Love Realized (27 page)

Allie spun around and gave her a considering look, nodding her head when she seemed to be done with her assessment and said, “In that case, I understand. It’s easier to tolerate disappointment when it’s about me not being a certain person rather than just my presence in general.” Setting her bag on the floor in front of the couch, she bent over and picked up a bottle of their favorite wine and said, “Do we have time for girl talk before Jake gets here?”

Of course Gillian wasn’t going to say no, but she was still a little bummed over the detour her evening had once again taken. That was until Allie dropped the best news Gillian had heard in a long time when she said, “So, I have decided to move back down here to San Diego.” The wine in Gillian’s mouth almost made the journey out her nose, but thankfully rerouted back into her wine glass.

“Jesus, Al, warn a girl before you throw that grenade,” Gillian said as she wiped the wine dripping from her chin with the hem of her shirt. Looking at her friend, and the look of resolution on her face was comforting to Gillian. It had been a while since Allie had looked so peaceful. Allie had moved away after her husband Marc died in a car accident. She felt all sorts of guilty over it and had punished herself by moving away from her family. So her moving back was a very good thing.

Sliding across the couch, she pulled her best friend into a hug and said, “That’s the best news I could’ve gotten. Especially after the week I’ve had.” Allie hugged her back, and when Gillian leaned back, she could see that Allie was struggling with the attention to the matter. Knowing it was time to change focus, Gillian said, “I could really use some advice, or some ass-kicking lessons. After what happened Sunday, I'm hesitant to open the front door for fear Slutty McWhore will pull an Amy Fisher and Long Island Lolita my ass.”

It was Allie’s turn to spit out her wine. They were laughing over how they both successfully avoided shooting it out their noses when Dylan and Ryan arrived yelling, “Aunt Allie!” before they promptly lunged at her. Always one to enjoy the sight of them with Allie, Gillian was taking it in when she looked up to see Jake enter the room. She could see that he, too, was a little disappointed at the arrival of their friend, but also knew that he would be thrilled to hear that she was moving back down here since it was a source of worry for all them.

Smiling at him, she said, “Hey, you.”

She got up to welcome him with a kiss to his cheek, like she always had, but Jake insistently pulled her body up against his hard body and kissed her perfectly on the lips. She was caught in a fog of surprise and arousal as she felt her body start to tingle with anticipation for more of his touch. When he pulled his lips away, she blinked up at him as he smiled and said, “Hey yourself. I’ve missed you.”

As was becoming customary with Jake and his attention, she felt the warmth in her cheeks as she said, “I’ve missed you, too.” When Jake turned to talk to Allie, Gillian noticed that he didn’t relax his hold on her, so she stayed there. She enjoyed the feeling of being held against a warm, hard, male body. It was comforting, and exciting, and she couldn’t help but notice that she fit perfectly against him.

Gillian was lost in the enjoyment that was Jake’s body when she heard Allie say, “Well, I’ll be damned. That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”

Yeah, it was kinda cool
, she thought as she giggled a little and buried her face in his chest, once again a little embarrassed at the attention, but not ready to pull away from Jake yet. His arms tightened around her, and she heard him ask Allie to give us a minute. Once Allie had retreated to the kitchen, Jake wrapped his now free arm around her and pulled her closer to him. She couldn’t help but relax in his embrace. It was comfortable, like a place she belonged, made just for her to fit against. Her hands wanted to roam, to move his shirt out of the way and feel his skin spread over the expanse of his back. But she managed to control herself and settled for gently touching a small area … over his shirt … like a good girl.
No, there would be no stripping Jake in the front room
, she chastised herself and was about to laugh at it when she felt Jake’s hand make its way up her back and into her hair.

When he buried his hand in her hair, she knew there was no resisting him. Her body lit up with need as she felt his hand tilt her head back, and her gaze met his. It was like everything was in slow motion as he leaned forward, but stopped just short of contact. His warm breath against her lips, his hard arms holding her against his firm body, she could barely take in all the sensations that were assaulting her as he said, “I'm sorry, but I just can’t wait any longer to do this.” And then his lips were on hers. A quick moment of surprise had her not responding to him instantly, but then she felt it—she felt his soft, full lips against hers—and melted into the kiss. His tongue swept across her lips, tasting her, and she was too overwhelmed to move, so she let him lead.

Positioning her head where he wanted her, she felt his tongue push through her lips and meet hers. Without thought, her tongue came out to greet his. When Jake’s chest rumbled against hers and his body tightened, her desire for him jumped, and her hands curled into his back. She wanted to pull him closer, hold him there, and let him devour her, because that is
exactly
what he was doing to her. Jake was devouring her, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. But to clarify, there was nothing she
wanted
to do about it. Except enjoy every single second. Longing wound its way through her body like a wildfire. He was everywhere without actually being everywhere; but she knew she wanted him more literally everywhere, and she wanted to give him everything. It was calming to come this conclusion, because until then, she hadn’t understood how she was going to move on to have an intimate relationship with another man after her divorce. She understood now, and she knew without a doubt that she could give herself to Jake.

As if he heard her thoughts, Jake pressed his hips into hers, and she could feel his arousal for her. It was hard, and real, and very desirable since she had to fight her body’s instinct to reach down and get better acquainted with him. Her body answered his by pressing her hips into his hardness. She moaned at the spark of awareness that came from that contact. It was an exquisite sensation that she wanted to repeat, but knew this wasn’t the place for it. As Jake slowed the kiss down, because he was in complete control, he gently sucked her lip into his mouth. She wanted to follow it, as far as she could go, and as she felt his teeth graze the surface of her lip, her knees threaten to give out from the huge surge of heat that whipped through her body.

