JACOB'S TRUCK is boiling hot. Inside it, Evie feels like she's about to die with the heat hitting her from all sides, and when Jacob joins her in the driver's seat, it feels too hot. Like everything is turned up a notch.
She looks ahead of her, as she fumbles with the seatbelt. Trembling fingers, she tries her best not to make an embarrassing scene by not being able to work her hands properly—and get the bloody seatbelt to click in.
She blames it on the hot weather. She blames it on her reaction with her Dad earlier. She blames the young man getting into his truck to take her for brestfact at his Ranch. At his house. She blames the world. She blames herself...for being a nervous wreck and-
"Oh, for heaven's sake -"
"I got it," Jacob leaps in. He's in her personal space as soon as the words flow from his devastating lips. His body angled towards her in an angle that's too close for words. Too close for comfort, too close for her instant reaction to handle. He's so calm, cool, and collected. The opposite of her, and she loves it.
The scent of him washes over her in trickles of heat. Of coffee breathe, and something delicious...her eyes flutter for a second, dazed by him.
Then his warm hands touch the grey seat belt, lingering on her fingers before he snaps the seatbelt into place with a shot, sharp click, and smiles at her. Eyes sparkling, freckles smudged on his nose, she cannot help but admire him, for all that he is.
"Thank you," she breathes. He doesn't move away. For a moment, his hand stays locked on the buckle of the seatbelt, eyes dancing over her face before he drifts his touch over arm, then her neck. Evenertuuly. his hand reaches the side of her face to cup her chin. Softly, he brushes away her hair behind her ear, mouth slightly open, like he wants to pour words into the car, into Evie ears, to in the world that seems like it's just for them, in this very moment, but he sighs, lingers back, and withdraws his palm from her face, eyes darting to the windshield. He straightens, turns the key in the engine — the radio blasts out a song Evie's never heard before.
He raises an eyebrow. "No, problem, Ma'am."
"Evie," she says. "Call me Evie. You calling me Ma'am makes me think our age gap is weird."
Jacob laughs and puts the car in drive, rolls down the windows, and catches her side profile. "How weird. You are eighteen, I'm only two years younger. Sixteen, and it's not illegal for me to date. My parents don't mind...since I already told them about you."
Evie's heart flutters. He did? "You did?" She couldn't hide the surprise in her voice. Her heart flutters. Like wind charms. His eyes sparkle like stars, his side profile is handsome. Boyish, but handsome. "You told your parents about me?"
He nods, turning down the radio to hear her voice. "Of course. I have no secrets with my parents. My mom doesn't believe me when I tell you that you are British!"
Evie feels her face blush. "Oh, is that why you're inviting me to breastfast? You want your Mum to believe you are bringing home a British girl?"
Jacob turns onto the road, indicator on, clicking before he drives on. "No Ma'am. I'm inviting you to breakfast because I want to, " He drives on, pressing his foot on the gas. "And, because I like your accent. I actually missed your voice, sweetheart."
Evie can't help but adore his characteristics while he drives. And his lovely compliments that make her feel ten times timider than usual. Meeting anyone's parents was hard. Especially this redhead boy's parents. What if they didn't like her? What if -
She focus on something.
Jacob driving. The way he moves his on the steering wheel, neck turning, and the small faces he makes when he's concentrating on the road. So cute. So him. So hot. Such a turn on.
Focus on something. Strike up conversation.
"Did you pass your driving test for the first time?"
Jacob turns to her when they reach traffic lights. On red, he breaks the truck. Evie sees his knee bounce, his hands gingerly on the steering wheel freeze. "Hell no," he admits. "I couldn't even get the damn car out of the parking lot the first try."
"Bless you!"
"Stop it!" Jacob laughs. The wind gushes through the car, and he runs a hand through his hair before carrying on. Evie feels the air rush past her face. It's a welcoming sensation, being so warm next to Jakie.
He blinks. "So, when are you going to learn to drive?"
Evie stares at him. "How do you know this?"
Jakie tries to smile but as he steers around a corner, and his Ranch comes into view, he answers. "Cora might have mentioned it,"
"Oh," Ebie smiles. "What else has she mentioned by the way? I'm single, I'm..." Lonely. Sad. Filled with stormy days where no sunshine is seen.
