With giddiness galloping through her veins, a sense of uncertainty also tainted her thoughts.
A lot can happen in two and a half months, she told herself as she went to deliver more samples.
Jon adored everything Grace had a hand in creating. The bread was light and fluffy on Tuesday during lunch. The cupcakes on Wednesday possessed just the right balance of sweetness and saltiness and savory-ness. The piecrust on Thursday melted in his mouth. By Friday morning, everything in Jon felt wound tight.
He woke before his alarm, the first time in months, with Grace swimming in his head. The smell of her perfume teased him though it wasn’t present. The silkiness of her skin made his fingers itch. The softness of her neck called to him.
He rose, as frustrated with himself as with the situation. He wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to breathe. But he also didn’t want to kiss her and start something he couldn’t finish. Not fair, not fair, floated through his mind. He didn’t want to string her along for the next two months only to leave town when the job was done but the relationship wasn’t.
Why start a relationship? he asked himself as he stepped into the shower. He’d been asking himself the same question for days. He still hadn’t found an answer. With a start that made him slip, he realized maybe he should’ve been asking a different question.
Why not start a relationship?
People had long-distance relationships all the time. And Oklahoma City wasn’t that far from Three Rivers. And she’d be working a lot anyway, getting the bakery started.
With a lighter heart and muscles that weren’t as tight as springs, he headed out to the patio, almost tripping over Grace as he came face-to-face with her sittin’ in the very rocking chair where he’d been aiming to enjoy his morning coffee. The hot liquid sloshed over the lip of the mug and onto the back of his hand.
“Grace,” he gasped. He switched the mug to his other hand and licked the coffee from his hand. “Just a sec.” He returned to the kitchen and ran cold water over his burning hand. It cooled in only a few seconds—long enough for her to stand and lean in the doorway, effectively blocking his escape from the basement.
Behind him, Brett’s alarm went off, and Jon heard the man start to stir. “What are you doin’ here so early?”
“This isn’t that early,” she said by way of answer.
“It’s barely six-thirty.” He pointed to the coffee pot. “You want some?”
She lifted a travel cup. “Brought my own.”
Jon felt trapped, unsure of why she was here and how he could get outside to the fresh air faster. He stepped toward her, taking in the magnificence of her long legs and accentuated curves as she leaned her shoulders into the doorframe. “Want to sit out here?”
She backed out of the doorway and he stepped past her. “You can have the rocker.” He took a position on the low wall next to the steps and took a sip of his coffee. “So if this isn’t early, what is?”
Collapsing into the rocking chair, she let out a sigh and sipped her own coffee. “My internal alarm goes off at three a.m. Side-effect of pastry school.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Jon watched her, his gaze sweeping over the gentle column of her neck, her shoulders. The white top she wore was gauzy and see-through to the aqua tank underneath. Jon’s leg muscles bunched and he didn’t dare lift his coffee mug to his mouth for fear he wouldn’t be able to swallow.
“Did you make anything delicious this morning?” he asked, though she’d brought herself and she was certainly delectable enough.
“No, I took a long bath and read a book this morning.” She opened her eyes, smiled, and lifted that lucky coffee mug to her mouth. Jon had never wanted to be an inanimate object so badly.
He hadn’t asked her to dinner again. He hadn’t made the mistake of holding her in plain sight again. He hadn’t done more than get her number and text her for hours after he finished working each afternoon. He wasn’t sure why. Indecision, probably. After all, Jon was the king of indecision.
“You want to go to church with me on Sunday?” she asked.
He raised his eyes to her, but she continued to rock in the chair as if asleep. “Sure.” Kicking a grin in her direction, he added, “Doesn’t start until eleven. Think you can stay awake that long, sleepyhead?”
Her eyes opened, but they didn’t focus for a few minutes. When she caught him smiling at her, she rolled her eyes. “Maybe. Maybe not. Could be an adventure.”
“I could use a little adventure.”
“I’ll say. The most exciting thing you do is text past ten p.m.”
A flash of guilt stole through him. “I didn’t know you got up at three a.m.,” he protested. “In fact, I don’t know anyone who gets up that early. It’s insane.”
She yawned. “It’s so quiet here.”
“I’ll stop talking so you can go back to sleep.” He watched her eyes drift closed again. “Honest, Gracie, I wouldn’t have texted so late if I’d known you got up so early.”
She smiled in his general direction without opening her eyes. “It’s okay. You can make it up to me by taking me to the picnic after church. I heard it’s good.”
The thought of being seen in public with a woman as beautiful and kind as Grace made his mouth feel like he’d been sucking on cotton balls. The coffee didn’t help. “It is.”
“Mm.” She seemed to actually fall asleep right there on the patio, and Jon relaxed in a way he hadn’t for the past five days. Just being with her, here, alone, felt comfortable. In every other situation, he’d felt like he was playing a part, acting. But when it was just him and her, he didn’t need to be anyone but himself.
And for the second time in the past five days, Jon knew he was in big trouble. Because Grace was making it harder and harder for him to leave Three Rivers.
