The Right Bed?

6

“I THINK THEY’LL BE ALL RIGHT,” Emma said. “Mama seemed upset, but I don’t think she’d want me to get married just so she won’t have to waste all that lobster we ordered.”

Caley glanced both ways, then pulled the car out onto the road into North Lake. She’d agreed to drive Emma to the airport to catch her flight back to Boston under the condition that Emma go to the lake house first and explain what had happened to the family. Now that she’d completed that task, there would be one more little detour.

“Don’t you think you’re being a bit hasty about this, Emma? You were drunk last night and you and Sam haven’t even tried to work this out.”

“Sam is an idiot,” Emma said. “And I need to get back to Boston. I don’t know what ever made me think we were meant for each other. I’m young. I should be out there exploring my options, not tying myself down with a guy who socializes with strippers.”

“Sam had a little too much to drink. And I think it would be silly to throw your relationship away over one little indiscretion.” Caley paused. “He didn’t cheat, he was just being friendly. Instead of running away from your problems, you and Sam need to put some serious thought into what you both expect from marriage. But that takes discussion, not a drunken brawl at a roadhouse and you running off to Boston.”

“I don’t want to talk to him,” Emma said stubbornly.

“Do you still love him?”

Emma turned her head away and stared out the window. “I don’t know.”

They drove through town in silence and headed out on the East Shore Road, Caley watching for the sign for Havenwoods. It was only a few minutes before Emma realized that they weren’t traveling toward the interstate. “Where are we going?”

“I want to show you something,” Caley said. “Jake showed it to me a few days ago.” She turned into the drive and carefully navigated the curves down to the main house.

“What is this?”

“You’ll see,” Caley said.

She stopped the car in front of the house. Jake emerged from the house, stepping out onto the wide porch. A few moments later, Sam appeared in the doorway. Emma glanced over at Caley then looked out the window at her former fiancé. “What’s going on?”

“You and Sam need to talk. Jake and I thought it would be best if you had a place where you could be completely alone and undisturbed.”

“I have a plane to catch,” Emma insisted.

“That can wait.”

“What is this place? Some kind of haunted house?”

“It’s not as bad as it looks. It’s quiet and secluded. And kind of romantic.” Caley got out of the car, giving Emma no choice but to follow. When she joined Jake on the porch, he handed her the bag from the lingerie shop.

“I couldn’t resist the garter belt,” he murmured.

Emma joined them on the porch and Caley passed the bag to her. “You might need this,” she said.

Emma peered inside, then withdrew a sexy black camisole and panties, followed by the garter belt and black stockings. “I thought you said we were supposed to talk.”

“This is meant to help the conversation along.”

“Hello, Emma,” Sam said, stepping out of the doorway onto the porch. His gaze searched her face, but she refused to look at him.

“Hello, idiot,” she muttered.

“Rule number one,” Jake said. “No name-calling.” He started down the length of the porch, then motioned Sam and Emma to follow. When they reached the lake side of the house, they walked down the snow-packed path to the summer kitchen. “All right. You’ll stay here until you’ve worked things out. When you’ve both come to a rational decision about your future together, you can leave a lantern burning in the window and we’ll come and get you. There’s food and firewood inside. There’s a bathroom through the small door near the fireplace. I want you both to go inside, take off your jackets, your shoes and the rest of your clothes and put them on the porch. I’ll give them back to you when it’s time to leave.”

“What?” Sam said.

“I’m not giving you my clothes,” Emma said.

“Do we really need their clothes?” Caley asked.

“They can’t run away if we have their clothes,” Jake explained. “Unless they want to trudge through the snow in their bare feet, they won’t be going anywhere.”

“I’m not going to marry him,” Emma said. “You could lock me up and throw away the key and I still wouldn’t change my mind.”

“I wouldn’t marry her if she were the last person on earth,” Sam countered.

“Fine,” Jake said. “If that’s what you decide. But you’re going to come out of this with an understanding and a respect for each other. Our families have been friends for years and you’re not going to mess this up because you both want to carry a grudge. You’re the pair who started this and if you’re going to end it, then do it right. Either you leave here as two friends or as two people about to be married, I don’t care which.”

“Where are we supposed to sleep?” Sam asked.

“There’s a cot inside and warm blankets.”

“I’ll just call someone to come and get us.”

“There’s no phone inside,” Jake said. “And I have your cell phone. You lent it to me earlier this morning. And Caley borrowed Emma’s phone. You’ll talk to each other and that’s it. Now, Caley and I will be back to check up on you tomorrow morning.”

