Closer To You (Tales of the Sweet Magnolia Book 1) Read online

  The little boy waved.

  Jake breathed a sigh of relief.

  ***

  Lillian loved watching Jake sleep. With the Magnolia closed on Sunday, she’d been able to talk Jake into staying over, but under the condition that he left before everyone else at the parlor house awoke. She could have watched his peaceful slumber for hours, his arm tossed over his forehead, the sexy shadow of his beard framing his parted lips.

  Her body remembered how his hands felt sliding over her skin, so gentle, unhurried and thorough, giving as much pleasure as he took. She had no idea of their future together, but she could not imagine waking at dawn on a Sunday and not finding him next to her. Every aspect of Jake Sloan, spirit and flesh, seemed to have been fashioned for her alone. No, the last thing she wanted to do was wake him. To do so would mean that he’d leave her bed and she wasn’t ready for that yet. They’d been seeing each other now for a few weeks, keeping their affair as discreet as possible, especially to the townsfolk. Evening strolls with her girls after five were the most difficult. Walking past the jailhouse was the worst, especially if he was sitting outside. She would nod and smile all the while her body heating of its own accord as he returned the platonic greeting, but the truth of his desire flickered in his steady gaze. The girls, if they were with her, pretended not to notice what was going on between the two, but they knew of the affair. Lil had asked them to keep the secret, but the girls told her she needn’t worry, that they only wanted her happiness.

  Paddy and Cook were apprised as well; in case he was needed in town. However, Lil had sworn them all to secrecy. At least two nights a week, Cook would prepare a supper and serve it in Lil’s room. Her appetite, however, by the time Jake arrived, was not for food and more often than not, their meals went unfinished.

  “Get your fill yet, Miss Lilly?” His slower-than-molasses smile crept across his face. The sound of his voice reverberated through her, jumpstarting her heart.

  “Not yet, cowboy. I’m not sure I’ll ever get my fill of you.” She propped up on her elbow and ran her palm over his broad chest, reveling in the sinewy strength beneath her hand.

  “Anyone complain about the noise last night?” He peered at her with one eye, took her hand and turned it over, placing a lingering kiss on her palm.

  Unable to resist playing against his former concerns, she shrugged. “I heard there were a lot of tongues wagging, bets being placed about how long it would last.” She grinned impishly. “That sort of thing.” Lil felt the strong beat of his heart against her skin. He seemed content and she wished desperately to ask him if he was, but something held her back.

  He placed his hand over hers. “I really should go.” He hesitated. “It’s getting time when folks will be getting up, I suspect.”

  “Going to church,” Lil inserted with a raised brow.

  Jake shot her a side-look and pinched her backside.

  “Ow,” she yelped with a grin. She slapped his hand playfully and then grabbed it as he started to rise. “Just a few more minutes?” Lil knew she presented a challenge. She’d never before raised a complaint when he left in the middle of the night. But since her failed attempt to return to her time, Lil had slowly allowed herself to believe that maybe she was meant to stay in Deadwater. And the idea, having taken root and coupled with her strong feelings for Jake, inspired the hope of something more permanent between them. This, however, was the first time he’d slept over, and she dared against hope that maybe there’d been a shift in perspective of their relationship for Jake as well. Lil didn’t like having to hide how they felt for one another in town, passing each other as though they were no more than mere acquaintances.

  He lay back down, pulling her close and drawing the covers over the two of them. He let out a quiet sigh and closed his eyes.

  “It’s kind of nice, isn’t it?” Lil asked, tracing her finger over his muscled chest.

  Lil threaded her fingers through his, and she gazed upon their entwined hands.

  “Jake,” she asked suddenly, “are you happy?”

  His lids fluttered and his dark gaze slid to hers. He shifted to his side, fully awake now. He brushed a strand of hair over her shoulder.

  “More than I can remember being in a long time,” he responded. A question clouded his eyes. “And what about you? Are you happy?”

  As much as she wanted to know how Jake felt, Lil had not given much thought to the question in regard to her own happiness. “I think I am. There are a lot of uncertainties, I guess, and I get a little scared sometimes…like everyone, I suppose.” She pushed against his palm as he cupped her cheek.

