Unbreakable (Cloverleigh Farms, #4)(55)

“No, thanks.”

I frowned at the wood. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Well, what are you doing in there?” I tried to open the door but it was locked.

“Nothing.” A few seconds later, she opened the door. Her face was full of makeup, her expression dour. She looked like a very unhappy clown. “Just playing with the new palette.”

“Oh. Well, if you want to come down and join us, feel free. Just wash your face first, please.”

“Is Mr. DeSantis still here?”

I paused. Was there something accusatory in her voice? Or was I imagining it? “Yes. He’s outside with Keaton showing him how to use the telescope. Want to come down and look through it?”

“No, thanks.”

“Okay. I’ll be up in a bit to say goodnight. Don’t get any makeup on the bedding please.”

“I won’t.” She shut the door with no further comment.

On my way back downstairs, I wondered if Whitney suspected something was going on with Henry or if I was just being paranoid. All we’d done was sit next to each other at the table. I decided I must have imagined the suspicious tone of her question—probably just my own mixed-up feelings about what Henry and I were doing.

When I got back downstairs, Henry and Keaton were just coming into the family room, their cheeks and noses red from the cold.

“Guess what, Mom?” Keaton asked excitedly. “Henry goes to a boxing gym and he said he’d take me there sometime!”

“That’s awesome, buddy.” I smiled at him.

“They have classes for kids,” Henry said, setting the telescope in a corner where it wouldn’t get knocked over. “They look like fun.”

“I’ve always wanted to learn how to box, but my dad said team sports were way better.” Keaton inhaled deeply. “I smell chocolate.”

I laughed. “It’s on the table. Help yourself.”

While Keaton grabbed a mug from the tray, I turned to Henry. “Can you stay for something hot to drink?”

He hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “I should get back.”

“Come on. You have to try some hot chocolate—I made it from scratch.” I brought him a mug and he took it from me, his hands closing around mine all too briefly.

“Okay. But I can’t stay long.”

He lowered himself onto the couch opposite April, and I sat in between them. Keaton took the other end of the couch my mother was on and babbled excitedly about all the things he’d seen in the sky. The entire time, Henry seemed stiff and uncomfortable, and he barely touched his hot chocolate. If someone spoke to him directly, he replied, but other than that, he was silent.

After about ten minutes, he set his mug back on the tray and stood. “I really do need to get back. Thanks again for dinner.”

I rose to my feet and set my cup down too. “I’ll walk you out.”

“That’s not necessary,” he said.

“Goodnight, Henry,” called my mother from the couch. My father and April gave him a wave.

“Night.” Henry gave a wave to everyone. “See you all tomorrow.”

Despite what he’d said, I followed him to the mudroom, where we piled on all our cold-weather apparel in silence. I caught his eye once, and he shook his head like I was a hopeless case. The moment we stepped outside, he pulled me around the side of the house and wrapped me in his arms, crushing his lips to mine in the shadowy dark. Relief mingled with desire—I’d been a little worried that being around my family had made him too skittish. Like maybe he’d decided this was too much of a risk where his job was concerned and I wasn’t worth it.

His kiss tasted like chocolate, and he smelled like leather and winter and maybe a little like the oak barrels in the cellar. We stood in nearly a foot of snow, but I’d have stripped us both naked in a heartbeat just to feel his bare skin on mine. Our winter coats were cumbersome, our gloves annoying as we tried and failed to get close enough to satisfy the urge within us.

“Christ,” he muttered against my lips. “I’ve been telling myself all night I wouldn’t do this.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it’s not right. Your family is right inside. Your dad is my boss. And your daughter knows something is up.”

“You think?”

“Did you hear her asking me all those questions? And she was definitely giving me the side eye across the table.”

“She’s thirteen. Her face is always like that.”

“Still.” He took my face in his hands. “We need to be careful, Sylvia.”

“April knows,” I confessed. “And Frannie. Also, Chloe might have guessed.”

“Okay,” he said slowly, as if he were trying to process what that meant.

“I didn’t mean to betray your confidence,” I said quickly, “but I was just so excited, I had to tell someone. So I sort of told Frannie, but I made her promise not to tell Mack.”

“So how did April—”

“April just sort of guessed after seeing us together tonight. And Chloe must have gotten the idea after being around us at work.”

He was silent for a moment, but his jaw was set.

“Are you mad?” I asked. “I’m sorry. I know we said we were not going to take this public.”