Chapter 19
Tertia pointed to the bar. “Sausage gravy in the slow cooker so it will stay warm. Biscuits on the stove. Muffins on the table. Y’all help yourselves,” Tertia said when her parents came into the kitchen together the next morning.
“I love biscuits and gravy, but then you know that.” Joe Clay kissed her on the cheek, then poured two mugs of coffee and set them on the table.
“Thank you, darlin’.” Mary Jane sat down and picked up her mug. “Just a muffin for me this morning. I swear, the way you girls have been cooking, I’m going to gain ten pounds.”
“We could pay them guys that they’ve been seeing to hurry up and take them off our hands,” Joe Clay teased. “That way we could go back to toast and coffee for breakfast, a quick sandwich for lunch, and a light supper.”
“Daddy!” Tertia air slapped him. “You can’t sell us off like one of your wood projects.”
“Don’t intend to as long as you keep cooking like this.” He grinned.
Mary Jane slathered butter on her cranberry orange muffin. “Speaking of food, we have a lot of leftovers, so why don’t you guys come on over here for lunch today? Seems like a lot of trouble to cart food over to Noah’s place, when y’all can just walk across the road and eat here.”
“There weren’t as many hot dogs as I thought there would be, but I can make up some hamburger patties, and we’ll have both.” Tertia planned out loud as she fixed her own plate. She would also whip up a couple of peach crisps to stretch out the leftover desserts.
Aunt Bernie came in the back door at the same time Ophelia and Endora entered the kitchen from the foyer. Ophelia was dressed in jeans and a cute little blouse. Endora still wore a pair of pajamas and had bags under her eyes.
“One of you slept well,” Bernie pointed at Endora. “But you look like warmed-over sin on Sunday morning after a rough Saturday night.”
Endora covered a yawn with the back of her hand. “I haven’t even been to bed. I finished my first book about an hour ago and sent it to Mama’s agent. If she can’t sell it, then I plan to self-pub.”
“And I’m on my way to work.” Ophelia grabbed a muffin and headed back out toward the foyer.
“So, other than Ophelia going to work and Endora going back to bed, what’s everyone else doing?” Bernie split open two biscuits, covered them with gravy, and carried her plate to the table.
“I’m helping Noah fix his porch. Remy and Shane and Parker are going to pitch in and help this morning,” Joe Clay answered.
“Working on the final two chapters of my work in progress,” Mary Jane replied. “I want to get it done and ready to send to the publisher by the end of the week so I can have a whole month free to finish planning Luna’s wedding.”
“And you?” Aunt Bernie looked right at Tertia.
“I’m going to make lunch for all the guys who are working on Noah’s house,” Tertia answered. “Mama suggested they all come over here, rather than us having to tote food over to them.”
Bernie had to be fuming, but she hid it well. The old gal couldn’t fuss at her because it had been Mary Jane’s idea to invite them—not Tertia’s.
“At least I can get to know Parker better and decide if he’ll make a good husband,” Bernie said.
“He’s a preacher, for God’s sake,” Tertia scolded. “Why wouldn’t he make a good husband?”
“Even preachers can be lousy in bed,” Bernie answered.
“How do you know?” Tertia asked.
“Don’t ask if you don’t really want to know,” Bernie snapped.
“I don’t want to know,” Joe Clay said, “so let’s change the subject.”
“Yes,” Endora agreed and blushed.
At exactly noon the guys all paraded into the kitchen through the back door and, one by one, followed Joe Clay’s lead when he washed his hands at the kitchen sink. Tertia had laid everything out on the bar separating the kitchen from the breakfast nook. “Y’all help yourselves and find a place to sit wherever you can,” she said as she filled glasses with ice and set two pitchers of tea on the table, along with several bottles of water.
“I want to thank all y’all for the help this morning, and thank you, Tertia, for fixing lunch for us,” Noah said.
“It was a joint effort,” Tertia told him, “but you are welcome.”
“Parker, would you say grace?” Joe Clay asked.
The kitchen went quiet while Parker said a quick prayer, and then Joe Clay led the way again when he picked up a disposable plate and made himself two hamburgers.
“Would it be rude if we sit on the screened porch?” Noah whispered.
His warm breath on her neck caused a little rush of heat to flow through her body. Her voice sounded kind of high and a bit squeaky in her own ears when she said, “Not at all.”
She and Noah both carried their plates out the back door onto the porch, set them down on the table between the two rocking chairs, and then sat down at the same time.
“So, how did the morning go?” she asked.
“Faster than I expected,” Noah answered. “I just have to paint the posts and put the shingles on the roof now. If I’d been doing all the work by myself, it would have taken me a week or more. I’m going into town to buy a couple of squares this afternoon. You want to go with me?”
