Chapter 03 JERICHO
Every time this man took a breath, the buttons on his shirt were holding on for dear life. I swore I could hear them screaming with the effort of containing his impressive chest. The cream-colored fabric hugged every inch of him and left very little to the imagination, and the overwhelming urge to trace the tips of my fingers across that broad expanse bubbled up from someplace deep within me.
Gods, where did those thoughts come from? My face splotched with heat as I caught my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down to try to shock my brain back into place.
It didn’t work.
I snapped my eyes back up to his, the same faded denim blue as his jeans. A smattering of freckles gave some color to his otherwise pale face, and his strawberry blond hair swept back from his forehead in a wave of barely-controlled chaos. A few strands had come loose at the front and curled down across his brow like he was Clark Kent. Or would it be Superman, since he wasn’t wearing glasses? He was certainly built like the superhero, all pleasant curves of muscle and an earnest face like he had no idea how gorgeous he was.
The faint clicking of the camera shutter finally reminded me what I was doing here, and I tipped my head back to better meet the other man’s gaze.
“You’re tall,“
I said, because everything else I could think of was wildly inappropriate.
“No.“
He sounded almost distracted as his eyes swept again from my hair down to my shoes. “You’re just short.”
His shoulders stiffened and his face went slack the moment the words left his mouth, but my bark of laughter earned me at least the ghost of a smile from him.
“Now that we’re done stating the obvious, it’s nice to meet you, Zeke.”
He cleared his throat, and his fingers flexed around mine. “Nice to meet you, too.”
I bit my lip again to keep from grinning at the slight waver in his tone. To cover my amusement, I leaned in a little and dropped my voice. “Nervous?”
His shy smile had my stomach doing somersaults. Gods, he was cute.
“A little,“
he admitted. “This isn’t my usual scene.”
“Well, then you’re in good company, because it’s not mine, either. Although—“
I gestured dramatically around us with my free hand. “Technically the woods are my scene, but modeling is most definitely not.”
“You do a lot of hiking?”
“Something like that,“
I said. “What about you? What’s your scene?”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Lately? The animal shelter. I’ve been spending most of my free time there since my internship ended.”
There was no way he could get any more adorable.
He didn’t look young enough to be a recent college grad, unless I was a terrible judge of age—which was a distinct possibility. Either way, the topic got more than a few words out of him at a time, and with something to focus on, he seemed less nervous.
“Color me intrigued. What sort of internship?”
A hint of pink tinged his cheeks. “I’m a small animal vet, so I’ve been interning at a local clinic for the last year. I’m actually about to start my surgical residency in a few weeks.”
I let out a low whistle. “Impressive. So should I call you Dr. Zeke?“
I reached up with my free hand to straighten the collar of his shirt as an excuse to step closer. “Show you the respect you’re due.”
His cheeks were fully red, now. “That’s really not necessary. Just Zeke is fine.”
“Just Zeke it is, then.”
“Okay, gentlemen, can I rearrange you a bit?“
Sadie asked, making both of us jump.
She was much too good at letting us forget she was here.
Zeke took a step back, and his hand slid out of mine when she gestured him toward the stone hearth behind us.
“Can I have you sit here on this side,“
she said, indicating the left corner, “with your knees pointing toward Jericho?“
When she had him settled the way she wanted, she turned to me. “I want you next to him, leaning on his shoulder.”
I plopped down on the stone ledge and tucked in close to Zeke. His arm settled across my shoulders to give me space to lean my back against his chest, and I did as instructed when Sadie asked me to bring my left leg up and rest my foot on the edge of the stone.
She stepped back to appraise her work and gestured at her head. “Jericho, could you—”
“Ah, yeah, sorry.“
I tugged my hood off, and Zeke smoothed the material down so it didn’t bunch up behind my neck. I tipped my head back to look up at him. “Thanks.”
“Your hair is really pretty,“
he said in response. Judging by the hint of blush that sprung to his cheeks, it wasn’t what he’d meant to say.
“Hey, a guy’s gotta make up for his boring brown eyes somehow.”
A little crinkle formed between his brows, and his gaze dropped from my hair to my eyes. “They’re not boring.”
I couldn’t bite back a grin. “Oh, no? How would you describe them, then?”
He fell quiet a moment, and his eyes searched mine in a way that felt appreciative rather than critical. Like he was savoring the opportunity to get to know even that small part of me.
“They’re warm,“
he said finally, softly. “Deep. Kind.”
My grin softened into a shy smile of my own, and my face flushed as hot as Zeke’s looked. That wasn’t the sort of answer I was expecting. And turns out, I’d been wrong before, because he only got more and more adorable by the moment.
“Well. Thank you.“
I reached up to tug on his fingers resting on my shoulder, and my heart thumped when he caught my hand and held on. My mouth went dry, and my voice came out a croak when I finished with, “You have beautiful eyes, too.”
I finally broke the visual lock and hazarded a glance at Sadie, who grinned down at her camera.
