the kitchen,” he protested.

“You’re never in the kitchen.”

“Well, see—I only put them where they’re necessary.”

She laughed, so much like she’d done in the past. How many times had they stood in their kitchen (albeit a much larger one) like this and joked around with each other? He turned away, reminding himself that he’d decided he wasn’t going to think about the past. He was going to let go of old resentments… and old pleasures, too. They were living in the here and now.

Kelli pulled a cup out of the cupboard and reached for the pot of coffee. “I guess I’ll drink this black.”

He stepped out of her way, but he was still close enough to smell a hint of her perfume. It wasn’t the same kind she used to wear. Which was good—that stuff had been an aphrodisiac. “Well… I guess I’ll get going. Do you want me to take some of your things to the storage?”

She sighed. “Yeah, I suppose.” She went into the living room and began to rummage around in the boxes, taking things out and dividing them. As she worked, she said, “You need to tell me what you want from the grocery store.”

“That’s okay. I’ll grab a few things later.”

“It seems kind of pointless for both of us to make trips. I guess you’ll want some corn flakes, right? Pastrami and rye and Swiss cheese. Pickles. Do you have some special healthy diet? High protein? Low carb?”

“God, no. I mean, I try to stay away from fast foods but that’s all. Kelli, you don’t need to buy me food. I’m just your roommate.”

“Yeah. That’s true.” She shoved a box over. “Here. I don’t need any of this, really. I’ll have to go through the rest of the things. Maybe Gran would let me store some of my clothes over there.”

“Yeah. Sure.” He set down his cup and grabbed his key fob, then picked up the box, resting it on his shoulder. He looked back at her. “So...” What was he doing hanging here at the door like an idiot? “Bye.”

He strode across the parking lot to his car. He wasn’t going to think about the fact that Kelli remembered what kind of sandwich he liked. And he was not going to wonder if that soft little, “Yeah, bye,” she’d given him was tinged with regret.

Just living in the here and now, Jake. Living in the here and now.