“Love to,” she answered with a nod.
“I figure I can finish up the rest of the job tomorrow morning, and then we can start to cook in the afternoon.” He stood up and rolled the kinks out of his neck. “I really like this screened porch. I’m going to talk to Henry about having my deck fixed like this. I like to sit outside in the evenings, but the river is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.”
“That’s why Daddy fixed this one up for Mama all those years ago. After a day cooped up in the office writing books all day, she loved to be outside in the evenings, but she didn’t like fighting with bugs.”
Instead of sitting down in the chair he had just vacated, he leaned forward, tipped up her chin with his fist, and brushed a soft kiss across her lips. When it ended, he rose up and sat down beside her. “I’ve been wanting to do that for days, but someone always gets in the way.”
Tertia had not been speechless very often in her life, but she was at that moment. She had thought about more than just kisses with Noah, but she hadn’t expected a sweet kiss to send hot desire shooting through her body.
“Too soon?” he asked as he sat down.
“No,” she whispered. “I just wasn’t expecting it to affect me like it did.”
“And how is that on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best?” Noah asked.
“Fifteen,” Tertia answered.
Noah flashed a smile and nodded. “I was thinking sixteen or seventeen, but fifteen is good.”
“Hey, y’all, mind if we join you?” Luna asked as she pushed the door open.
“Not at all,” Noah answered and winked at Tertia.
“We don’t mean to interrupt,” Shane said as he sat down on the swing and balanced his plate on his knees. “I had to get Luna out of the dining room before she exploded.”
“What about?” Tertia asked.
“Aunt Bernie is meddling,” Luna said. “I think Endora might like to talk to Parker, maybe just as a friend, but Aunt Bernie is hogging the conversation and telling him all about Bo. I love her, but she needs to back off.”
“Amen!” Tertia said.
“As a bartender, she was probably used to a lot of excitement in her life,” Noah said between bites, “and I bet that she misses all that. She can meddle all she likes, but when the last word is said, it’s up to you sisters how you live your lives.”
“I agree,” Shane said, “but then I’m one of the lucky ones. She had me and Luna matched up from the beginning.”
“I’ll change her mind about me,” Noah declared.
“Good luck, and if I can help, just let me know,” Shane said.
Tertia hoped that Bernie did change her mind, or maybe swear that she had used reverse psychology like Mary Jane had suggested. But when it came right down to it, Bernie’s liking Noah or not liking him wasn’t the deciding issue in Tertia’s relationship with him.
Compared to the previous Tuesday, this one went slower than any day Ophelia had ever experienced. She actually wondered if the clock had stopped several times throughout the day and had fallen asleep a couple of times while she waited for the doorbell to ring. She reminded herself that folks all over the area were still busy cleaning up what the weekend storm had left behind, so they weren’t thinking about buying wine. Jake had been one of the lucky ones. The wind from the tornado had flipped his grill over and blew a couple of lawn chairs away, but it had not damaged his grape arbors or even stolen a single shingle from the winery roof. Electricity had been restored to his trailer as well as the winery, and production was going on as if nothing had happened.
Tomorrow Ophelia intended to bring her mother’s latest book to work with her. She hadn’t had time to read the last two that had been published, and slow days like this one would be a perfect time to catch up.
“Ready to close the door and go home?” Jake asked as he came from the back of the shop.
“It has been a slow one,” she told him.
“If you get bored up here, come on to the back and visit with us guys. The doorbell is fixed so we can hear it from that area. I should have told you sooner.” He crossed the room and flipped the sign around to show that they were closed.
Ophelia slung her purse over her shoulder and met him as he was coming back. They were only a few feet apart when she stumped her already bruised toe on the table where the wine had been. She started to fall, but Jake caught her and pulled her close to his chest.
“Do you think the third time will be the charm?” he asked.
“Third time?” Adrenaline rushed through her body almost as badly as it had when three funnel clouds were waltzing toward them.
“First time you fell into my arms was because of slick grass. Second time is right now,” he replied.
“Why would the third time be a charm?”
He let go of her and cupped her face in his hands. “Because that would be when I kiss you.”
She looked up into his eyes. “Why wait until the third?”
She barely had time to moisten her lips before his eyes fluttered shut and his mouth closed over hers. Her pulse jacked up, and time stood still as the heat built up to the boiling point between them. Ophelia had wondered what it would be like to kiss Jake, but nothing had prepared her for the rush of steam building up in her body, or the desire to push him through the door into the reception room and make out with him for hours.
“Holy smokin’ hell!” he muttered when he finally took a step back. “I can hardly breathe.”
“Me either,” she panted.
