Sweet Southern Nights (Home In Magnolia Bend Book 3) Read online

  “You mean living at the camp on weekends?”

  Matt hesitated before saying, “Ouch.”

  Jake immediately felt like horseshit. No. Like the fly larvae on horseshit. “Sorry. Uncalled for.”

  “I get it. You’re defensive because you’re attracted to her. But I know you, Jake. You’re bored. I’d suggest you find someone else to scratch that itch. Eva’s too good of a girl for you to break.” Matt casted onto the other side of the stump and jiggled the bait a bit. “And make no mistake, you’d break her, Jake.”

  At that moment a huge bass struck. Matt set the hook, and the big lunker flew up out of the water, thrashing in the waning light of day.

  “Get the net,” Matt yelled, reeling and working the line.

  Jake nearly tripped over the tackle box lying in his path, but he grabbed the net just as the big fish tried to go under the boat. Jake scooped the net in the water and grunted when he lifted. The bass was a monster.

  “Woo,” Matt crowed, reaching in and detaching the treble hooks from the wide mouth of the fish. “This one’s over five pounds. Damn, he’s a monster.” Jake hooked his thumb in the mouth of the fish and lifted it. The big boy obligingly flipped his tail back and forth, still fighting against his captor.

  Jake took a picture of his older brother smiling…something that rarely happened these days.

  “Send it to me,” Matt said before lowering the fish to the side of the boat.

  “You really think I could hurt Eva?” Jake asked.

  Matt looked up. “Yeah. She’s had a thing for you as long as I’ve known her.”

  Jake felt as if his brother had punched him in the gut. “No, she hasn’t.”

  Lowering the fish into the water, Matt swished it for a few seconds, flushing water through its gills. “It may not have been obvious to you, but I’ve known it for a while now. She looks at you like you’re the lead singer in a boy band. It’s that bad.”

  Eva had a thing for him? He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around that. He just couldn’t see it. They’ve been friends forever. Hell, he’d even farted in front of her a few times. Probably scratched his ass and admitted dumb things like how he liked to watch Pride and Prejudice. Damn it, he’d done things a dude didn’t do in front of a woman who was into him.

  “I can’t believe it. I mean, she never gave me any signs. I never knew.”

  “You didn’t want to,” Matt said, giving the fish a final swirl. “But trust me, you want to let her go.”

  Matt released the fish, and with a swish of its tail it disappeared beneath the muddy depths.

  For a few seconds he and Matt stood there and looked at the water. At the trail of shimmering light the sun left as it sank into the depths. At the rippling surface that hid things that didn’t need to be brought into the light of day.

  Matt cleared his throat. “Yeah, sometimes you just have to let things go.”

  Something hot sizzled in the back of Jake’s throat at the emptiness of his brother’s words. He wasn’t talking about Jake as much as he was talking about what he’d been struggling with over the past year.

  His brother looked up at him with sad eyes and said, “Ready?”

  “Sure,” Jake said, his thoughts as jumbled as the line of the reel he’d backlashed and set aside. He’d not had a clue about Eva’s interest in him…and he wasn’t so sure he could trust his brother’s assessment. After all, if Matt could read women, he wouldn’t be sleeping alone while his wife was fifty miles down the road, working for some swinging dick with an art degree and a sizable bank account. But truth sat fat and ugly in those words Matt had uttered.

  You’d break her.

  Eva was emphatically not a woman a man messed with and then set aside.

  So was Jake ready for that step in his life?

  Commitment?

  He’d never wanted to marry and stay in Magnolia Bend like some of his high school buds.

  So why are you still here, knucklehead?

  He knew the answer to that one—he was a scared pussy, too afraid of leaving the past behind. Because guilt had treble hooks just like his crank bait, and they’d latched on to his soul, preventing him from taking what he wanted.

  Sure, his psyche demanded he be true to himself and stop covering his desires with a veneer of good-time Charlie, but that gosh damn guilt tripped him every time. How could he grab hold of life, love and adventure when he’d denied his best friend any chance for the same thing? And he couldn’t bring in the fact that their friend Angela had died.

