Love Finds a Home (11 page)

She poured a cup of coffee—in a travel cup, Jake noticed—and handed it to him. “None of us has been able to get close to her. You’re the first person to get your foot in the door, so to speak.”

“If I show up with that dog, Emma is going to slam the door in my face,” Jake muttered.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Jake was spared further comment when his radio crackled. “Excuse me.”

“No problem.” Kate flashed an impish smile before flouncing back to the kitchen.

“Chief?” Steve Patterson’s voice came over the radio. “Emma Barlow called the department about twenty minutes ago. I told her that you’d checked out for the day, but Mayor Dodd noticed your car parked in front of the café.”

“Emma called?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kate smile.

“She asked to talk to you, but she didn’t say why she was calling.”

Jake ignored the blatant curiosity he heard in the officer’s voice. “I appreciate you letting me know.”

The only problem was, Jake thought as he slid the radio back into the leather holster on his belt, everyone else at the department would know, too. If they didn’t already.

Kate’s head popped up in the pass-through window between the kitchen and the old-fashioned soda fountain. “The library closed ten minutes ago. You could probably catch Emma at home. The home that happens to be located on a dead-end road.”

“I know where Emma lives,” Jake said drily. “But thanks.”

“Helping local law enforcement is my civic duty,” Kate intoned.

Jake waited until he was outside before he rolled his eyes at the sky.

Tag-teaming again, Lord?

He slid into the driver’s seat and turned on the radio to drown out the ruckus in the backseat.

“Take it easy, back there.” Jake tried to sound soothing in order to stop the howling but the only thing he managed to do was turn up the volume.

Who was he kidding? Emma would never agree to take the dog in. But she
had
called the department and asked to talk to him. Had Emma changed her mind because he’d crossed a line? Upset the delicate balance of her life, as Kate would say.

At least that evened things out between them.

Emma Barlow upset the delicate balance of
his
life, too.

Call him a glutton for punishment, but Jake turned off on Stony Ridge Road anyway.

He parked the car in front of the house but instead of going up to the door, he followed the soft strains of jazz music to the stone silo near the barn, thinking that Jeremy might be playing inside. “Jeremy?”

No answer.

Jake ducked his head and slipped through the narrow doorway. He was about to call out the boy’s name again when he heard the sound of glass breaking.

All his instincts kicked into gear as he lunged through another doorway into a small room attached to the silo. Jake stopped short as a glass missile hurtled toward the wall and broke into a rainbow of colorful fragments.

It wasn’t Jeremy that he’d found. It was Emma. Streaks of gray cement covered her bare arms and the faded denim overalls she wore. It looked as if she’d been playing in the mud. Sunlight streamed through the windows, sparking off the gold threads in her hair.

“In another situation, this could qualify as disorderly conduct, you know.”

Emma whirled around at the sound of his voice.

“What are you doing here?” she gasped.

Jake sauntered over to the radio and stabbed the tip of his finger against the power button. “One of the officers said you called.”

“Yes, but I didn’t dial 911,” Emma said tartly.

Jake laughed, not put off by her response. She looked too adorably rumpled to intimidate him. “I was on my way home and decided to swing by in person.” He made a quick scan of the room as he spoke. An old wooden table, filled with baskets of broken glass and pottery, was centered along one wall. A pyramid of plastic buckets
rose from a pallet in the corner. What the room lacked in space it made up for in natural light. A wall made up of tiny windows captured the sun like a prism.

“Is this your studio?”

“Nothing quite so lofty.” Emma shook her head, the movement setting her ponytail into motion. “Like I keep telling Abby Porter, this is a hobby.”

“Well, you’re good at it.” Jake studied the piece she had been working on. The top of a small, rather ordinary-looking table had been transformed with pieces of glass and colorful stone. At first glance, they seemed to be set into place with no particular thought or pattern. Jake looked more closely.

“It’s the lake.”

Emma stared at him in disbelief. “There’s no blue in it.”

“There doesn’t have to be,” Jake pointed out. “Water isn’t always blue.”

