“Because you’re not. You’re not like Connor, and I don’t feel for you what I felt for Connor.”
J.P.’s feet planted. The rocker came to a halt. He looked into her worried eyes. “What do you feel for me?”
He couldn’t confirm it with only the hazy, incandescent light to illuminate her, but something in Nora’s complexion deepened. And the quality of her tone shifted. “It changes minute to minute.”
He hummed. “What about in this minute?”
“I feel…” She leaned back, letting her head fall against the chair’s wooden slats. A long blink turned into closed eyes. “Comfortable.”
“And I usually make you uncomfortable.” It wasn’t a question, so he didn’t deliver it like one. He already knew the answer.
“You frustrate me. Aggravate me.” She rolled her head to the side to open her eyes and look right at him. “But I’m beginning to realize that has more to do with me than it does you.”
“I think it’s fair to say we aggravate each other.”
“I’ll give you that.”
Something was shifting between them. Moving, rearranging.
“Just so you know, I would never turn you in for your bees,” J.P. said.
“DoI know that?”
“I don’t want to be on the county’s radar any more than you do. Not in the line of work I’m in. I like to keep my dealings with them fast and clean.”
“So you’re all talk, Jaxton Percy?”
He laughed so hard he nearly spat. “That’s not even in the ballpark, but creative guess,” he said, a chuckle still rumbling through him. “But I’m notalltalk. I did mean it when I said you’re a pretty incredible woman.”
“You’ve never said that.”
“Now I have.”
She stilled, mouth open. She snapped it shut. “You aren’t so bad yourself.”
A noise rumbled in his chest. “Hmm. I’ll take it.”
She suddenly moved forward in her rocking chair, her hands coming down on her knees. “I’m going to get a refill.” Tipping her chin toward her empty wineglass, she turned her eyes to his. “Would you like one?”
“Sure. If you’re having another.”
Maybe the wine would combat the chill that pulled the fine hairs on the back of his neck to attention. He needed that slide of warmth to heat him from the inside out, possibly give him a little more confidence with his words too.
She was only gone a few minutes before she returned with their pair of glasses, deep crimson liquid filling them just under halfway.
“Sorry for the skimpy pours,” she apologized. “This is the last of it.”
When she handed off J.P.’s, his fingers lingered on hers around the stem. It shouldn’t take this long to transfer a single glass, but their hands stayed suspended between them, gazes held, atmosphere charged.
He cleared his throat.
As though snapped out of a trance, Nora shook herself free from her rooted position in front of him and returned to her chair.
“This is really good,” he said about the wine after taking a sip. Here he was, filling the silent gaps with idle chitchat. Might as well have been talking about the weather or the stock market.
“It’s a favorite of mine. From a vineyard just down the road. They’ve only been open a few years, but their wine is good. I think they’ve even won a few awards at the fair.”
“I’ll have to check them out sometime.”