“You can’t do this,” Sam said. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

Jake shrugged. “Yeah, I can do this.”

“Caley, you can’t leave me here,” Emma said.

“Maybe we should let them keep their clothes,” Caley suggested. “The jackets and pants and shoes will be enough to keep them from running away.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Sam muttered. “You know, when the owner finds out that you kept us here, there’ll be trouble. I could charge you with—with kidnapping. Or unlawful imprisonment. Or—or—”

“I know the owner and he won’t mind,” Jake said. “Now get inside and start undressing.”

Grudgingly, Emma and Sam disappeared inside the summer kitchen and a few minutes later, they tossed their jackets, pants and shoes out onto the porch. Caley gave Jake an optimistic smile. “That didn’t go so badly.”

“Maybe we should wait around for a little while just to make sure they don’t kill each other.”

“Good idea.”

Jake grabbed her hand and they walked back to the main house. He opened the front door and she walked inside. Caley looked at the house differently now that she knew it was Jake’s home. She could imagine herself there on a warm summer day, all the windows thrown open to catch the breeze. The birds would sing from the trees and at night the leaves would rustle. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent, determined to remember it.

“I love this place. I can just imagine what it was like years ago, without television and speedboats and electricity. It must have been so relaxing to live that way. To just slow down and let life happen.”

“I’ve thought about restoring the place to its original state,” Jake said, stepping behind her and slipping his arms around her waist.

His touch sent her pulse racing and she leaned back against him and smiled. “Really? You could live like that?”

“I wouldn’t take out the electricity and the plumbing. I think the lack of conveniences might wear a little thin, especially in the middle of winter. I’d be chopping firewood twenty-four hours a day just to stay warm. But it would be all right to just turn it all off.”

“Maybe for a day. But I really like a hot shower in the morning.”

He rested his chin on her shoulder. “What happened to your sense of adventure? You’ve gotten to be very high maintenance, haven’t you?”

Caley turned in his arms. “I’m still adventurous. And there are things you can do in a shower that you can’t do washing up in the sink.”

He growled softly, remembering their late-night lovemaking. “Yeah, I can see that. But skinny-dipping in the lake could be lots of fun, too.”

“So what are we going to do here? We gave Sam and Emma the only bed.”

Jake kissed her neck. “I was going to go up to the attic and look for the doors to the sun porch,” he said. “Or we can find something more interesting to do. The grease trap in the sink needs to be cleaned. And I think there’s a dead mouse in the linen closet.”

“Let’s go up in the attic,” Caley said.

“There may be spiders. Or bats.”

“It’ll be an adventure,” she teased.

Jake fetched a flashlight from the kitchen and they walked to the rear bedroom. He opened a door to reveal a stairway. They’d explored every inch of this house when they were kids, but Caley didn’t remember ever venturing into the attic. “Have you been up here?”

“A couple of times,” he said. “Watch out. The stairs are steep. You go first.”

Caley stared up into the dark attic and shook her head. “You go first.”

“You’re the adventurous one.”

“It’s your house.”

“I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you go first.”

Caley rolled her eyes. “What a baby you are.” She squinted up into the darkness. “What are you looking for?”

“Doors. There should be two doors that used to hang in the entrances to the solarium. The doors that are there are too new. They have beveled glass windows, which isn’t something that Durant would have chosen. I’m hoping the originals are up there.”

The attic wasn’t nearly as bad as Caley thought it would be. Though everything was covered with a thick coating of dust, it was tidy and snug. “I wonder what’s in these trunks.”

Jake shrugged. “Probably something creepy.”

“Like what? A dead body?” Caley knelt down on the floor. “Hold the flashlight on this latch,” she said.

“The doors won’t be in there. They’re huge.”

“I know. But aren’t you curious as to what’s in here? It might be something interesting.” Caley tugged at the latch and it flipped open. “If there’s a skeleton in here, I’m going to scream.”

“So am I,” Jake said.

But when Caley opened the trunk, she found it filled with bundles of letters and greeting cards, old gramophone records and books. She pulled out one of the books and flipped through it. “It’s a journal,” she said. She grabbed a bigger book and found photographs inside. Caley handed it to Jake, then glanced around the attic. “Is there a gramophone up here?”

Jake scanned the room with the flashlight, letting it come to rest on a covered silhouette on a table. “I think that’s it. Can we look for my doors?”

“This is more interesting than your doors,” she said. Caley pointed to the far wall. “Is that them?”

