Monday following the Fall Fest, I was on edge as I settled into my office, and it took me a few minutes to realize that I was nervous to see Jake. Something changed yesterday; perhaps it was in the works for a while and I just didn't realize it. Or maybe we just connected in a way we hadn’t before. He was far more relaxed, more open with me, than he’d been since we met. I could easily say being around his kids humanized him. There was no Captain Stuffed Shirt in sight when his kids were around, just a dad who clearly wanted the best for his children.
But even I knew it was more than that.
I’d done my best to keep him out of my head and at arm's length since he started, but now I questioned if that was really what I wanted. He clearly didn’t have it out for me the way I’d first thought. He’d made that abundantly clear by trying to find middle ground between me and my dad instead of just barking orders like I’d expected. Granted, I’d kept my distance mainly because I knew Dad would disapprove of me being involved with someone that I worked closely with.
And when he almost kissed me yesterday… heat rushed to my cheeks just remembering it. The intensity that made my breath catch in my throat was back. Even though it would have been a disaster if my dad got wind I was making out with Jake in the middle of the festival. In that moment I sincerely didn’t care.
I wanted him.
On the plus side, we wouldn’t be working closely for too long. Dad already told me he intended to place Jake under James in the Mountain Ops side of the house after he was done ‘coaching’ me. I was happy the plan to introduce Jake to James at Fall Fest had worked out so smoothly. It never hurts to know more people, and with the two of them being single dads, it couldn't hurt to have each other to lean on.
And that gamble had swiftly paid off—I caught them exchanging numbers before the party broke up yesterday. Hopefully sooner rather than later Jake would work in a different building, and us being involved would no longer be a problem. So, fair to say the potential conflict of us being the same part of the business and in a relationship was moot.
As if summoned by my thoughts alone, Jake ducked his head into my office. He had finally dispensed with his habit of knocking and standing in the hallway, waiting for permission to enter. Instead, he grinned and walked in after only a slight hesitation. I couldn’t help but notice how well the Aspen Ridge polo hugged his wide shoulders and clung just slightly to his muscular chest. Honestly, he put everyone but a few of the groundskeepers to shame in terms of physique, and those guys worked outside all day.
I shoved down the flutter of heat that tickled my chest and smiled in greeting. “Long time no see. Did you have a good night?”
“Oh yeah,” Jake laughed, taking his seat. “Ethan passed out before we even got off the property, and they were both asleep by the time we reached my parents’ for dinner. They scarfed down some food, and then it was all I could do to keep them awake long enough for a shower. Slept like the dead.”
Jake’s cologne wafted its way over to my seat, and I resisted the urge to close my eyes and breathe him in deeply.
“I’m no expert, but I’d consider that a successful day.”
“Definitely. Thanks again for suggesting we go. I probably would have skipped it otherwise. And thanks for introducing me to James. Olivia has basically adopted Ava, and I’m pretty sure Liam has taken my place as Ethan’s hero.”
“Nah, no one can replace a boy’s dad as his hero, I’m sure.”
“You’d be surprised. Liam knows way more about Spiderman than I do, so that’s probably the basis of it. Regardless, James and I plan to get the kids together again soon, and I have you to thank for it.”
“Not a problem at all, but you’re welcome all the same. It’s hard for kids with single parents. They always think they’re missing out on something. So knowing other kids who are in the same boat helps them to feel more normal.”
“Ellie Tremont with the kid wisdom strikes again,” he grinned, and a flush of pleasure spread across my cheeks.
Jake continued. “Did everything go as expected?”
“No issues. We know what we're doing now, so it’s a pretty smooth process.” I shuffled a few papers on my desk to tear my gaze away from his face.
He settled further back into his chair, throwing one arm across the high back and crossing a leg over his knee. “Okay. So, when’s the next event?”
I gave him a mock-appraising look to avoid ogling. “Already looking forward to the next one, huh? I thought my little projects were all ‘good idea fairy’ nonsense.”
He seemed genuinely upset. “Hey, I didn’t say that. It’s more-”
“Jake, I’m just teasing you.”
A knowing grin curled his lips, and his tone turned flirtatious again. “Oh, I see how it is. Alright then, I see you Ellie Tremont. So, what’s next?”
I clicked on the calendar on my computer. “Well, now we prepare for the fall leaf-peepers. We’re already booked over 60% for the two weekends in October we expect to hit peak color, and it’ll be closer to ninety by the time we get there. After that, it’s a quick break before the season starts Thanksgiving weekend.”
“And that’s like, the super bowl around here, right?”
“If the super bowl lasted for five months.”
“Okay, so perhaps not the super bowl.”
I tried to join in his sports analogy. “I’d say it’s like March Madness for a month, and then the super bowl for the two weeks around Christmas and New Year. Then every three-day or holiday weekend is another mini super bowl after that, with just mid-season craziness in-between.”
Jake ducked his chin and regarded me with warm brown eyes. “So, a five month-long super bowl.”
It wasn’t far from the truth. “I guess, yeah.”
“So how can I help?”
“Help with what?”
He shrugged. “Whatever you need help with. We’re already working on JJ’s requirements, and I still check in with him to see if there’s anything he wants to add. But to be honest, he seems pretty happy with how things are going so far. So, if there are things you need help with, there’s no time like the present for me to learn.”
