“Me? I was nowhere near Panini Bistro that day.”
“You might as well have been,” Will grumbled. “Laila referred to you as the elephant in the room.”
“How incredibly flattering!” Jess said wryly.
“Oh, you know what she meant,” Will said. “She and I both knew I’d have preferred to be on a date with you.”
“And yet when you were doing the matches for her, Connie and me, you left yourself out of the running when it came to me. Laila told me.”
“Because you’d made it plain that you didn’t want to date me. Whatever your reasons for that, I had to take you at your word.”
“I see,” Jess said, then fell silent. She picked up a fork and took a huge bite of Gail’s moist double fudge chocolate cake, then closed her eyes as the rich, dark chocolate flavor burst on her tongue. “Oh, sweet heaven!” she murmured.
She opened her eyes to see Will staring at her intently. “You have to try this,” she told him, cutting into the cake and holding a bite-size piece in front of his mouth. He accepted the offering, then sighed.
“It is pretty amazing,” he said, though his gaze still seemed to be locked on her mouth. “You have chocolate right here.” He touched the corner of her lips with his finger. “And here.” His finger skimmed across her lower lip.
To her astonishment, Jess trembled. There it was again, that incredible sizzle. It was even more alluring than the cake, which was saying quite a lot. The unexpected feeling rattled her. “Um, Will?”
“Yes,” he said, still holding her gaze.
“Would you do something for me?”
“Just about anything. You know that.”
“Run my data through your computer again,” she requested. “But this time, leave yourself in the mix.”
“No,” he said so quickly it left her head spinning.
“No?” she asked incredulously. “Why not?”
“Because the computer’s not infallible. Even I accept that. If it comes back without a match, I don’t want you using that as an excuse to justify never going out with me.”
“Don’t you trust your program?”
“Of course I do, for what it is. It’s a way to match up strangers who might be compatible on a variety of fronts.”
“Okay, then why not put it to the test with us?” she pressed.
“We’re not strangers.” He leveled a look into her eyes. “And I already know we’re well-suited. I think you do, too.”
“But—”
“No, Jess,” he said, cutting her off. “Don’t even try to deny it. The truth is that you know we could be great together, but you’re too terrified to admit it. What I can’t figure out is why.”
Jess looked away. She had her suspicions about that, but she wasn’t ready to own up to them. Ironically, though, it was a relief to know that for once, Will didn’t have her totally pegged. Somehow it made him seem less like a shrink and more like a guy she could fall for.
11
As Saturday approached, Connie grew increasingly nervous about seeing Thomas at the fall festival in a neighboring community. Something had changed between them on Sunday. They’d taken their blinders off, admitted to a mutual attraction, but for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine what came next.
At her age, did two people just jump into bed together or did they dance around that for weeks on end until one night they found themselves tearing each other’s clothes off? The thought of having sex with Thomas—or any man, for that matter—terrified her.
She’d been so young when she’d fallen for Sam. He’d been the only one for her. And after the divorce, there had been Jenny to consider. She didn’t want to confuse her daughter by bringing an endless parade of men into the house. Not that there had been any kind of parade lined up, anyway. Even the most casual dates had been few and far between.
Now, out of the blue, there was Thomas O’Brien, an intelligent, sexy man who’d lived a far more sophisticated life than she had. She had no idea how to handle whatever was happening between them.
Pacing around the home she’d lived in almost her entire life, she punched in the numbers for Connor’s wife on the portable phone. Heather had been the first to witness the growing attraction between Connie and Thomas and had reserved judgment. Maybe she’d be able to help without laughing her head off.
“Tonight, my place,” Connie commanded when her friend answered. “I’m calling Jess, too. I need pizza, a lot of ice cream and a complete makeover.”
Heather laughed. “You sound nervous. What’s going on? Does this have something to do with the fact that you’re seeing Thomas tomorrow?”
Connie stilled. “How on earth did you know about that? This whole festival appearance was fairly last-minute.”
“Shanna asked me if I could help you out since I’m taking some quilts to the festival to show,” Heather explained patiently. “I called and asked the organizers to make sure our booths are next to each other. Shanna didn’t tell you?”
“No, but that’s fantastic,” Connie said, already feeling better. “Now if I can just talk Jess into coming along, I’ll feel…”
“What?” Heather teased. “Safe?”
“Okay, yes, at least marginally.”
“You do know that you are over forty, the mother of a college student and a beautiful, intelligent woman, don’t you?”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Connie said. “You try being in my shoes. I haven’t dated in what feels like a million years.”
“I know for a fact you’ve had lunch with Thomas, you’ve had coffee with Thomas, you’ve even had dinner with Thomas. Call those occasions whatever you want to, I’m thinking they were dates. Were they that scary?”
“No,” she admitted. “He’s extraordinarily easy to talk to.”
“Well, there you go.”
“But those were all before,” Connie said, trying to explain.
“Before what? Before you knew sex was an option?” Heather chuckled even as she spoke.
“It is not funny!” Connie told her. “I shaved my legs the other day for the first time in ages, and
