Chapter 15

ChapterFifteen

They snuck in the back door and up the backstairs like teenagers creeping past parents. But it was really only Norman and a few customers stuck waiting out the storm in the café. Jeanie could feel the relief in Logan’s body when she bypassed the front door, like he didn’t want to be caught, either; like neither of them was ready to walk through the café holding hands.

This secretive thing was working for her anyway. Way less pressure.

She pushed open the door to her apartment and dragged Logan inside. ‘We made it,’ she said, her breath still coming out in little gasps.

‘We did.’ Logan’s mouth tipped up at the corners.

She didn’t know if they were talking about the storm or the people or their own reasons for staying away from each other. But whichever it was, they’d made it into her home. Together. Alone with no one watching.

They were both dripping on her hardwood floors and she should really get them some towels and she should really stop staring into Logan’s blue eyes, but the rain was pounding against the windows and her chest was still heaving from their run here, and Logan had been so damn determined to save that tent for her, that something big and unstoppable was welling up in her chest and she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t want to help herself.

She wrapped her hands in Logan’s soaking wet shirt and pulled him closer, relishing the surprised ‘Oof’ that left his lips.

That was as far as she got.

Pressed chest to chest with this sweet, grumpy man, wanting so much more but now afraid to go for it. This wasn’t part of the plan. Was it? Was this New Jeanie? Did she accost men in her entryway? This had never been Jeanie’s style in the past. The men she dated had been … fine. Just fine, perfectly nice, decent kissers, decent at everything else. But she’d never once felt the need to wrap herself up in them. She’d never wanted them to stick around very long, never really cared when things fizzled out.

But this, this was different.

This was new.

Logan’s rough palm on her cheek stalled her thoughts. Her breath stuttered. He tilted her face up to his, his touch gentle but firm, his fingers digging into the hair at the base of her scalp.

A soft whimper, a deep groan, a rumble of thunder.

And then his lips were on hers, warm and soft and insistent, like he wanted to go slow, intended to, but once they touched, he couldn’t quite manage it, couldn’t quite stop himself from pressing harder, going deeper.

Jeanie wrapped her arms around his neck, molding her body against his, and his groan tumbled through her, rough and sweet at once. She could get lost in this. She could stay here forever.

His mouth moved down her neck and the sound of her moan would have been embarrassing if he hadn’t matched it with his own. He burned a path down her damp skin with his lips and tongue and teeth.

He turned them both so that her back was against the door. He rocked into her, pressing her against the wood.

Oh, God, oh, God. He was so solid, so sturdy, so damn good at this.Every reason Jeanie had for staying away from Logan had blown out to sea with the storm, and she was about three seconds away from stripping off her wet clothes and skipping all the steps in between acquaintances and lovers, when the skies cracked, and the lights flickered out.

Shit.

‘Logan,’ she gasped as he licked the delicate skin of her neck.

‘Mmmn.’ His voice vibrated against her. His hands had wandered up her wet shirt, blazing hot against her cool skin.

‘Wait.’ She put one hand on his chest and Logan tore himself away, his hands dropping to his sides.

‘Sorry. I—’

‘No, don’t apologize. That was ... I mean, I wanted to. I just...’

Logan ran a hand through his hair, sending rain droplets scattering. ‘No need to explain. That was too much, too soon.’ His voice was still rough, thick with need. ‘I’ll get out of your hair.’

‘Wait.’ This time when she said it, she tugged him close again. ‘It’s not that. The power just went out and I feel like I should go help Norman.’

He blinked. ‘Oh.’

Jeanie smiled and waited for his mouth to hitch up in response. ‘That was really nice.’

‘Oh?’ His smile hitched higher.

‘Yeah. Really, really nice.’

Logan shifted against her, and she could feel how really nice he also found the whole situation. She reached up and brushed another soft kiss against his lips, feeling the tickle of his beard against her chin.

‘I think we should do it again sometime.’ Wow, New Jeanie was bold. Maybe it was all that farmer smut she’d been reading; the way that milkmaid really chased her own pleasure. Or maybe it was the way Logan held her. Firm, tight, steady. It was nice feeling secure with someone when every other part of her life felt like it had been torn wide open and scattered to the wind. It was nice to lean against someone while she figured out where the pieces fit back together, while she rebuilt.

‘You do?’ Hesitance flashed in his blue eyes.

‘We don’t have to send out announcements to the book club or anything,’ she said. ‘This can be just for us.’

She felt him relax against her, bit by bit, as he considered her offer. What was she offering anyway? Secret make-out sessions. More than that? She wasn’t sure, but after finding out about Lucy, Jeanie wouldn’t blame him if he wasn’t looking for another public spectacle. She could respect that.

New Jeanie was very understanding, apparently. New Jeanie also really wanted to kiss Logan again and was very willing to compromise.

‘So, what would this be?’ he asked, looking down at her.

She shrugged. ‘We could figure it out as we go, I guess.’ Easy breezy, casual. New Jeanie could figure things out as she went. With Logan holding her steady, she felt like she could figure out all kinds of things.

Logan still looked skeptical, the furrow between his brows deepening as she spoke.

‘Or, we can go back to being friends,’ she tossed out. ‘Whatever you want.’

His eyes grew dark again, hungry, like the answer to whatever he wanted was definitely her. It was new, this feeling of wanting, of taking what she wanted, of being wanted in return. She liked it.

‘We’ll figure it out,’ he said, pressing one more kiss to her lips before pulling away. ‘Just us, though.’ He ran a hand through his hair again. ‘I don’t want other people involved. Not even Annie. It’s just once people find out about these things—’

‘Of course. Don’t worry about it.’ She drew an invisible zipper over her lips and threw away the imaginary key. ‘My lips are sealed. This is nobody’s business but our own.’

