Free Treading Water by Marie Force Page B

looked around
the corner to the family room but didn’t see Jamie or Frannie.
Peering out the front door, he discovered Jamie’s car was gone.
    “ Interesting,” Jack said
when he returned to the kitchen. “They left.”
    Kate and Maggie came in with more items from
the cookout. Jill had left earlier to catch a late movie with her
friends.
    “ Where’s Frannie?” Kate
asked.
    “ I think she went somewhere
with Uncle Jamie,” Jack said.
    “ She seemed mad,” Kate
said.
    “ I’m sure they’ll work it
out—whatever it is.”
    “ Dad, why do we call
Frannie, who’s our aunt, just Frannie, but we call Uncle Jamie,
who’s not really our uncle, Uncle Jamie?” Maggie asked with a
serious expression.
    The others cracked up.
    “ That’s a good question,
Maggie, and I have absolutely no idea why we do that,” Jack said,
ruffling her hair.
    “ It’s weird,” Maggie
decided.
    “ Yes, it is,” he agreed.
“And now it’s your bedtime, Miss Priss.”
    “ No way! I want to go work
on my room. Michael told me just what to do. Plus, it’s summer
vacation. I can stay up late.”
    “ Nice try, but it’s almost
eleven. That’s late enough.”
    “ Come on, brat, I’ll tuck
you in,” Kate said, herding her sister along.
    “ Thanks, Kate. I’m going to
run Andi over to her hotel. I’ll be back soon.”
    “ Okay.” Kate chased her
sister up the stairs, tickling her as they went.
    “ Kate’s good with her,”
Andi said.
    “ They used to fight like
wombats,” Jack said, “but since everything happened… They’re a lot
closer now.”
    “ You don’t have to drive
me. I can go with the others.”
    “ Are you sure?”
    “ Of course. There’s no need
for you to make a special trip.”
    “ Okay,” he said,
disappointed that he wouldn’t get more time with her.
    A few minutes later, Andi and her team left
with a burst of “thank yous” to Jack and compliments on his
daughters and his home.
    Watching her leave with the
others, he thought about how much he’d enjoyed the day with her—and
how badly he wished he could spend the night with her. Sick with
guilt, he felt as if he’d already been unfaithful to Clare. The quiet ache he’d
carried inside for so long resurfaced with a sudden, powerful
intensity. He closed the door and leaned his head against
it.
    Two steps forward, one step back.
     
    Frannie and Jamie were quiet on the short
ride to his downtown condo. The whole way, her heart beat a wild
staccato that left her breathless. She couldn’t believe this was
actually happening.
    Seeming to sense her out-of-control nerves,
Jamie reached over to put his hand on top of hers, and just like
that, her heart rate slowed to a more normal speed.
    Frannie watched the city lights whiz by as
he drove his vintage Porsche faster than he probably should have.
What if it was weird between them? What if they’d been friends too
long to take this leap? What if it was every bit the disaster she’d
feared it would be?
    “ Frannie?”
    His voice jostled her out of the pensive
state she’d slipped into, and she realized they’d arrived at his
place.
    When she went to release her seat belt, she
was all thumbs.
    Once again, he stopped her and took care of
the task himself. “Come here.” He reached across the console for
her.
    As he wrapped his arms around her, his
enormously appealing scent surrounded and calmed her. “Tell me
we’re not crazy to be messing with a good thing,” she said after a
long moment of charged silence.
    “ We’ve been crazy to wait
this long to mess with a good thing.”
    “ But what if—”
    His fingers slipped into her hair and held
her still as he kissed the words off her lips. He used his tongue
to coax her mouth open, making her burn from head to toe. No other
kiss had ever had such an effect on her.
    As she sent her tongue to
tangle with his, she wanted to cry from the sweet relief that came
with being in his arms. This was Jamie. Her Jamie. The man she’d