Jake grinned. “I think so. Come on, let’s see if we can get them downstairs.”

“Forget the doors right now.” She walked around the chest. “If you pick up that end, I bet we could get it downstairs.”

They wrestled the trunk to the stairway and maneuvered it around the old wooden banister. But as they began to take it down the steep stairs, Caley lost her grip. The leather handle had deteriorated with age and it broke; the trunk slammed down on her toes.

“Ow! Oh, that hurts. Pull it down.”

Jake let the trunk slide to the bottom of the stairs, then climbed up to where she stood. “What’s wrong?”

“It smashed my toe. Ow.” Her eyes watered and she wriggled on her good foot, afraid to put weight on the other.

Jake stared at the toe of her boot with the flashlight, then cursed softly. “Come on. I think I have some first-aid stuff in the kitchen.”

He helped her down the stairs, Caley limping and wincing against the pain. Then Jake scooped her up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way, setting her down on the counter in the kitchen. “I’d forgotten what a klutz you could be.”

“I’m not,” she said. “I’m very graceful.”

“I remember the time you were walking down the dock in that little flowered dress and those high-heeled shoes.” He pulled off her boot and tossed it aside. “You got your heel caught in between the boards and went over the edge into the water. I had to jump in and fish you out.”

“I was mortified,” Caley said. “I wanted you to look at me and think I was hot. Instead, I looked like a drowned rat.”

“Maybe so, but when that dress got wet, you could see right through it. And you weren’t wearing a bra. I did think you looked really hot.”

She pulled her foot out of his hand and tugged off her sock. Her toenail had already begun to turn black. “Kiss it,” she said, wiggling her toes in front of him.

Jake smiled, taking her foot in his hand and slowly massaging it. “Will that make it feel better?”

“Maybe. I’ve always wanted you to kiss my feet,” she said, daring him to do as she asked.

Jake knelt down in front of her and pressed his lips to her ankle. It didn’t take long for Caley to realize that he was turning her little game into a full-out seduction. He kissed each toe, then ran his tongue along her instep.

When he began to suck on her toes, Caley closed her eyes and leaned back. No man had ever done this for her. She hadn’t realized that the foot was an erogenous zone. “Oh,” she said.

“Do you like that?” he asked.

“Yes,” she murmured.

“Does it feel better?”

Caley nodded. “Much.”

Jake stood and ran his thumb along her lower lip. He bent close and kissed her. “Is there anything else that hurts?”

“Are you trying to seduce me?” she asked.

“Maybe. Do you want to be seduced?”

“Yes,” Caley said with a smile. “See, isn’t that easy? Just think of what might have happened if you’d said yes the first time I asked.”

“I was tempted,” he said, pulling her hand up to kiss her palm. “So tempted. You looked so beautiful that night. You were wearing that little lace blouse with blue flowers on the collar.”

“You remember that?”

“I remember everything about that night. For the next five years, I’d sit on that spot on the beach and wonder if I’d ever get a chance again.”

“I guess you did,” Caley said.

“I just assumed you’d always be around. When you didn’t come back that next summer, I thought I’d messed up bad. Now that I have you again, it’s going to be hard to let you go.”

It was as close to a profession of love as Jake had ever come and the sentiment made her heart ache. When she was young, she used to read all sorts of meanings into the words he spoke to her. But his meaning was clear now. The only problem was, Caley wasn’t sure what she could do about it.

“I’ve got a sleeping bag in the back of my truck. We could put it in front of the fireplace. It’s almost as good as a bed.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Caley said. As he walked out of the room, she drew a deep breath. “I’m not going to be able to let you go, either,” she murmured.

JAKE STOOD IN THE DOORWAY of the great room, his hands braced on the doorjamb. Caley sat in front of a crackling fire, her naked body wrapped in the sleeping bag. They’d made love twice in front of the fire, first with a frantic passion and then later slowly and playfully, the two of them teasing each other to completion.

The day was entirely theirs now that the wedding had been put on hold. Jake had felt so bad about her toe that he’d gone upstairs to retrieve the photo album and a few packets of letters from the trunk.

Though they’d enjoyed the sexual chemistry between them, the connection that afternoon had been more emotional than physical. Every time he looked at her, Jake realized how special she was. She was smart and funny. And she challenged him, forcing him to see her in a different light. She’d stolen a piece of his heart a long time ago and now Jake was certain that he never wanted it back. As long as Caley cared for him, he’d be a happy man.