“I can’t wait to show you some of these,“
she said, and turned her grin up at us. “Jericho, can I have you turn your face to the left, like you’re looking out at the trees? Perfect. And Zeke, just… keep looking down at him like that.”
“And how exactly are you looking at me, sir?“
I said through a smile.
“Shush,“
he hissed, and his fingers tightened around mine.
Sadie rearranged us a couple more times before she announced that we were ready to move on to the next location.
I hopped up and kept hold of Zeke’s hand, pulling him along behind me to crowd around the photographer while she clicked through a few of her favorite shots on the little screen on her camera so we could get a peek. It was strange to see the looks Zeke and I shared, like we’d had months to get to know one another. Like there existed history between us longer than the half hour that was our reality.
Then we were off down the trail again, ahead of Sadie per her request, heading for something she called “the old tree.“
Zeke made no move to pull his hand from mine, and I had no intention of breaking contact, so we kept close as we walked.
“I just noticed, your ears have a little point to them,“
he said. He reached over with his free hand to brush a fingertip against the shell of my ear, eliciting a shiver that definitely couldn’t have escaped his notice. “It’s cute.”
“It’s genetic.“
Which was the least attractive response I could have possibly given, but my mouth was moving without my permission. “My mom’s are even pointier. I take more after her than after my dad.“
I gestured to my small stature as if that was all the explanation needed.
“It suits you,“
Zeke said as he let his hand fall back to his side. “Makes you pocket sized.”
I let out the most undignified snort of my life and slapped a hand over my face to hide the hot blush that chased his implied sentiment. I would let you put me in your pocket any time, I thought. When I cut my eyes over, Zeke was smirking, looking entirely too satisfied at having flustered me for once.
“So,“
he said, “you know what I do. What about you? Aside from hiking or something like that.”
I blew out a long breath and scrubbed my hand over my cheeks as if that could wipe away the lingering blush and impure thoughts. “I’ve been apprenticing under a master chocolatier.”
He glanced aside at me with both brows arched in an unspoken question.
“My family owns a sweets shop up in Minnesota. I got my culinary degree up there, then came here to KC for my business administration degree to make sure I could run it well when the time came. The apprenticeship was mostly for fun, so I could help us branch out into handmade chocolate when I go back.“
For the first time since I got the call about my parents retiring, my anticipation of my return bore no lingering hint of apprehension. It put a bounce in my step. “I’m actually heading back in about two months to take over.”
“That’s exciting. Are you looking forward to it?”
“I am.“
I smiled over at him, and caught Sadie snapping a photo of us out of the corner of my eye. “Just not the packing-loading-physically-moving part of it.”
Zeke tipped his head back and groaned. “Tell me about it. I’m neck deep in boxes and half of my life is packed away, and I keep needing things I’ve already packed, and it’s a pain in the ass.”
“My worst nightmare,“
I said through a chuckle. “So, your residency isn’t in town?”
“No, out in Boston.”
“Look at us, regular jet-setting folks getting ready to drive cross-country.“
To almost opposite sides of it, too, unfortunately.
He snickered and squeezed my hand. “I’m glad we both got the chance to take a break from the moving madness and do this today.”
“Me too.”
We followed Sadie’s directions until we reached a gnarled old tree, its trunk split and twisted around itself at the base almost like a braid. Several branches jutted out to the right at the perfect height to lean against, and the rest fanned out above us. The sign post at the edge of the trail proclaimed it to be an Osage orange that was over 170 years old.
It looked good for its age.
Neither of us needed any prompting to venture close while Sadie found a good spot to shoot from.
Zeke tested the strength of the low-hanging branch. “I bet it could hold you,“
he said when I came up beside him to lean against it.
My gaze wandered down to his shirt and the minimal amount of skin he was showing, then down at myself and the maximum amount of skin I had on display. I chewed on my bottom lip a moment before I caught his sleeve and tugged.
“Hey, can I fuss your look for the next few pictures?”
He looked down at my hand, then back up at me. After a moment of thought, he nodded.
I bounced up from my lean and unbuttoned the cuffs at his wrists so I could roll the sleeves up below his elbow. When I reached for his collar, I hesitated.
“Is this okay?”
“Yeah,“
he said. His soft voice rumbled over me and made me feel warm all over. “It’s okay.”
I pinned my bottom lip between my teeth while I undid the top few buttons of his shirt and tugged the collar until it gaped open to expose a bit of his chest. A tiny dot of black ink peeked out at the top of his left pec, and I grinned.
“You have tattoos?”
“Just the one for now,“
he said. He reached up to undo another button and tug his shirt to the side to show a pair of tiny animal paws above another pair that were more elongated. “I have a rabbit, Murph. These are his footprints from when he was a baby.”
“Oh my gods, how little was he?!”
He held his hands far closer together than I expected. “He’s a Holland lop. They’re small, even full grown.“
He went quiet while he re-fastened the button he’d undone, then shrugged. “You could come meet him after this if you want.”
Be still my heart. Who could say no to that?