As he drove into the darkness, the soft glow of Doreen’s cabin lights faded in the rear-view mirror…
…but the pull toward her burned bright and undeniable. He’d waited half a lifetime to feel this kind of hope. And now that he’d found her, he knew one thing with absolute certainty…he would do anything to keep her.
Tonight would mark the beginning.
The first step toward everything he’d waited for.
Everything he’d dreamed of… and never believed he’d find.
Not until her.
Chapter Five – Doreen
Should she wear the burgundy sweater?
Urgh! Why was this so hard? It was only dinner with Sorcha and Christopher. Okay, so she hadn’t met Christopher yet… But she knew that wasn’t the reason she was taking so long to decide what to wear.
It went deeper than that. If she chose the burgundy sweater because of James, she was choosing to hope. And that felt unfamiliar and uncertain.
Doreen reached for the burgundy sweater and held it up against her body, studying her reflection in the small mirror propped on the dresser. The color brought warmth to her complexion, highlighting the honey tones in her hair. But was it too much?
With a sigh, she laid it back down on the bed. This was ridiculous.
“It’s just dinner, not a date,” she muttered to herself. But even as she said the words, James’s face floated into her mind, where it seemed to have taken up permanent residence.
Well, she’d have to evict it! At least until she was sure she wasn’t misreading his signals.
If he was even giving signals. She was so out of practice at this, and that scared her.
She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the memory away—but all it did was sharpen. The way his eyes had warmed when he looked at her. The way his voice had softened around Jake. The way her pulse had quickened, reminding her heart of something it hadn’t felt in years.
It was infuriating…and far too tempting.
She grabbed her hairbrush and dragged it through her hair, hoping the familiar ritual would settle her nerves. It didn’t. Her hands still trembled as she uncapped her lip balm and applied it with editor-like precision, the same focus she’d give a comma splice or dangling modifier. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth, trying to ignore the slight shake in her fingers. With a frustrated exhale, she tossed the lip balm onto the dresser and turned away from her reflection.
The sweater still lay on the bed, waiting.
“This is absurd,” she muttered. “You’re a grown woman. Put on the sweater and go to dinner with your friend.”
Taking her own advice, she slipped it over her head, adjusting the soft folds until they draped just right. As she smoothed it down over her hips, a strange flutter rose in her chest, like a bird testing its wings after a long winter. The sensation was so unexpected, so foreign after years of careful emotional containment, that she pressed her hand against her heart, as if to capture the feeling before it flew away.
For so long, she’d convinced herself it was safer to be alone, to shy away from romance. From love.
She’d built thick walls around herself. Walls of solid stone to protect her sore, bruised heart. And yet one unexpected smile from a man she barely knew had slipped through a crack she hadn’t even realized was there. It was reckless. Dangerous. And unbearably hopeful.
“Jake!” she called, her voice steadier than she felt as she took one last look in the mirror and grabbed her purse. “Time to go!”
“Coming!” Jake shouted as he and Bash spilled out of his bedroom, skidding along the hallway toward the front door. Jake plopped down on the floor and tugged on his boots whileBash wagged his tail in frantic encouragement. The moment the boots were on, Jake sprang upright and grabbed his coat.
Doreen smothered a smile as she slid her feet into her warm winter boots. She hadn’t even managed to reach for her coat yet when Jake pushed open the front door and bounded onto the porch with Bash at his heels.
“Jake! Wait!” she called, hastily grabbing her coat from the hook. “It’s freezing out there!”
But her nephew was already bouncing on the porch, his breath puffing into tiny clouds in the crisp night air. Bash circled him in delighted loops, golden fur gleaming under the porch light, tail wagging with uncontainable joy.
Doreen shrugged into her coat, tugging it closed over the burgundy sweater, then locked the cabin door behind her and double-checked the handle out of habit more than necessity.
“Look at all the stars, Aunt D!” Jake pointed upward, his face alight with wonder. “There’s like a million of them!”