  He studied her. “You’re worried about the future?”

  “Are you?” She met his gaze.

  Jake pulled her close. “Of course, I am. But the way I figure it right now is the only guarantee we have, isn’t it? My duties as a lawman in this town put my life at risk for whatever might come along. I never know when I may wake up and it’s to be my last day.”

  She gasped softly and pressed her fingertips to his mouth, following it with an urgent kiss. “Don’t say such things.”

  He grabbed her chin, holding her gaze to his. “It’s no different than what it feels like to me when I hear you talking about how you came here. If it’s true, then what happens one day when I wake and you’re not here? I wouldn’t know where to look—how to find you.”

  “You’d find me. I believe that. Besides, I’m not planning on going anywhere.” She leaned forward and kissed him gently, making a mental note to leave her address and phone number with Paddy, just in case.

  He stopped her, taking her face and looking deep into her eyes. “And I’m not planning on going anywhere, either.”

  She nodded, understanding what it was he was saying.

  “I don’t want either of us to be afraid of the future.” He eased her to her back,

  his tender kiss meant to appease, like tossing a match to kerosene. Her eyes fluttered shut as his mouth moved slow and patient down her body loving her thoroughly in a way that Lil had come to crave. He nudged her thighs open, nestling his head between them, teasing her with his tongue.

  Lil arched her hips against his mouth and grasped the iron bed rail above her head.

  “Oh Jake,” she sighed, flames licked the flesh from her head to the tips of her toes. Lost in a euphoric haze, she watched his dark head bend to pleasure her, felt his insistent tongue driving her up to a state of utter bliss. His rough unshaven cheek, rubbing against her sensitive skin would leave its lover’s mark on her flesh. She forgot about her fears, about everything, except the two of them. She took comfort that he admitted to believing her story, or at least acknowledging the possibility enough that he expressed concern over it. That was another notch on her heart of the things she’d come to love about him. He never spoke much about what bothered him, never complained of the long hours or hard work of his job.

  Lil gasped and her fingers tightened around the metal rail. Spiraling upward, she sought to breathe for the intensity of her arousal. Lil dug her heels into the mattress, holding back a scream of joy as her body exploded in a thousand beads of light. Her fingers sore, she reached for Jake, hauling him over her body and wrapping her legs around him. He slid into her effortlessly, moving deep, smiling down at her all the while.

  “You like that, sweetheart?” he whispered, increasing the pace of his thrusts.

  She held him tight, neither concerned with the loud thumping of the headboard against the wall. They moved in breathless tandem, coming together in a shattering climax.

  Jake rolled to his side and flopped his arm over his head. “Lord, I can’t seem to get enough of you.”

  She curled against his side and lazily kissed her fingertip, pressing it to his lips. “Well, if no one knew you were here before, I’m betting they know now,” she joked, hoping he would laugh and say that he didn’t care who knew that he’d stayed the night with her.

  He moved his arm, looking at her with a somber expres
sion. Jake frowned and patted her hand as he swung his feet over the side of the bed. Maybe she’d assumed far more than she should have.

  Though he seemed at ease at being naked while searching for his boots, Lil sensed his agitation. “It went right out of my head that I told Nate last night that

  I’d be right back.”

  Li scooted upright, clutching the sheets to her breasts. “You told him that?” She watched him dress in a hurry and chided herself for thinking that his staying over had meant something more to him. “So it’s a bad thing…that you stayed?”

  Jake looked over his shoulder, his hair tousled from lovemaking. “Lil, I told you how I felt, and I meant what I said. One has nothing to do with the other. Nate’s new and with that new group of men that just come in last week hoping to find gold—”

  “Yes, I know several have already paid us a call,” Lil answered, folding her arms around her knees.

  “I don’t want to leave him alone for long, that’s all.” His penetrating coffee-colored eyes distracted her for a moment. He stomped into his boots and grabbed his hat from the bedpost. “I’d like to come by a bit later to call on you.” He paused at the bedroom door. “If that’s all right?”

