When she looked at him with those sea- foam green eyes of hers, he couldn’t say no. “Sure. How many do we have to make?”
“I’d like to make thirty so each little girl will have two. They’ll take them home as part of their goodie bags.”
“How is mine, Amy?” Isabella asked.
Will watched as Amy moved to bend over Isabella and inspect her work.
“It’s beautiful, sweetie. You’re doing a really great job.”
His daughter positively beamed at the praise Amy gave her. Will wondered if his expression had been similar when she’d proclaimed his efforts as excellent. He could only hope that if it had been, no one else had noticed.
Eventually, the afternoon wound down as the last of the rings were finished.
“Thank you all so much for your help,” Amy said as she gathered up the completed project.
Laurel, Violet, and Rose all offered their services for any other projects before taking off to visit with Jessa. Amy followed with the craft stuff, leaving just the men to ride herd on the kids in the backyard.
“So what did I miss?” Lance asked when he came back outside.
“Did you know Amy was going to rope us into doing crafts?” Matt asked. “Is that why you took off?”
Lance grinned as he settled into a chair. “You guys were doing crafts down here?”
“It was his fault,” Dean said with a jerk of his thumb in Will’s direction. “He couldn’t say no to Amy when she asked him to help with the ring things. The next thing I know, Violet’s got me doing it.”
“Yeah, and Laurel conscripted me as well.” Matt also nodded his head toward Will. “Definitely his fault.”
“Not my fault that you guys can’t say no to your wives. At least I felt obliged because it was for my daughter.”
“Well, I can say that I’m glad that I was upstairs with Jessa,” Lance said with a smirk. “Of course, I could have probably said no to Amy if she’d tried to convince me.”
When the women came down from visiting Jessa, Amy wasn’t with them. Will could think of no reason to hang around once the others began to get ready to go, so he called Isabella to get her things. As usual, she protested leaving without seeing Amy. Julia said she’d take her up to Amy’s room to see her.
“Did you get to say goodbye?” Will asked her a few minutes later as they left the manor.
“Yep.”
Will had hoped she might give a few more details, but since she didn’t continue on, he asked, “What was she doing?”
“She was talking on the phone. To someone named Sam, I think,” Isabella said. “When we got to the door she said, ’Justa second, Sam,’ and then said goodbye.”
Sam? The name was familiar from the text messages he’d seen. He seemed to remember her talking about Sammi being her best friend. Will knew it was none of his business what she did or who she talked to,but, try as he might, he couldn’t just shove aside what he was feeling for her. Each time he was around her it got harder and harder to ignore the thoughts in his mind and the feelings in his heart.
~*~*~
“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to take you to the store,” Lance said as they cleaned up from supper the following Thursday. “Want to make that grocery run now?”
“Sure,” Amy said as she slid the last of the plates into thedishwasher and started it up. “Jessa asked me to add a couple of things to the list.”
“I can take you,” Will offered. “Unless you really need to go, Lance.”
Lance shook his head. “Nope. I was just going to help with the bagging and carrying. We’ve got quite a list with the family all arriving and getting a few more things for the party.”
“Well, in that case, I insist.”
Lance turned to Amy. “You okay going with Will?”
She didn’t feel she could give any answer except to agree. Saying no would definitely raise questions. Though being around him was difficult at times, having other people there with them had been helpful. This would just be the two of them, and Amy wasn’t sure how she felt about that. The key to making it through the summer without total heartbreak was to keep reminding herself of all the reasons it wouldn’t work. Unfortunately, going out on a grocery run with him—just like a married couple—wasn’t going to help her mindset.
