Birthright

Jake. One minute you’re the same annoying jackass you always were, and the next you’re an annoying jackass who’s trying to be nice.” She tipped down her glasses, peered at him over the rims. “You gaslighting me?”
    He only smiled and gestured by jerking up his chin. “What do you think?”
    It was big, and sheltered by trees. Part of the creek snaked alongside it. An active part, Callie thought as she got out of the car and heard the water gurgling. It was a frame structure that looked as if it had been built in three parts. A basic sort of ranch style, then the second-story addition, then an offshoot to the side that boasted a short deck.
    The lawn needed to be mowed. The grass brushed her ankles as she walked across it toward the front of the house.
    “Where’d you find it?”
    “One of the towners who came by to see the dig mentioned it to Leo. It’s her sister’s place. Marriage busted up a few months ago, and they’re renting the house until they figure out what they want to do. There’s some furniture. It’s not much, just stuff neither of them took. We got a six-month lease that comes in cheaper than the motel.”
    She liked the feel of the place, but wasn’t ready to admit it. “How far are we from the site? I wasn’t paying attention.”
    “Six miles.”
    “Not bad.” She strolled, casually, to the door, tried to turn the knob. “Got the key?”
    “Where’d I put that?” He came up behind her, showed her an empty hand, snapped his wrist, showed her the key.
    He tugged a reluctant grin out of her. “Just open the door, Houdini.”
    Jake unlocked the door, then once again scooped her off her feet.
    “What is with you?”
    “Never did carry you across the threshold.” He closed his mouth over hers for ten hot, humming seconds.
    “Cut it out. And we didn’t have a threshold.” Her stomach muscles were balled into a knot, and she shoved against him. “The hotel room in Vegas where we spent our wedding night doesn’t count.”
    “I don’t know. I’ve got some fond memories of that hotel room. The big, heart-shaped tub, the mirror over the bed, the—”
    “I remember it.”
    “I remember you, lying in that tub with bubbles up to your chin and singing ‘I’m Too Sexy.’ ”
    “I was drunk.”
    “Yeah, you were plowed. I’ve had a soft spot for that song ever since.” He dropped her to her feet, gave her butt a casual pat. “So what we’ve got is the living room—common area—here.”
    “What the hell happened to that sofa?”
    He glanced toward the shredded arm of a couch covered with a brown, beige and red checked print. “They had cats. It was in the half-finished family room downstairs. Kitchen’s back there, appliances come with it. There’s an eating area. Bath and a half on this level, another upstairs along with three bedrooms. Another bedroom or office space over there, and over here . . .”
    He crossed the living room, turned and gestured toward a good-sized room with a sliding glass door and the pretty little deck beyond it. Even as Callie opened her mouth, he shook his head.
    “Too late, babe. I already called dibs on this.”
    “Bastard.”
    “Nice, especially after I saved you the biggest bedroom upstairs. We can move in tomorrow.”
    “Fine.” She walked through the room and onto the deck. “Quiet here.”
    “It won’t be once we’re in it.”
    It felt normal, she realized. Weird as it was, this felt normal after the hour in Lana’s office. “Remember that place we stayed in outside Cairo? We were only there a few weeks.”
    “A few too many.”
    “It was only a little snake.”
    “It didn’t look so little when it slithered into the bathroom with me.”
    “You screamed like a girl.”
    “I certainly did not. I bellowed like a man. And though I was bare-assed naked, I dispatched it with my bare hands.”
    “You beat it to a pulp with a towel rod.”
    “Which I ripped from the wall with my bare hands. Same thing.”
    She could still see him, gloriously naked, not a little wild-eyed, with the limp snake draped over the towel bar.
    Those were the days.
    “We had a good time, anyway. We had some good times.”
    “Plenty of them.” He laid a hand on the base of her neck. “Why don’t you let it out, Callie? Why do you have such a hard time letting anything out but your mad?”
    “I don’t know. She fell apart, Jake. She just went to pieces up there in Lana’s office. She was holding on to me so tight I could barely