Page 23 of Raging Fires

“That’s why I pinched you,” Kelli shot back.

“Too late. I’d already asked the question. Anyway, I figured you were just pissed off at me about something. I didn’t know you did it because he was boring.”

“I was pissed off at you. For asking the question.”

“The guy has it bad for you,” Jake said.

“He does not.”

Jake snorted. “Get serious. ‘I can paint your posts,’” he mimicked in a falsetto voice. “Come to think of it, that sounds kind of dirty, too.”

“Oh, please. Everything sounds dirty to you.”

“And how come he thinks he can call you Kell?” Jake continued.

“Um, because it’s my name?” Kelli pulled her sunglasses down her nose a little to send him a ‘duh’ look.

“Kelli is your name. Kell’s different. It implies intimacy.”

“Good grief. Now you’re going to act jealous? You don’t have the right to be jealous.”

Jake pointed to the diamond solitaire on her left hand.

Kelli twisted the ring around until the diamond was hidden. “We’re not really married.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “About that. . .”

Chapter Twelve

Kelli’s eyes narrowed. She knew that look on Jake’s face. “What? What about that?”

“Gran says I have to move in here, too.”

“What?” Her shriek was so high-pitched a nearby dog began to bark. Jake began to repeat himself, and Kelli held up her hand to stop him. “No. I understood what you said. I meant ‘what’ as in: you are out of your mind if you think I’m going to live in that... that hobbit hole with you!”

“Yeah? Then you’d better tell Gran that,” Jake shot back. “Because she is dead set on it. She says it voids the trust or something if it’s only one of us. She says we won’t get the Blue Shack if we don’t. And...” He held up a hand, a little smirk hanging at one corner of his mouth. “Before you ask, the way they’ll know is because Gran, my sweet old grandmother, your beloved grandmother-in-law, is going to rat us out. And don’t think you can fool her. She has spies everywhere. She knew we were making out last night during the dance. By the way, you ought to be careful what you do around Tiny; Gran owns him.”

“We were not making out,” Kelli retorted, a blush rising up her neck. Why, oh, why had she kissed him last night? Why had she danced with him? She’d known better. “It was one kiss.”

Jake snorted. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She planted her fists on her hips.

“It means,” Jake said in that obnoxious way of his, sticking his hands in his jeans pockets and leaning forward. “It was multiple kisses. It was you plastered to me like a second skin. It was my hand on your ass, and your hand under my shirt, and don’t tell me you weren’t ready to hit the sheets right there.”

Kelli made a strangled noise. “You are so disgusting. I was drunk.”

“Not that drunk. You forget. I know what you’re like when you’re hot for—”

“Stop it!” Kelli jumped at him, frustration and anger exploding in her. She’d had a ferocious headache all morning, then Jake had to come over and tell her that the next year was going to be ten times worse than the already awful one she’d envisioned. And now he was going to torment her with her foolish behavior.

She planted both hands on his chest and pushed him. But of course he didn’t move because he was rock solid and probably had at least a hundred pounds on her. Which made her even more infuriated. And he had that stupid, cocky grin on his face. “You’re an awful, horrible, pitiful excuse for a human being.” Kelli banged her fist against his chest.

Or, rather, she tried to, because Jake skated aside, and she missed. She lunged toward him, and he took off. Jake ran around the parking lot, cackling, with her on his heels. He dodged and ducked and turned to jog backwards so he could laugh at her. Kelli knew that he was so much faster than her that he was barely trying, just taunting her. That, too, was completely maddening.

Only somewhere along the way, as they circled his car, she started laughing, too. It was actually kind of fun to blow off some steam even if Jake was the most annoying person in the universe. She was getting a stitch in her side, though, and she put her hand on her waist, slowing down. “Stop! I give up.”

Jake started to slow down, too, still going in reverse, and his back foot landed on a patch of gravel. His foot went flying out from under him, and he fell backwards.