Chapter Nine #2
Gard laughed, the sound low and rich. “You’ll get ’em next time, kid. Can’t learn if you don’t practice and experiment.” Sammy shoved her plate away dejectedly as Gard got to his feet. “No worries. There’s always backup.”
Sammy sighed again, resting her chin on her palm and watching her uncle suspiciously as he moved into the kitchen. “Please don’t say potpie.”
Gard opened the freezer and gestured at a stack of freezer meals with a flourish. “Potpie.”
Clearly it was some kind of inside joke, because Sammy was trying very hard not to laugh. Even with her kitchen failure. Which was a relief.
“Don’t let him feed us frozen potpies, Lia,” Sammy said, with fake desperation. “You have to do something to save us all.”
“Sometimes you gotta take the losses on the chin,” Lia said, smiling at Sammy, who was clearly enjoying herself. Which was a huge win in Lia’s book. She had expected the second fail of the day to end in more sobs and tears, but Sammy seemed…really okay.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out why. It was the man currently heating up potpies in the microwave.
He served Lia first, and even though she didn’t like potpie, particularly the frozen variety, she sat there and ate it. Well, even she couldn’t choke down the peas, but she ate the rest, while Gard and Sammy talked.
Lia would have been happy to sit there and listen, which was often how she got through life, never really belonging anywhere.
Even now, feeling like she did belong in Hope Town, it was easy to keep to herself.
To maintain a kind of tough-girl outer shell, chat about business or the weather, not… herself.
But Gard and Sammy didn’t let her hide in plain sight. They kept asking her opinion on things or trying to use her as some sort of tiebreaker vote when they were good-naturedly arguing about something.
It was nothing, and yet it felt…special that they would just fold her in. Too special. Because this was still…not hers. They were not hers. She was like…a tourist.
Eventually the vacation would be over.
And that thought made her want to cry a little bit, which was just ridiculous and an overreaction.
So, since they were all done eating, Lia got to her feet.
“Thank you for dinner. Just text me what days you and the girls want to come to the bakery this week,” she said to Sammy, moving for her purse. “Otherwise, I’ll see you Saturday.”
“Okay, but can I have Sunday off? Gard talked to Sarabeth’s mom last night and said I could go to her party.”
Sammy’s smile made Lia smile too as she shouldered her purse. She’d known all along Gard would let her go even if he didn’t want to, but she was glad it didn’t seem to have caused too much turmoil.
“Of course. And if it’s okay with Gard, you can take Saturday off too.”
“Are you sure?” Sammy asked, frowning a little.
“You’re going to need to sleep in Saturday if you’re going to go to a sleepover. I hear not much sleeping is done at those types of things. You guys think about it. Let me know.”
She opened the front door and let herself out with a little wave on the way.
Outside in the cold air Lia managed a full, deep breath and let it out. Okay, she had to set herself some ground rules about the Fairhursts. Like no more dinners at Gard’s house. It was just too…cozy and intimate. Maybe a restaurant every once in a while, but not his cute little house.
She’d only taken a few steps down the drive when she heard the door open behind her and she turned to see Gard stepping out onto his porch.
Oh. No.
He smiled at her in the beam of the porch light. “I just want to make sure there’s no damages from this morning I need to be paying off.”
“No, nothing like that.” Lia tried to smile but she was…nervous. Not about her day with Sammy. About him. “She just…needed a break from everything, so we drove around a little bit.”
He took a few steps toward her. “Sorry if the Fairhurst circus hijacked your weekend.”
“You didn’t,” she said earnestly, because the last thing she wanted him thinking was that her nerves were some indication that she didn’t want Sammy in her life, or Sammy had done something wrong. This weekend she’d felt…involved and useful and like she mattered and that was…
It was a lot, because aside from what she’d built at Hope Town—the bakery, her friends, all important but fused to that past of hers—she’d never felt like she belonged.