  So Jake did the same thing every day. He got up and he was Jake Beauchamp, hardworking firefighter, hard-playing Romeo. That was who he was. Didn’t have to think or feel. Didn’t have to remember the things he’d once wanted or the person he’d once wanted to be.

  He climbed from the boat when they reached the camp launch and helped his brother unload. Took a while because Matt was adamant about everything having its place.

  As they were leaving, Matt said, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  “Hmm.” His brother locked the boathouse and walked toward his truck.

  “What did that mean?” Jake asked, following suit.

  “Nothing.”

  “Jesus, Matt. Don’t do that. You have something to say, say it.”

  “You are you, so in this case with Eva, don’t be you.”

  Jake wanted to tell his brother to go screw himself, but he didn’t. Because Matt was right. He couldn’t take advantage of Eva’s feelings and act on the weird emotions twisting inside him. He couldn’t risk that. “I won’t.”

  *

  EVA TAPPED DOWN the tent stake and stood, arching her back. “There. Done.”

  Jake was at the barbecue grill, flipping hot dogs while four little boys tackled each other in the small side yard. The oldest, Will Beauchamp, had organized a complicated, made-up game that was part capture the flag, part football and part wrestling match. Eva didn’t understand the rules, but Charlie hadn’t stopped smiling since they began playing it.

  “Next time I go camping, I’ll invite you. You broke my record for tent assembly,” Jake said, closing the barbecue lid and grabbing the beer sitting next to him.

  Eva crossed the yard, plopped onto the wrought-iron patio chair and took a swig of her water. “Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking beer around kids.”

  “Why not? It’s Friday night. I’m an adult. I’m not offering it to them.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re the kind of guy these little boys look up to. They might think it would make them cool to try it.”

  Jake gave her a look as if she was a cuckoo bird, but he poured out the half-drunk beer and placed the bottle in the recycling can she’d set outside to collect all the empty water bottles.

  “Thanks for coming over to help me,” she said.

  “That’s what friends are for. Besides, I like having you in my debt. Christmas will be here before you know it, and I’ll have gifts that will need wrapping.”

  “Uh, I hate wrapping presents,” she groaned. Somehow she’d owed Jake a favor last year, and he’d showed up on Christmas Eve with several shopping bags and a roll of hideous wrapping paper. She’d even wrapped her own gift from him.

  “Too bad. Now you owe me. I loaned you the tent and I’m roasting your wieners.”

  “There’s a joke in there somewhere,” she quipped.

  Jake grinned.

  Ever since Jake had moved away from her on the couch at the firehouse last week, things had been easier. Almost back to normal. Almost.

  Thing was though Eva had been really good in the past at hiding how much she wanted Jake, once it came out to play in the daylight, that attraction was apparently hard to put back in place. She couldn’t help but indulge in watching him, her gaze caressing his physique, her hands itching to touch. It was as if her desire had been encapsulated in a full-body cast and now that the casing had been shattered, it refused to be bound again. Or maybe it was more like her desire was a fertile
delta, birthing fantasies of intertwined bodies glistening with sweat. Or maybe it had merely built inside her, festering, begging her to…

  Do something.

  “Eva!” Feet slapped the patio, jarring her from her musings, and Charlie skidded to a halt in front of her. “Can we blow up water balloons now?”

  Water balloons? “We don’t have any water balloons.”

  “Jake brought some.” Charlie skipped over to the man who, come to think of it, had arrived with a big bag from Target. “Can we do them now, Jake?”

  Jake’s nephews and another little boy who was in Charlie’s class crowded around Jake. “Please!”

  “Can you get these hot dogs off for me, Eva?”

  “I don’t know. Can you wrap your own presents?”

  Jake actually hesitated. “I still brought the tent and lit the fire.”

  Eva laughed. “Okay, go with them. I’ll take care of the hot dogs.”

  “Yay,” the boys shouted in unison when Jake jogged over to the bag he’d brought with him. Like puppies they clamored after him, disappearing around the side of the house in the direction of the water hose.

