Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [18]
She’d captured his own attention long before he’d acquired any skills to fend off female charms. Katy was younger than Jake, too, but at recess he let her cut in line just because he was intrigued with her bouncy ponytail. After he’d touched it, she’d reeled him in with her black flashing eyes.
Jake had always loved to watch her hands dance when she talked, admiring her tiny wrists and long feminine fingers. But her greatest asset was her face. There was an intensity in her dark eyes that could move mountains. They were deep, dark, and expressive. Her nose was thin and long, merely a gentle slope that drew the eye down to her best feature, those full, sulky lips. The combination of lethal eyes and pursed lips stopped a guy in his tracks. A man instantly sensed the stubborn spirit behind the face. Lesser men shrank back. She wielded her feminine weapons without chagrin, swathing her path through life, unawares that most people did not have such natural charms at their command. She had a hauteur about her that warned others she wasn’t used to losing. She probably didn’t realize that she could get her way without uttering a word.
As if reading his mind, she turned her brown gaze toward him. Her eyes were naturally so dark that they almost smoldered, causing a man to want to read something sexual in them, when really they were unfathomable. But it caused Jake to feel jealous now that it was David’s arms around her.
His stomach clenched when recognition hit her expression and that smoldering gaze riveted upon him. His gaze pleaded with hers. But she denied him. Her eyes glittered, and her expression darkened with repulsion. Her entire body reacted. She actually stopped skating.
David toppled forward, and Jake watched helpless as the couple wiped out on the ice, Katy tumbling on top of David.
Jake lunged forward, but Lil caught him by his coat sleeve.
She grimaced. “Ouch. That had to hurt. You see how both his knees smacked the ice? At least he cushioned Katy’s fall.”
His jealousy reared again as David untangled himself from Katy and hovered over her. “You sure this is their first date? They seem mighty cozy.”
Lil waved a glove through the air. “It’s the skating. He’s had his hands all over her. That’s why I called you. So what are you going to do?”
He knew now this group setting had been a mistake for his first encounter with Katy. He should have waited and gone with their original plan. Lil’s plan. She’d hired him to modernize the doddy house. He’d be there when Katy came over. He would apologize in privacy. Beg, if he had to, for her forgiveness.
“Well?”
“I can’t go rescue her. I didn’t bring any skates. But it looks like they’re coming in off the ice.” He glared at David. “I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
She put an elbow in his gut. “You deserve it, chump.”
“Hmph.” He glanced away from the irritating scene where David was now unlacing her skates. Lil had one glove on her hip, looking miffed. She never should have told him all those years ago that Katy meant to marry him. Maybe it wouldn’t have made him so confident she’d always be there. Maybe it wouldn’t have scared him away. But Lil had meant well. They’d always been close as if she were his sister. In fact, when the family got together, she hung out with him instead of his younger sister Erin. That’s probably how he noticed Katy. She and Lil and Megan had always been together.
“They’re leaving. I can’t believe she’s not even going to say good-bye,” Lil huffed.
A hand clamped Jake’s shoulder, and he turned. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Good to see you, man.” Chad Penner held out his hand. Though they had once been best of friends, their relationship had become estranged when Jake had left the church.
Grasping it, Jake replied, “Better get used to it. I’m back to stay.”
Chad swung an arm over Jake’s shoulder. “I knew you’d be back.”
With relief, Jake allowed himself to be drawn into the group of skaters warming up at the bonfire.