“I wasn’t expecting”—he stopped and sucked in a lungful of air—“for a simple kiss to knock my socks off.”
“If that was just a simple kiss, then I don’t know if I’m ready for a hot kiss.” She was so breathless that her words came out one at a time.
“Want to go home with me and share a cold shower?” His grin was downright wicked.
She shook her head. “If I got in the shower with you, the water would boil. I expect I’d better go home and take a cold one all by myself.” She felt as if she was floating, rather than walking when she started for the door. But if she’d spent another minute so close to Jake, they wouldn’t be thinking about a cold shower at all—more like how quickly they could make it to a table in the reception room.
Jake slipped her hand into his, and another steamy burst of heat shot through her body. “I’ll walk you out to your truck.” She tried to control the sexy pictures popping into her head, but it didn’t work.
His voice was deeper than before, giving testimony that he really had been affected by the kiss as much as she had. That exclamation he’d uttered hadn’t just been a pickup line. “You might need my help again if you take a tumble.”
“I could fake a fall,” she teased.
“Any time,” he said as he opened the door and led her out onto the porch. He helped her get settled into her vehicle, brushed a kiss across her cheek, and then took a step back. “I’ll call you later tonight and see you tomorrow morning.”
“Maybe if it’s as slow as it was today, I’ll come to the back room and learn the art of making wine,” she said.
“I’ll be glad to teach you.” Jake closed the door.
She kept an eye on him in the rearview mirror, and he didn’t turn around to go back to the business until she turned onto the road. She slowed down to a crawl and wiped her forehead in a dramatic gesture. “Whew!” she said as she took a long breath and let it out slowly.
The drive to the Paradise took twice as long as normal because she was trying to process her feelings before she was bombarded by however many sisters were at the house. And of course, her mother and Bernie would take one look at the smile on her face and ask a million questions.
To her surprise, no one was on the porch, and she was able to sneak upstairs to her room. Once inside, she gently closed the door and fell back on her bed. “Dammit! I wish Jake was right here beside me,” she muttered. “But that’s hormones talking. We haven’t known each other long enough for that to happen.”
She almost groaned when she heard a gentle knock on her door and sighed when Tertia peeked inside. She needed a few more minutes to think—alone!
Tertia came into the room, closed the door behind her, and stretched out on the other side of the bed from her sister. “Noah kissed me twice, and I liked it, a lot.”
“You sound like a teenager,” Ophelia said.
“I know!” Tertia groaned. “Is this rebellion because Aunt Bernie doesn’t like Noah, and maybe because I’m turning thirty soon?”
“Thirty is not old!” Ophelia argued. “It’s the new eighteen, don’t you know?”
“Then that would explain the way I feel. I had to talk to someone. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt like this, and considering how I’ve felt about Noah Wilson all these years, that says a lot.”
“Aunt Bernie isn’t going to like it.” Ophelia chuckled. “But then it’s your life, not hers. And one or two kisses do not mean a trip down the aisle at the church.”
Tertia popped up to a sitting position. “You are so right. The second time around might not make my hormones whine. How are things going with Jake?”
“He kissed me,” Ophelia whispered and then wished she had kept the news to herself. “Please don’t tell anyone. I’m still processing the whole thing. I’ve been in relationships, but a few hot lingering kisses never made me want to throw caution to the wind and take a man to bed right then and there.”
“Me, either,” Tertia whispered, “but when Noah kissed me a few minutes ago, I got the same reaction. Are we both crazy, or has it just been too long since our last relationships? You are past thirty, and I’m staring it right in the eyes, and here we are, acting like we just got our first kisses at sixteen.”
“I was fourteen,” Ophelia said with a soft giggle.
“You hussy!” Tertia picked up a throw pillow and threw it at her sister.
Ophelia caught the pillow and threw it back at her. “I was an early bloomer. You just took a while to catch up.”
Tertia sat up and propped her back against the headboard. “I might have been slow when it came to romance. After all, I was a tomboy for years, but I made up for it later. Still, nothing has prepared me for the effect that Noah is having on me.”
“And you weren’t ever going to date a blond-haired guy,” Ophelia said.
“Or make out with one either. Remember that old saying: ‘Be careful of the words you say. Keep them soft and sweet. For you never know which ones you’ll have to eat.’ Or something like that?”
“Mama used to quote that to us when we were hateful to each other,” Ophelia answered with a nod. “We’re both having to eat our words. I wasn’t going to work for Jake or date him either. But I can’t help but wonder if it will be really awkward if I’m working with him, and then we break up?”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing, but we don’t get fancy glasses that let us see into the future.”
“Sometimes I wish we did,” Ophelia said with a long sigh.
“Don’t we all,” Tertia agreed.