  Her body still thrummed from their lovemaking, but she had to face the fact that to Jake it was only sex…phenomenal, insanely, fantastic sex…but sex just the same. “Sure. You know where to find me.” Lil felt a wash of guilt at her surly tone, but if Jake caught it, he ignored it.

  “I’ll just go out the back way.”

  His remark stung for reasons Lil could not yet face. She’d gone into this with eyes wide open, encouraging the idea of having a good time and determined not to let her emotions get involved. That notion had apparently worked for one of them. “Take the back stairs through the kitchen. No one should be downstairs except Cook at this hour.”

  He tossed her a wink and was gone.

  ***

  Lillian lifted the hurricane lamp and lit the kerosene wick. She blew out the match and set the light so she could see her music. She’d not heard from Jake all day, nor had she expected to, instead she tried to occupy her troubled thoughts between beating rugs, hauling water to her tub to soak for a good hour, and dodging the enthusiastic praises from her girls. Later, Cook fixed her supper and she ate alone in her room. Only when she heard no sounds coming from downstairs had she ventured out to pour herself a drink and turn to her music. She sat down, pulling her gown over her lap, so her feet were free for the pedals. It was the first time since she’d arrived that Lil felt like she didn’t belong. Trifling with the keys, she played a melody of a song sung by one of her favorite artists, Billy Joel. Lil sang quietly, “Don’t go changing to try to please me….” Tears clogged her throat preventing her from continuing, but she thought of the lyrics and tears streamed down her face as she moved her fingers over the ivory keys.

  “Miss Lillian? Whatever is the matter?”

  She pulled her hands off the keyboard, swiped her fingers over her cheeks, and wiped her nose. “Angel, my dear, you’re still awake? I didn’t see you.”

  Angel circled around behind the piano and faced Lil, eyeing her with concern.

  “Miss Lillian, is it the song that makes you cry?” “I don’t know, maybe.” She sighed.

  “It sure brought a tear to my eye. I was standing out on the front porch when I heard you singing.” She smiled. “You have a lovely voice, you know. You should sing here at the Magnolia.”

  She chuckled and it felt good to think about things other than Jake just now. “I thank you kindly for your kind words, Angel, but I’ve had no formal training. I just like Billy Joel.”

  “Billy Joel. From the sounds of things, I think I like him, too. Have you ever met him?” Her blue eyes opened wide with interest.

  Lil laughed. “No, he’s far too expensive for me, but I like to listen to his music.”

  Her brief curious expression quickly faded with an effervescent smile. “Would you play some more?” she asked. “Maybe you could teach me something on the piano?”

  She scooted over and patted the bench. “Come sit here and we’ll see what damage we can do to this old piano.”

  “I’d very much like to learn that song you were singing.” Angel folded her hands in her lap. Angel had a look of innocence about her, with her fresh-faced complexion and wide blue eyes. It was odd to think that for her age, she’d seen more in her life than women twice her age in Lil’s time. Lil wondered what her story was. “How’d you come to live in Deadwater, Angel?” Lil had never pushed her for her background, just taken her in.

  The woman’s cheeks turned crimson and she looked down watching Lil’s hands move across the keys. For a moment, she didn’t say anything. “It’s all right.

  We don’t need to talk about it.”

  Angel glanced at Lil with a side look. “No, it’s okay. I just don’t talk about it much and after a while, I guess I just put it behind me. Sort of like it was somebody else’s life.”

  Lil considered if the same would eventually happen to her. Would her life in Deadwater absorb every part of her past? “That what happened?” Lil prompted and took Angel’s hands in her own, positioning her fingers on the keys. “There, that’s the first note.”

  Angel pressed the keys in unison, making a lovely chord. She looked up in surprise and smiled at Lil. Excited to try it again, she pushed down the keys, her expression showing her delight. “I was traveling with my parents…. Can you show me the next part?” she asked.

  “Sure.” Lil complied with her request. “Go on with your story.”

  Angel’s attention was on the piano keys, carefully following each hand position that Lil showed her. “My folks, as long as I can remember, seemed at odds, fighting all the time, but Mama agreed to follow my father out here because he promised her that he would give her everything she wanted as soon as he struck it rich.”

