The Rebel

This is my adaptation of “Rebel With A Cause” by Kim Hansen.

Chapter 15

“I haven’t felt this free since college,” Brenda said into the phone. It was
night, and she was standing on the deck with the ocean breeze fanning her
face and the sound of waves echoing around her. She couldn’t remember
ever being so relaxed, at ease with herself and her life. The only dark spot
was Jax. The two of them had never gotten a chance to have that talk.
The events of the day had swept them away. “It’s great, Robin. I wish
you could see it.”

The smile on her lips suddenly grew at her friends response.

“What?” You think you can come out?” Brenda laughed joyfully. “How
soon?” But her attention was pulled away from the conversation when
headlights cut the black of night beside the house before abruptly being
shut off. She had company. “Not for a few more months?” she asked, and
turned toward the corner of the beach house and the walk leading to the
front door. “What?”

Brenda laughed again and temporarily forgot the headlights. “If I’d made
up my mind sooner, you could have scheduled your vacation earlier?”

She listened again, chewing her lip.

“Why did I wait so long to get my own place? What inspired me to finally
do it?” Brenda sighed. “It wasn’t what. It was who.” And suddenly there
he was. Jax was standing on the walk below, leaning against the house
watching her.

Robin asked another question, but Brenda didn’t hear her. She was only
conscious of Jax. Her mouth silently formed his name, and the
conversation was completely lost when, even though she kept the phone
pressed to her ear, he pushed away and moved to the stairs.

As he came up the stairs towards her, she held her breath. In a sports coat,
open-necked pullover and slacks, he was enough to make her heart stop,
but before she could even think about reaching out to touch him, her
friend was calling in her ear.

“What? Yes, I’m still here.” Brenda hastily answered and moved away to
listen while keeping an eye on Jax. “You want to know more about who
inspired me?” She grinned at Jax. “It was a man. A tall, blonde,
mysterious man who recently entered my life.”

Jax smiled, and Robin chatted.

“His name?” Brenda shook her head in response. “He says it’s Jax
McCarty.”

Jax’s smile grew as he overheard the tone, if not the words of Robin’s
shocked response.

“No, its not that I don’t believe him exactly,” Brenda objected. “It’s just
that I have so many unanswered questions about him.” She met Jax’s
steady gaze across the deck. “His job application only listed a post office
box for an address, and while he obviously has a lot of business sense, he
doesn’t list much in the way of experience.”

Jax watched Brenda nod emphatically at her friend’s next question.

“Yes, its as if he’s hiding something, Robin, and as a friend with an uncle
that’s a detective, I wish you would help me find out more about him.”

Jax rolled her eyes, and Brenda grinned.

“Vital statistics? Umm,” Brenda murmured. “About six foot two, blond
hair, aquamarine eyes, cleft in the chin. He rides a motorcycle to work,
but his wardrobe is out of any groupie’s price range. Oh, and he did live
in Alaska once, or I think he did because he told me that it snowed when
he was a child.”

Robin asked for a social security number, but Brenda barely heard her.
She was concentrating on Jax as he reclined, totally at ease, while she
discussed him with a complete stranger.

“I’ll try to get that to you, but listen, I have to run. Someone’s just
stopped by.” She nodded. “Later.”

Jax cocked an eyebrow as she hung up. “Robin as in college Robin?”

“Robin as in college Robin, and her uncle’s a bloodhound when it comes
to working on a case.”

Jax swung toward the stairs. “I better go bury that skeleton, then.”

Shocked, Brenda couldn’t believe it when he disappeared. Alarmed she
raced after him. “Jax!” But when she reached the end of the deck, she
found him grinning up at her from the walk below.

“Have you eaten yet?” he asked.”

“No.”

“Good.”

Before she could speak, he disappeared again but not for long. In
moments he was striding back into view and jogging up the steps once
more with two picnic baskets, some bags and a blanket in his arms. She
laughed. “What are you doing?”

“Going in here,” he said stepping through the patio doors, but he stopped
just inside to take a look around. The room was bare except for one table
and chair and a lamp. The table had papers spread out across it. He
moved closer. “What’s this?”

“Work.”

“So’s this,” he said putting the baskets and bags down and grabbing the
blanket.

She watched him shake it out before setting it neatly on the floor. “What
is ‘this,’ exactly?”

“Courtship,” he responded, straightening the corners of the blanket as it
lay on the floor before standing once more to meet her incredulous gaze.
“The ritual by which two people of the opposite sex get to know one
another better. Or, in other words, cease to be strangers.”

“Really?”

“Scout’s honor,” he said, crossing his heart with a dramatic gesture.

“I suppose you also know its the ritual that leads to people getting
married.”

He grimaced.

She smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. “Chicken?”

“No, that’s in the bag.”

And it was. She could smell it, and her stomach growled in response.

“I remembered what you said about guests having to sit on the floor, so I
cam prepared for a picnic.” He held out a hand and guided her to her
knees beside him on the blanket. “We have wine, properly cooled.
Glasses...” He looked at her in question as, one by one, he pulled each
item from one of the baskets. “I wasn’t sure you had any.”