Jake had set her body on fire, brought it to life with need, and then slowly pulled away from her. She was in a cloud of drunken lust, and she couldn’t contain the smile that crawled across her face. She was so drunk from that kiss, she barely registered that his finger was now touching the very lip he had just sucked into his mouth. Thankfully, he pulled it away before she thought to do something crazy, like nibble on it, or suck it into her mouth. She tried to focus on him as he sighed and said, “Sorry, but I couldn’t wait another minute to do that. I hope I didn’t embarrass you in front of Allie, but I really missed you.”

Embarrass her … in front of Allie … who’s Allie
? She huffed out, “To feel embarrassed, I would have to be aware of people around me. I can only see you right now, Jake.”

His growling words and quick hard kiss to her lips told her he loved what she said, but she knew that they shouldn’t hide out in the living room all night. Even though she really wanted to do just that, she smiled at him and asked, “I seem to recall the promise of pizza. Are you going to feed me or what?”

Jake led her into the kitchen where Allie was hanging out with the boys. She quickly dished up a couple slices for Jake and herself and made a quick retreat to the living room to collect the wine she and Allie had started. She rejoined the group to the sounds of laughter. It was an infectious laugh, and she had no idea why. “What’s so funny in here?”

She should have known that the stupid words, fart, butt-crack, and booger were responsible for the random bouts of laughter from the boys. Those usually did the trick. All of them were surrounded by laughter when she heard Logan and Jason calling out from the other room. “Seriously?” she groaned under her breath as the amount of people in her house—Grand Central Station—grew yet again.

“TGIF,” Allie said to Gillian as they made the turn out of the school parking lot. It was her day off and after dropping Dylan at school, the plan was to spend it with Allie—apartment hunting. Finding out yesterday that Allie had decided to move back home to San Diego had been great news, and Gillian was going to do whatever she could to encourage it and make it happen. Allie had taken the train down for the weekend because she planned on bringing Logan’s truck back up to Los Angeles with her to load it up. Thankfully, his tires being slashed and headlights being smashed in didn’t interfere, as it was back on four fully inflated tires and sported new lights in no time. The dent in the fender would be taken care of a bit later. The evil bitch inside her liked the thought of Logan having to stare at the dent for a while, letting it be a reminder to him of his mistakes. The little angel inside would remind her that Logan was already being punished because she was divorcing him. Then, of course, the evil bitch would again add her two cents,
or so you hope it feels like punishment
.

“I really wished you and Logan hadn’t already rented out that house next door to yours,” Allie added to the conversation that Gillian had yet to participate in.

“Yeah, actually, we decided the other night that we were going to give the tenant notice and then Logan was going to move in there. We have another property that the guy could move into and he said he’d be willing; he just had to see if he could get a roommate. He talked to a friend of his and got back to us yesterday that he would change properties.” She glanced over at her friend to gauge her reaction to that news. She and Logan hadn’t mentioned it to anyone yet because they wanted to make sure the tenant was okay with it. Some people might have thought it weird that divorced parents would live as neighbors, too, but both Gillian and Logan felt that it was a great idea. They’d have their separate living spaces, yet the kids could see either parent whenever they wanted. They hoped it would be the solution to custody and visitation problems that other couples had. The plan was that they would give it a try for three months and then discuss whether or not it was going to work in the long term.

Allie broke into her thoughts when she asked, “And you’re okay with that? More importantly, is Jake okay with that?” Gillian could the see the concern etched on Allie’s face. Since she hadn’t spoken with Jake about it, she didn’t know how he felt. She didn’t think she was keeping it a secret—it had only been confirmed last night—but that didn’t stop her from feeling like she was being secretive. Bottom line, though, her kids were always going to come first and both she and Logan were going to try what they could to make things easier for them.

She confessed, “I don’t know how Jake feels about it yet. You’re the first person I’ve told because it was only confirmed last night.” She added that at the end so Allie wouldn’t give her any crap about it.

Allie shrugged. “Jake’s a good guy. I'm sure if things between you continue, he’ll make it okay.” Gillian relaxed with Allie’s statement. It was true; Jake was a great guy, and she didn’t see him making a problem out of something like this, especially since it involved the kids. As she and Allie made their way to the coffee shop, Gillian couldn’t help but feel glad that she had confessed that bit of information to someone. They planned to come up with some ideas for living spaces for Allie, and then Gillian was going to meet up with the other source of guilt this week. She had only been able to communicate with Mike via text throughout the week, and she really wanted to speak with him in person about not being able to see him anymore. Truthfully, she knew she didn’t necessarily owe him that, but it was who she was as a person, and she really thought he was a great guy. He was going to meet her at around ten o’clock, so that would give her plenty of time to figure out what she was going to say to him.

It was about an hour and a half into the apartment hunting adventure when Gillian had to speak up, “Okay, Allie, I have to be honest with you. I’m really not a big fan of anything we have looked at in your price range. Maybe you should just move in with me, or with Logan, or any one of our friends. I want you here in San Diego, but not in a shady area.”

Allie sighed, “I know. I didn’t realize it was going to be this hard to find something. I already gave notice at my apartment, and at work. And since I wasn’t under contract at either place, I told them my last day was the end of next week.”

“Well, we can figure it out. It’s not like you are moving anywhere you don’t know people, and even if you found something, it might not have been available ‘til after you came down anyway. So, you can just stay with me, or with Logan, unless you were considering your parents’ place.”

“God, no. Please tell me you wouldn’t even think that?” Allie said in an offended voice. Of course she wasn’t, but Gillian wanted to make sure. “Then take your pick—who do you want to stay with?”

A masculine voice to her left caught her attention when it said, “I know who I would pick, but whatever you do, don’t pick the parents.” Gillian turned to see Mike standing there, looking down at both of them.