"Everything," Jakie stops the truck. "But I'll tell you about that later Ma'am,"
It's Evie's turn to look at his home. A beautiful two-story Ranch painted in white, with blue shutters surrounded by golden fields and stables.
"Welcome to the Faith Redience," Jake says....his voice is nothing but a soft, delightful sound. It calms the rushing sensation Evie feels in her chest.
Breakfast date here we come.
***
Jacob's home is full of life. Full of colour. Full of smiles. Full of laughter. His parents were a joy. His mom is a beautiful soul. Brown curls to her neck, freckles on her chin and a smile to light up the room. His father was blue-eyed, black hair, steady, and quiet but knew when to crack a joke. However, she never saw his brother in the home, Daniel.
Come to think of it, she never seen much of Cora these days either since Evie started hanging out with Jacob as the months passed. Her responsibility with her Pap's bakery in town took up most of her time, and however understanding Evuie had become about not spending time with her best friend as much, it hurt not to see her. Without Cora to talk to, to bake with, Evie's world was black canvas, void of any light.
That's why she loved Jacob's family as soon as she met them. That's why she loved the way Jacob introduced her to them—his parents happily left them to it, as Jacob explained he wanted the kitchen to themselves so he can make her the epic breakfast.
"What does this epic breastfast involve?" she asks as they padded softly into the kitchen. Specks of sunlight, bright enough to hurt Evie's eyes blurred through the open back door and into his backyard, reflecting the green cupboards and grey worktops, covered them both in a hazy, light yellow hue.
Jacob's back was turned to the stove. From a few metres away, Evie watches the way he moves around his kitchen. Familiarising himself with pots, pans and cutlery. It made Evie's skin glow, made her heart constrict with admiration, made her float towards him as if he was silk clouds spun in blueberry, summer day.
Blueberries Jacob was getting out of the fridge as well as other cooking components. Flour from the cupboards, eggs and milk from the fridge...and a bowl from under the sink. He turns to Evie with a handsome half-smile on his face before he pushes his glasses up to his nose, as if to steady himself for the task at hand.
"Are you ready, Evs?"
"What for?" she whispers, not knowing where to place herself in his kitchen.
The redhead boy places all the cooking supplies on the counter top in front of her before traces his finger across the back of her hand. She feels the current under her skin whispering, telling her to pull away, but it feels nice, lovely, sweet. Then, he pushes a fork in her fingers.
"We're making something special, " he clarifies, stiffening a cough. "We're making blueberry pancakes...."
Evie was not yet ready to do it. Make the blueberry pancakes, and she wasn't ready yet to tell the sweet, redhead boy why, either.
She was a leaking wound as memories resurfaced to the front of her brain; her brother made blueberry pancakes every morning before school, the sound of sizzling batter in the pan, the scent of fruit warming the kitchen, the sound of his laughter, the smiles on everyone's faces like her beloved parents.
The past was itching away at her like a leaking wound of memories, and it was like her heart snapped the way a guitar string breaks beneath her brother's fingers...all those memories, frozen over to winter, never to recur in her life again.
It was a melancholy koelapscope., but it was a broken one, trying to turn into dazzling colours, and the redhead boy didn't quite know how immeasurably out-of-place his summer girl had become without a few short moments.
"Evie?" the boy says. "Evie?"
The wound was a part of her past, still surging forward into her present, and possibly into her future. She wants to answer him, but her voice trembles. She feels pathetic for being sentimental over the possibility of making pancakes. They are only pancakes after all, but it was the memory attached to them that made it real. Made it painful. Made her broken all over again.
She closes her eyes for a moment. "I can't breathe,"
Jacob blinks. "Damn, it's my fault. You don't like pancakes, do you?"
"No," The girl shakes her head, harder enough to cause whiplash. "It's just - it reminds me of someone. Someone I used to know," She doesn't understanding where's she's suddenly opening to him. She thinks she's got everything together. Her mind, her heart and her grief. She knows when to talk to her parents, when not to talk to them, how to smile at her friends, and laugh when she's painting...but her emotions are a wreck. A shipwreck with individual pieces floating out to sea in different directions...and all of them floating to the redhead boy. All at once.
She cannot read his face. So, she flutters her eyes, and holds in her tears.
Don't cry. Do not cry in front of him.
"Is it a ex?" He asks. She hears the hint of jealousy in his voice and it makes her want to crumble to the floor. Because it's nothing of the sort. And she thinks she's broken him in the matter of five minutes without stepping into his kitchen.
