What She Needs //Jake Kiszka

Chapter 2

The first week passed, Jennifer grew to really like all the boys. And they liked her too. It could be said that the four of them became friends.

Sam turned out to be amazing with the girls. They played together, run together, went in the near woods together. He taught Molly how to ride a bike. Jennifer knew both her daughters grew to adore him, like he was their big brother. When they wanted to play, they went to Sam, when they wanted to laugh, they went to Sam. At night, when they went to bed, it was Sam who read them stories. And sometimes he even fell asleep in their room, sitting on the small armchair in between the girls' beds.

Josh became the housekeeper of the group. He cooked, went grocery shopping, took care of the house and everyone else. Jennifer learnt to appreciate talking to him, listen him talk about movies and soundtracks. He was so passionate about everything, and his enthusiasm was contagious. Just what she needed at that moment of her life. Like his brother Sam, Josh too loved being with the girls. Sometimes Jennifer found herself thinking the two of them turned five again while playing with Molly and Sarah.

Jake was something else. In every way possible.

The very first night Jennifer fell asleep thinking about him, and so she did other times. She couldn't help it sometimes. Jennifer had tried not to think of him in that way, but when he played guitar for everyone in the living room, her eyes couldn't leave his beautiful face. When Jake built the little swimming pool for the girls to play in during the hottest summer days, she couldn't stop looking at his arms and long hair falling on his shoulders. Karen was right, Jake could fix everything. The garage door that was stuck closed, one of the beds in the boys' room, the tv that stopped working one night while they were all watching cartoons for little kids, all laughing like they were little kids.

And Jennifer could feel that the same thing was happening the other way. She had caught Jake looking at her more than just a few times, and when their eyes met, he didn't look away. Instead, he had kept looking, a smirk displaying on his lips. At first it was only stares, glancing at each other while doing different things. But then, after just a few days, it also became something physical. Jake couldn't help but gently touch her each time he could. It could be their thighs brushing against each other when they were on the couch, his hand finding the small of her back when they walked together. Jennifer liked it. And when Jake realized that, things became more intense. He knew the effect he had on her, and, Jennifer was sure, he played with it.

Jennifer was now conducting an interior battle. On one hand, there was the age difference. She kept thinking that she couldn't feel things for someone that was more than ten years younger than her. But on the other hand, she did feel something for him, she was sure. It was that same feeling in her stomach that she felt when she was with her ex husband at the beginning of their relationship. Jennifer was feeling like a teenager again.

One night something happened, and it changed things forever. Jennifer needed a change, at that point of her life. But was that the change she needed? Was that what she looked for when she moved and went living there in the middle of nowhere? Jennifer wasn't sure about that, but everything did change after that night, exactly one week after she met the boys for the first time.

They were eating lunch when Josh spoke. "you know Jen, we were thinking about something".

She looked at him, waiting for Josh to continue.

"a friend of ours, Danny, is coming in town. He is moving out for college, and we will barely see him then. We were wondering if maybe we could go home for the night and come back tomorrow."

Jennifer stopped eating and looked at Sam and Jake. The youngest Kiszka spoke.

"we really would love to see him, he was our best friend during high school, but we need to know if you are okay with that. I know there are the girls to look after and everything, but maybe Susan can help. Or our mum".