Page 58 of Raging Fires

“Number one: We’re stuck in this for a year, which is a very long time. Number two: this house is really small. Number three: neither one of us likes the idea of the other one cheating, even if it’s not really cheating. Right?” She nodded. “So are the two of us just going to have an intimate relationship with our hands for a year?”

Surprisingly, Kelli began to blush, which was kind of cute. She turned away and made a big production out of flipping the pancakes. “I don’t know, Jake. I don’t spend all my time thinking about sex.”

“Yeah? How about this last month? You haven’t been wound up tight all the time? On edge? Overusing your willpower?”

“Difficult as it is for you to believe it, you’re not that hard to resist.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. Every one of your little rules said one thing: ‘Don’t tempt me.’”

“Tempt me to hit you in the mouth, maybe.”

“Come on, Kelli, we both know it’s true. You feel the heat. You’ve been horny. I’ve been horny. The result was last night. You think it’s not going to happen again?”

“It won’t. Last night was a fluke. An aberration.”

“God, you’re stubborn.”

“I gotta tell you, Jake, insulting me is not a great way to persuade me to sleep with you.”

“I’m not trying to persuade you. I’m just pointing out the clear and reasonable solution to our problem. If you choose to reject it…” He shrugged.

“It’s not reasonable. You know that as well as I do. We’re not married anymore.” He raised his eyebrows, and she said, “I mean, not married married. We’re not together.”

“I don’t see anybody here but us.”

“You know what I mean. It’s not the way it used to be.”

“But that’s the beauty of it.” He nodded toward the skillet. “Those are going to start burning in a second.”

“Oh! Damn it. I forgot.” She whirled back around and dished the pancakes onto the plate Jake helpfully handed her.

They were almost charred on one side and close to uncooked on the other. Good thing he’d eat just about anything if it had enough maple syrup on it. He started eating—yeah, definitely burned. He squeezed out more maple syrup.

Kelli poured in another batch. “You and I don’t get along.”

“I know. That’s what I’m saying. It’ll be just sex. None of that stuff about hurt feelings or anniversaries. It’ll relieve the tension, make things easier. We’ll just be friends… you know, with benefits.”

She slapped the spatula down on the spoon rest and whirled around. “Jake, we’re not friends.”

“Why not? We have a dog. We both like to watch bad horror movies and snark about them. We could do stuff together. Like go to the pool or a party or something. You ever been to one of those rock climbing places? I think you’d like it; I’m sure there must be at least one in Phoenix. I like bouldering but you might prefer the regular kind where you’ve got a harness on. Less risk.”

“Fine,” Kelli said tightly. “That’s dandy. We’ll go climbing. We don’t need to sleep together to do that. And that doesn’t make us friends.”

“We can be.”

“No, Jake. We can’t.” She turned back to the pancakes.

“Why not? You’re friends with good old Toby. How come you can be friends with your high school ex and not me?"

“Toby’s different. He’s sweet and loyal and—”

“Likes a rousing game of fetch?”

“Oh, for—” Kelli turned off the stove with a snap and shoved the skillet off the burner, then whipped around. “I can be friends with Toby because I didn’t love him! Because he didn’t break my heart.”

“Break your heart!” Jake stiffened, old anger suddenly flooding him. “Damn it, you’re the one who left me. I was the one standing there like an idiot, wondering what the hell happened, while you ran off to hide out with my family.”

“Oh, for God’s sake. Are you going to start with that ‘you stole Pops from me’ thing again? You’re acting like a child.”