Because Juliet had never been stupid. No, she was extremely smart. He’d once seen her scribbling in her math book during a lesson and peeked over her shoulder, expecting to see a rude doodle. Instead, she’d solved the complex math equation the teacher was still patiently explaining. That she’d had such trouble with her grades probably had to do with the fact she’d worked most nights as well as on the weekends.
He’d had part-time jobs too, but nothing so onerous. “What about the money from your job here?” he asked, recalling the times he’d gone in late with one of his older brothers to pick up groceries and seen Juliet at the checkout. She’d been the picture of politeness to his brothers.
It had been weird.
So much so that one day, he’d gone back to fetch a chocolate bar he’d deliberately forgotten to bag and asked her if she’d been possessed by a nice demon.
Her response had reassured him that Juliet was still Juliet.
Today she shrugged, and it threatened to draw his eyes straight to the vee between her generous breasts. “I was a minor, so my aunt had access to my bank account. She used what I’d saved to pay for my ticket to Samoa.”
Jake looked at the line of her profile, searching for all the things he could feel but that she didn’t say. Her words had been offhand, without anger, but that was impossible after such a major forced shift in her life—especially one paid for with money she’d worked hard to earn. The Juliet he’d known had always been angry.
“Who did you stay with in Samoa? Grandparents?”
“Yup. My dad’s parents.”
“How was it going to school there?”
A pause before she said, “I had to repeat a grade.” Words that held more unspoken things. “Let’s just say things were a bit messed up.”
Jake shrugged. “I repeated a grade too.”
Dark eyes met his, a softness to them that cut him off at the knees it was so unexpected from this woman made of prickles and armored to the teeth.
“You’re a really good dad, Jake,” she said. “I think Callie would be beyond happy to see how you’ve raised your daughter. She had such dreams for her baby.”
This wasn’t a topic on which Jake spoke often, not even to his brothers. And he hadn’t had a non-family best friend for a long time. Most of the guys his age who played rugby were still unfettered by family obligations and lived a life that he couldn’t—and didn’t want to—emulate. No late-night drinking sessions for Jake, no taking off on weekends away without planning well ahead of time.
He got along better with the older guys on the team, the ones with families of their own, but their mutual responsibilities meant they didn’t hang as much. Because they got it, got that Jake’s daughter was his responsibility and he loved her. He wanted to be there for her. Esme didn’t have a mum, just him.
While his entire family was always around, ready to help, he was the one who kissed her good night and got her up in the morning. He was the one who went with her to get her school supplies, and he’d learned how to braid hair so he could braid hers.
All these things, and more, he usually never spoke aloud.
Today, however, maybe because Juliet had known Calypso, he found himself saying, “Yeah, I hope so. She would’ve been a hell of a good mum.” Calypso had been the one with the plans, the one who’d made lists of what their baby would need.
“She chose Esme’s name, didn’t she?”
Of course Calypso would’ve shared that with her best friend. “And she made all these videos, talking to Esme while she was pregnant.” Cradling her belly while speaking to her “sweet baby.” “Esme likes to listen to and watch them sometimes.”
Danny had helped Jake load all the videos into the cloud and set a backup so Esme would never lose access to them. “We do that on Mother’s Day.” His daughter had grown up knowing that she’d had a mother who’d loved her very much. “I just wish that Calypso could see who Esme’s growing up to be—she would’ve been so proud.”
Blinking rapidly, Juliet glanced away. They watched Gabriel and Charlotte kiss on the curly-haired photographer’s redundant cue. Gabriel couldn’t keep his hands off his new bride, and Charlie was his partner in crime.
“I heard it was fast.” Juliet’s voice was rough. “That the meningitis took her quickly.”
“She didn’t suffer.” That would matter to the girl who’d been by Calypso’s side since childhood. “She wasn’t feeling well one night, and since it was so soon after the birth, my mum and dad drove us to the ER so the doctors could confirm it wasn’t anything major. We thought the flu. They admitted her instead. She slipped away only hours later, despite all their efforts.”
It still seemed surreal when he thought about it, that the vibrant young woman he’d loved with all his teenage heart had been brought down by a disease that didn’t understand that she was a new mother with a baby she adored—and a scared boyfriend who was doing everything in his power to man up and give her the support she needed.
“Daddy!” A tiny sprite jumped up and down in front of him.
His entire soul smiled, the sadness of memory fading away into the past where it belonged. Because his future was right here in front of him, and she needed a man with a whole heart, a man who understood joy.
Going down on his haunches, he said, “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“It’s me, Esme!”
“I don’t think so.” He rubbed his jaw. “My daughter’s a little girl, and you’re a beautiful young lady.”
She giggled. “I love you!” She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek before running away to join Emmaline and the kids who’d been attracted by the bridal party.
Yeah, he did okay. Even if he was scared all the time about fucking up.
Gut tight, he took a breath… and the scent of a lushly sensual woman bloomed on his tongue, in his blood. A woman whose bare legs were inches from him. Legs covered by smooth brown skin he wanted to stroke until he heard her purr. Thighs he could imagine pressed around his head as he did things with his tongue that might—finally—blunt the sharp edge of hers.
6
The Lady Parts, They’re Misbehavin’
Seeing Esme kiss her dad with such joy had Juliet smiling past the grief of the past. And seeing Jake crouched down that way, his daughter’s tiny hands on his face as she held him in place for her kiss, had her heart doing ridiculous somersaults. All wide shoulders and dark hair with a tendency to curl, his voice playful as he teased his baby girl, he was lethal to Juliet’s lady parts.
They wanted to tingle.
Gritting her teeth, she told said lady parts to calm the heck down. There was to be no tingling whatsoever where Jacob Esera was concerned. Then Jake rose to his feet as the photographer took several photos of Alison and Joseph with the newlyweds and she caught a hint of that manly forest-and-rain-and-sex aftershave of his, and her breasts joined in on the act, seeming to swell inside the cups of her bra.
“All right.” The photographer clapped his hands. “Wedding party!”
Thank God.