Chapter 59

Winnie I experience nightmare after nightmare of Dana telling me that I’m not good enough for Jake. I shake and kick in my sleep. My heart is on fire, and muffled words leave my lips until a strong hand jostles me awake, and I blink back to reality.

“Winnie?” It’s Jake, and he is squatting beside me. “Wake up. Breakfast is ready for you.’

“B-breakfast?” My mouth feels dry, and my throat is sore. I think I’ve been talking in my sleep.

“Uh-huh, I made pancakes,” a grin spreads over Jake’s face. “I feel like a total wildling now. Can you believe it? Pancakes made over an open fire in an old, dusty frying pan.”

“You’re adorable,” I sit up, unable to prevent my lips from curling into a smile. I know Jake loves cooking and baking, but the pride in his eyes for making pancakes outside a kitchen? He is so sweet.

“I would prefer to be called sexy.”

“You’re sexy, too,” I tell him. “And if those pancakes are as good as they smell, I will go down on my knees and suck you. You don’t know how much I love your breakfast pancakes.”

He snorts and shakes his head with an indulgent smile. I love when he gives me that kind of sweet expression. He is undoubtfully proud to provide for me and hurries to fetch me a paper plate.

I only make it out of the tent to sit down on a blanket area that Jake has prepared for us before he returns with my food. ” Here you go. Pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries. Your favorite.”

The stupid, toothy grin that settles over my lips makes Jake snort a laugh. I don’t have to say anything for him to know how much these simple displays of affection mean to me. Still, when he sits beside me, I smile up at him, a little teary-eyed.

“I used to take it for granted, you know? The way you treat me. I guess it’s because you always did, and I’m an asshole.”

Jake shoves a pancake piece into his mouth with a one-time-use fork made of renewable material. “I’ve liked you for a long time,” his smile is infectious. ” That’s why I’ve always gone the extra mile for you, hoping you would notice.”

I beam up at him. “Does your teammates know that you’re secretly the sweetest guy ever?”

Jake snaps at that, and the reddish hue on his skin and downright outraged expression on his face make me fall into a fit of giggles.

“I’m not sweet toward everyone!” Jake retorts, saying the words as if I’ve offended him. “You’re the only one I treat differently, and on the ice, everyone knows that I’m lethal and one hell of a player.”

“Lethal?” I tease in a sing-song voice and cut into my pancake, glancing up at him. ” Since when are hockey players lethal?”

“Please, everyone knows sports are replacement wars, just less bloody. Instead of killing each other, we get to fight other states on the ice and celebrate when we win.”

‘And you like the idea of other players seeing you as lethal?”

“Yes, very much. As a right-wing, my opponents should all fear me. I’m on the offense, and I look for scoring chances. Looking intimidating is part of the job. That second of hesitation from my opponents? I live for it.”

“Of course you do, and you’re very talented on the ice,” I bump him with my shoulder and smile wider.

“But underneath your intimidating appearance, there is a big softie.”

“I am not a softie!” Jake growls, glaring at me with his lips blue from the blueberries.

My grin turns broad. “Oh, yes, you are. But I love that about you. You take care of me, make me feel special and loved.”

A heavy silence falls after I’ve spoken, and I inwardly curse.

I’ve said the L-word twice today, and Jake’s mouth opens and closes a few times before he openly stares at me. I stare right back at him, feeling vulnerable because it just slipped. The worst part? It felt natural to say it, which is terrifying.

It’s even scarier that Jake isn’t saying anything. I don’t know what that means. Despite his fearsome appearance, muscles for days, and fame, my man often becomes shy when complimented or called sweet. I can’t tell if he is shy right now or doesn’t feel the same way as I do, and that’s why he is keeping silent.

Regardless, he is making me nervous, so I change the subject. “So, kayaking… when was the last time you did that?” My heart is racing, but it helps to force another topic. “My last time was back at summer camp when we were teenagers. You remember that?”

Jake breaks out of his stupor with a chuckle. “I do. We won that competition and had the fastest time out of everyone who went down the stream. You and I were unstoppable.”

I smile at him. “You remember the prize as well?”

“Of course,” he grins at me. “We got to eat stakes while everyone else shared a package of hotdogs.

Damn, those were the times. We gloated over it too, kept saying how juicy the stakes were, and Mark was grumpy because you had teamed with me, not with him.”

I laugh, and Jake does the same. The tension is gone, thank god. We are back to joking around, and we eat our breakfast while Jake tells me how rare it is to make friends with teammates. He calls himself lucky to be playing among old friends, and I smile and nod.

I like hearing Jake talk. He never did it very often in the past, always letting me or Mark talk over him. It made it hard for me to judge what type of character he was, but I’m seeing him now.

Jake is sweet, but he would probably kick my ass if I called him that often. His ego can’t handle such compliments, and more than often, he blushes when I point out how soft he is.

I really like it when he does. Seeing him all bashful is precious and makes me wish I had my camera.

After finishing our breakfast, we make it to the river. We walk upstream, and surprisingly enough, we find other people there. Some are already going with their tandem kayaks, and I smile as a couple passes us while shouting, “Wohoo! This is so much fun!”

My excitement grows, and I beam at Jake.

“Let’s hurry! I want to go next and even faster than them!”

Jake smiles at me, but his happy expression falters, and his entire body freezes in motion. I follow his gaze, baffled by his reaction, until I see what he is staring at.

It’s another couple. A man is busy going through his backpack on a rock, and a woman wearing an equally dumbfounded expression as Jake is staring straight at us. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out there is some story here, a history between Jake and the pretty woman.

She hasn’t even seen me yet, and’a bittersweet smile touches her lips as she looks at my man.

“Jake…” her voice is soft, and for some reason, my chest constricts when she walks closer. “What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t know you were in the area. You should have said something!”

Before I know what is happening, the woman embraces Jake in a hug, and I’m left gaping at them. I know Jake has dated plenty of girls, but… he always kept them a secret from me. Seeing one of his exes is strange, and I’m not going to lie: I’m jealous.

“Cindi,” Jake steps away from her, finally having returned to his normal calm state of mind. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Very nice,” Cindi still hasn’t even looked at me yet and instead turns around, nodding at the man still searching through the backpack. “My brother and I thought the warm weather would be nice for kayaking, and so did our friends.

Everyone else already went down the stream. My brother and I are the last ones to go, and after we hit the finish line, we will grill hamburgers with our friends.

You can join us if you would like?” To my utter surprise, Jake smiles and says, “Sure, why not?”

“Great! There more, the merrier!” Cindi beams at him. I feel entirely ignored. She is taller than me, and I feel out of place or like Jake’s unseen kid who is plagued with the burden of watching him flirt with some single mom. “See you down the river!”

After Cindi leaves us, I arch an eyebrow at Jake. I don’t directly ask him why he accepted the offer to eat hamburgers with the others, and he doesn’t seem to understand my irritation either.

He simply smiles and says, “Hamburgers will be nice.”

I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes. I had hoped these days would only include us two, not Jake’s gorgeous ex and her friends. Ugh. How do I tell Jake without sounding like a bitch?