“Probably,”Heather said.
“I’d pay her, of course. For the planning and providing recipes. And…you think maybe she’d train the cook on them?”
“Ask her. I bet she would.”Her mother was always looking for other gigs to add to her income.
“Great. I’ll talk to her this week.”
Livy looked at her watch.“Oh, it’s getting late. I’m working the early shift tomorrow. I should go.”
“I’ll walk you home.”Austin jumped up and nodded at Jesse.
“I’ll walk Heather home,”Jesse said without actually asking her.
“You don’t need to. I’ll be fine.”
“But…I want to,”he insisted.
“Uh, ah, okay.”Nice answer. So well-spoken. She rolled her eyes at herself as she stood.
“Heather, can’t we talk? I hate how things are between us now.”Jesse paused under a streetlamp on their walk to her condo.
“What do you mean? We got along fine tonight, didn’t we?”Though she’d been as tense as a strung guitar for the first half of the evening.
Jesse let out a sigh.“Please? Let’s talk. Come on.”He captured her hand in his—which it took all her self-control not to snatch back—and led her over to a bench at the edge of the harbor walk.
She sat down beside him, her hand thankfully out of his now. She stared down at it resting in her lap. At her nail polish. At a silver ring with a turquoise stone on her pinkie finger and a silver bracelet encircling her wrist. If she concentrated on these tiny details…
Her heart hammered in her chest, her pulse throbbing so hard that she could barely hear him when he started talking again.
“I’m sorry, Heather. Sorry that I kissed you.”The look of regret was plain on his face, and she didn’t know if she was happy about that or not.
“Back when we were kids, back when we—well,you know. Right before you left town again after visiting Liv when Emily was first born. We agreed we’d just be friends. I know we did.”
“So, why did you kiss me that time last year?”
“It was actuallytwoyears ago.”He shook his head.“You’ve been mad at me for two years, Heather.”
Actually, she’d been mad at him for sixteen years, ever since that trip to town when Emily was born. But he didn’t even realize that, because she had rarely come back to town, and when she did it was just to see Liv and Emily for a quick visit. She’d learned to avoid him when she was in town. Who knew that all the avoiding of her father for so many years would turn into such a helpful skill she could use with Jesse.
“You slapped me when I kissed you. I was…surprised.”
“Well, you surprisedme.”And surprised her how much she’d enjoyed the kiss. You know, before she’d decided to slap him.
“I know I did. I surprisedmyself. But then after you slapped me, you said I’d ruined things between us and ran off. I should have chased after you and we could have sorted it out.”
“I know. It was…silly of me. I shouldn’t have run off.”
“But that’s what you do.”His tone was more stating a fact than accusing her.
“But then…when I did come to talk to you…”
“Right, I had Shelly over. And it was awkward. I was actually telling Shelly that I didn’t think things were working out between us. Between Shelly and I.”
“Yet, you’re still seeing her, I hear.”And it shouldn’t bother her…itdidn’tbother her. It didn’t.
“We’re just friends.”
“I see.”She wondered if Shelly knew that…
