Page 25 of Raging Fires

She didn’t reply, just walked to the short hallway on the opposite end of the room. The bathroom was the first door down the hall, and the door at the end opened onto a small bedroom, crammed full of her furniture. Her clothes were piled all over the bed. Jake stopped beside her, taking in the scene.

“So... one bedroom, huh?” Jake said.

“Yes. One bedroom.” Kelli wanted to scream with frustration, but she couldn’t with Jake standing right there.

“We are so screwed,” Jake said.

Chapter Thirteen

Kelli slipped past Jake and went into the main room. She shoved aside the lamp lying on the sofa and sat down, bracing her elbows on her knees and resting her head on her hands. What was she going to do? A year with Jake in a house that would have fit in the bedroom of their Miami house. Sharing a bathroom with him. Towels thrown on the floor. His clothes lying all over the place. Stumbling over his boat-size shoes that he invariably took off right in the middle of doorways.

Him running around in shorts and no shirt. Accidentally walking in on him with a towel draped loosely around his hips. Worse, walking in on him naked. Even worse, him walking in on her naked! Kelli groaned. His presence would be everywhere, even when he wasn’t there. His sunglasses carelessly tossed on a table, the smell of his shaving cream and cologne in the bathroom—God, that scent always made her nipples hard and her panties wet.

Jake squatted down beside her and said in gentle voice, “Hey, Kell, we can make this work. It won’t be that bad.”

Kelli lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Why do I even bother?” He moved from his squat to sit on the nearest box. She hoped there wasn’t anything breakable in there. “Look. Let’s be rational about this.”

Kelli refrained from saying that that would be a first. Jake was being normal, at least for the moment, and she should too. “Okay.”

“First, if you want to have the Blue Shack, we’re stuck with this. So why don’t we try to make it as painless as possible? Let’s call a truce. Agree to not argue all the time. Try to get along.”

“All right.” She was still a little suspicious, but he was right. This was going to be hell if they were always at war.

“Okay.” He stood up and began to—well, not pace exactly because there wasn’t a straight path in the room—but he walked around between the boxes, across the room and back. Jake always claimed he thought better on his feet. “Now, we can make some adjustments. It’s obvious that there is no way I can take any of my things out of storage. So, if you have too much stuff to fit here, we can put some of it in there, too. One thing we can put there is that table and chairs.” He pointed to the little breakfast table.

“But then we won’t have any place to eat,” Kelli protested.

“We can eat over at the Blue. Nobody’s there at breakfast or lunch.”

“That’s true. I could put some of our food over there. And we could eat something off the menu for supper.”

“Or cook here and sit on the couch to eat. I’ll get you one of those tray things.”

Kelli smiled faintly. What was it with him and buying stuff? “You don’t need to do that. I can handle eating with my plate on my lap sometimes.”

“See how we can get along?” Jake grinned and went to the dining alcove, sweeping his arm toward it in a ta-da! manner. “So, I’ll make that my bedroom.”

“Really?” Kelli couldn’t deny the rush of relief. She couldn’t see him sleeping on the couch, but she couldn’t take sleeping in the same bed with him, either. If he was anything like he used to be, he slept in the nude. A shiver ran through her just at the thought. He’d be really hard to ignore in the mornings. And here she was already making unwitting sex puns in her head. Kelli walked over to join him at the doorway and looked into the little room doubtfully. “You think a bed will even fit in here?”

“Sure. They make long twins. As long as a king.”

“Okay.” She had her doubts, remembering the way he used to sprawl on the bed in his sleep, his long muscled naked body spread out across the sheets like a sensual smorgasbord, all hers to nibble on. Kelli squeezed her legs together at the memory. She was not going to let her mind continue to go down that road.

“And a twin will leave room next to it to put a nightstand and a chest of drawers.”

“You won’t be able to open the drawers,” Kelli pointed out. “They’ll hit the bed.

“Only the bottom ones. I have one of those tall mothers, and that gives me three or four big drawers.”

“It’ll be top-heavy.”

“Good news is, the room’s so narrow it’ll hit the wall, so it won’t squash me.”

Kelli smiled. “Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.”

“Yep, that’s me. Mr. Optimism.”