“Hey, Les,” he said, stopping sharply. “I just want you to know, I’m glad Stephaniecalled.”
“You are?” She stilled and lifted abrow.
“Yes. Because I really didn’t want this”—he spread a hand to indicate the evening—“to turn into…something else. Not that I don’t want to carry you off into that bedroom you were teasing me with right behind the wall there,” he said with a laugh, then sobered again. “What I mean is…you needed someone to listen. You know, someone to give you a hug—and it really should only have been that. Just me being here. A comfort. So…it’s better this way. Do you know what I’m saying?” He frowned. “I wasn’t going to take advantage of your sensitive emotional state. Youknow?”
“Yes. Thanks. I… Thanks,” she said, a little breathless now. Her throat had started to burn with emotion. He was right. And she’d been the one to kiss him, to move into him. He’d been…restrained. She liked that a lot. Alot.
“See you soon. Very soon.” He tugged her close, sliding his palm up around the back of her head, cupping her with his hand as he kissed her very slowly and thoroughly and sensually…and then steppedback.
Both of them were breathing hard. Both sighed with regret. Both looked at the clock on the microwave and sighedagain.
“Text me. Or call me if you find anything out,” he said. “I’ll…I’ll come by tomorrow? Allright?”
“To take anothermeasurement?”
“Oh, I’d like to be taking a measurement—that’s for sure.” He expelled a breath that sent the lock of hair on his forehead billowing. “Get going, Zyler. Get your ass out the door. Dutycalls.”
And with that, he swept from the house without another lookback.
Leslie stood there in the kitchen for quite a while after he left, very nearly mooning over the guy. What a guy. What a great guy. A wonderful father. An anticipatory lover. A dude who liked chick-flick TV. And a man who didn’t want to take advantage of her grief and emotional state to get her intobed.
No wonder Emily Delton was falling all overhim.
* * *
The next daywhile she was running a few errands, Leslie walked by the tea shop and saw Cherry and Orbra sitting at one of the tables near the front window. It was midmorning, and a slow time for the shop with the tourists gone, so she felt no guilt about slipping inside to jointhem.
“Guess what,” she said, pulling up a chair without beinginvited.
“You gotlaid.”
“You finally got that sexy-ass Declan intobed.”
Leslie gave an exaggerated sigh. “Oy! Enough with the sex already!” But her lips were twitching with agrin.
“She’s been watchingGilmore Girlsagain,” Cherry said to Orbra, who looked unusually grumpy this morning. “And she sure lookssatisfied!”
“Yes I have…and guess who I’ve been watching itwith.” Leslie allowed herself a full-blown grin as she swiped a miniature almond scone from her aunt’splate.
“NotDeclan!”
“Yes, Declan. But there was no removal of any articles of clothing. At least…not yet.” She sat back and enjoyed the reaction from the two older ladies. “Rufus chaperoned, and he frowns on jumping into bed on the firstdate.”
“Praise God,” Orbra said, her face lighting up with hope. “Please let us know when the rest happens so I can live vicariously through you. I want every minutedetail.”
“That’s gross, Orbra,” Leslie told her,laughing.
“Hey…when you get to be my age and your lady bits have all shrunk up because your husband can’t find his way around down there anymore, you gotta have fun somehow. Even if it’s just in yourhead.”
“Okay, okay, TMI,” said Leslie, holding up a hand while stilllaughing.
“And when you get to bemyage and half the people in this town think you’re a lesbian just because you have short hair—which I am not, not that there’s anything wrong withthat—”
“Whothinks you’re a lesbian, Cherry?” Leslie hooted. She was laughing so hard that her sides were aching. It felt so good after yesterday’s grief-filled day. “Have they been in your company for more than five minutes? You’re the most hetero woman I’ve everknown.”
“Oh, some woman who was staying at Sunflower House over the summer tried to back Cherry in a corner after one of her hot yoga classes last August. She was trying to get her to help her with someposition—”
“It’s called anasana.”
