“Yeah,” Celia said with a sigh. “That is a little bit of a problem, isn’t it?”
“I love Laura as well,” Jake told her. “I really do, C. In fact ... well, I haven’t told anyone this yet ... but I’ve been kind of pondering the thought of proposing to her once her tour is over with and we’re both back in the same place again.”
Celia’s expression darkened a bit. “Propose huh?” she asked. “You love her that much?”
He nodded. “I love her that much,” he confirmed. “I loved Helen too, but she was right about what she said when she broke up with me. She said that she and I didn’t have anything in common. We didn’t and we don’t, nothing except for our mutual love of flying. Laura is different though. We do have something in common: our love of music and the fact that we’re both musicians. And she’s cute and quirky in a way that Helen never was.”
“She is an incredibly cute and adorable woman,” Celia agreed with clear reluctance. “I like her a lot, Jake. I consider her a friend. That makes all of this even harder.”
“And I consider Greg a friend as well,” Jake said, “although I must say I’m a bit disappointed in him in light of this new information you’ve given me.”
She gave his hand another squeeze and then let go of it. “So ... what is the answer?”
“There is no answer,” Jake said. “We go on with our lives, just like we have been. You deal with this issue with Greg however you’re going to deal with it. I should not even be in the equation at all. Laura will come home and we’ll reunite with each other and, if that spark is still there between us—and I have no reason to believe it won’t be based on our last reunion with each other—I’ll probably ask her to marry me. I have a strong suspicion that she’ll say yes to my proposal. She will probably ask you to be her maid of honor at our wedding.”
Celia nodded slowly as she absorbed this. “It sounds like you’ve got this all planned out.”
“As much as I plan things out ... yes,” Jake said.
Celia chuckled. “She’ll make a beautiful bride. I can just picture her dress now. Are you sure she’ll want me as her maid of honor though? I stand eight inches taller than her.”
Jake laughed. “I’m sure she’ll pick out suitably ugly bridesmaid dresses to offset the vertical difference,” he told her.
“Yeah,” Celia said. “That’s what I would do.” She picked up her wine glass and had another healthy slug of it.
“Are you all done with your cheesecake?” Jake asked.
She nodded.
“Let me clear all of this away and put it out in the hall,” he suggested. “After that, how about an after-dinner drink? They have some cognac in the bar—some of the good shit.”
“All right,” she said. “You grab the dishes. I’ll go pour us some of the good shit.”
Jake policed all the dishes, put them back on the serving tray, covered them back up, and then carried the entire works to the door of the suite and set it outside. When he came back in, Celia had just finished pouring each of them a healthy snifter of cognac. She handed him his snifter and they walked back to the sitting room. She sat down on the couch, her pajama top riding up a bit once again and giving Jake another brief view of her midriff. Jake, without much thought about it, did not sit down in the clawfoot chair. Instead, he sat next to her on the couch.
“To awkward discussions,” he toasted, holding up his glass.
She smiled. “Awkward discussions,” she said, clinking her glass to his. They sipped. The cognac was indeed excellent.
“You’ve heard my plan,” Jake said. “Have you come up with one of your own?”
“Nothing so detailed as yours,” she told him. “I plan to wait and see what happens next. Greg and I won’t be back together again until ... what? ... February at least? That’s about when we’ll be done in Coos Bay and ready to start working on the release. Greg will probably still be working on post-production at that point, but he’ll at least be in LA. Maybe this anger and betrayal I’m feeling right now will have eased up by then. Maybe when I’m actually looking him in the eye and we talk face to face I’ll be able to put this into perspective and forgive him for what he did.”
“Maybe,” Jake allowed.
“It’s the trust issue that I’m the most concerned with. Will I ever be able to trust him again? When he’s out doing promos for his film and running around the country for weeks at a time, am I going to be constantly worried that he’s boning some other puta he meets?”
“You might,” Jake said.
“I might,” she agreed. “And if that’s the case ... well ... I’m not sure I can live like that.”
“You’re going to let time tell then?” Jake asked. “That’s the plan?”
She shrugged. “It’s what I got,” she said.
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I’m not sure what else there is for you to do.”
She gave another sigh and then shot down some of her cognac. She then set the glass down on the table in front of them. She scooted closer to Jake, until her right hip was in contact with his left. She leaned into him, her soft body pushing against his, and leaned her head on his shoulder. Instinctively, he put his left arm around her, pulling her a little closer to him. Though it was a hug of comfort and friendship—at least that was how he was interpreting it currently—he felt that familiar thrill surging through him. She felt really good against him, and she smelled incredible, the smell of shampoo, clean skin, and freshly bathed female.
“Thank you for being here for me, Jake,” she told him, putting her hand down on his knee. “I feel better just being able to talk about this whole mess.”
“I’m always here for you, C,” he assured her, leaning down a bit and kissing the top of her head. Her dark hair was thick and luxuriant and tickled his nose a little.
“And even though it was awkward, I’m glad I was finally able to ... you know ... confess my feelings toward you. That’s another weight off my shoulders, even if there’s nothing we can do about it.”
He nodded, his hand caressing her upper arm gently, feeling the silky material of her pajama sleeve, the exciting femininity of her flesh beneath it. “I’m glad I was able to confess my feelings to you as well. I really do love you, C. We just had bad timing.”
“Yeah ... bad timing,” she said sourly. She then turned her face toward him, her brown eyes looking into his. Her hand came up and gently stroked the side of his face. “Kiss me, Jake,” she whispered.
He took a slow, deep breath, a flurry of conflicting emotions fighting within him. “I’m ... I’m not sure that’s such a good idea right now,” he said softly ... though he did not try to pull away from her.
“Why not?” she asked. “We’ve kissed before.”
“I remember every one of those kisses,” he assured her. “They are among my fondest memories, to tell the complete truth ... but...”
“But what?”
“We were never alone in a hotel suite far from anyone else before,” he said.
“Don’t trust yourself?” she asked lightly. “Or do you not trust me?”
“I have proven myself untrustworthy on many past occasions,” Jake said. “And as for you ... I would trust you to the ends of the earth in pretty much any situation, but this ... this is starting to feel a little volatile.”
“It is,” she whispered. “I notice, however, that you haven’t tried to extricate yourself from this embrace.”
“No,” he said, starting to feel the danger of this situation ramp up. “I haven’t.”
“Just kiss me one time,” Celia asked. “Like you did on the trail behind your parents’ house.”
“Just one time?”
“Just one time,” she said, still stroking his face, her own face coming closer.
“Well ... I guess one kiss won’t hurt anything.”
She smiled—a sexy, teasing smile—and he brought his lips to her, touching against them softly, sweetly. They were full and slightly damp, soft and sensuous. They tasted of strawberry lip gloss and cognac. He felt her gentle exhalation blowing against him. A surge of wanting powered through him at the contact, at the taste and feel of her mouth touching his.