Ruthann reached up and clasped her hand around his arm. “Please don’t do anything foolish.” She swallowed, remembering the last part of the man’s threat, which she hadn’t told Nate about yet. “There is one more thing.”
“Yes?” His thumb moved again, gently, protectively, over her cheekbone, and Ruthann felt her thoughts slipping away.
Unless he wishes everyone to know what sort of man he really is. What did that mean? It felt like some sort of imagined slight on Nate’s character. Except Nate had no terrible flaws.
He was good. He was kind. He was perfect.
“Nothing important,” she said, her voice coming in a wisp as his other hand gently cupped the opposite side of her face.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you.” His eyes were all fire and warmth with no trace of that haunted look she’d seen so often since he’d come back. They pinned her into place, and Ruthann couldn’t have moved if she wanted to.
She certainly didn’t want to.
For one breathless second, she held his gaze. How many times had she imagined a moment like this in her dreams? And now here they were—in anything but a dream. She raised a hand and laid it on his arm, just to remind herself of how very real this was.
And in that moment, as her fingers closed around his arm, he leaned down and kissed her.
Ruthann forgot how to breathe. She held on to his arm for dear life as his lips gently pressed against hers. They were soft and careful, as if he wasn’t sure how she felt about his kiss.
She sighed with utter happiness. This was a dream, and it was coming true. Her heart felt as if it might burst, and all she wanted was to reach up and pull him even closer to her. She clutched his arm tighter and he stiffened.
And then it was over. Nate pulled away, and when Ruthann opened her eyes she found him watching her with a sort of reverent curiosity.
Was it possible that he’d pined for her the same way she’d thought of him for so many years? He hadn’t said as much, yet the way he looked at her now . . . it was as if he’d satisfied some long-held desire in his heart.
He dropped his hands and took one of hers between them. She yearned to hear him confess his love for her, and for half a moment, with the way he held her gaze, she thought he might. But then he sighed, and his jaw set, and the moment passed.
“I believe you need a happy distraction,” he said.
Ruthann thought his kiss was distraction enough. Her face went warm at the thought.
“One of the other churches on Macon Avenue—the one where we married—is holding a dance Saturday evening. Would you like to go?” he asked.
Ruthann couldn’t have been more surprised than if he’d asked her if she wanted to float away in a hot air balloon. The Nate of six years ago would have loved a dance. She never would have thought the Nate of today would be interested. She smiled broadly, picturing him whirling her about the dance floor. “I would.”
Turning more serious, he brushed his knuckles against her cheek again. “I don’t want you to worry about that man. I’ll find out who he is. And I’ll see to it he never bothers us again.” He pulled his hand away and smiled. “Now how about you sit here and rest, and I find us something to eat?”
Ruthann bit her lip as Nate rose and left for the kitchen. She ought to have told him the rest of what that man had said, about Nate not being the man everyone thought he was. But it was such an odd statement, and she truly wondered if it was an empty threat, something made up to scare her.
None of it made much sense, and the last thing she wanted to do was send Nate into a spiral of worry. He finally seemed to have put some distance between himself and whatever had happened to him in the past.
Ruthann wouldn’t ruin that. All she wanted was for him to be happy. She would keep that man’s words to herself, unless she found a good reason not to.