Without responding, Emma bent down and began to collect pieces of broken glass, the set of her shoulders an indication that Jake was once again guilty of trespassing. “You didn’t have to drive over here,” she finally said.

“I was on the way home. Your place isn’t out of the way.” Jake knelt down to help and the scent of straw berry shampoo teased his senses. “Did you need something?”

Yes, Emma thought. I need you to leave me alone.

Which didn’t make sense, especially considering the fact that she was the one who’d contacted him.
By phone.
She hadn’t expected Jake to stop by the house to talk to her in person. Or catch her in the middle of taking out her frustration on a box of innocent cups and saucers!

No one but Jeremy had ever seen her working on a mosaic. Not even Abby, who’d asked if some of her guests would be welcome to watch Emma work. Her response had been a polite but firm
no.

Jake Sutton, as usual, hadn’t waited for an invitation. He didn’t hesitate to intrude upon the private areas of her life—and her heart.

Emma tried to resurrect some of the anger she’d felt after her conversation with Jeremy. “It’s about this…raft contest,” she sputtered, rattled by his closeness.

“Jeremy is pretty excited about it.” Jake shifted his weight, bringing them close enough for Emma to see delicate flecks of gold leaf embedded in the amber depths of his eyes.

Concentrate, Emma!

“I’m sorry.” He blew out a sigh. “I did warn you that this is all new to me. If you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you want Jeremy to compete in the race? I asked around today and a lot of boys his age sign up.” But not
my
boy, Emma wanted to protest.

“He’s never even watched the events, let alone asked to participate in one of them,” she said instead. “I don’t understand this sudden interest in something he never seemed to care about before.”

A heartbeat of silence stretched between them. “He’s been interested, Emma, but he never pushed the issue because he thought
you
wouldn’t want to.”

“How can you say that?” Emma surged to her feet, her tone accusing.

Jake raked a hand through his hair. “
I
didn’t say it. Jeremy did.”

Emma didn’t know if she believed him. But maybe it was because she didn’t
want
to believe him. “But I’ve
never told Jeremy that I didn’t want to go to Reflection Days. Why would he say that?”

“Maybe because Jeremy is as protective of you as you are of him.”

The quiet response splintered what remained of Emma’s composure.

Jake must have misunderstood. If Jeremy had wanted to go to the Reflection Days celebration, he would have said something to her. Besides that, she had never come out and said they couldn’t go. She just hadn’t…encouraged it. And Jeremy hadn’t seemed interested. She
knew
her son. She was sensitive to his personality. His interests. Jeremy was an introvert, similar in temperament to her, so when it came to extracurricular activities or social situations, Emma hadn’t forced him out of his comfort zone.

Because it would have forced you out of yours, too?

Emma closed her eyes, blindsided by the realization that Jake’s interpretation of the situation could be right.

All this time, she’d thought that she was being sensitive to what Jeremy wanted, but Jake claimed that her son had been doing the same thing.

Taking care of her, protecting her, was a burden that Emma had never wanted to put on Jeremy’s shoulders.

But apparently, Emma thought with a stab of pain, Jeremy had placed it on himself.

“Excuse me.” She walked past Jake and stumbled out of the building into the sunshine.

That went well.

Jake took a moment to mentally beat himself up for the clumsy way he’d handled things.

If only he’d had a clue that Emma’s concern about the raft race had prompted her phone call. Jeremy had been so pumped up about the upcoming Reflection Days celebration, Jake should have known he would mention it to his mother.

It might have helped if you would have mentioned it, too,
Jake silently berated himself.

The night before, while he and Jeremy had been fishing off Abby’s dock, a boat had skimmed past. Mayor Dodd and two other members of the city council had been on it. The mayor had waved a bright yellow flag and jovially explained it was time to put it in the water and mark the halfway point for the raft race.

Noticing the way Jeremy’s attention continued to stray from the bobber floating in the lily pads to the yellow flag flapping on a buoy offshore, Jake had asked if he participated in any of the events held during Reflection Days.

