Page 39 of Hold

“Of course.” Jake got in Liam’s truck, which they’d exchanged the van for. “Is he going to be on the job with us a lot?”

Liam laughed hard for the first time at the apprehension in Jake’s voice. “At first, probably. He’ll want to catch us screwing up. But he’ll back off eventually.” Liam turned the key in the special way he’d agreed with his truck. “Like just before you go back to school.” He grinned as the engine roared.

Chapter 11

Thea came home with Benji to find Liam and Jake playing a video game. The dynamic of teacher and student seemed to have changed utterly; Jake was yelling at Liam to “Get him! Get him! No, with the blue gem!” and Liam was yelling back, “All right, all right, I don’t know how to—” and Jake said, “Hit A and green and—aw, crap. You suck at this.”

“Jacob!” Thea gasped, but Liam grinned in a way that squeezed her insides and threw the controller down onto the couch beside him.

“I’ll have you know I was playing video games when you were in diapers,” he said.

“Yeah.” Jake snorted. “I can tell. Haven’t played much since then, huh?”

Liam scrubbed his hand through his hair and looked up at her. “Nope. Hi.”

This was all way too easy. Benji was thrilled to see him and immediately asked him if he’d play a game with him. Jake was more relaxed than she’d seen him around adults in months; his spikes were wilting and he didn’t even notice. Thea clutched her purse to her stomach and tried to regain some equilibrium.

“You didn’t have to stay,” she said to Liam.

“I asked him to,” Jake said.

“Is that okay?” said Liam.

More than okay. Way too okay.“Sure. I don’t want to put you out more than we already have.”

“He’s not put out,” Benji said. “Can he stay for dinner?”

Thea’s throat tightened at the easy question. “I can’t,” Liam, thank God, told him. “Sorry, bud. Maybe Jake’ll play a game with you.”

He was calling him Jake, she noticed, rather than the formal, teacher-ish Jacob he’d been insisting on all these weeks. “I guess today went well,” she said.

“Uh-huh,” Liam said, his eyes sliding over to meet Jake’s.

“Yeah,” Jake said, and if she was a suspicious person—and face it, around Jake she was—she’d have thought he looked a little shifty. “It was good. But I’m starving, Mom. What’s for dinner?”

Liam stood up. “I’ll go now. See you tomorrow, Jake. Seven o’clock, okay?”

Jake groaned but nodded. Thea was still at the door, and when Liam joined her, the area suddenly seemed much too small. Jake was taking out the game card and putting in another one he and Benji could play, and she was left with Liam standing very close to her, giving her that hard blue stare that was never far from her thoughts these days.

He reached around her to open the screen door, still holding her gaze. “You all right?” he asked, his eyes crinkling at the corners, the smile he gave her warming her, showing her that he remembered the last time they’d been this close.

She nodded. “Was it really okay today?”

His smile widened. “It was really okay today. How are the scientists?”

“Great. They didn’t need me, as usual. I read five chapters of the textbook for our next class.”

He smelled so good, of soap and grass and not at all what he might have been dealing with in his job today. His jeans were the perfect amount of beat-up, his T-shirt showing off those biceps again. What wouldn’t she give to be able to sink her teeth into one of those puppies?

She blushed and her eyes widened, and he smiled even bigger. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Oh, yeah, right. She was in the way. She stepped back, holding the screen door open with her back, and Liam went through. “Bye, Jake. Bye, Benji,” he called. And as they called their goodbyes back, their eyes glued to the screen, he took one of Thea’s hands and brought it to his mouth, pressed a kiss into her palm, and closed her hand over it with both of his. That kiss was regret that he couldn’t do more, and a promise that at the next available opportunity he would.

“Goodbye, T,” he said so that only she could hear, then stepped off her porch.

♦

Four days later, Thea was in an almost constant state of sexual anticipation. She’d seen him every day that week, eight times, total. Eight minutes, ten max. And every time, he only had to look at her with those eyes and she’d melted.