  Eva had never hosted a kid’s birthday party before. Heck, she’d only hosted one other party in her life—a bridal shower for her college roommate. All other gatherings before then had included Jell-O shots and enough room for a deejay. There had been no matching plates and napkins, balloons or cakes with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on them.

  Just as she removed the hot dogs from the grill, a stream of water hit her in the back. “Ahhh!”

  She spun, and another blast hit her right in the face.

  Jake stood, clad in his PFG shorts and T-shirt, wearing a pair of goggles and holding a soaker gun. “Score!”

  Eva shook her hands and darted behind a column just as a blast of water came at her from another direction.

  Charlie whooped, followed by the other boys all carrying water guns and holding balloons full of water. “Get her!”

  Squeaking, Eva ran in the direction of the house. A balloon hit at her feet, making her slip in her flip-flops. She skidded into the house and slammed the French door just as a stream of water hit it. Twisting the lock, she stuck out her tongue, taunting them.

  “Awww, man,” Charlie shouted, before turning the gun on Jake.

  Jake yelled as the water hit him in the chest, plastering the cotton shirt to his nicely defined muscles. He issued a war cry and then he was off, chasing the boys across the green lawn. Lots of laughter and screaming ensued.

  Eva watched for a moment, and as she stood there an idea uncurled in her head. They’d abandoned the water hose on the side of the yard, so if she sneaked around front to the side gate, she could grab the hose with the power nozzle and soak all of them.

  Seconds later she slid stealthily through the gate, kicked off her flip-flops and turned the water to full blast. Grasping the big power nozzle, she whipped the coiled hose behind her and charged out from around the corner. Jake and the boys were in the middle of the small backyard, engrossed in tossing balloons at each other. They weren’t prepared for the wild woman barreling toward them. She flipped the switch, and the water shot out in a thick torrent. She went for Jake first.

  “Agghhh!” he screeched, grabbing for his super soaker gun. The boys screamed and ran, but Jake stood firm, ducking beneath the blast, looking like a special forces member as he rolled across the grass and came up firing.

  Eva felt the water gun blast hit her chest, but she didn’t stop aiming her stream at Jake. She planted her feet and let him have it. Until he started toward her, head down, goggles abandoned, scrambling against the force of the water she aimed his way.

  Dropping the hose, she ran back toward the side yard. Her bare feet slipped as she rounded the corner, and she careened out of control, landing on her butt in the wet grass. Didn’t matter, she was already soaked.

  Jake hit the corner hard at a full run and, seeing her sprawled on the grass, tried to leap over her. His foot caught her knee and he tripped, falling and taking a roll on the grass.

  Eva grabbed her sides and laughed.

  “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” he said, reaching out and grabbing her ankle, dragging her toward him. She struggled but there was no contest. Jake was strong and determined…and she was laughing too hard to put up much of a struggle.

  “Jake,” she squealed when he clutched her elbow and gave her a tug. She toppled onto him, laughing so hard she snorted.

  But then her body registered the warmth of Jake. The hardness of his torso against the squishiness of her breasts. Her soft places met his hard places, and the laughter caught in her throat.

  Jake looked up at her with his too-blue eyes filled with awareness.

  Eva met his gaze, her breath catching as his eyes dropped to her…oh, crap…white T-shirt.

  Yeah, she wore a white unpadded sports bra beneath a white T-shirt with a cute turtle on it—her one concession to the turtle theme. She didn’t do ninjas. But she would totally do the sexy firefighter lying beneath her. If only she’d let herself.

  If only they would both stop fighting it.

  Her nipples tightened under his gaze, and she knew he could see through her shirt.

  “Nice,” he breathed, swallowing hard. “I knew they’d be incredible, but…”

  He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, letting go of her arm.

  Eva scooted away, trying like hell to regain control of the stampeding horniness consuming her.

  “Eva!” Charlie yelled.