Making conversation, that’s all he’d been guilty of. He hadn’t expected Jeremy to say he’d never even
attended
the celebration that had become an annual tradition in Mirror Lake.

It hadn’t taken Jake long to discover that Jeremy was in a tough spot, torn between not wanting to upset his mother and yet wanting to compete in some of the events.

He hadn’t expected Jeremy to put him in a tough spot, too.

The boy had asked if Jake had ever been afraid to do something. When Jake admitted that he had, Jeremy asked if being afraid should stop a person from doing something.

Naturally, Jake had said no. More times than he
could count, he’d faced dangerous situations in his line of work.

Jeremy’s thoughtful nod had made Jake feel as if he were getting the hang of this mentoring thing. Until Jeremy’s next question had blindsided him.

“Then can we enter the raft race together?”

Saying yes had brought an immediate smile to Jeremy’s face. Jake should have known that Emma would have a different reaction to the news.

Once again, he was going to have to convince her to trust him. If he could catch up to her. Emma was probably already in the house by now…

He strode outside and found her rooted in place, her gaze fixed on a point farther up the driveway.

She glanced at him, confusion replacing the pain he’d seen in her eyes a few moments ago.

“Is your car moving?”

Chapter Twelve

J
ake had forgotten about the dog.

How
could he have forgotten about the dog?

At the moment, however, he was thankful for any distraction that had erased the stricken look from Emma’s eyes.

“Yes, it is, but I’d keep my distance if I were you.”

Emma ignored the warning and quickened her pace, forcing Jake to increase his stride to keep up with her.

“What is it?”

“Mrs. Peake’s tomato-eating raccoon.”

Now
she stopped. “You put a raccoon in the
backseat?
”

“I couldn’t exactly put it in the trunk. As tempting as that was,” Jake added darkly. “Don’t get too close—”

Emma reached the car and bent down to peer inside the window. A furry body slammed against the glass.

She jumped backward, almost toppling Jake over. A pink tongue swiped the window in the exact spot her face had been.

“I know you’re from the city,” Emma said cautiously. “But that isn’t a raccoon, Jake. It’s a
dog.
”

“Tell that to Mrs. Peake.” Jake shook his head. “She
ordered a live trap for ‘troublesome wild animals’ and she’s convinced that’s exactly what she caught.”

The dog, in a blatant attempt to cultivate sympathy, began to whine. A thin, pitiful sound that had Emma stepping up to the window again. “It looks like a Lab mix.”

“And sounds like it swallowed a siren.” Jake winced. “I’ve been listening to that all day. I tried to bribe him with food, biscuits, a rawhide chew and a rubber ball but no deal.”

“Do you know who he belongs to?”

“No idea or he’d be back home, safe and sound, by now. No one has reported a missing dog and this guy has been on the loose for over a week. He’s either lost or abandoned.” Jake had a hunch it was the second. He tapped on the glass but the mournful wail continued.

Emma pushed her fingers through the opening Jake had left in the window and fondled a silky ear.

The whining stopped. Just like that.

“What did you do?” Jake demanded.

“I think he wants some attention, that’s all.” She reached in farther to scratch the dog’s other ear. “You can let him out while we wait for Jeremy to come out. He probably doesn’t like being cooped up.”

Jake hesitated, remembering the condition of his office after he’d had the same thought. “It’s probably safer to leave him in the car. He’s pretty wound up. I shut him in the storage room this afternoon and he tried to dig his way out.”

“What are you going to do with him?” Emma wanted to know. “The closest animal shelter is almost an hour away.”

Jake didn’t want to be reminded. In spite of Kate’s
brilliant plan to pawn the animal off on Emma, he doubted that she would be willing to take him in.

“I’m going to bring him home with me for the night. Tomorrow I’ll call around and see if there’s an opening at a shelter.”

“He’s not going to like being in a kennel there, either.”

Emma opened the door before Jake could stop her. The dog shot out of the backseat as if someone had launched it from a cannon…and then dropped at her feet and rolled over.

Jake’s mouth fell open.

“Definitely out of control.” Emma’s lips curved into a smile as she reached down to rub the dog’s belly.