stiff and silent at his side, Sophia’s body language told him loud and clear she didn’t share in her mother’s welcome. But not even her anger and the obvious emotional walls stopped him from noticing the way her dark hair curled behind her ear to perfectly frame her delicate features. Or the way the afternoon breeze picked up the fresh vanilla scent of her skin. Or the heat of her body inches from his.
When she reached out to pass the potato salad and brushed her arm against his, every hair on his body seemed to stand at attention—thousands of tiny divining rods guiding him to the woman at his side. A woman he’d told himself a hundred times since leaving St. Louis he was better off staying away from. Yet here he was, sitting by her side like a man who’d been out in the desert too long and yet somehow thought he could ignore the temptation of taking a drink.
He hadn’t even made it five minutes before kissing her, Jake thought wryly, unable to resist putting his memory to the test to see if Sophia’s lips truly were as sweet and soft as he recalled. Even that brief taste told him what he’d already come to suspect in the days since he left St. Louis: memories were no substitute for the real thing. The real thing he’d found in Sophia …
Jake shoved the thought aside. He wasn’t some starry-eyed romantic. He didn’t believe in love at first sight. He wasn’t sure he believed in love at all.
His only experience with the painful emotion had been Mollie. At the time, he’d certainly thought he loved her and trusted she felt the same. But that day at the hospital, she’d made it more than clear how she really felt about him.
You aren’t a family man, Jake. You don’t have any idea what it’s like to be part of a family, but that’s what I need. That’s what Josh and I both need.
And that was what Sophia needed, too.
She needed her family to rally around her, and if playing her boyfriend made this reunion a little easier on her, well, he could fill in for now. He could take on the part until she found someone better suited. Much like Mollie had.
Slipping back into a role that had become too familiar too fast in St. Louis, Jake returned Vanessa’s smile. “Sophia’s told me so much about you, and I couldn’t wait to meet you all.”
“You’ll have to make sure Sophia shows you around while she’s here. Last time she was home, she didn’t do much more than hide away in her room.”
“Sam!” his mother admonished, but whatever the reason for the sudden silence that fell over the table, Sam seemed as ignorant of its cause as Jake.
“What?” the youngest of the Pirelli brothers asked. “I’m just saying.”
“Can you blame her?” Drew slugged his younger brother on the shoulder. “She was probably hiding out from you.”
Jake had already figured out that Sam was the joker, Drew something of a peacemaker, while Nick—Nick he had yet to figure out. The eldest Pirelli brother obviously adored his daughter and got along well with the rest of his family, but Jake sensed a tension between Nick and Sophia, a distance the family clearly talked around, as they did the absence of Maddie’s mother.
“So, Jake, what is it you do?” Sophia’s father asked as he dug in to the potato salad.
He knew from what Sophia had told him that Nick was a veterinarian, Drew a custom-home builder and Sam a mechanic. But Jake didn’t know what she’d told her family about him.
Buying some time, he took a huge bite of the hamburger he’d piled high with lettuce, cheese, avocado and tomatoes. The flavors exploded against his tongue, tasting better than anything he’d had to eat since—since the last meal he shared with Sophia.
They’d gone to a barbecue place not far from her cousin’s house. It had been the final time Sophia looked at him without suspicion, anger and distrust filling her expression. He’d told her the truth the next day, but he had no idea if she’d told her family about his occupation.
Unfortunately, Sophia didn’t seem the least bit inclined to jump in and save him. She was focused on her own burger, sans any toppings, a preference he remembered from a hot dog she’d ordered at a Cardinals game. Almost embarrassed, she’d confessed, “What can I say? I have boring tastes.”
Jake hadn’t found anything at all boring about Sophia Pirelli, and he’d declared her a hot dog purist. Laughing in response, she’d comically piled every condiment known to man on the hot dog he’d purchased while he made a big deal about covering hers with a napkin to maintain its pristine, natural state …
“Um, Jake,” Sophia finally prompted. “My dad was asking about your job.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Jake swallowed the last of the huge bite he’d taken. “My mother would be appalled by my manners.”
“Mom’s always appalled by our manners,” Sam interjected, clearly unconcerned as he grabbed a cherry tomato from the salad bowl and popped it into his mouth.
Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that the truth?”
“Anyway,” Jake began after he’d stalled as long as he could and hoping he’d picked up correctly on the slight disapproval in Sophia’s voice when she mentioned his job. “I’m a private investigator.”
“Seriously? That must be so cool,” Sam declared.
“Yes, Jake, tell Sam how cool your job is,” Sophia said, a challenging lift to her eyebrows.
He was still scrambling for something to say that would appease her brothers’ curiosity without further alienating Sophia when Vince asked his daughter, “Why is now the first we’re hearing of this? Sophia, why didn’t you tell us what Jake does for a living? For all we knew, he could have been an accountant.”
Sophia picked at the sesame seeds on her hamburger bun and complained, “What’s wrong with being an accountant?”
“Other than being totally boring?” Sam asked before turning back to Jake. “What was your most interesting case?”
Jake didn’t have to even think about it. “That would have to be the case that took me to St. Louis.”
Sophia’s head snapped toward him, her dark gaze pleading, as if she expected him to blurt out the whole story to her family right there at the dinner table. Any why not? he thought with regret. That was pretty much what he’d done to her …
Sam leaned forward. “What happened in St. Louis?”
Reaching out, Jake lifted Sophia’s hand from the picnic table and entwined her fingers with his own. “That’s where I met your sister,” he murmured.
The worry eased from her expression, and was it his imagination or had her eyes softened just a little? Despite the elbow-to-elbow contact at the table, her family seemed to fade away, leaving just the two of them and the spark that had ignited between them the moment they met, an attraction that made it easy for Sophia to trust him, an attraction that made it so easy for Jake to lie to her.
He didn’t know which of them flinched first, but the break in contact as Sophia’s hand fell to her side made Jake feel like some vital part of him had been ripped away, leaving behind only scars as reminders of all he’d lost. Because of his lies and because of the truth he’d been asked to find.