Gard took another few steps toward her. “I’m grateful, Lia. And before you get that pinched look, I know you don’t want me to be. It’s not a transactional kind of grateful. I appreciate you.”
She couldn’t find words to respond to that, because it touched something deep inside of her. She thought about what Sammy had said about protecting herself, and Lia knew she was falling into the same trap. Letting things seem…good, hopeful. She’d get clobbered.
And what had she told Sammy about not protecting yourself so much from the bad stuff you didn’t see any good? Shouldn’t she take her own advice?
That advice suddenly felt very dangerous.
“I left her with you this morning an angry, bitter teen and came home to…well, Sammy.”
He was awfully close now, and she should probably step back. Turn and walk away.
“I’m glad I could help. I like spending time with her. Even…angry, bitter teen time. She’s just…great.”
He nodded. “Horrible kitchen experiments and all.”
“It really was terrible.”
He chuckled, the sound kind of rumbling through her out on his driveway. Standing just a shade too close and wanting to lean into that.
She cleared her throat. “Thanks for dinner. I’m sure I’ll see you some day this week.” She would have taken a step back, but his next words stopped her in her tracks.
“I liked coming home and seeing you in my house.”
Oh God, that wasn’t fair. Especially the way he said it. All low and…intimate.
He reached out, his hand—big and warm and calloused—touched her cheek. “You do something to me, Lia Blair. I haven’t quite figured out what.”
Maybe that was why she didn’t know how to stop this. Because he did something to her too, and she was just as in the dark about what it was. What she was supposed to do about it.
Then he lowered his mouth to hers, pausing a breath away from actually touching, like he was waiting for her to tell him not to.
She should absolutely do that. Just explain it wasn’t a good idea. But her heart was an echoing drumbeat in her ears, her body some other entity her rational thoughts didn’t have control of. Because she mounted no objections, and leaned into the warmth radiating off of him.
And then his mouth was on hers. The kiss was gentle, but not exactly chaste. The only word she could come up with was…some kind of exploration. She could feel a subtle wave of warmth sweep through her muscles, one by one, until she’d completely relaxed into him.
She thought she might have been able to stay right here forever, the slow, thudding beat of her heart a perfect soundtrack to the best kiss of her life, by far.
But he eased his mouth away, those direct blue eyes right on hers when she managed to blink hers open. She was pretty sure her skin was vibrating. Had anyone ever kissed her like that? Made her feel like some imperative part of…everything.
His thumb grazed along her jaw, his other fingers resting gently against her neck. “Have you decided about dinner on Saturday?”
This was…probably not the best line to be walking. She had secrets she could probably never share with him. He was a police officer. Could he possibly understand all the twisted parts of her past even if she could tell him?
Which she couldn’t.
But she did not tell him no. She did not pull away from the warmth that seemed to radiate from his body or the directness in those blue eyes. She simply said, “Yes.”
His mouth curved, that hand still on her face, his thumb moving up and down her jawline. A soft caress she couldn’t possibly step away from. No one touched her, certainly not like she was special, desirable, interesting.
“Is that a yes you’ve been thinking about it, or a yes you’ll go?”
Here was her out. Her chance to back off.
She didn’t take it. “Both.”
“I’m dropping Sammy off at the Thompsons’ at five. I’ll…pick you up at six?”
Lia nodded. She didn’t trust her voice. She didn’t trust herself.
“Then it’s a date.”
A date. Lia swallowed and then nodded. “Night, Gard.” She had to force herself to turn and walk for her car. The air around her suddenly cold so she shivered. She slid into the car, let out a slow breath, then steeled herself for one last look.
He was standing on his porch again, hands deep in his pockets, watching her go. He lifted his hand in a wave, so Lia did the same, wondering what the hell she thought she was doing.
Apparently she was dating Corporal Gard Fairhurst, and even knowing that it could only lead to some terrible mistake, she couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across her face as she drove home.