Nora Roberts - Times Change

“Oh, I just love brainy men.”

Amused, Jacob picked up the beer the waitress set in front of him. He caught the look Sunny shot across the table. He recognized it. Jealousy, it appeared, was contagious. Nothing could have pleased him more. He took a long swig and tolerated the smoke the brunette blew in his direction. It was no use telling her that she was endangering her very attractively packaged lungs.

“Do you?”

She kept her eyes on his as she slowly crushed out the cigarette. “Oh, yes. I’m very attracted to intelligence.”

“Let’s dance.” Sunny shoved back her chair and snagged Jacob’s sleeve. “Nice try, Sheila,” she muttered, and dragged Jacob onto the dance floor.

“Is that her name? Sheila?”

She turned to him, into him, and tilted her chin upward. “Who wants to know?”

“Don’t you want me to be nice to your friends?” He settled his hands on her hips. With her heels, her eyes were level with his. And her body fit his perfectly.

“No.” Her mouth moved into a pout as she twined her arms around his neck. “At least not the stacked ones.”

Curious, he looked back at the table. “Is she stacked?”

“As if you didn’t notice. Unfortunately, her I.Q. measures the same as her bustline.”

“I like your . . . I.Q. better.”

“Good thinking.” Grinning, she brushed a kiss over his mouth. “I can’t blame her for giving it her best shot. You’re awfully cute.”

“Small dogs are cute,” he muttered. “Babies are cute.”

“You like babies.”

“Yes, why not?”

She toyed with the ends of his hair. “Just checking. Anyway, you are cute. And sexy.” She took a playful nip at his bottom lip. “And brainy.” She settled her cheek against his as he drew her closer. And mine, she thought. All mine. “What does the T stand for?” she murmured.

“Which T ?”

“In J.T.”

“Nothing.”

“It has to stand for something.” She let out a sound of pleasure, “You dance very well.” The sax was playing again, crying the blues this time. Sunny’s eyes dipped closed as Jacob molded her against him. They were hardly moving in the press of bodies surrounding them. As his hands roamed over her back and his lips down her throat she didn’t care if they ever moved again.

Her thighs brushed against his. The leather fitted her like a second skin, one he was already imagining peeling away from her. As he turned her in his arms, slowly, sinuously, he shifted to taste the bare flesh of her shoulder. Even over the echoing music he could hear her skin humming. Lazily he trailed his lips back to toy with hers.

“You smell incredible. Like spring in the desert, hot, with some lingering trace of flowers gone wild.”

Unable to resist, she deepened the kiss until her head swam. “J.T.?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not sure, but I think we could get arrested for this.”

“It would be worth it.”

She opened her eyes, met his. “Let’s go home. I don’t like crowds the way I used to.”

***

They stayed a week, so that she could drag him to movies, malls, more clubs. She attributed his constant fascination to the fact that he’d never been in the Northwest before. Each time they went out, it was as though he were seeing things for the first time. Because of that, she enjoyed the hours and the errands more than she ever had.

When they were alone, when she trembled in his arms, she realized that it didn’t matter where they were. They were together. And if with each passing moment she fell more deeply in love, she did so freely and with absolute joy.

For the first time in her life she began to think of a future with a man, one man. She imagined passing through the years with him—not always content, but always satisfied. She thought of a home, and if white picket fences and car pools didn’t enter the fantasy, children did. She could picture the arguments, the noise and the laughter.

Before much longer, she thought, they would talk about it. They would plan.

He allowed himself the week. A handful of days meant so little in the vastness of time. And meant so much to him. He recorded everything he could, and branded the rest on his memory. He didn’t mean to forget, not an instant.

Yet he worried about how he could tell her where he had to travel when he left her so that it would hurt the least. More, he worried because he was no longer sure he had the courage to live without her.

When they left to go back to the cabin he told himself that it was the beginning of the end. If it had to end—and he saw no alternative—it would end honestly. He would tell her everything.

“You’re so quiet,” she said as they turned up the long, bumpy road that led to the cabin.

“I was thinking.”

“Well, that’s fine, but you haven’t picked one fight in five hours. I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t want to fight with you.”

“Now I’m really worried.” She’d known that something was on his mind, something that caused her palms to sweat. Deliberately she made her voice light and cheerful. “We’ll be back in a few minutes. Once you’re trapped inside the cabin, hauling wood and eating out of a can, you’ll be your old cranky self.”

“Sunny, we have to talk.”

She moistened her lips. “All right.” Her nerves began to hum as she stopped the car in front of the cabin. “Before or after we unload?”

“Now.” It had to be now. He took her hand and said the first words that came to mind. “I love you so much.”

The little fist of fear in her stomach unclenched. “We’re never going to fight if you keep talking like that.” She shifted closer to kiss his cheek. It was then that she noticed the smoke pumping out of the chimney. “Jacob, someone’s here.”

“What?”

“In the cabin.” She saw the front door open. “Libby!” With a laugh, she shoved the car door open and bounded out. “Libby, you scared me to death.” As Jacob watched, she threw her arms around a slim brunette. “Look at you! You’re so tanned!”

“There’s a lot of sun in Bora Bora.” Libby kissed her sister’s cheeks. “When we got back last night we thought you’d skipped out on us.”

“Just a quick trip into the real world to recharge.”

Libby’s laugh was smooth and easy. She knew her sister very well. “That’s what I told Cal. All your books were still here.” Suddenly she gripped both of Sunny’s hands. “Oh, Sunny, I’m so glad you’re back. I can’t wait to tell you. I—” A movement caught her eye. Glancing over, she saw Jacob as he climbed out of the Land Rover. As their eyes met, her half smile of greeting faded and her fingers tightened on Sunny’s.

“What? What is it? Oh.” Smiling, Sunny turned. “Guess who dropped in? This is Jacob, Cal’s brother.”

“I know.” Libby felt as though the ground had vanished from under her feet. She’d seen his face before, in the picture Cal had kept on his ship. But this was no picture. It was a flesh-and-blood man, a furious one. As they stared at each other in silence, the blood seeped slowly out of her face.

He’s come for Cal, she thought, and had to bite back the scream of protest that rose into her throat.

She’s terrified, he realized. Something moved inside him that he stubbornly ignored. He wouldn’t feel for her. He wouldn’t think of her as anything but the obstacle preventing his brother from returning home.

“J.T.?” Instinctively Sunny put a protective arm around Libby’s shoulders. There was something here, she realized. And she was the only one not in on the secret. “Libby, you’re shivering. You shouldn’t be standing out here without a coat. Let’s go inside.” She tossed a look back over her shoulder. “Let’s all go inside.”