Page 101 of Raging Fires

“Sure. You know I will.”

Kelli nodded again. “Well, I wasn’t sure after…”

“I shouldn’t have been so harsh. I was…”

“Hurt. I know.” She took a breath, as if fortifying herself, and the words that followed came out in a rush, “I need to talk to you.”

“You talked to Gran.” His stomach went down to somewhere around his kneecaps.

“Gran?” She frowned. “No. Why?”

“Oh.” He had to open his big mouth. Jake thought about not telling her. Maybe if he kept it to himself… but no, he’d never been good at fooling Kelli, only himself. And eventually she’d find out anyway. “She called me yesterday and said she was sorry, she’d made a mistake.”

“Gran said this?”

“Yeah. Shocker, huh?”

“Sounds like a first,” Kelli agreed.

He nodded, hesitating for a moment, then forcing the words out, “Anyway, she said—” He felt like a hand was clenching his chest, and he looked away. “She said we didn’t have to live together. We have to stay married and one of us has to live there because of the legal thing, but she said she wasn’t going to tell the lawyer we weren’t doing that, and there was no way he’d ever know. I think she was bluffing the whole time anyway.”

Jake forced himself to look into her face. She’d gone really pale, and she’d put one hand to her chest like she was holding something in. Only he didn’t know whether it was elation or regret.

He was starting to think Kelli wasn’t going to respond, but then she said softly, “Is that what you want, Jake?”

She gazed into his eyes. And again there was that no lying to Kelli thing. He answered in a voice almost as soft as hers, “No. Do you?”

“No.” Her voice broke and suddenly her eyes welled with tears.

Jake instinctively stepped forward, then stopped. He was on shaky ground here, and he was not going to screw it up with a wrong move.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Kelli told him. “I want to—Jake, I’m sorry for what I said.”

“Don’t worry about that.” He waved that away and took a step closer. Maybe now was the time.

But she raised a hand like a crossing guard. “No. Wait. I don’t want to just kiss and make up.”

“Sounds pretty good to me.”

Kelli let out a little chuckle and sniffed, wiping the tears from her cheek. “It’s not good enough for me. Because I was wrong.”

“No, I was late. And I’m sorry. I should have—”

“No, not that. You were late and you should have taken your phone, and it did upset me because it meant a lot to me.”

“I know.” What was he supposed to say here? An apology apparently wasn’t the right response.

“But I was angry, furious, at my mother because I’d let her suck me into believing she’d changed, and I took it out on you. You being late was just a part of my anger, maybe a third of it.”

“So am I forgiven for my third?” His lips twitched. “Cause I’d really like to get to that kissing and making up part.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed, and his chest warmed. “Yes, you’re forgiven. But I’m not through. I need to tell you: I didn’t mean I wanted you to be a different person. I want you to be Jake, my Jake. You’re messy and often late, and you’re irritating as hell lots of times.”

“Um… thanks?”

“But that’s just part of you. You’re also funny and sweet, no matter how hard you try to not be, and I want all of you. The whole package.”

Probably not a good time to make a joke about his package, so he kept his mouth shut.