“A mismatched set,” she responded with a shrug. “The good stuff comes
later in the week with the rest of the furniture. Just the phone came
today.”

He grinned and dipped into the basket again to hand her plates and
silverware and napkins as well as some side dishes of potato salad and
coleslaw. “Am I missing anything?”

“I don’t think so,” she told him with a laugh. “But what’s in the other
basket?”

“A gift.” He reached for it. “Normally I would have come with roses, but
not knowing if you had a vase, or a place to put them--” he gestured to the
one table. “--I decided on something else instead.”

Brenda gasped as he opened the lid and two heads popped out of the
basket. One was black with white ears, and the other white with black
ears. “Kittens!”

“Brother and sister,” He agreed, lifting them free and into her arms. “I
thought you could us the company.”

Laughing as she accepted to two little kittens that immediately began to
nuzzle and purr, Brenda hugged them both in delight. “Oh, Jax, how did
you know? I was thinking of getting one.”

Jax laughed. “Now you have two.”

She laughed as two little noses sniffed her over as if committing her to
memory. “My mother never would let me have pets, but Robin and I had
a cat in college. He was a stray that we brought in our dorm room, and
when we graduated, he went home with Robin. She still has him.”

“Sounds like you two were close.” Jax said as one kitten escaped her grip
to start exploring its new home.

“We were. Still are.” Brenda released the other kitten and laughed as Jax
pulled a ball from the basket and sent it rolling across the room with the
kittens following. “That’s why it seemed appropriate that she be the first
one I called when the phone went in?”

“She’s coming out?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to meet her.”

“Will you still be here?”

“Do you want me to be?"

Brenda leaned towards him across the blanket, and he met her halfway for
a kiss that had both of their hearts beating faster.

“I think I’d like you to be,” she murmured when they finally parted.

“Still making up your mind?”

Chemistry isn’t everything.”

He smiled. “Maybe not, but it does have its own rewards.”

She arched an eyebrow at him and held out the container of food.
“Chicken?”

“No, but I think you are.”

His grin was hidden by the fried chicken leg he put in his mouth. Caught
without a response she bit into a drumstick of her own. But the
conversation wasn’t allowed to lag. Not when a black-and-white menace
came out of nowhere to spring with still-developing and inaccurate aim at
the plate of chicken.

Jax caught the kittens, found another ball and sent it rolling and the cats
running after it. “I’m glad you like cats. I was afraid you might be a dog
person.”

“Are you?”

“I was. I am. All we had when I was growing up were dogs, but when I
met my first cat--” Jax shrugged. “I can’t say it was love at first sight, but
we grew to respect each other over time.” Jax reached for his glass of
wine. “I like his independence, and he liked someplace warm to sleep at
night.”

“A match made in heaven.”

“That’s where that old tomcat is now.”

Brenda smiled as Jax bent to bump heads in friendly acquaintance with
one of the kittens. “It was nice that you had a mother who let you bring
animals into the house.”

“She let me do just about anything,” he admitted. “It was my father I
didn’t see eye-to-eye with.”

“Tell me?”

Jax’s shoulders moved again. “We fought all the time. He wanted me to
be one thing, I wanted to be another, but somehow he got me into the
family business. Problem was, we didn’t see things the same way there,
either.

“You left?”

“Not on the best of terms.”

“But the two of you have made up since?”

Jax nodded.

“I’m glad.” She sighed. “It would bother me if something pulled my
parents and I apart.”

“Being who you are shouldn’t pull you and your parents apart.”

Her eyes dropped from his. “I know, but...”

“You prefer the slow, subtle exit to my flamboyant departure?”

“It seems less wrenching.”

“Sometimes you’ve got to demand respect.”

“Think Sonny’s going to give me any?”

Jax shook his chicken leg at her. “That was just one victory. Don’t get
cocky.” He put the leg aside. “And let’s not talk business tonight.” His
hand disappeared into the basket again. “I almost forgot the atmosphere.”

In minutes Brenda was sitting in the candlelight with light jazz softly
playing in the background.

“You know,” he said rejoining her on the blanket after setting the
atmosphere. “Some people would say your living like a hermit. No
television, no radio, no telephone--until tonight. How many people have
your number?”

“Just Robin.” Brenda admitted with an unrepentant smirk.

“Are you going to give it to me?”

“Why do you want it?”

“I want to call you sometime during the night and breath heavily in your
ear,” he told her leaning forward.

This time she was the one to go halfway, and her eyes closed as, on his
lips, she tasted chicken, wine and man. She pulled away with a sigh. “I
think you’re a romantic.”

“You think I’m a lot of things.” He smiled. “Your adjectives so far, I
believe, include cocky, crazy, perverted...”

She laughed. “I have called you all those things, haven’t I?”

“Want to know how I’d describe you?”

She wrinkled her nose. “From start to finish?”

“We’re not finished yet, remember?”

Her pulse leapt as his eyes sparkled and the candlelight flickered. “I
remember.”

