It was nice to feel happy.
He didn’t let go of her hand, instead using it to draw her closer to him. She didn’t protest, although some part of her mind told her she should. But his smile was just too warm, his eyes too kind, and his hand too strong. And so she let herself get closer to him than she ever had before. The beautiful skirt crushed between them, but Faith hardly noticed. She was concentrating too hard on how to continue breathing while he looked at her in a way she’d seen him do only briefly before. But this time, he held her gaze, and she thought she might stop breathing entirely and pass out onto the floor.
“Thank you,” she said again, simply because she thought she ought to saysomething.
“If someone asked me what I want most in the world, I would tell them it would be to make Faith Landry the happiest woman on Earth,” he said, his voice low and every syllable he spoke melting the wall that Faith had built inside herself.
“I feel like I haven’t a care,” she said softly. “I haven’t felt that way in a long time.”
He smiled then, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Then I’ve succeeded.”
“You have.” Faith drew in a breath as his eyes searched her face. Something passed between them, and her mind wildly thought he might kiss her now. She wasn’t certain what to make of that thought—or what she’d do if he tried. Did she want him to? Would she hate herself if she allowed it?
He moved just a fraction of an inch closer, and Faith caught her breath. But just as quickly as she thought it might happen, he pulled away, leaving her standing there clutching a new skirt to her chest, and looking right at two of her dear friends, Heather, the town’s midwife, and Millie, the schoolteacher, who stood just inside the front door.
Faith bustled into action, dropping the skirt back into the box, as Beau quickly moved around the counter. She pretended not to notice as Heather and Millie exchanged knowing glances and—thankfully—didn’t say a word about what they’d just seen.
But as Beau searched through the stack of mail for correspondence addressed to the ladies and their new husbands, Faith’s mind wandered back to what they’d just shared, and her fingers drifted to her lips.
She would have let him kiss her.
And as wrong as it might be, she was certain she would have enjoyed it too.