“Are you warm enough?” he asked.

She turned and smiled, the light from the fire illuminating her pretty features. “I am. Come and look at this. I found a photo of the summer kitchen.”

Jake crossed the room and squatted down next to her, taking the photo from her fingers. “Look at that stove. No wonder they had to put the kitchen in a separate building. One spark from that and this whole place would have been kindling.” He stared at the ceiling. “I should probably put some kind of sprinkler system in here. I wouldn’t want this place to burn down before I had a chance to pay for it.”

“You should really send this stuff back to the family,” she said.

“I don’t think the owner realized there was anything left in the attic. I think I’ll make an inventory and then see what she wants me to send back to her.”

“What is her first name?” Caley asked. “Is it Arlene?”

“Yeah,” Jake said.

“I’ve been reading these letters. They’re from a boy she met at a summer dance. They had a romance. He was from town. And she lived in Chicago. It looks like they wrote to each other for years.” Caley frowned. “There are some here from when he was in the war. And then they just stop. Are there more letters in the trunk?”

“I can go look,” Jake said.

“You don’t think he died, do you?”

“No,” Jake said. “They’re probably still in the trunk. I’ll go get them.”

Jake wandered back to the bedroom, grabbing the flashlight along the way. It felt good to have Caley in his house. It felt right. He could imagine them here together, spending their summers on the lake. Everything would be so much more interesting if she were a part of his life. They’d begin and end each day together and in between, they would swim and cook and make love by the light of the moon.

Jake rummaged through the papers and then found one more packet of letters, this one much smaller and tied with a black ribbon. He brought them back to Caley and sat down beside her.

“See, it’s all right.”

She stared at the packet as she slowly untied the ribbon. As she read the first letter, Caley slowly shook her head. “No,” she murmured. She glanced over at Jake and he saw tears in her eyes. “This one is from his mother. He died in France in 1944.” She flipped through the rest of the letters. “These are all from his mother.”

Jake reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “It’s all right. Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know. It’s so sad. They were in love and then they lost their chance to be together.”

He kissed the top of her head, unable to soothe her distress. “I guess you have to just appreciate the time you have,” he murmured.

Caley nodded, wiping her eyes on the corner of the sleeping bag. “I do appreciate it.” She looked at him. “I do.”

Smiling, Jake dropped a soft kiss on her lips. “Why don’t we get dressed and I’ll take you back to the inn. You can have a nice hot bath. We’ll pick up a pizza on the way back and we’ll spend the night watching movies.”

Caley put the letter back in the envelope and retied the ribbon. He pulled her to her feet and helped her get dressed, wiping away the tears that continued to trickle down from the corners of her eyes.

Jake was sure she wasn’t crying about the letter anymore. But he couldn’t figure out what the tears were for. Had she realized that they wouldn’t have much time left? Was she already contemplating leaving? Or was it something else?

“You should probably check on Sam and Emma before we leave.”

“They’ll be fine,” Jake said.

He held her jacket out for her and as she pulled it on, she looked around the great room. “I really like this place, Jake. It doesn’t matter how much you paid for it or how much it will cost to fix it. It was worth every penny.”

Caley followed Jake back into town. He pulled into the parking lot of a small Italian restaurant next to the post office downtown and waited for her to pull in next to him. Jake had survived on their take-out pizza when he had visited North Lake in the winter. As they stood at the bar perusing the menu, he glanced at a waitress standing near the end. She smiled at him and gave him a little wave.

“Hey, Jasmine,” he murmured as she approached.

“Jake,” she said, smiling brightly. “You’re back in town.”

“My brother’s getting married,” Jake explained. He turned to Caley. “This is Caley Lambert. My brother is marrying her sister, Emma. She’s the maid of honor.”

Jasmine nodded. “It’s nice to meet you.” She turned all her attention back to Jake. “So why didn’t you call me when you got in? I still have your jacket at my place. And that fancy corkscrew of yours. You should really come over and pick them up. And bring a bottle of wine along.”

Jake had decided to forfeit the jacket and the corkscrew just so he wouldn’t have to see Jasmine again. She was one of those women who looked good on first meeting but grew more demanding with each successive date. Jake had dated her for three months, off and on, and when she’d begun talking about kids and marriage, he’d decided to stop.

He’d never had the heart to lead a girl on, to make her believe that he felt something more than he actually did. When it got to that point with Jasmine, he’d stopped calling. But it appeared that she didn’t think it was completely over. “What do you want on your pizza?” Jake asked.