CHAPTER THREE
JESSE CLIMBED OFF the snowmobile and stared at the log home sitting in the middle of at least an acre-size lot bordered by massive evergreens and bare-branched hardwoods. The structure was old, but clearly solid as a rock. Whoever had taken the time to restore it had done a good job. “Did you do the work on this place yourself?” he asked Garrett.
“Naw, it was mostly finished when I bought it. Did some of the interior work, though.”
This setting was a far cry from the inner streets of Chicago where they’d grown up, but somehow this rustic lifestyle seemed to fit the new, settled Garrett.
“My woodworking shop.” He pointed to a standalone building. “I have duplicates of all my tools, so take whatever you need to work on Sarah’s house. With one condition. I want everything back when you’re finished. Okay?”
That stung. “What? You think I’m going to skip the island with your tools?” Jesse may have pulled a lot of stunts through the years, but he’d never stolen a damned thing in his life. Well, except for those couple packs of bubble gum he’d snitched from Wolter’s candy shop when he was ten.
“Come on,” Garrett said, letting the issue hang between them. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s go inside.”
Feeling more than a little out of sorts, Jesse followed his brother up the steps and onto the wide porch. Though the wind had let up a bit, the snow was still falling steadily and the sun had all but set, leaving behind frigid temperatures. The moment the front door opened, a blast of warm, garlic-and-meat-scented air hit Jesse square in the face.
Quickly, he glanced around. A mudroom combination laundry room was positioned to their left, and a large kitchen opened in front of them with a family room off to the right. Pots and pans bubbled on the stove, a fire sizzled in a stone hearth and a kid’s video game quietly played out on a wide-screen TV.
An attractive dark-haired woman came toward them from the kitchen and Garrett grinned as he shrugged out of his coat and hung it on a nearby hook. “Hey, you.” Garrett planted a kiss on his wife’s lips.
Jesse would’ve expected a quick peck on a closed mouth given the couple had been married for a while, but, no. This contact was instantly intimate. The petite woman nearly disappeared when Garrett wrapped his big arms firmly around her.
Caught off guard, Jesse found himself staring. What would it feel like to be welcomed home that sweetly? Hell, it’d been so long since he’d been kissed, he’d surely forgotten what a woman’s lips felt like. Although the exchange lasted only a second or two, it was long enough for Jesse to feel as if he were intruding.
Garrett stepped back, his arm still draped over his wife’s shoulder. “Jesse, this is Erica.”
Jesse nodded and reached out to shake her hand. “Nice to finally meet you.” Per Jesse’s orders his family and friends had not been allowed to visit him while he’d been behind bars, and suddenly, he felt awkward and shy, meeting for the first time this woman who’d become so important to his brother in such a short amount of time.
Chuckling, she glanced at his hand. “That’s a joke, right? We’re family.” Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re finally…here.”
Jesse made an attempt at hugging her back, but it didn’t feel right. After so many years of holding the world at arm’s length, he wasn’t sure he remembered everyday niceties.
“Daddy, Daddy!” A toddler sat in a high chair near the kitchen’s center island, his arms impatiently outstretched toward Garrett.
“And this is David.” Garrett kissed the cheesy-sauced cheek of his young son and scooped him out of the high chair. Cute kid. Reminded Jesse of baby pictures of Garrett. His brother sure did seem comfortable around all this domesticity.
“Zach?” Erica called. “Come and meet your uncle, kiddo.”
A young boy popped up from the family-room floor and came toward them, his hands hanging awkwardly at his sides. “Hey.”
“Hey, Zach.” Jesse reached out and shook the boy’s hand.
From what Garrett had written in his infrequent emails to Jesse, Garrett and Erica had adopted her nephew after Erica’s sister had been murdered by her husband, Zach’s dad. Damn. And Jesse thought he’d had a tough childhood. The kid’s real name was Jason, but he went by Zach or Zachary, the name he’d chosen when he and Erica had first come to Mirabelle to hide from her abusive brother-in-law. Sounded to Jesse like a way to evade the past and all its pain, but who was Jesse to judge? The kid looked as if he was doing okay.
“You look like you’re about Brian’s age, huh?” Jesse said. “Sarah’s son. You two friends?”
“Yeah.” Zach’s eyes lit up. “Best friends.”
“That’s cool. He seems like a nice kid.” For a moment, Jesse stood there, unsure of what to do next.
“Well, settle in quick,” Erica said, heading back to the stove. “Dinner’s ready in a few minutes. Hope you like pork chops. Mashed potatoes and gravy.”
Jesse’s mouth watered at the thought of his first home-cooked meal in almost four years.
“Come on, Jess.” Garrett started toward the back of the house. “I’ll show you to your room before we eat.”
Jesse picked up his bag and followed Garrett down a hallway off the kitchen. “Erica and I are upstairs with the kids,” he said. “You’re in the spare room down here. We’d been using it for storage, so it’s nothing special.”
Jesse walked through the doorway and flicked on the light. Unlike the rest of the house, this room was sparse and plain. There was a bed, dresser and bedside table. The closet was still full of boxes, camping gear and luggage.
“I know it’s basic, but—”
“It’s clean,” Jesse said. “It has a bed.” He threw his bag onto the mattress. For years, he’d dreamed of this moment, he’d dreamed of being free, but now that he was out it all seemed terribly wrong. He didn’t belong here. This was all too perfect. Too nice. Too good for the likes of him.
“And there aren’t any prison bars,” Garrett said softly.
“Nope.” Jesse glanced out the window into the dusky early evening, saw the snow falling more gently now and felt sweat break out on his brow. Most of the men he’d gotten to know in prison would’ve been leaping for joy right about now. An open window. Open door. A couple of open bars down on Main Street. And from what Garrett had said a few ready-and-willing single women.
Women like Sarah with her long, straight black hair, piercing blue eyes, made almost fierce with those thick arching eyebrows and dark lashes. And those lips with their dramatic fullness. It’d been almost four years since he’d touched a woman, four long years since he’d been touched with anything even remotely resembling tenderness.
Abruptly, the look on Sarah’s face as she stared at him through her window just a short while ago flashed through his memory. He glanced back at his brother. “You told her about me, didn’t you?”
Garrett held his gaze. “You mean Sarah?”
Jesse nodded.
“If you’re going to be working in her home, she deserved to know.”
“Forewarned is forearmed. That’s fair.” Jesse was going to have to live with being a felon from here on out, so he might as well get used to it. “What exactly did you tell her?”
“What we agreed