  Okay. Yeah. That worked. They were at a seven-year-old’s birthday party. Sweet jumping Jehoshaphat. Jake had an erection—if she were any judge of anatomy—and she’d been on the cusp of ripping her clothes off and rolling around in the wet grass with him.

  There were four kids just around the corner.

  Good gravy.

  “Coming,” she said, struggling to her feet, leaving Jake lying in the fading day looking so damn good.

  “No, you’re not,” Jake muttered. “Unfortunately.”

  She almost laughed at the desolation in his tone. But the disappointment welling inside her stifled the neurotic need to lose it over their situation.

  They were like teenagers, totally at the mercy of their bodies. The slightest glance of flesh, the whisper of a suggestion, the almost visceral fantasies popping up at the strangest moments—all conspired to fell them…to bring them to the point where they lost all reason and just went at each other like a pair of dogs in heat.

  Eva emerged from the side of the house, crossing her arms over her breasts so she didn’t give a couple of elementary-school-aged boys a peep show. “What is it, guys?”

  “Can we eat now?”

  Eva shook her head. “We have to clean up first. Y’all pick up the popped balloons and I’ll get y’all some towels. And I have to change real quick.”

  She slipped into the house, padding back to her room and en suite bathroom. Shucking her jeans, she pulled the T-shirt off and tossed it toward the tub, where it landed with a slap. Then she unhooked her damp sports bra, letting it fall as she reached for a hand towel to dry her hair.

  But then the bathroom door opened.

  Eva froze as a very wet Jake appeared in her mirror.

  Gasping, she clasped her breasts and spun toward him, clad only in her lacy pink panties.

  “What are you doing?” she managed.

  He shut the door. And then he leaned back against it. He didn’t respond, just allowed his gaze to lazily move over her body.

  Eva stood there, not knowing whether she should drop her hands and go to him or affect maidenly outrage and order him from her bathroom. Seconds ticked by.

  “Do you know how many times I imagined what you look like naked?” he asked, plucking his wet T-shirt from his chest. The fabric sucked against him, making a sound that matched the feeling in her gut.

  “No,” she managed to say.

  “You are my friend, but I’m a man, yo
u know?”

  She didn’t say anything. Just watched as he moved her way.

  “There were times you’d leave the room to go shower and my mind would flash to you standing under the spray. I couldn’t stop it, and I told myself that’s what guys do. Totally normal.” He stopped in front of her and traced the upper curve of her breast. Eva couldn’t control the heart thumping in her chest, the breaths shortening as she caught the scent that was Jake’s alone.

  “And then when I’d go in to shower, I’d smell you. That pomegranate and orange blossom shampoo. Your perfume. Even the strawberry lip balm you kept on the counter. I’d think about your lips…and where you dabbed that perfume.” He traced the valley between her breasts. “Here?”

  Eva nodded dumbly, wishing she could find the words. But the moment was hushed like a church or some other sacred thing.

  “I thought it was normal, but maybe my body knew more than my head. You know?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think—”

  “Shh,” he said, pressing a warm finger against her lips. “Don’t say it. Just don’t.”

  Jake tugged her hands away from where they cupped her breasts. She let them fall.

  He closed his eyes, expelling a heavy breath.

  “Better, way better, than I could have ever imagined.”

  Eva swallowed as he opened his eyes again, his gaze hungrily moving over her standing before him. Then he did the single most erotic thing she’d ever experienced. He lowered his head and sucked her right breast into his mouth.

  “Oh,” she groaned, sagging against the vanity, grabbing hold so her buckling knees didn’t send her crashing to the floor.

  Jake made low noises in his throat as he grasped her hips and pressed her back toward the mirror with his forehead. All the while he maintained the delicious pressure on her sensitive flesh, alternating nips with gentle suckling.

  Eva felt liquid warmth pool in her pelvis.

  Like a well-oiled engine, she purred for him.

  His hands invaded her panties, sliding around to cup her ass, squeezing as he released her breast, dropping little kisses along her breastbone toward the uber-sensitive column of her throat. Making more low noises in his throat, he captured her lips.