“I’m sorry,” Belinda said, her cheeks flushing. She might be blunt and kind of pushy, but she was also a good-hearted person, and she would never want to talk bad about someone and have them hear. “I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t back down now,” Fitz drawled, raising his bushy eyebrows at her. He had surprisingly pretty eyes, if you could get beyond all the hair. Bluish gray. “What’s the point of a high horse if you jump off as soon as your target appears.”
Belinda sucked in a breath, staring at the man in astonishment. Slowly the surprise turned into outrage.
Ria had to hide a giggle. Belinda had spent most of her life bossing other people around. She wasn’t used to people talking back to her.
Skye snorted and covered her mouth with her hand.
“What did you say?” Belinda asked in a hushed tone that Ria was very familiar with. It was her sister’s most dangerous voice.
“There’s the high horse again,” Fitz said with a satisfied nod. “Knew it couldn’t be gone for long.” He turned toward Ria before Belinda could do more than sputter. “These them?” He gestured toward the arrangements in the cooler.
“Yep. Those are them. They’re all tagged, and here’s a printout of the addresses. I also sent it to your phone.”
“I saw it. I’ll take care of these.”
“Thanks.”
Belinda was glaring at Fitz’s back, but the man was evidently completely oblivious to her outrage. He ignored her with perfect indifference as he loaded the arrangements into the back of his car—an old Thunderbird in an ugly shade of sandy yellow—and took off without another word.
“I really don’t like that man,” Belinda said, clearly able to find her words now that the cause of her peeve had departed.
“He’s harmless.”
“Harmless? He’s the rudest person I’ve ever met!”
“Well, I’ll warn you when he’s coming by to make deliveries so you don’t accidentally run into him again. I’m not going to find someone new. We use Fitz, and that’s not going to change.”
“Fine,” Belinda said with a sniff. “It’s your business, so you can do what you want.”
“Why did you come over here anyway?” Ria asked, realizing the purpose of Belinda’s visit had never been revealed.
“Oh. Yeah. I got distracted by mannerless jerks. Apparently Mr. Worth is leaving everything to Jacob in his will.”
“Oh. I guess that’s to be expected. He doesn’t have any other relatives.”
“Yes. But Jacob is going around this afternoon checking out all the property on Main Street.”
“Checking it out? Why?”
“I don’t know. Sizing up his inheritance or something?” Belinda shrugged.
“Maybe he’s going to fix some of the buildings up,” Skye suggested. She’d been surprisingly quiet for a while now.
“Oh. Maybe.” Ria felt a little flicker of interest. That would mean Jacob was planning to stick around. “Huh.”
“Anyway,” Belinda went on. “I thought I’d warn you so you could take off if you need to. I can cover the shop while he’s here.”
Ria smiled at her sister, surprised by the thoughtfulness of her offer. “Thanks. But I’ll be okay. I’d just decided I was going to talk to him, so this will be my chance to go through with my plan.”
“Okay. I do think that makes more sense than constantly running away from him.”
“I haven’t been running away!” Ria insisted. Then her innate honesty caused her to add, “I’ve just walked away once or twice.”
“Three times,” Skye corrected.
“Shut up.” Ria couldn’t help but laugh at herself, and she felt better as she did.
It was a good thing because the bell on the door chimed just then.
“I’ll check,” Skye whispered. “You two pretend to be busy!”
Skye might have been teasing, but Ria figured it was good advice. She grabbed the flowers she’d sorted out earlier for an arrangement she needed to design that afternoon and laid them out on the table.
“Ria,” Skye called from the front of the shop. Without waiting for a response, she pushed the door open and said with gracious poise, as if this were new information and not something they’d just been discussing. “Jacob is here. He’s checking out the buildings on this block. Can he look around?”
“Of course.” Ria was grateful to her friend for laying the groundwork and grateful to her sister for giving her warning. She was able to smile with casual ease as Jacob appeared, towering over Skye in the doorway. “You can look around all you want. We’re not very busy this afternoon.”
Jacob wasn’t smiling. His eyes rested on her face with an observant gravity that was very unnerving. “Thank you. I’m going to check out the front first, and then I’ll be back here.”
When he disappeared again, Ria and Belinda shrugged at each other.
Belinda was clearly planning to stay until this unexpected visit was over. She’d propped herself against a table and pulled out her phone.
Jacob spent about five minutes in the front of the store. Then he tapped on the door and came in when she called out an invitation.
He looked at her again. Didn’t say anything. Then he turned to scan the room and snapped a few pictures.
She watched him. He wore old jeans, work boots, and a heather-gray T-shirt. He’d filled out a lot since he’d been a teenager. His shoulders were impressive. So were his arms. The contours of his ass and thighs were set off by his jeans.
He’d always been in good shape. He’d been great at soccer and baseball. But he’d never looked like this before. He’d been doing a lot of manual labor. Commercial fishing up in Alaska. She knew this from local gossip, and the proof of it was right
