Anything for You (Blue Heron #5)(85)
She smiled. “Is that all?”
“No. Other things, too.” He leaned in and kissed her, felt her palm against his heart.
“Jess?” came Davey’s voice from upstairs. “Jess?”
She broke off the kiss and held her finger to her lips. “Yes?” she called, not looking away from Connor.
“Where’s my Wonder Woman comic book?”
She winced.
“Wonder Woman, huh?” Connor whispered. “He has great taste in women.”
She rolled her eyes and turned to the stairs. “It’s probably in your night-table drawer or under your disgusting pile of clothes.”
“Found it!” Davey called. “Don’t come upstairs for a while.”
It was Connor’s turn to wince.
“He’s twenty-six,” Jess said with a shrug. “Healthy American male in love with Wonder Woman.”
So was Connor. A different type of wonder woman, but essentially the same. “Want to sit in the backyard and look at the stars?” he asked.
She looked at him for a long minute. “You’re quite a romantic, aren’t you?”
“That’s just a rumor. I’m really big and scary. You want to or not?”
And so it was that the perfect day ended on a blanket in Jessica’s small backyard, Jess on one side of him, Chico Three on the other, the stars so clear and bright overhead it seemed like everything Connor had ever wanted had been granted by a smiling, benevolent god.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THINGS ARE GOING WELL.
The second the thought came into her head, Jess tried to dismiss it. It was the kiss of death, thinking that.
But things were actually going well.
Davey was sometimes still a little grumpy about Connor if he thought about it. He’d sulk if Jess told him she was going out to see Connor, but having Ned around was a godsend.
When Connor came by, he always brought Lady Fluffy. The name made Jessica laugh every time Connor said it. Chico Three loved the tiny dog, who looked rather like a stuffed animal with its bright eyes and cottony fur, and it made Davey howl with laughter to watch the two dogs chasing each other.
Her father was still sober. Since the fair, he’d been coming around more and more, mostly to see Davey, always supervised by herself, Ned or Gerard. One of these days, she might let him take Davey somewhere, but she’d been in the car too many times herself as a child, arm braced across Davey as her father took a turn too fast and too wide. So while it was a future possibility, she wasn’t rushing into anything there.
And between her boarder and her raise, and her two nights a week at Hugo’s, she’d finally saved up enough to really look for a house. Being terrified of poverty, she actually had more than she needed for a healthy down payment, because she wanted to have a solid rainy-day fund, in case the day came when she no longer worked at Blue Heron.
That day might come. She couldn’t escape the sinking sensation she felt every time she saw Marcy with one of the Hollands, ass-kissing and complimenting, not to mention that barking, omnipresent laugh. But brides especially adored her, and the Barn schedule was packed full, every event going off without a hitch.
But Marcy was also still encroaching on Jessica’s territory. She’d made a short video of the vineyard, even though Jess had scheduled a film crew to do just that. “I just thought it’d be good to have something now, while the season is really busy,” Marcy said during a staff meeting.
“Well, I’m not sure we need an amateur video when a professional crew is coming in July,” Jess countered. She’d chosen July for good reason; Blue Heron was hosting a hot air balloon festival, and the first haying was scheduled for that same week. The footage would be gorgeous.
“It’ll just be a placeholder,” Marcy said, dismissing Jess with a wave of her hand. “And listen, it’s pretty good for an amateur video! I kid you not! You might even want to save the moolah, Honor, and just stick with mine. Ah ha! Ah ha! Ah ha ha ha!”
It was hard to argue with Marcy without making herself seem petty. So Jess let it go, or tried to. Kept her head down and kept working, hoping it would be enough. She didn’t know how to work a crowd or promote herself. She didn’t really want to, either.
* * *
ON TUESDAY EVENING, she met Connor at Scoop, the ice-cream shop that had just opened on the green. It was his night off, and their fourth official date. Ice cream for dinner—a good start. They ate their cones—strawberry for her, chocolate fudge for him—and walked through the little downtown, past Lorelei’s, the antiques store, the new custom furniture place. Nice stuff in the window, Jess thought. The kind of stuff she’d buy for her house someday, graceful, sleek furniture made from beautiful grained wood. Probably cost a fortune.
Connor took her hand, and again, the strange, light thought came—This is what normal people do. He gave her a wry look, then licked his cone, and hello, did all men look this good eating ice cream?
“There’s an alley here if you want to do me,” he said. “But there are children around, so...”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she lied, smiling.
Happy. That’s what the feeling was. She was happy.
“I want to show you something,” he said. They went down Lake Street toward the park. Little kids were running around, covered in sand, shrieking as they splashed in the cool water of Keuka. Someone was cooking hot dogs, and sailboats skimmed past. A barking dog caught her eye. It looked like Blue, Faith and Levi’s dog, and sure enough, she saw the Coopers, Levi holding the baby, handsome in his uniform, Faith’s red hair catching the light. Faith waved, and Jess returned it.