“You’d have to find a way to sleep at night knowing you exterminated thousands of innocent honeybees.” She gave him a wobbly grin. “Not an easy thing to do.”
He just looked at her and didn’t say anything for a small stretch of time. “Do you want to…?”
She had no idea what he was going to say, but she already had theyeson the tip of her tongue.
“Get back to your reflecting?”
No. No, that wasn’t what she wanted to do at all. She didn’t have a firm grasp on what exactly shedidwant, but she knew it involved having J.P. there with her.
“I was just finishing up.”
“And I was just finishing up with our game of fetch,” he said. “So it looks like we didn’t interrupt each other after all.”
But he had interrupted her. He’d interrupted her once rock solid resolve to guard her heart, no matter the cost. He’d inserted himself into her life and somehow wedged a tiny bit of himself into her heart. She wanted to pluck it out.
Nora could deal with a broken heart once, but twice? She wouldn’t know how to piece it back together.
His voice traveled in a low whisper. “What are you thinking about?”
Things she shouldn’t.
“Nora?” Bending to catch her gaze, J.P. wordlessly drew her eyes up to his.
“J.P., I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
There were too many things to say, too many ways she’d misjudged him and given him unnecessary grief. Could a single, all-encompassing apology even be enough?
“I’ve been pretty hard on you,” she said.
“Fair. But that’s been mutual.”
“I know.” She shook her head from side to side, even though she was in agreement. “I have…” Her hands clenched together near her heart. “Trust issues.”
He stepped forward just on one foot, then rocked back. “Hey. Do you still have some of those snickerdoodles?”
“I do.” Her brows knit together.
“It feels like we’re on the brink of what might be a pretty serious conversation, and I’ve always found things tend to go down a little easier when there’s sugar involved.”
Chapter Eighteen
In his year of living in Harmony Ridge, J.P. had learned to welcome the delta breeze that cooled the valley each evening. It transformed blistering heat into more enjoyable temperatures by way of a light wind, and it sure did the job of taking the edge off the day.
But it didn’t take the edge off of J.P.’s emotions.
Tonight, goosebumps rose along his arms each time the gusty air swept over Nora’s porch. He couldn’t stave off the chill.
He shivered within himself.
“You’re right.” Nora snapped a bite of cookie between her teeth and admired the remainder in her grasp. “Iamgood at making these.”
“Would I lie?”
“I think the answer to that is a resounding yes.”
J.P. was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a liar. The off-handed comment hit him squarely in the gut, a sucker punch to his character.
