Built To Last

“That’s perfect.” She paused, the silence growing awkward between them. She missed how comfortable they were together last night. But she was confident they hadn’t lost it—they were just working their way through early relationship jitters. “So, what are we doing today?”

“It’s a surprise. But you’re dressed perfectly.”

“I love surprises.” Erin headed around the truck to the passenger side. She reached for the door handle but was stopped when Jake beat her to it and opened the door for her.

Jake was a gentleman at heart. It wasn’t just an act but a part of who he was.

He placed his hands on her waist and helped her climb into the high seat. After tucking her backpack behind her, he closed the door and jogged around the front of the truck. She took the short time she had alone to suck in a few deep breaths. It had been a long time since she’d met a man that really interested her like Jake had from the first moment she saw him.

When Jake climbed in, Bella stuck her head between the seats and her nose into his side. He laughed and roughed her fur for a moment before turning to Erin. “I think she’s a little upset. You’re in her seat.”

Erin’s face heated but inside, her heart leapt at the possibility that he hadn’t had another woman in this seat. “Oh, no. Poor baby. I can sit in the back seat. Really.”

“You’ll do no such thing. Bella knows her place.”

Erin turned to Bella and scratched between her ears. “Thanks for giving up your seat, sweet girl.”

Bella nudged her shoulder and Erin laughed. Who knew that Bella would be the perfect icebreaker? Something else to focus on other than the new-relationship tension between them.

“She approves.”

Bella turned around three times on the back seat and then tucked her head on her paws and closed her eyes.

Jake backed out of Erin’s driveway and headed south. They inched through the heart of town, crowds building for a typical Saturday at the shore. Laguna Beach had been a quiet, seaside town until an insanely popular reality show put their cozy enclave on the map. Since then, their peace was interrupted with beach combers and fame seekers almost every weekend.

After they escaped the main stretch of town, the road widened and Erin relaxed. It had been a long time since she’d done something just for herself, without worrying about how her sister and father would manage. She deserved this, this time with a handsome man, even though the feelings swirling inside her generated more confusion than she was ready to handle.

“What are you thinking?” Jake shot a questioning look in her direction and then turned back to the road.

“I’m just enjoying a Saturday without any obligations.”

“I guess you’ve been pretty busy on the weekends, catching up on schoolwork and all.”

“That too.”

She loved the deep rumble of his laugh and how he completely let himself go and enjoy life. That’s what she was looking for for herself. “I’m not sure I understand.”

The people closest to her knew the realities of her life, but few others did. She did what she had to do to take care of her family but didn’t like talking about what she’d taken on with others. But the gentleness in Jake’s gaze comforted her and made her want to open up to him. “Until about eighteen months ago, I was the stereotypical soccer mom every weekend, constantly carting my sister to cheerleading practice, soccer games, sleepovers. Wherever she needed to go.”

Jake turned onto another road and followed the winding stretch of black ribbon into the mountains. It had been so long since she’d been out into the woods. She used to like hiking and camping when she was little. They would go as a family and spend the weekend, pitching a tent and fishing and just spending time together.

Just another family activity that stopped when her mother died.

“What about your father?”

She clenched her hands together in her lap. “After my mother died, my father basically shut down. He doesn’t go to work anymore. He and my sister live on his disability… and my paycheck. He mainly just sits around the house and misses my mother.”

Jake rested his hand on her arm for a moment and then returned his eyes to the road. But the gentleness of his touch had those pesky butterflies beating their wings in her belly again. “That has to be hard for the entire family. But you, especially. That takes a lot of strength.”

“I’m doing pretty well. Austin and the staff have been great, arranging my work hours around my classes and what I’ve needed to do for my sister and my Dad.”

Jake nodded but didn’t say much. Like he knew that she didn’t need sympathy. But he’d said she was strong. She wasn’t sure she was—she just did what had to be done. She had lost her mother, and she wasn’t about to lose the rest of her family, too.

Jake slowed and then signaled to turn into a parking lot. A sign reading Caspers Wilderness Park greeted them as they pulled into an empty spot. She’d never been here before but was excited about the possibility. She welcomed the chance to put all thoughts of her family and the life she had no control over out of her mind for a few hours.

“I hope this is okay. I thought we’d hike for a while and then have a picnic. We can let Bella run a bit in the woods.”

At the sound of her name, Bella perked up in the back seat and poked her nose between the two of them. They both laughed.