Don't cry. Don't show him your broken pieces. Hide them. Hide them well.
"Nothing like that,"
"Then?"
She inhales, and walks around the counter top, shrugging. "It's nothing...I like pancakes. I like them a lot. Blueberries especially. This was a lovely idea. So lovely."
And as she moves about the kitchen, she senses Jacob's gaze on her when he thought she wasn't looking, and she loops her arms around the back of his neck. It causes the boy to bend slightly as she runs her hands through his red hair and immerses herself in him; a scent like trangaines, a smile like sunlight, and a cuddle to end all cuddles.
Her fingers graze his neck, teasing the neck line of his T-shirt, and her hands were all but a cold rush of frozen fingers on his warm skin. Alive, trembling but beautiful. Into his neck, she whispers something he cannot hear....but the wheels in his head turn and he blushes. Did she just say: I want to make love to you.
"What?"
"I want to make blueberry pancakes with you, Jakie."
He stiffens in her arms, letting out a breath. "Right, pancakes. We can arrange that, Ma'am."
"What did you think I said? You've gone all red in the face?"
He brushes her off. But before he does, he leans in and kisses her on top of forehead. It was an unbreakable kiss, and when he opens his eyes again, he knows there is nowhere else he'd rather be. It was just him and Evie, and nothing or no one could tear them apart.
Jacob Faith was the one to hold her in her fragile moment.
And if she'd let him, he'd hold her for all of her fragile moments.
If she knew.
***
The breakfast date goes well. Evie finds her way around Jacob's kitchen in no time and as they prepare the pancake batter, she laughs when he drops a bit of the mixture onto her face. "Oh, I think you've got a bit of batter there?" He leans in and wipes it off, grinning like a child, loving to see her pretty smiles in his home, in his kitchen, in his space making blueberry pancakes with the girl of his dreams. "Let me just get that off for you,"
He knows she's sad. Probably more than most these days but he doesn't bring it up. Instead, he lets her take control of the pancake mix, watches her with adorable gaze as she mixes it around with a spoon, and he pops in the blueberries when she's finished. As she's stirring in the blueberries, he leans back on the countertop, elbows pressed into the worksurface, and just takes her in.
He'll never tell her. He'll never tell his parents or brother. Either will tell his Mom that when she's in her own little world, he feels like he could look at her forever and day. Get lost in her lovely brown eyes, the way she moves around his kitchen...and he thinks of what it will be like to love her for as long as he lives. How they live might plan out in his head, and he knows he's being crazy, her crazier still for deciding to cook blueberry pancakes with him when he doesn't even know how to click the gas stove on, but when she smiles, it is the prettiest he's ever seen.
His phone rings in his pocket, and Evie says. "Are you going to get that? It seems important," But he shrugs it off, and puts his phone on silent, stoving it back in the pocket of his jeans. He walks towards her until they ceremetes apart and rests his chin on her head. Her breathing speeds up, and she laughs. "What's going on here? Are you peeking at how I mix blueberries into this pancake mix?"
She cannot see, but he smiles. "No Ma'am," he says, and he gets a scent of her hair - something citrus and sweet and it's gorgeous on her. "Just admiring the view,"
She elbows him in the ribs. "Cheek of you," And spins around to face him with the bowl of pancake mix in her hands. "Your turn,"
"Turn for what?" he teases, and he almost cracks into a smirk when sees her eyes starting to roll."Your turn with the pancakes," she says.
He raises his eyebrows. "Oh, I see where this is going. You wanna eat pancakes while I flip them out like some sort of chef. Challenge accepted, Evs," But he hestaints. "If I flip more than three in a row you have to give me something?"
Evie ruffles his hair. "Does this something involve extra toppings with your blueberry pancake?"
"Not what I was going for but now you mention it, extra toppings are awesome...but I was thinking about something a little more interesting that will lose the calories after we have eaten the pancakes," he rubs his neck, before the boy looks into her eyes. Evie stops ruffling his hair as she senses the tension grows thick, unsteady. "Kiss me like you did the other night if I win,"
a/n: finally here, chapter eight. it all honesty, this chapter took forever to write, but nevertheless, i hope you enjoy this chapter. don't forget to tell me what you think?
quick question: which is your favourite character so far and why do you like them?
much love, mel x