“Since when has anybody in this family avoided any topic that suited them?” he asked, considering Jess’s comment a gross exaggeration. “Everyone in this family is always in trouble with one person or another for being too outspoken.”
“Come on, Connor. You snapped at Gram!” she said indignantly. “What has she ever done to deserve that?”
Connor flushed, recalling the incident with immediate shame. “I never meant to,” he said. “She made a comment about Heather and little Mick. I took it the wrong way and told her it was none of her business what Heather and I did or didn’t do. I apologized almost as soon as the words came out of my mouth. Gram understood.”
“Well, of course she did,” Jess responded with exasperation. “That’s what Gram does, no matter how badly we behave, but, Connor, you have to see how wrong that was.”
“I do. It won’t happen again.”
“It will unless you fix things with Heather. If I loved somebody as much as you obviously love her, and he loved me back, you can bet I wouldn’t be dillydallying around and letting him get away just because I had my doubts about whether I had what it takes to make a marriage last.”
Connor regarded her with surprise. “It’s not about me doubting myself,” he insisted. “If I committed to getting married, I’d make it work.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“I gather the grapevine hasn’t reported that I asked Heather to marry me,” he replied. “Several times, in fact.”
Jess blinked. “Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“Well, hallelujah! Why doesn’t anyone know about this? And why are you walking around in a funk?”
“Because she turned me down flat each and every time.”
Now it was his sister’s turn to look stunned. “You’re kidding me. Why? Did she say?”
“She didn’t believe I’d really done a one-eighty on the whole marriage thing.” He gave her a wry look. “It probably didn’t help that I admitted I’d made a pact with God when I was scared she was going to die.”
Jess stared at him. “You told her that?”
He nodded.
She punched him in the arm. “You’re an idiot.”
“That seems to be the consensus.”
“How are you going to fix it?”
“I’m not,” he said. “No matter what I say now, she won’t believe it.”
“Then stop talking and show her you’re ready to be the kind of husband she’s always dreamed about. Actions speak louder than words. At least that’s what a shrink we both know is always telling me.”
Connor grinned for the first time since the uncomfortable conversation had started. “How is Will these days?”
“Annoying,” Jess said at once. “Irritating. Impossible. Underfoot too darn much, thanks to you.”
“If the guy doesn’t get to you, why do you waste so much energy making sure you’re never alone with him? Seems to me that’s a dead giveaway that you have a thing for him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Besides, I didn’t come over here to talk about Will.”
“No, you came as the family’s duly designated representative to make sure I straighten things out with Heather. You can report back that it’s not going to happen. Not this time. If anything, things between us are worse than ever.”
“Because you’re too stubborn to swallow your pride and grovel.”
“Ask your friend Will what kind of prayer a relationship that requires groveling will have.”
She gave him an irrepressible grin. “The way I hear it, most of them do, especially when the man keeps doing really dumb stuff.”
“Asking Heather to marry me was dumb?”
“Of course not,” she said at once. “But taking no for an answer certainly was. After the way you held out on her for years, I don’t blame her for one minute for turning the tables on you.”
“I don’t think it was about revenge,” he said.
“No, Heather’s too sweet to want revenge. She just doesn’t believe in this sudden change of heart. Not many women would.”
Connor sighed. Even though he didn’t like what Jess was telling him, he realized there was a kernel of truth in it.
“Actions, huh?”
She nodded.
“Such as?”
“Did you ever really court her?”
“You mean flowers and candy, that kind of thing?” he asked.
“For starters.”
“Never. Who had money for stuff like that back in college?” His expression brightened. “I did take her a huge bouquet of peonies from Bree’s shop the other day. She’d always talked about how much she liked peonies.” He hesitated. “Or was it pansies? Maybe that was the problem. I took the wrong flowers and she concluded I hadn’t been paying attention.”
Jess merely shook her head. “Sadly, most women learn by the time they’re in their teens that men never hear a word we say unless we toss in things like football and baseball scores to get their attention.”
“Now who’s being downright cynical?” he said.
“Please,” she retorted. “We both know Mom left Dad because he never paid a bit of attention to what she said or what she needed.”
“Actually, she told me she’d never communicated to him what she really wanted,” Connor said. “You can’t blame Dad for not getting a message she never delivered.”
“Here we go again, with you taking Dad’s side over hers,” Jess said. “None of that’s the point. I’m telling you that you need to prove to Heather that you know her better than anyone on earth. Anticipate her needs for a change.”
“Look, I get what you’re saying, but I am clueless about how to do that,” he admitted.
Jess rolled her eyes. “Okay, if you were laid up in bed or at least stuck in the house, what would you want more than anything? Think back to when you had that really awful sprained ankle and had to stay off your feet for what felt like an eternity. Remember?”
“It was midway through football season my senior year,” he recalled. “That may have been the most frustrating week of my entire high school sports career.”
“Exactly,” Jess said, obviously pleased with herself for stirring his memory. “Now, what did you want the most?”
He thought
