17. Jared

17

JARED

J ared sat in his truck outside Cora's house, waiting for her to get home.

It was cold enough to see his breath inside the cab, but he didn't like running the engine if he didn't have to, and besides, the silence allowed him to hear the birds outside and the cold felt good on his heated cheeks.

Normally, he would have hopped out and gotten started on one project or another. But they were almost out of projects now. And something was telling him to stay put.

Maybe it was the reason he had come here to see her, making him want to respect that this space was hers, and that she could say no to him if she wanted.

But he didn't think she would.

The more he thought about the conversation he'd had with his dad earlier today, and the more he thought back over the weekend and all the other times he had spent with Cora and Sylvester, the more hopeful he felt .

Joy bubbled in his chest and he took a deep breath of frigid air, forcing himself to focus. He had gone over different things he could say to her in his head a hundred times since this afternoon, but nothing fit.

As much as he knew being impulsive was a risk when it came to Cora, he was pretty sure he was going to have to go with his gut when he spoke with her today. There was no "right" way to woo a widow, or a mother and her son.

But the more time he spent sitting in his truck, the more he worried about all the ways he could mess this up.

Was it better to leave things as they were, and wait for some unmistakable sign from Cora that she wanted more?

I'd be waiting forever , he told himself. Besides, this is the right thing. I know it in my heart.

His pulse slowed a little, and he glanced at his watch. She was normally home by now.

Cora sometimes surprised him, like when he'd caught her dancing, and when she'd said yes to going to the town celebration with him and they'd wandered around together in front of everyone. But the woman loved a routine. She was never, ever late coming home from school because that would disrupt Sylvester's homework schedule.

Real worry had just started to cut into his hope and his nerves when her car finally pulled into the driveway. He got out of the truck at last, his worries forgotten and his heart light as he approached.

He was a little surprised to see Sylvester running up the porch steps, without so much as a hello. And he was even more surprised that Cora wasn't calling after him to walk.

"Cora," he said, speaking from the heart as she approached, before he could lose his nerve. "I have something to ask you?—"

But whatever he would have said next died in his throat.

Jared had spent so much time these past few weeks studying Cora's sweet face, weighing her worries from the slight furrow in her brow, and trying to win a rare smile from his serious little mother hen. He saw those smiles more and more these days, and none more often than when they greeted each other in the afternoons.

But today, there was a set to her chin again, just like on that very first day. And there was a flash of ice in her gray eyes.

She stopped in front of him and looked like she was about to say something, but she only stood there. They just stared at each other for a moment, breath pluming silently in the frigid air, until she finally spoke.

"It's not a good time," she said, quickly turning away from him and heading for the house like they had never met at all.

He would have called after her, but his voice was frozen and his heart felt like it was disintegrating in his chest.