But when it sent her tottering into his arms, there had been no doubt that she wanted him to kiss her.
Her cheeks had been flushed, her lips were slightly parted, and her eyes wide with surprise and hazy with wanting. He felt like a planet tugged toward a star. He couldn’t have denied her if he’d wanted to.
And he hadn’t wanted to.
Thank God for Mary coming in when she did.
He repeated that inwardly to himself, and he was sure Ella was doing the same.
But for his part, it was hard to mean it, hard not to imagine what it would have been like to hold her close and taste her mouth.
I bet she tastes like sunshine.
He sat up in bed and ran a hand through his hair. It had grown a little longer since he arrived, and he even had a bit of a beard—Michael had encouraged him to grow one.
It’ll keep your face warm, son,he’d said, eyes dancing.It’s getting cold out there.Dalton had a good laugh with the older man, who had become an easy mentor to him.
This place had changed him, inside and out. He felt so muchmorenow. More happiness, more sadness, more curiosity. Life was funnier and more interesting. Colors even seemed brighter. And for the first time in a long time, he found himself looking up at the sky sometimes and feeling a small measure of relief from the weight he had carried for so long.
He knew the Barretts weren’t really his family, but they still made him feel like he was one of them.
They don’t know the real me,he reminded himself.If they did, they wouldn’t want me here.
He closed his eyes again and forced himself to picture packing up his belongings and leaving the farm. It was going to happen, whether he wanted it to or not. It would be better to go on his own before they sent him away.
But not until the harvest is done.
In his mind, he watched his hands folding his jeans and flannels and shoving them in his duffel, followed by his socks and underwear. He got all the way to the paperback Andy had given him for his birthday one year before he finally felt himself drifting.
And even though he tried to keep his mind on the mundane task of packing, his final thoughts as sleep overtook him were of Ella again.
I bet she tastes like sunshine…
9
ELLA
Ella stood at the kitchen stove a few days before Thanksgiving, stirring fresh cranberries into a saucepan of sugared water while Christmas music played softly on the radio.
She had already made the dough for pie crusts and tucked it in the freezer. Soon, the cranberry sauce would be done. Her goal was to do enough ahead of time that everyone could enjoy the big day without getting too overwhelmed.
Her mom and Dalton were packing sweet potatoes today, and had encouraged her to wrap up early and do her Thanksgiving prep work so they could all have dinner together when the day was done.
As the cranberries slowly heated, she relaxed and her mind carried her back to the barn with Dalton, like it seemed to do all the time since that night.
Don’t think about it,she told herself.
But it was useless. Every time she let her guard down, she flashed back to the heart-pounding moment whenhe’d held her close, with that look in his eyes, the air between them crackling with a strange electricity.
While they hadn’t talked about it since, Ella had felt herself softening to Dalton. It wasn’t because she’d wanted him to kiss her—that had been a momentary weakness.
But he had unknowingly revealed something about himself that night. The expression in the fierce soldier’s eyes had been almost like pain, and pain was something Ella knew all about.
She spoke with him in the mornings and between chores now, not about anything important, but enough that she thought they both felt a little less lonely. He might have given the impression that he lived to work, but no man was an island and all that, and she was determined to be a good friend to him, if nothing else.
He was kind to Andy,she would remind herself each time her pulse raced at the sight of him and she worried about letting Dalton get too close.Andy would want me to be kind to him.
Dalton had been featured in so many of Andy’s letters home. She had read those messages avidly back then, and she still got them out from time to time now, just to feel close with her brother.
