All the Waters of the Earth

Chapter 4: You are Going to Get Wet

I didn't see Jake the rest of the weekend. What I did do, however, was clean my house, take my kid to the park, and do a little bit of Christmas shopping. In other words, I did normal mom stuff. I tried not to think too much about my next door neighbor, which was impossible to do. It was easy not to see him, though, because he seemed to be gone the whole weekend.

First thing, Monday morning, still pissed about Carlos and his legal papers, I called my attorney and made an appointment to see her at the earliest appointment I could get, which was in a week. Great. One more week to stew in my juices. After that, I spent the morning and early afternoon writing, and I liked most of what I wrote. I especially liked the kisses between my characters, I have no idea why. I finished writing for the day when it was time to pick up Rob from school. He came home, did his homework, and we ate dinner and cleaned up. After dinner, at about eight o'clock, there was a knock at my door.

Would it be a hunk or a process server? I was seriously hoping for the former. The latter never needed to come again.

When I opened the door, it was Jake, a little rumpled in his suit, his tie undone slightly, his hair roguish. He looked like one tired businessman.

"Hey," he said, those sapphire eyes looking down at me.

"Hi," I replied, surprised to see him. "Are you just finishing up work?"

"Yeah," he said. "I worked all weekend too. I wanted to bring you this, one of my clients makes it." And he handed me a jar of salsa, a very good local brand.

"Thank you," I said, touched by his gesture, feeling warm. He had thought of me. "I love this brand, it's delicious."

"I'm glad you like it, I know it's great," he responded. He looked at me and then he looked behind him at his door. "Well, I don't want to keep you. It was a long day."

Who took care of this guy? It didn't seem like he had anyone looking out for him. "Did you get dinner?" I asked.

"I picked up something at work," he said. "The usual thing that I do. There's takeout next door."

"No, no, no," I responded. "You need to start eating good food, home cooked, you know."

He smiled. "It's hard when I work so late all the time. I loved your tamales, Lucy."

"You should try my chili relleno casserole. It's a recipe from the Dairy Council of America, but it's the shit."

"MOM!" yelled Rob.

"Sorry, mijo," I called back.

"Don't swear Mom," he called back.

I ignored him and looked at Jake. "You want to meet my son?" I asked. It was funny. I didn't feel weird introducing Jake to my son or introducing my son to Jake. We were neighbors. He was bound to find out that I had a son. I had never kept it from people I dated, but it definitely was a damper on relationships and it was also often a test if the guy could handle me.

Love me, love my son. That's the way it worked.

Jake nodded. I let out a breath. So far, he passed. "Sure. Can I come in?" I stepped back and let Jake come in my home for the first time, his elegant, but athletic frame dominating the front area.

"Roberto, come here and meet Mister Jake, our new neighbor."

Rob came skidding up in his socks and slid right in front of Jake. Rob was skinny, with bony knees and gangling arms, not yet grown into himself. His hair was short and spiky and he had cheeks meant to pinch and dark brown eyes like his father. "Whoa," was his response, when he looked up to how tall Jake was.