“Well now, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” he said wearily.
She blinked, and a slow smile spread across her face. “It’s about time you came home. I was about to give up hope. I thought maybe you were going to spend the night at the hospital.”
“It was a very long and crappy day,” he said. “Come on in. What’s in the bag?”
“Gram’s potato soup and a loaf of Gail’s freshly baked bread.”
He smiled. “You are a goddess!” he declared.
“I think maybe Gram and Gail are the ones who deserve the credit, but thanks. The soup will need to be heated. I’ve been out here quite a while. I wanted to surprise you.”
“You succeeded. Come on inside. If you’ve been waiting for me to eat, you must be starved.”
“Are you sure you’re not too tired for company?”
“I will never be too tired to spend time with you,” he insisted, ushering her into his apartment.
He tossed his briefcase and jacket onto a chair, then took Jess’s coat. “Would you mind terribly if I took a quick shower?”
“Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll heat up the soup and the bread.”
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Like I said, a goddess! See you in a couple of minutes.”
“Take your time.”
As he stood under the hard spray of his shower, he thought about finding Jess on his doorstep at the end of an exhausting day. He had no idea what had really brought her there, but just the unexpected sight of her had rejuvenated him. The shower finished the job.
When he walked into the kitchen wearing clean jeans and a sweater, the aroma of the soup and the bread had him stopping in his tracks to sniff the air appreciatively.
When he opened his eyes, Jess was smiling. “Careful, or I’m going to think you’re more interested in this food than you are in me.”
He slipped an arm around her waist as she stirred the soup. “Right this second, I have to say it’s a toss-up,” he admitted.
“Now that’s a fine thing to say when you’re trying to win my heart,” she accused, but there was a twinkle in her eyes. “So, you didn’t mind the surprise?”
“Of course not. It was the best part of my day so far.”
Her eyes widened. “So far?”
“Well, finding you on my doorstep late at night has raised some interesting possibilities, especially since there’s no way I’m letting you go back out on those slick roads tonight. The rain was turning to sleet just as I got back to town.”
She swallowed hard. “I see. How comfortable is that couch of yours?”
“I’d never let a guest sleep on the couch,” he protested, grinning at her.
“I was asking for you,” she said. “I’d hate for you to wake up with a kink in your neck.”
Will laughed. “I guess we still have some heavy-duty negotiating to do before the night is over. You’d better feed me first.”
He found a bottle of wine and poured two glasses, while Jess put big bowls of steaming soup on the kitchen table, along with slices of the crusty bread and plenty of butter. He pulled out a chair for her, then sat down across from her. He lifted his glass.
“To you. Thanks for being just what I needed tonight.”
Jess smiled, her cheeks turning pink. “And to you,” she said. “The lilies of the valley you sent couldn’t have been more perfect.”
“I guess we know each other pretty well, don’t we?” he said. “Of course, I can’t really take credit for the type of flowers. That was all Bree.”
“But you knew what I’d be thinking and that you needed to send something to remind me you hadn’t forgotten about me,” she said. “It was a sweet gesture, Will. You have no idea how much I appreciated that.”
Will looked into her eyes. “Tell me what you were thinking before they came.”
She made a wry grimace. “Exactly what you thought I’d be thinking, that you’d abandoned me.”
“How am I supposed to prove to you that will never happen?” he asked.
Jess’s expression turned thoughtful. “It’s going to take time, I suppose,” she said. “And practice. All my life, people have gone away. My mother did and, for all intents and purposes, so did my Dad. Even Abby, Bree, Kevin and Connor, they all left me behind.”
Will heard the unmistakable hurt in her voice and said gently, “Have you ever considered the fact that, at least in the cases of your brothers and sisters, it’s not so much that they left you, but that you were the one who chose to stay?”
She frowned at the question. “Doesn’t it add up to the same thing? They were gone, and I was here.”
“By choice, Jess. If you’d wanted to leave Chesapeake Shores, you could have. Instead, you chose a local college. You had your heart set on owning the inn long before you bought it. This town was always a part of you. I wonder if you weren’t determined to create the home here that you’d longed for as a child.” He gave her a knowing look. “I also think you stayed because of your father. You knew how much building this community meant to him. In a way, I think you thought staying would show him how much you loved him.”
She regarded him with a thoughtful expression. “I never thought of that, but you could be right.” Her expression turned quizzical. “By the way, how did you know I’d wanted to own the inn for so long?”
“That didn’t even require guesswork on my part. I spent a lot of time with you, remember? You, Connor and I would walk along the beach, and you’d look up there almost every single time with this yearning expression on your face and declare that someday it was going to be yours.”
She seemed stunned that he’d remembered that.