Jon held Grace’s hand through the service, and while he gave her the opportunity to let go before they stepped out of the chapel, she didn’t. In fact, she slid her hand up his arm to the crook of his elbow and held on tight. They strolled to the park along with families and other couples, Brett several paces ahead of them with Squire and Kelly and their kids.
He hadn’t become friends with a whole lot of people in Three Rivers. He hadn’t seen the need. He lived out at the ranch; he worked out at the ranch. The only time he even went to town was for groceries and to attend church. He’d gone to the picnic a few times, mostly with women Kelly had set him up with. A couple of them eyed him now, with the gorgeous Grace hanging on his arm.
She charmed everyone outgoing enough to approach her. She told them all the same story: she’d moved to town to help Heidi start her bakery. The mere mention of Heidi Ackerman made everyone smile and accept Grace—and by extension, Jon—with chuckles and “welcome, y’all”s.
To his surprise, Grace didn’t put any desserts on her plate. “You don’t eat sweets on the weekend?” he asked as he picked up two chocolate chip cookies.
“Those aren’t homemade,” she hissed to him. “I’m picky.” She took a cup of lemonade. “And if you must know, I do try to limit my sugar intake sometimes. Not all of us work out all day long for a living.” The way her eyes swept the height of his body made a blush burst to life everywhere she looked.
He took the opportunity to once again admire her curves, though he tried to make it seem like this was the first time he’d noticed her body. “You look fine to me.”
“Fine?” Her eyebrows went up with her voice. “You’re so kind, Mister Carver. I know I have a few extra pounds on me. But you know what they say.” She sashayed away a few steps.
Jon hurried to get his own cup of lemonade and follow her. “No, Grace, I have no idea what they say.”
“Never trust a skinny chef.” She flashed him a flirtatious smile as she sat at a picnic table no one had claimed yet. He sat across from her, thinking he wouldn’t be able to control himself if he sat right next to her. The urge to hold her hand had him clenching his fists and the desire to kiss her drove all other t
houghts from his mind.
He participated in the conversation with Brett and Squire and Pete, but he wasn’t exactly sure what he’d said. He ate, but he didn’t know how anything tasted. The picnic began to break up as some families left and others moved to play horseshoes or volleyball.
“You want to go for a walk?” he asked as he stood and collected their plates. “There’s a path around the park, and over in that corner, there’s a duck pond.” He nodded to the farthest corner from the picnic tables.
“Sure.” Grace stood too, and when Jon returned, she held hands with Julie, Pete’s little three-year-old. “She wants to come.”
Jon crouched in front of the little girl. “Oh, yeah? Want to feed the ducks?” The little girl stared at him with wide, serious eyes. “All right, then. Let’s go.”
They’d taken a few slow steps away when Chelsea said, “Julie, honey. You can’t go.”
“Mama—”
Chelsea shook her head. “No, Daddy’s got to get back to check the horses.” She looked at Grace with an edge in her eye that Jon couldn’t identify. “You said you’d help, remember?” She extended her hand toward her daughter. “Come on. We’re going.”
Julie looked like she might cry, but Grace bent down and said something to her, which caused the girl to release her hand and take her mother’s instead.
Jon claimed Grace’s other hand, squeezing it tightly as they stepped onto the path. The noise of the picnic faded the farther they walked, and Grace tilted her head back and looked into the bright autumn sky. “Tell me why you don’t like it here.”
He took a deep breath, his body filling with gratitude for his health, his job, his seemingly easy life. “I don’t know.”
She scoffed. “That’s a cop-out. You know.”
Jon half-appreciated her candor and was half-annoyed at her nosiness. He hadn’t had anyone push him like this before. At least not for a long time.
“I’m more of a big-city type of guy,” he said.
“You still in Oklahoma City?”
“My father’s firm is there.”
“Is it still your father’s?”
“No.”
“So you own it.”
“Yeah.”
“But you’re not there.” She finally turned her head to look at him. “How are you living here for this job?” He heard the “why” in the question too.
“I have a foreman and a floor manager who actually run the business,” he explained. “I work on projects when I’m in town, if they need me. Otherwise, I take the jobs that are out of town. It’s easier.”
“Easier?”
Jon felt weary. He wished he had the strength and endurance of the tall trees that lined the path, effectively shading them and blocking this conversation from the rest of the world.
“Most of my men have families,” he said. “It’s harder for them to leave town. It’s not hard for me.”
“Even when you have to go somewhere you don’t like?”
He nudged her with his hip. “You always this inquisitive?”
She paused and looked back down the path the way they’d come. “I am when I’m trying to find a solution to a problem.”
His arms seemed to have a mind of their own as they wound around her waist and drew her closer to him. “Oh? What’s the problem?”
“You leaving town.” She looked right at him, open and honest and unassuming.
“That’s a problem for you?” he teased, though a vein of seriousness rode underneath his playful tone.
She leaned into him and wrapped her hands around the back of his neck. “Oh, it’s a big problem.” She lifted onto her toes. “I’m going to kiss you now, okay? Is that going to be a problem for you?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, his tone turning deep and husky at the same time his pulse shot to the top of his skull. “It’s gonna be a big problem.”
Grace gripped the back of his cowboy hat in her fingers and tilted it off his head. “You don’t want me to?”