  “You mean with the gold being found in the mountains?” Lil remembered the history she’d read of the mining towns scattered through the mountains. Virginia City, Gold Hill, Eldorado Canyon, were all famous for their gold and silver mines.

  Though the town of Deadwater rarely had shown up in her research of Western history, it was not unusual for small mining towns to be abandoned, or swallowed up by bigger towns.

  Angel nodded and went on with her story. “We’d been here a month and Pa hadn’t had any luck. Mama was tired. She missed the city with its fine stores and tea in the afternoons. The fights got worse and finally Pa said we should move on to California, that they’d found gold, and he should get in before too many claimed the lode. Mama refused. She insisted she wasn’t about to follow after him any further and get stuck taking care of his kid while he went off on some goose chase looking for gold.”

  Lil’s hands stilled on the piano and she shifted in her seat to look at Angel. “She didn’t really say that, did she?” Lil couldn’t imagine a mother saying that in front of a child. An image of her own childhood flashed in her head. Though she and her sister had survived the horrible tragedy of losing their parents, not a day went by that she didn’t remember the good times, the times when she knew she was wanted, loved. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to not have the support and love of a mother and a father.

  The young woman shrugged. “Mama wasn’t the type who liked adventure, that was Pa. Mama liked her things—jewelry, clothes, houses—she wanted nice things, finer things than what Pa could afford to give her. He would’ve taken me with him, I think, but he said it was too untamed, dangerous for a girl and where would I stay when he had to go to the mines? No, he told me that I had to stay here with Ma and when he found his gold, he’d come back for me.”

  Lil wanted to gather Angel in her arms and hold her close. “And my guess is that he hasn’t yet found that gold,” Lil asked though she knew already the answer.

  Angel shook her head. “Mama though, she found herself a well-to-do man, he played the tables. Seems that once Mama laid eyes on hi
m, it was like I’d never been born.”

  Lilly swallowed the lump in her throat, vowing to hold a brave face in light of Angel’s clear fortitude.

  “She left with him one morning in spring. Left me a letter with her reasons why and enough money to stay on at the hotel for a week, but after that I would have to find my own way, just as she had to find hers.”

  Lil clenched her fists, pretending to flex her fingers for playing when in her mind she wanted to deck that selfish bitch for leaving her daughter in the middle of nowhere. “You are probably the bravest woman I’ve ever met, Angel. May I ask, when was the last time you heard from your Pa?”

  Angel gazed at the sheet music as though doing the math in her head. “The day he left me, seven years ago, I think, maybe eight. When my money ran out, I needed a place to stay and I heard the Magnolia was looking for young women.

  That’s when you took me in.”

  “Have you ever given thought to doing anything else?” Lil asked as though they were seated in a modern day coffee shop and the woman had endless possibilities available to her. The reality of it was that Angel had very little hope of ever leaving Deadwater, much less the Magnolia. Like so many of the “soiled doves” in the old western towns they would grow old, eventually losing their allure and those that didn’t find marriage or hole away a bit of money, often died alone and destitute. The thought of that happening to Angel turned Lil’s stomach.

  Angel looked at Lil then and though a measure of sorrow glittered in her beautiful blue eyes, there was still a spark of hope. “I suppose if things were different, maybe I’d have someone like your Sheriff Sloan, or a piano man who writes pretty words to music—a husband and a home. I always wanted a little girl.” She smiled wistfully.

  Lil cupped Angel’s cheek, wanting to tell her that Jake wasn’t “hers,” and that truthfully, he belonged to the town. Instead, she chose to address Angel’s hope. “It’s important to hold on to your dreams. No matter how dark the skies get sometimes.” Lil realized that she was advising this brave young woman when she needed to be taking her own advice. Since it didn’t appear that she was going anywhere soon, perhaps she could afford more patience and a little more gratitude that she had a man like Jake in her life, if only for now. But beyond that, Lil needed to look around her at the opportunity to make a difference where she was. Would she change the course of history? Out there in a God-forsaken desert town, the likelihood was mighty slim. But she could stop wallowing in her own problems and see what she might do to make life a little easier for those that for now, she called, “family.”