‘Thanks.’

They didn’t talk about Lucy out loud, but Jeanie knew that’s what he was thanking her for, for giving him the care he needed, and she felt a flare of protectiveness for this man. She wanted to give him what he needed, not what everyone else seemed to think he needed. And besides all that, she was happy to take some of the pressure off this whole thing, anyway. The last thing she wanted was the whole town watching them navigate this relationship.

The second-to-last thing she wanted to do was to leave Logan’s arms, but alas, small-business owner duty called. Norman hated her enough. Leaving him alone in a power outage probably wouldn’t help her case. ‘I should get downstairs.’

‘Right, of course.’ Logan pulled back, letting his hands trace the edges of her hips before dropping them again. His rain-darkened hair hung over his forehead and the T-shirt under his flannel shirt stuck tight to his body. Maybe Norman would be fine?

‘I’ll grab a ladder from my truck and get that tent out of the tree once the storm settles down.’

Jeanie cleared her throat. ‘Perfect, thanks,’ she said, instead of ‘you know what, forget Norman, forget the tent, forget everything except you and me and that flannel shirt on my bedroom floor.’

New Jeanie wasn’t that bold.

Logan nodded and was out the door before Jeanie could change her mind.

* * *

‘There you are!’ Norman’s disgruntled voice came from behind the counter as soon as Jeanie’s foot hit the last step. She turned the corner into the café and his disapproving frown sent heat to her face. Had she been caught already? Were Logan’s kisses somehow glowing on her skin? It certainly felt like they were.

You’re the boss here, Jeanie. Not him.

She squared her shoulders. ‘I got caught in the rain at the farmers’ market. Just had to change my clothes.’ The lingering imprint of Logan’s fingers on the skin of her stomach warmed beneath her dry shirt.

Norman narrowed his eyes. ‘Well, I’ve been here by myself, with this crowd and no power.’ He huffed indignantly.

Jeanie looked around at the sparse, wet, and relatively calm crowd and nearly rolled her eyes. ‘You seem to be managing it very well. Thank you for covering.’

Norman didn’t have much to say to her compliment, so instead he said, ‘We need to keep the refrigerator closed until the power comes back or we’ll lose all the perishables.’

‘Got it.’ Jeanie gave him a thumbs up as she grabbed her apron off the hook near the register. ‘Good call. We’ll also have to go pick up the table and the carafes after the storm’s died down. I kinda made a run for it and left everything.’

Another disgruntled frown.

‘Anything else, Norman?’ Jeanie asked cheerfully, finding it best to fight his grumpiness with positivity. It had always worked with Marvin, too. Jeanie was surprised to find a prickle of sadness in her heart at the thought of her old boss. For better or worse, they’d been together for a long time, and suddenly the thought of never seeing him again seemed impossible.

And then something strange happened to Norman’s face. Was that a slight blush working its way up his cheeks? Was there an uncertainty in his eyes, a shyness?

‘Have you spoken to your aunt?’ he asked, diligently wiping down the counters and avoiding Jeanie’s gaze.

She propped a hip against the counter. Well, this was interesting. Maybe Hazel was right about Norman. Maybe he did have a thing for her aunt. Maybe he was missing her. The thought softened her towards him immediately. Poor old guy.

Jeanie studied him as he cleaned. He wasn’t a bad-looking man. She tilted her head. He might even be sort of cute in the button-up shirts and sweater vests he wore every day. His dark-framed glasses were quite distinguished, and he still had a full head of hair, graying at the temples. Aunt Dot could definitely do worse.

‘I talked to her yesterday, actually.’

If Jeanie hadn’t been staring at him trying to picture him with her aunt on his arm, she would have missed the tiny change in his body language. The way he paused in his counter wiping, the way he leaned toward her just a little, as though wanting to get closer to any words about Aunt Dot.

Interesting, indeed.

‘She asked how things were going so I filled her in. I told her you’ve been a really big help to me in getting settled.’

Norman did something entirely uncharacteristic then. He smiled. It was the first Jeanie had seen from the man since she got here, and she nearly fell over.

‘She’s having a great time in St. Thomas. Snorkeling, windsurfing. She even went zip lining the other day.’ And just like that, the smile dropped from Norman’s face. Aha! Even more proof he missed her aunt! His grumpiness toward Jeanie wasn’t about her, at all! He just missed Dot. It was almost sorta sweet.

‘Well, she should have trained you better before she ran off,’ Norman said, with one last swipe at the counter before he marched off into the backroom, muttering something about taking his break.

Okay, so maybe Norman wasn’t that sweet, after all.

Jeanie leaned her elbows on the counter, watching the rain pour down outside. A brave couple decided to leave the café and make a run for it to their car, and Jeanie watched them hurry out. That left her, an older man with giant headphones and the Sunday paper in his lap at the window seat, and a group of high school kids nursing the dregs of their lattes as they waited out the rain. The perfect crowd for a rainy afternoon.

The conversation with her aunt had been good. Jeanie was excited to fill Dot in on how things were going, and it was nice to see her aunt’s tan face, with her dangly seashell earrings filling up the screen. Thinking back on it now, though, Dot had acted a bit odd when Jeanie mentioned Norman. She’d given Jeanie’s comments about his helpfulness only a brief acknowledgment and then changed the subject to her latest snorkeling adventure.

Jeanie pulled out her book from under the register, running a hand over the half-naked farmer on the cover. It was possible she was getting too many ideas from this book, but she was suddenly convinced that something was going on between her aunt and Norman.

She flipped open to the next chapter, hoping the farmer would finally make his feelings for the milkmaid known. She didn’t have time to worry about Norman and Dot.

She had her own secret relationship to think about.