“Can I?” Sebastian asks. I nod, knowing my voice will crack and I’ll probably cry. “I love fishing.”
This man, who he idolizes, is asking him to just hang out for a few hours. To do something that he and Luke loved to do, no less. Of course, Jacob couldn’t have known that, but my heart swells in gratitude.
“Me too.” He extends his hand for a fist bump, which Sebastian returns quickly. “Awesome. I’ll pick you up around eight in the morning?”
“Sure! I won’t sleep at all so don’t worry if you want to come earlier or even tomorrow!”
It’s completely true. The kid is going to be wired as though he drank four energy drinks.
“All right, well, let’s plan for eight on Sunday. I have to get home, unpack, and do some work tomorrow, but Sunday, I’m all yours. It was nice to meet you, Melanie.”
Melanie is still standing like a statue, still not speaking. “I’ll walk you out,” I say, hoping to save her from further embarrassment.
“Sorry to spring this on you,” Jacob says as we get to the door.
“It’s fine. I appreciate it more than you know. Fishing is . . . something that really matters to Sebastian.”
“Really?”
I nod as I hold the door with both hands. “Yeah, he and Luke used to go a lot. I’m sure he’s really going to enjoy getting to do something he loves with his idol.”
“God,” Jacob says with a huff, “I should be the last person a kid idolizes.”
“Why is that?”
He smiles, and it’s a look I think got him out of a lot of trouble at some point. It makes him even more incredibly handsome, and the charm oozes off him. “Because I’ve made a lot of mistakes, broke hearts, and my moral compass is a bit off.”
“The hearts part I don’t doubt.”
“Oh? Why is that?” He tosses my question back to me.
I lean my head against the edge of the door. “Well, as a psychologist, I tend to see things in a different way.”
“Are you psychoanalyzing me?”
“Would you be scared if I was?”
“Do you always answer a question with another one?”
I laugh a little. “Would it bother you if I did?”
Jacob bursts out laughing and then leans in. “It would.”
Is he flirting with me?
No. I’m crazy. He’s not flirting, but am I? I don’t think so, but it’s been thirteen years since I’ve flirted with anyone. In order to avoid looking like I’m doing that, I stay where I am and soften my voice a bit and take on the psychologist side of me.
“I see. Well, to my point, I don’t think your compass is as far off as you think. If it were, you wouldn’t have shown up at my house after flying in from St. Lucia to make plans to take an eleven-year-old boy out fishing at eight in the morning on a Sunday.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“How old are you?”
The change in direction of the conversation has me stumbling to catch up. “What?”
“It’s a question that, once again, you responded to with another.”
I shake my head. “No, I wasn’t trying to evade, it’s just that we were talking about you . . . and then . . . you ask my age.”
“I’m trying to figure out how you have two kids, were married, and somehow went to school to be a psychologist. You definitely aren’t old enough to have all that.”
He’s not the first to think this. “Well, I met Luke when I was eighteen, got pregnant almost immediately, got married—immediately.” I chuckle at the memory of us telling our families that plan. “Then I started going to school while raising babies, him deploying, and growing up. I’m thirty-one, to answer the question.”
Jacob leans in, his voice deep and low. “And this just further proves I’m not worth idolizing, but you are. I’ll see you Sunday.”
He turns and walks toward his car as I stand here—dumbstruck.
Chapter Five
Jacob
I grab the cooler I packed and hop on the ATV. The sun hasn’t fully come up over the trees, and I hope when I zoom past Connor’s house, I wake them. Serves them right for not letting me stay with them. Hadley wouldn’t even offer me the tree house.
Last night was my last night in a house until the end of my sentence here. I was told that I was welcome to stay in the guest room until Sean and Devney got back, which is this afternoon, but then it was out to the tiny shithole with a composting toilet.
I swear if anyone in Hollywood hears about this, I’ll never live it down.
I do an extra lap around Connor’s house and, not wanting to leave Declan out of the fun, I do a few laps around his house before heading down to the creek.
This is my favorite spot. As kids, we would come here and spend the day fishing or just splashing around before having to head back to the hell that was our home. Whenever I was here, I felt at ease, and that hasn’t changed.
The sun is peeking up over the tree line, and the horizon is painted in bright oranges and yellows before it settles to the deep blue of dawn. There’s something about this morning’s warm hues merging with blue that has me thinking of Brenna. The way the sky mirrors the colors in her deep red hair and the higher sky is the shade of her eyes.
Last night, I was restless thinking about her. How cute she looked in her leggings and that sweatshirt. She was beautiful, even in disarray. I’ve always been around gorgeous women, but they are never like that around me. Their makeup and hair are always perfect. Brenna doesn’t live that way.
However, this is a bad road to go down, and I have to stop thinking of her and focus on her kid, who is struggling. It has absolutely nothing to do with my wanting to see her again. Nope.
Liar.
I check my watch, seeing that I spent an hour out here thinking of the wrong thing, hop on the quad, and head over to Sebastian’s house.
I use the trail that we used thousands of times sneaking over to Devney’s house. It takes no time to cut through the woods as though it’s been days since I last rode this instead of years.
Before I can get to the door, Sebastian is outside and rushing toward me. “You have a quad! That’s so cool. I want one, but Mom says they are too dangerous.”
I smile. “It took me a long time to get one. When we were kids, we had a tractor or the horse. That was it.”
“Melanie wants a horse.”
“Good choice. Tractors are slow.”
Sebastian laughs. “I have my pole and lures all ready. Do I just hop on?”
I’m not sure what the protocol is, but I’m pretty sure I need to talk to his mother first. “We’ll head out in a few. I just want to let your mom know where we’ll be and how to reach me.”
He nods once as if this is a good idea, which is encouraging.
When we get to the door, Brenna is making her way toward us. Jesus, there goes my whole bullshit line of thought regarding her. She’s even more gorgeous than the last time I saw her. Her auburn hair is down, falling in soft waves past her shoulders, and when she looks at me, I want to fall at her feet. I’ve seen her three times, each time has been a drastically different side of her, but the feeling when I see her is the same. “Good morning,” I say, keeping my voice even.