“Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.”She glanced at the basket, then cleared her throat.“I should keep going.I need to—”
“How can I help?”
She looked into his eyes.
He could have drowned in the longing he saw, the uncertainty of what had happened.
Instead of telling him how she was feeling, she picked up the basket of flowers.“Wyatt was exaggerating.We did most of the decorating yesterday.”
“What are you doing with the flowers?”
“I’m hanging them on the end of each row of chairs.”
Theo wasn’t leaving without talking about what had happened.Before Barbara walked away, he took the basket out of her hand.“I can help.”
“I really don’t need—”
“Everyone needs a helping hand.Besides, the sooner you finish here, the sooner you can get ready for the wedding.”
With a resigned sigh, she took a set of keys out of her pocket.“You’re probably right.If you take these flowers into the church, I’ll grab the other baskets out of my truck.”
“How many are there?”
“Six, but I’ve already taken most of them inside.”With a determined tilt to her chin, Barbara left him standing in the foyer.
At least it was better than ignoring him.
CHAPTER 18
Barbara’s hand shook as she picked up the last basket of dried flowers.What on earth did Theo think he was doing?He should still be in the air, flying back to Montana instead of annoying her at the church.
After the hectic morning with her aunts, uncles, and cousins, it was nice being here, away from the mayhem of everyone’s pre-wedding jitters.
As she made her way back to the church, she wondered why Theo was here.She was sure Wyatt would have had other things on his mind apart from the flowers in the church.And Penny was so nervous that Barbara doubted she’d even notice if the flowers weren’t there.
“Is that the last basket?”
She looked over her shoulder at Theo.He’d taken off his jacket and undone the top two buttons of his shirt.If she thought he’d looked incredible when she first saw him, he was ten times better now.
She handed him the basket and took the last one out of the truck.“No, but this one is.How was New York?”
“Busy.I’d forgotten what rush hour traffic is like.”
“I felt the same when I went to Dallas for a couple of days.I couldn’t wait to get back to Sapphire Bay.”The heat of a blush skimmed her cheeks.“Not that you wanted to come back.”
“I did.”
Barbara frowned.“You wanted to come back here?”
Theo nodded.“I’m used to waking up to the sound of birds squawking in the trees and the water breaking against the shore.Instead, all I heard was the air conditioning unit, the police sirens, and the never-ending stream of taxis honking their horns.”
She walked into the church.If she kept Theo talking, there would be less time to think about what had happened on Monday night.“Where did you stay?”
“In a hotel by Central Park.Unfortunately, there were no opening windows.I felt as if I was trapped inside a concrete cage.”
“Maybe you were.”
Theo held open the large glass doors that led into the church.“I tried telling my lawyer the same thing.He said I’d get used to it.How are we attaching the flowers to the chairs?”
