Jake spotted a man walking up the driveway through the front window.

“Oh, we parked in the driveway,” Shelby said. “He couldn’t get into the garage.”

Her mom rose to her feet and sniffed. “Don’t worry about it. If he’d been home on time, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

The man walked in the front door and Mrs. Leighton rushed over to him. “Where the hell have you been?” she demanded as she grabbed his shirt.

“Working late,” he said. He looked past her. “Hi, Shelby sweetie. Didn’t know you were coming over or I would’ve been here sooner.”

She sighed. “You did know I was coming, Dad.”

“Your mother never told me.”

“Yes I did!” Mom screeched. “You never listen to me!” And she turned and disappeared down the hall. Shelby winced at the bang of the bedroom door slamming shut.

“Okay,” she said standing. “We should go.”

Jake rose too. “Uh…” He looked at her dad.

“Dad this is my friend, Jake. Jake, my dad, Steve Leighton.”

They shook hands and Mr. Leighton said, “Nice to meet you. Sorry you couldn’t stay longer.” He started down the hall. “I better go talk to your mother.”

Shelby’s eyes met Jake’s and the frustration in them made his heart clench. He wanted to pull her in for a hug, comfort her, reassure her that she was important. To somebody. To him.

Hell. What was that?

“Well,” she said to him once outside the house. “Sorry about that. But that’s pretty typical.”

“Didn’t they even care that you brought some guy with you?” he asked. “Jesus, if I had a daughter and she brought a guy home, I’d be all over that.”

She sighed. “Yeah, well. Like I said, they kind of distract each other from everything else.”

Jake held up his hand and she saw two cookies. He grinned. “I stole a couple of cookies, since you won’t bake any for me. These are really good.”

Her laughter made his heart constrict even more.

“I hate the way my mom is so needy,” Shelby said as they drove back to her place. Once again she looked out the side window, so his sidelong glances at her revealed only her shiny blonde hair. “I wish she’d have a little more confidence in herself. And in Dad.”

“That’s a crazy way to grow up,” he said.

Now she turned to look at him. “I’m sorry. At least I had two parents.”

“From the sounds of it, not really. Hey, don’t be sorry for me. I survived.”

She nodded, her lips curved into a sad smile. “Yeah, you did. And so did I. But even so, stuff like that messes you up, you know?”

Yeah. He knew. He knew he hadn’t handled Gianna leaving very well because of his mom and sisters having left. And Shelby apparently knew she hadn’t handled her relationships with men very well after growing up all but ignored by her parents. Neither of them had a particularly good example of a healthy relationship in their lives.

But that didn’t mean they weren’t capable of having a healthy relationship.

Why was he even thinking of that, seeing as neither of them even wanted a relationship?

Jake called on Saturday to see if she wanted to go for a run along the beach.

Shelby grinned. “Are you kidding me?” she demanded. “I already told you I can’t run with you. Your legs are three times as long as mine. I have to run to keep up with you when you walk, for heaven’s sake.”

He laughed. “Oh come on. I’ll run real slow.”

“As it turns out, I can’t,” she said, eyeing Taylor in her kitchen carefully cracking eggs into a bowl. “Taylor’s here. We’re making cookies.”

“Oh.”

She hesitated. “You can come over and help if you want.” Then she closed her eyes briefly. Why would he want to bake cookies with her and a twelve-year-old? She wasn’t even sure why she’d offered. But she would like to see him.

“I’ll go for my run with Wayne. At least he can keep up with me.”

She had to smile even as disappointment washed over her.

“Then I’ll come over after.”

“Oh.” Her smiled widened. “Okay. What’s your favorite kind of cookie?”

“Hmm. I think peanut butter.”

“All righty.”

She hung up, then opened a cupboard and pulled out a jar of peanut butter that felt disappointingly light. She unscrewed the cap and peered in. Yup, nearly empty. Damn.

“Hey, kid,” she said to Taylor. “We need to make a trip to the store.” When Taylor looked up she waved the empty jar.

“Okay.” Taylor wiped her hands on a towel.

“It’s time for lunch. You hungry?”

“Starving!”

“What’d you have for breakfast?”

“I…uh…didn’t have breakfast.”

Shelby made a shocked face. But she wasn’t shocked, she was sad, because Taylor often skipped meals when she was home alone. Taylor was capable of making herself something to eat, a sandwich or piece of toast, but she often just completely forgot about eating when she was on her own.

“I’ll take you out for lunch,” she said. She surveyed the counter. “We okay to leave this stuff for an hour? We should put those eggs in the fridge.”

Taylor was happy with fast food, although Shelby wished she’d suggested cooking a meal for her instead. Even if her cooking wasn’t all that great. They were probably better off with burgers and fries. And they had fun, laughing and talking over their lunch in the noisy restaurant.

Then they stopped at the grocery store and picked up peanut butter and a few other things Shelby needed. She added a six pack of beer…just in case maybe Jake stayed later. And a bottle of wine for her. And a package of Eggo waffles for Taylor to take home. “For your breakfast tomorrow,” she said sternly. “You have to eat breakfast.” It wasn’t the healthiest breakfast but it was easy for Taylor and better than nothing.

“I love these!” Taylor said, clutching the box. “My mom won’t buy them.”

“Do you have syrup to put on them?”

“I don’t know.”

A bottle of syrup went into the cart and then a jug of Taylor’s favorite juice.

They arrived back at Shelby’s apartment at the same time as Jake, just emerging from his Jeep parked on the street. She waved at him as she turned into the parking lot.

“Hey,” he said when she climbed out of her car, having followed them. “Where were you? I thought you were baking cookies.”

“We went to McDonald’s!” Taylor jumped out of the car. “And we had to go buy peanut butter.”

Shelby’s eyes met Jake’s and heat washed into her face. A faint smile touched his lips. “Ah,” he said. “Here, let me help.” He reached for the two heavy bags Shelby held and she got the other two out of her trunk.

In her little kitchen, the music of Jason DeRülo played from speakers in her living room as Jake helped unpack the groceries and put them away, and she and Taylor resumed their baking. Shelby moved a little to the music as she found ingredients and set them out and they measured and mixed. She caught Jake’s eye at one point, her mouth curving in response to the half smile he sent her, watching her groove a little.

“If you dip the fork in flour it won’t stick to the cookie dough,” Jake offered helpfully when Taylor had dropped spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet. She was carefully pressing the tines of a fork into the mounds to create a criss-cross pattern but was getting frustrated when the dough stuck. Jake dumped a little flour onto the counter and showed her. Shelby smiled as she watched him, her insides warming at the way he was so…present. He listened to Taylor and helped and made jokes that had them both laughing. It felt like he really wanted to be there, baking cookies with them. Shelby’s hands paused, holding a big mixing bowl, and she swallowed.

Once again she had that strange feeling, almost like fear, her stomach tightening, her skin prickling. What were they doing? This felt so normal and real, and it wasn’t, it shouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

Shelby was at work Thursday, starting to feel sick because of what she was learning about the intake process that needed to be addressed in her project plan, and also because she hadn’t heard from Jake for a few days. They’d texted back and forth but she was annoyed at herself for caring that much that she hadn’t seen him.