“Grace, kissing you is all I’ve thought about since I saw you strumming my guitar on the patio.” He leaned down to meet her lips with his. A shiver shot down his spine with the first touch, and then he drew a breath and molded his mouth to hers for a deeper exploration of her lips.
“Definitely a huge problem,” he whispered before kissing her again.
Kissing Jon under the Texas trees felt more magical than Grace remembered. Of course, last time, she’d kissed him on her front porch after the homecoming dance. There wasn’t a brightly shining sun or a whisper of a breeze through decades-old trees. Or the worry that one of them would leave town in two months.
She didn’t want to complicate his life, but at the same time, she totally did. She wanted to kiss him in the middle of the night before she left for the bakery, and then have him wake her with a kiss when he got back from his construction project that night.
The strength of her ideas startled her a bit—enough for Jon to notice and break the kiss. She stood in the circle of his arms and pressed her cheek against his chest to find his heart hammering. She smiled to know she elicited such a response from such a strong man.
“So,” she said. “We need to figure out what to do.”
He stiffened the slightest bit. “Do we? Can’t we just, I don’t know, go to dinner and sit by each other at church and kiss by the duck pond every chance we get?”
Grace wanted to, and she sighed into him. “I don’t think you get into town much. Seems like kissing at the duck pond is off the table.”
His grip along her waist tightened. “I can make the drive.”
She laughed at the sexy bite in his tone. “All right, handsome. Let’s see if this pond is all you said it was.” She slipped out of his arms at the same time she laced her fingers through his. They walked the circumference of the park, the conversation as easy as the fall breeze, but deep inside, Grace harbored worry.
Worry that Jon really meant what he’d said about pursuing a more casual relationship. Worry that Jon didn’t want to commit. Worry that Jon wouldn’t stay in town, even for her.
She’d just need to change his mind. Filled with determination—especially after he followed her home and kissed her so completely she couldn’t think, or breathe, or stand—Grace decided to do everything she could to make him fall in love with Three Rivers.
If only she knew how.
“A Halloween party?” Jon glanced up from the invitation Grace had given him. “I’m not dressin’ up.”
“It’s not required.” She pointed to the asterisk that said as much. “Heidi just wants to test out her baking on as many people as possible. She claims the cowhands will eat anything she gives them.”
Over the past two weeks, Grace had streamlined the menu, the baking schedule, the entire process. And she wanted to experiment. See if she could make an entire bakery’s worth of treats in one day and have them be edible. Have them be something people would pay for.
So, yes, the Halloween party had been her idea, though she was more than willing to let Heidi play hostess.
“It’s at my house,” Grace said. “Since Heidi’s condo is too small to hold as many people as she thinks will come.”
Jon cocked one eyebrow at her. “You realize the whole town will come.”
Grace gave him her best smile. “We’re counting on it. If they taste the treats and like them, they’ll be more likely to come and pay when we open.”
“They’ll come no matter what,” he mumbled as he swung his head away from her.
“What does that mean?” A sick feeling took root in Grace’s stomach.
“It means that Heidi Ackerman is Three Rivers royalty. If she opens a bakery in town, people will come just because it’s her.”
Grace swallowed down a fresh wave of bitterness, because what he’d said was true. “Well, it’s not Heidi’s baking.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jon said. “It has her name on it.”
As if the pressure Grace carried wasn’t hea
vy enough. “I need you to come.”
He focused on her again. “You need me to come?” His eyes sharpened, taking on a dangerous edge she found exciting. So exciting that a grin formed on her face.
“I want you to come, and yes, I need you to come. I…I don’t want to be the only one there without someone they know.”
“You know people.”
“I know three people. And they’ll all have husbands and children and other friends there. So I need a friend there too.”
He inched closer to her. “A friend?”
Grace shrugged one shoulder. “Sure. We’re friends.”
He growled, one hand sweeping around her waist in a smooth movement. “No, we’re not friends.” He touched his lips to her shoulder and a tremor quaked in her center.
“Can I call you my boyfriend, then?” She cocked her head as he stiffened. “I guess not. That has the word friend in it, and we’re not friends.” She smirked at him, but he stared at her without any hint of amusement.
He brought his mouth to hers with all the urgency of a tropical storm, and she got swept up in the cool touch of his lips, the sweet taste of his tongue, the gentle pressure on her back. When he drew back, he whispered, “Fine, you can call me your boyfriend.”
She exhaled, trying to will strength back into her limbs before he released her. “And you’ll come to the party?”
“Yeah, all right. I’ll come to the party.”
She stepped away and pulled the hem of her shirt down to straighten it. “I’m glad we’ve established some things today.” She flounced away while he fisted the Halloween party invitation.
A week later, Jon showed up at Grace’s house a couple of hours before the party began. He pulled all the way into her open garage, like she’d instructed him to, put his truck in park, and sat in it. Parking here would mean he couldn’t leave until the very end of the party. After everyone else had left. Part of him rejoiced at being able to spend so much time with Grace. The other part had been dying for seven solid days.
Christmas in Three Rivers: Three Rivers Ranch Romance Novella Collection Page 16