Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [81]
Resignation dimmed his eyes. Then they took on a hateful glint. “Think I’ll pass on that offer. Popcorn’s irritating, the way it gets stuck in your teeth, you know? Don’t know what I ever saw in popcorn in the first place. Not when desserts are so plentiful. Think what I want is something real sweet, creamy, and rich. Something that melts in my mouth.” He turned abruptly and strode toward his brother’s house, leaving her face to turn hot as a stove’s burner.
CHAPTER 22
Jake’s feet left the ground, his body made a smooth arc as he soared upward, and then his arms suddenly smashed down, slamming the orange ball through the hoop. Some pigeons fluttered in the barn rafters, and Katy shot to her feet with a squeal, clapping just as she had for his previous four baskets.
As the players ran to the opposite end of the court, she settled back onto the bale of hay she shared with a slim blond girl named Mandy, who was Chad Penner’s girlfriend.
“He’s good,” Mandy commented, following Jake with her gaze. A twinge of pride warmed Katy. She glanced sideways. Mandy’s eyes followed Jake up and down the court. Or was she watching Chad, who was guarding him?
Jake and Chad had been best of friends yet always challenging each other. Naturally, Jake was a showstopper with his love to perform. Most likely, the show was part of his scheme to woo Katy, but he was also attracting the attention of all the other females inside the barn.
She hated the jealousy that erupted inside her, that desire to possess and control him, even quell him. She’d first felt it when he’d started falling away. She hadn’t been able to keep him then, so the familiar grinding in the pit of her stomach also carried a foreboding.
She should flee before he hurt her again. Only she had no place to go since Jake claimed he was here to stay, winning back the community. That made her a part of the spectacle, with everyone waiting to see if she would take him back, too. When Jake winked a roguish blackened eye at her, Katy wished she hadn’t allowed their fragile beginnings of a relationship to go public.
Mandy caught the flirtatious gesture. “Glad to see you two back together.”
“Excuse me?”
“You belong together.”
Thoughts shot through Katy’s mind: If he dumps me it will be even more humiliating this time. If I lose him, the pain will be even worse than it was before. What am I doing here? With the realization that she was a long way from trusting Jake again, she shrugged, “We’ll see.”
Everyone inside the barn was paired off, and some were even engaged to be married. Most of the girls were older than Katy and had never been as close to her as Lil and Megan, yet they were more than casual acquaintances. There were few strangers and even fewer secrets within the farming community of Plain City, Ohio, especially for those worshipping together in Katy’s small Conservative congregation.
Her hands involuntarily worked tiny bits of prickly chaff from the bale of straw as she watched the guys pound the floor and dart from one end of the barn court to the other. The basketball bounced and flung at various levels of skill. A calico cat suddenly sprang onto her bale and looked at her as if the act surprised the creature, too. Katy rubbed its head, and it tentatively climbed onto her lap.
She wasn’t fond of cat hair, and this one had a thick, partly matted coat, but the creature’s need drew her and provided a pleasant distraction from the true object of her heart. She quietly stroked the cat’s head, and when she eased off, he nudged her hand. Maybe she needed a cat at the doddy house. Lil adored animals, had always taken in strays at the farm. Vernon Yoder hadn’t allowed cats at their place because their hair was a nuisance in the woodworking shop, hard to remove from a wet, stained surface.
“What happened to Jake’s eye?”
Katy had arrived at the game after it had started and hadn’t talked to Jake alone yet. She shrugged, “Probably a construction accident.”
Jake commanded her attention with a flamboyant dunk. When he landed, the women heard a loud