Jake got a lick of his own before he answered Branna’s question.
“You liked peanut butter in school.”
She was disconcerted by his remembering her ice cream preference. Jake saw it in the way she dropped her eyes. They climbed back into Geraldine, and he fired her up. Then he took a few seconds to savor the sound of the engine.
“You and Macy have a nice little reunion before I arrived?”
“Let’s just say we came to an understanding we never reached in school, although she didn’t make a scene at my refusal, just made me feel like a cad for not accepting.”
He snorted as she looked at the retreating back of Macy Reynolds. “Cad?”
“Sorry for using a word the stretches your vocabulary. Shall I say heel?”
“Always the wiseass, O’Donnell,” Jake muttered, backing Geraldine out of the parking spot.
“You can’t eat and drive.” Her protest was muffled, as she was licking her ice cream. The sight of her pink tongue wrapped around the cone made Jake shift in his seat. The woman was already sexy enough without watching that mouth do what it was.
“Sure, I can, and if I get stuck, you can change the gears. I thought we should probably get the truant in the back out of town before anyone sees him,” Jake added.
Her super-sized brain hadn’t thought of that, so he headed Geraldine back the way they’d come.
Jake had stewed on how he’d treated Branna. It wasn’t her fault he was an asshole these days, nor was she the reason he’d changed, and he’d treated her unfairly. The man he’d become wasn’t so far from the one his parents had raised that he couldn’t feel shame for his behavior, so he’d decided an apology was necessary, and it had nothing to do with the fact that she occupied far too many of his thoughts.
So, he’d climbed into his pickup and driven to her house. Jake had seen the door open to the shed when he’d arrived. As he’d approached the Mustang, he’d picked up on the fact that both Mikey and Branna had been crying and looked like two lost kids who needed a hug. The heart he’d thought was now cold and slowly dying had kicked into gear. He’d wanted to pick them both up and sit with them in his arms until he drove the worry and sadness from their eyes, which, if he’d been honest, had scared the shit out of him, but a small part of him had relished the warmth that had filled his chest.
She got to him, always had, and now that he was older, it was worse. She’d always put up so many barricades, it was a wonder anyone could get through them. Annabelle, Jake knew, had always been able to, but not him. She’d always kept him at a distance. He was like that now too; he didn’t let people in, wanted to be left alone to brood, but seeing that in another person made Jake wonder about the man he’d become. A man filled with anger for something that he’d had no power to change.
She took another swipe at her ice cream, and he nearly groaned as heat filled his body. She was turned toward him, her long legs curled on the seat as she talked to Mikey about something. He wanted to stroke them, run his hands over the smooth skin and under the edge of her shorts. Instead, he ate and drove, listening to Branna question the boy. He felt at peace, which was something that had been in short supply lately, and again should scare him spitless.
“Can you spell pococurante, Branna?”
“Pfffft, give me something hard,” she said, spelling the word. “Pococurante, meaning indifferent, nonchalant.”
“Laodicean,” she fired back at Mikey, and as Jake didn’t know what the word even meant, he kept eating and thinking. What had happened in her life since they’d last met? Were there lovers, boyfriends? Where was her father?
“Laodicean,” Mikey spelled the word slowly. “But I don’t know the meaning,” he added.
“It means indifferent in religion or politics,” Branna said.
Jake was pretty smart himself. You didn’t go through as many years as he had studying medicine, then his army training for the medical corps, and not know how to handle a textbook, but these two were out of his realm. He could hear the excitement in the boy’s voice as Branna questioned him, switching from math to English. Jake would have liked a few science questions, possibly could have held his own then, but it didn’t seem to be on the agenda.
The lake appeared again as he reached the end of Branna’s road and swung onto his own. Pulling the Mustang onto the grass under a tree, Jake wondered if she knew that they were neighbors.
“Ha, I got you there, Branna,” Mikey crowed.
“So did not,” she teased as they all got out of the car. “Three-fifths, plus one-fifth, plus four-fifths, equals one and three-fifths.”
Mikey’s face screwed up as he thought through what she’d said. “Okay, maybe you’re right.”
“I know I’m right.” The boy got out of the car and swaggered around in front of Branna, making her laugh again. He then ate the last of his cone in one mouthful. “I have to go now. I need to get home before Gran starts to worry.” Before either of them could say anything, he’d run away, his thin legs flying as he headed back up the road toward Branna’s house.
“Bye,” Branna called, but the boy didn’t stop.
Jake moved to the edge of the bank and sat on the warm grass. Branna, however, kept her distance, still standing a few feet away.
“I’ll be doing the same now, McBride. I have things to do.”
“It’s your car, Branna, seems odd that’d you walk home when I’ll be driving that way myself.” Tipping his head back, he watched her frown.