He reached out to take her hand in his. “When I first saw you on that
deserted street, I thought you were a ghost.”

She grinned. “Scared you, huh?”

“No, mesmerized.”

“Tell me more,” she urged linking her fingers with his.

“I thought you were a snob.”

She gasped, and he nodded.

Yes, a blue-blooded socialite who’d lost her way, but then I realized you
weren’t what you appeared to be...even though you were trying very hard
to be exactly what I thought you were.”

She groaned and fell back on the blanket.

He grinned. “But I decided to give you a second chance.”

“Why?”

“You weren’t afraid of my motorcycle. And,” he interrupted when she
started to laugh, “you’ve got the best looking legs I’ve ever seen.”

It was hard to be embarrassed with him staring down at her. “At least I
have one redeeming quality.”

“Two. You like cats.”

She laughed again and watched him raise her hand to his lips.

“Actually more than two.”

“Oh, really and what would the third be?”

“You’re beautiful.” And she was. In the candlelight and lying on the
blanket, he thought she was the most stunning woman he’d ever met.
Even with her makeup slightly smudged after a long day, even in a yellow
crinkled T-shirt with matching shorts, in her bare feet and with her
wind-tossed hair, she was the stuff dreams were made of. He bent down
to see if she was real and found her waiting for him like a beckoning siren.

Her arms wound around his neck and her mouth opened under his, but she
found his kiss wasn’t what she expected. His kiss was never the same.
On the porch, he’d demanded. On the balcony, he’d possessed. On the
blanket, he questioned, and she pressed herself closer in answer. But he
was never able to get the message. Something attacked his ankle.

“Ouch!”

Brenda fell back in laughter and grabbed for one of the two
black-and-white terrors with razor sharp teeth that were making war on
Jax’s shoelaces. “I’m so glad you brought me these sweet little things.”

“I should have gotten you a dog.” Jax grumbled, latching on to the other
kitten. “At least we could have let him outside.” He stared hard at the
growling cat who was all wide eyes and innocence. “What are you going
to name them, anyway? Sonny and Henry?”

She smiled. “Funny.”

Jax flashed her a grin. “I thought so.”

Brenda laughed. “No, one’s a girl remember? How about Peter and
Wendy?”

“You like fairy tales?”

“I’ve always believed in Prince Charming.”

He growled and leaned over to steal a kiss before handing over the other
kitten to her. “Prince Charming only had to contend with seven dwarfs,
not two black-and-white troublemakers.

“Competition too tough?” she asked, trying to catch her breath as he
stood. He always took it away whenever he touched her.

“I’m not ready to give up.”

“Good.”

Her smile made it difficult to keep moving towards the door. “I need to
get you their food and other necessities.”

“I hope that means you brought a litter box.” And she quickly found he
had...along with a scratching post, two baskets, and a load of toys. She
shook her head as he ended the third trip from his car with a sigh. “I can
see if you ever have any kids, that they are going to be spoiled rotten.”

“Are we back to marriage again?”

“That’s not a necessity before having kids nowadays, is it?”

“No, but its proper.”

She arched her eyebrows at him. “Jax, you surprise me. Are you an old
fashioned type of guy?”

“Absolutely,” he agreed, and he caught her arm to pull her against him
and into a slow dance that followed the rhythm of the jazz playing in the
background. “I like the old-fashion music, old-fashioned movies where
the hero and the girl ride off into the sunset, and old-fashioned, deep dish
pizza loaded with cheese. How about tomorrow night? Pizza and a
movie?”

It was difficult to think with his arms around her, his heart beating in
rhythm with hers and his skin burning her flesh. “What about work?”

“That’s during the day. I’m talking about at night. Care to fraternize?”

His cocky grin made her tighten her grip as he held her. “I’d love to,
but...?” she said and reluctantly waved to the table and the papers
scattered across it. “Sonny’s mess.”

“All work and no play,” Jax objected.

“Are you saying I’m dull?” she asked, pulling back to look up at him.

“Oh, no. Anything but,” he assured her hastily and pulled her close again.
“Just too dedicated.”

“I still need more impulsiveness.”

He nodded.

“Like this?”

He was unprepared for the direct approach. The last thing he expected
was for her to take charge, but he didn’t try to fight her off when she
suddenly wrapped herself around him and pressed her mouth to his. He
just held on and hoped he could find a life preserver in time, but when he
went under for a third time, it ceased to matter. He groaned as she pulled
away. “Just how fast do you want this relationship to develop?
Overnight?”

She grinned. “If you can’t stand the heat...”

“Get out of the kitchen.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m
leaving,” he said, but kissed her quickly slipping away to move to the
patio doors. He stopped there to look longingly back at her. “Maybe I’m
not as old-fashioned as I thought I was.”

The invitation was there. She almost accepted it. He’d opened up to her,
given her parts of who he was and where he’d come from, but she wasn’t
ready yet. Even if she wanted to be. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He sighed and went out the door. It was going to be a long night. A very long night
indeed.