Until Jake

The plate slipped from her wet fingers and hit the recessed sink with a loud thud. Miraculously, the heavy ceramic plate didn’t break. Jake reached for it, inspected it, then loaded it up.

“As in Mosley Construction?” she tentatively ventured. She’d seen the signs around Liberty Station as the area had grown over the past couple of years.

Jake nodded.

Holy cow. That was an empire in the making.

“So you work for you father. I think that’s great. A family bus—”

“My dad died when I was eighteen,” Jake said.

Kate gazed up at him, trying to process what that meant. Jake lent her a hand.

“The business is mine now.”

She was at a loss for words.

Jake teased her by saying, “More exciting to think I’m a construction worker rather than the owner of the company?”

“No! I mean…my God!” She shook her head. “Taking over the family business when you were eighteen—that’s amazing.”

“My mom was going to sell the company. Even though it was a modest one with a small payroll back then, it seemed too daunting for her to manage by herself. And she was pretty distraught after my dad’s death, so she didn’t think she could concentrate on business. I stepped in. Not only did I respect and appreciate the legacy he’d been trying to build, but I’d spent enough time with him in the office and on construction sites to know what to do. For the most part. I had help from others who’d been with my dad from the very beginning.”

Kate was shocked by this turn of events. But also impressed by Jake’s dedication to his father’s dream.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she told him. “And I think it’s admirable that you knew what had to be done…and you did it.”

“I’m the oldest. My mom had never worked and the twins—my two sisters, Janie and Jacki—still needed Mom at home after school and during breaks. So it was up to me to help make ends meet. And expand the business into something bigger and more stable, so that she eventually wouldn’t have to worry about money. Ever again.”

Kate’s chest pulled tight. She’d never experienced the hardship of losing a parent or struggling financially. Her parents were New York Times bestselling novelists and travel writers. She’d wanted for nothing as a kid. And though she’d had a successful career in Los Angeles until her split from Ken, it was Maggi’s offer of Vice President of Marketing of her firm that had really elevated Kate’s professional status.

She shook her head again. Thinking of the way Jake had responded to her earlier—wanting to know her needs and wanting to fulfill them—then the way he’d cooked their dinner and was now helping in the kitchen…

He was the sensational one.

This guy was the real deal. And Kate’s adoration was growing by leaps and bounds.

“You took on a lot of responsibility at a young age,” she said in a quiet voice.

“You gotta do what you gotta do.” A humble smile tipped his lips. For the first time, Kate could see in his crystal-clear eyes that he was wiser beyond his years. And suddenly, the number seemed so insignificant. So…inconsequential.

As she deliberated over all of this, he finished cleaning up. Then he reached for her.

“I haven’t had the time or the luxury of taking a night off in a while, Kate. But when I saw you coming across the courtyard today, I was ready to say to hell with everything else. If you hadn’t invited me over for dinner, I would have asked you out.”

She gazed up at him, drowning in the beauty o

f his blue eyes. The sincerity reflected in the glimmering irises.

His fingers worked the sash at her waist as he stepped closer, his head bending to hers. Her robe fell open and their bodies melded together, her breasts nestling below his pectoral ledge.

“Sometimes you forget how much you need physical contact,” he said as his soft lips grazed her temple.

“And then you see someone who…reminds you,” she answered in a breathless voice.

“Excites you.”

“Stirs your passion.”