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“I don’t believe it,” I tease. I then want to ask him if he’s given promiscuous sex up too, but I don’t.
“Normally, I would say not to believe everything you hear, but that one’s true.”
I cross my arms. Shake my head with a building smile. “Well, color me impressed, Jake Mitchell.”
And that, too, is the truth. But the million-dollar question is, is this only until the trial in three months when he’s set to testify against his mom and sister? Will he go back to his old ways when he gets out on the track again?
And suddenly, as we begin our familiar banter, the atmosphere shifts into something more casual.
He feels it too because his shoulders loosen. “Hey,” he says, and reaches out to clasp my upper arm but thinks better of it. My vibe isn’t that relaxed yet. “I have some things I want to say.” He nods toward the bench. “Want to sit and talk?”
My stomach clenches in anticipation. “Sure.” It’s what I came here for anyway.
He gestures for me to join him as he pivots in that direction.
“Oh,” I say, thinking of something. I dig through my purse and hand over his keys.
He studies them with a smile.
“Sorry. I should have given them to you the night when you came.” Or at least mailed them. I couldn’t bring myself to part with them, as crazy as it sounds. I’ve carried them around with me since.
“That’s not on you,” he says, dropping them into his soggy pocket. “I wouldn’t have trusted me either.”
“Yeah. This lying tramp was pretty pissed that night.”
I mean it half-jokingly, but the reference to when he called me that seems to rail through him. “I’m surprised you even wanted to see me again after that.”
“I didn’t…until today, I guess.”
We get to the bench, and he waits until I sit before he settles beside me. The water on the lake is smooth as glass. There’s no wind. Which also means I’m starting to sweat, even in the shade.
I take a sip of water, and Jake and I watch as our little duck friend waddles into the water, rippling its surface, and paddles this way.
“He thinks I have bread,” he muses. “I’ve been feeding him.”
“You tease. I would have asked Debbie for some, had I known.”
“So, you met her already.”
“She’s nice. And a vast improvement over the butlers.”
“Anything was an improvement over them.”
I pull my legs up and hug them, my gaze still on the expectant duck. “I’m guessing they were all fired?”
“Immediately.”
“How many were there, anyway?”
“Fifteen total, I think.”
“Where did they even stay?”
“Upstairs. My mom had them bunking in the rooms up there.”
I cringe. So, so strange. “Well, this place definitely seems less creepy now.”
That elicits a laugh. “Much. Apparently, they were all ex-cons with no family, and mom and Ruby spruced them up and offered them room and board for their services.”