“Okay.” I thought about it for a moment. “We’re going to be doing an eighties movie trivia night Friday, if you want to help with that?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Wait a minute. Did you bring that up because you think I’m old?”
The laugh burst from my lips. “You’re really sensitive about the age thing, huh? It’s nothing personal. We’ve talked about eighties movies a couple times and I thought it would be something you’d have fun with.”
Jake grinned, clearly not offended. “Fair enough. I do like eighties movies.”
“Me too.”
“Aren’t you a little young? I barely remember the eighties and you’re like a decade younger than me.”
“Six years,” I reminded him with a sniff. “I watched them with my mom a lot when I was younger. She loved them, showed me all the classics. Whenever I had a sick day from school, or the weather was crappy, we’d hole up on the couch and watch her favorites.”
Jake’s eyes were wide, a smile curling his lips. “Me too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, my mom was obsessed. I think it comes from being a military wife. She was alone a lot while my dad was working—she was a stay-at-home mom—so she watched a lot of movies. And when I came along, we watched them together. Dirty Dancing was one of her favorites. That’s why I thought of it… you know, that night.” Color spread over his cheeks, and his gaze dropped to the floor.
My heart picked up speed, heat rushing to my face at the reminder of the night we met. I spoke quickly to get past the pregnant moment. “My mom’s favorite was Dirty Dancing, too. She always admired Baby, how she was such a rebel. An independent woman.”
Jake’s head tilted to the side, and his eyes narrowed in thought. Unfortunately, there was no angle where he didn’t look absolutely delicious. “Mmm, would we call Baby a rebel? I think she was more of a hormonal teenager.”
“Hey now, watch yourself. Baby was definitely a rebel. First she was planning to join the Peace Corps, which, let’s be honest—that’s already rebel territory for a woman in the fifties. Then she started hooking up with the biggest hunk on campus, who was from the other side of the tracks. It’s like Romeo and Juliet, with less death and whining.”
Jake chuckled. “Fair enough. I suppose for the era it was pretty rebellious. What other movies did your mom like?”
“Big Business, Baby Boom, Nine to Five… she loved how they portrayed career women in the eighties.”
“That’s… oddly specific. Any reason why?”
The familiar ache that clutched my heart when I thought of Mom pushed all of my attraction to Jake aside. “Well, my mom gave up her own career goals to stay here and marry my dad. She went to school, planning to move to New York and live in a penthouse overlooking Central Park. She studied finance, wanted to work for a big bank and live a fancy city life. But she fell in love with my dad at college and moved here to help him run his family business instead. She worked for the resort for a while, but once she had my brother, she stayed home to be a full-time mom. Which was awesome, and she said she loved it…”
After waiting a moment, Jake interjected gently, “But?”
“She died of cancer a few years back. And one night when she was feeling particularly poorly, she had a fit of remorse-fueled-honesty, I guess you could call it. I was the only one home, and we were watching her movies, just hanging out. She started telling me all these things she needed to get off her chest. One of them was that she wished she’d still pursued her dream and gone to New York.”
Jake’s voice dropped an octave. “Wow, that must have been hard to hear. I’m sorry, by the way. That she’s passed.”
I waved him off. “It’s okay. We knew it was coming. She insisted she loved Dad and wouldn’t trade her life for the world, but she said she believed that she could have had both—had her career, and the love of her life. She regretted choosing just one.”
“How did you feel, hearing that?”
The pain clenched again, and I answered honestly instead of giving him a trite answer. “I mean, I kind of blew it off at the time—she was on a lot of medication. But those words stuck with me. It’s hard to explain; she didn’t say it in such a way like she regretted being a mother or any of the choices she made. She just kind of made it sound like… she thought she could have had her big city life and then come here when she was ready to settle down. My parents didn’t have James until their late thirties, so they had over a decade after college with just work and being young. I guess she thought she could have done something else with that time.”
“She wanted to have it all, huh?” Jake’s expression darkened even though his tone was light. His eyes focused off to the side, as if lost in thought.
“Yeah, something like that, I guess. Anyway,” I added more loudly, and his focus snapped back to me, “the trivia night isn’t a monumental event, but it’s a good time. We host it in the bar at Seasons, and mainly what needs to be done is making the questions I pulled off the internet into slides.”
“I think I can handle that. You should know, I earned a specialty badge as a PowerPoint Ranger.”
Now I regarded him skeptically. “That’s not actually a thing, is it?” I never knew when he was talking about actual military stuff or their inside jokes.
Jake’s head rocked back, and he released the warm, genuine laugh that made my insides gooey. “No, it’s not. But you know how it is: we’re in the military, we have to make everything sound cool.”
“I dunno, Mister Ranger Sir, that sounds like an old person thing. I don’t think anyone under sixty-five calls it PowerPoint. But do it your way. I’ll email you the questions, just put the answers on the slide immediately following. The trivia night is next Friday, if you want to come.”
“Sweet, I have a feeling I’m going to win.” He stood from the chair and locked me in that gaze that stole my breath away.
My stomach fluttered, and I struggled to keep up the flirtatious tone. “Funny… but you know you don’t get to play, right? You’re already disqualified for being so old, let alone already having the answers.”
“Ouch, you wound me!” He turned and headed out the door with a wink. When he reached the hall, he spun and stuck his head back inside. “But just so you know, I would have won without all the answers.”
With one final wink he left, and it took me the rest of the morning to drag my thoughts away from how his eyes twinkled when he did that.
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