Arabella studied the picture they all made together. A family already. And now, she felt sure, with new babies on the way as well.
She exhaled, feeling her annoyance with Brady dribble away. Most of it, at least.
“It’s getting late.” Jay pushed away from the table and stood. “And I should leave you folks to your evening.”
“You don’t have to run off,” Harper protested.
“I’ve got horses to feed and I usually check in on my grandmother every evening about now,” he said, even though Arabella felt sure he did no such thing. If anyone did any “checking in” where Louella was concerned, it was probably Louella herself checking on Jay. “Thank you for the dinner, though.” His gaze rested on Arabella. “I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed myself more.”
Feeling a little like a slightly scorched marshmallow, Arabella followed him through the house to the front door. “Thank your grandmother again for the jam.” The jars were still sitting on the coffee table in the living room. “I’m going to have to hide one away in my bedroom to keep it safe.”
“You know where there’s more.” He stepped out onto the porch.
She suddenly didn’t want him to go. “Insurance office. Really?”
He smiled slightly. “Really.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That’s as bad as a plastics manufacturer. That was my last job in New York.”
“Surprised you were able to tear yourself away,” he said dryly. “And insurance is boring only until you find yourself in need of it.”
“Sounds like a slogan but I’ll concede that point.”
His smile widened. He suddenly lowered his head slightly toward hers. “Is your brother’s fiancée pregnant?”
She gaped, and hearing a noise behind them in the kitchen, joined him on the porch so she could pull the door closed behind her. “You got that, too?” She pressed her hands over her mouth until she got control over her chortling. Then she grabbed his shirtfront urgently. “You can’t say anything, though.”
He covered her hands with his. “I promise.”
Just that easily, her knees went weak. Thanks to her own riotous imagination, the last week and a half had been an emotional roller coaster where he was concerned.
Which meant she needed to stop overreacting at his slightest touch and start acting like the adult she claimed to be.
She only needed to figure out how to think straight for more than ten seconds at a time whenever he touched her.
Simple enough, right?
“What’s going on inside that beautiful head of yours?”
She froze. “What do you mean?”
His eyes roved over her face. His thumb brushed against the back of her hand. “I can practically see the wheels turning.”
She made a face and shook her head. Her fingers finally listened to the frantic signals from her brain to release his shirt and she pulled her hands from beneath his. “The sunset,” she lied. “Reminds me that I should get in there.” She tilted her head toward the door behind her. “Make sure I’m set for tomorrow. Big day and all.” She rubbed her hands together with false excitement. “Trainee program and such.”
“You might like it.”
“I’ll like it fine as long as it pays my way out of the twin bed I sleep in upstairs here.”
“Twin bed?”
She realized too late that was a topic better left alone. “It’s a small bedroom.” She fumbled behind her back for the door handle. “Maybe I’ll see you around the hotel.”
“Pretty sure you will.”
“Well.” She got the door open. “G’night.”
“Arabella.”
Her nerves went tight again. “Hmm?”
“It was a complicated week because of old business from California.”
Her mouth dried. Business? Or relationship? “Insurance business?”
His lips compressed. “Not exactly.”
Her stomach sank. Relationship then. Despite her little mental lecture about overreacting and overactive imaginations, she was as certain of that as she was about Harper being pregnant. “Are you married?”
His eyebrows yanked together. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
She didn’t like feeling foolish any more than the next person did and she lifted her chin. “That’s not an answer.”
“No, I am not married,” he said emphatically.
She felt a little like Tyler, then. Somewhat mollified. Somewhat reassured. But not entirely convinced. “People have lied about that before.”
“You were involved with someone who was married?”
“Well, not once I learned the truth!” She cleared her throat and lowered her voice again. “It was just one date. We didn’t—” Her words freeze-dried on her tongue when he curled his palms over her shoulders.
“Arabella.” He exhaled and she felt the press of his fingertips through her knit dress. “One of these days, I hope you’ll want to be Bella to me again.”
Her knees went weak all over again.
“I am not married,” he said softly. “Never have been married.” His fingers squeezed her shoulders slightly. “The stuff from California is just...old...stuff. An inconvenience. And it doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
Forget freeze-dried. Her mouth was suddenly watering and she swallowed hard. “Us? Is there an us?”
His fingers slipped her hair behind her ear before trailing along her jaw. “I think there could be.” His thumb reached her chin. Rested right below her lower lip. “Don’t you?”
The entirety of five months of fantasizing couldn’t match that single moment standing on her brother’s porch while the sunset beamed red and gold and orange behind Jay. “Yes,” she breathed.
“Then let’s just go one day at a time and see where it takes us. Hmm?”
She nodded jerkily. Every fiber of her soul wanted him to kiss her. But she’d asked for his kiss the last time and then he’d gone a whole week and then some before speaking to her. And then only because they’d run into each other at the hotel.
She didn’t have the guts to ask again.
Not even when he ran his thumb slowly over her lip.
Her knees were already mush. The rest of her bones followed suit.
As if he knew it, he smiled slightly. “G’night, Arabella.”
Then he turned and walked away.
Thankfully, the front door was hard and substantial. It held her
