She sat up. “You make me feel special, but you don’t know everything about me.”

He pulled himself up to stand above her and offer his hand. “You are very special, Jennie Sue.”

She put her hand in his, and warmth filled his whole body.

“Thank you. Oh, no!” She squeezed his hand.

“What? Did you break something after all? Are you hurt?”

She pointed toward the house. “I hear a vehicle. Cricket must be home. I’m serious, Rick. I don’t want to cause problems.”

He kept her hand in his as they started walking toward the house. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it—I don’t need Cricket’s blessing to flirt with you.”

Her eyes searched his for several seconds. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” He bent slightly and kissed her on the tip of the nose.

When they rounded the bend, they could see the silhouettes of two people on the back porch. There was no doubt that the one with crutches was Cricket, and the other one had to be Lettie.

Rick waved when they drew closer as if it was completely normal for him to be holding Jennie Sue Baker’s hand. When they were close enough that he could actually see his sister’s expression, he had no doubt that Cricket was about to explode.

“I’ve been wading in the most amazing little creek,” Jennie Sue said, but she didn’t let go of his hand even when they were at the porch. “It’s cold as ice and clear as glass. I helped Rick bring in tomorrow’s deliveries, so Cricket doesn’t have to feel guilty about not being able to help. Could you take me home, Lettie? That way Rick won’t have to drive back into town.”

“You said you wouldn’t come back out here.” Cricket ignored her statement.

“Changed my mind. Women do that sometimes. Besides, you weren’t here, so?” Jennie Sue said just as frankly.

“I don’t want you here,” Cricket said.

“That is enough,” Rick said. “This is my home, too, and if I want to spend time with Jennie Sue, then I can invite her here. You bring your church ladies out here and they drive me crazy, but I don’t tell you that you can’t host meetings here.”

“This is different,” Cricket said.

“This is clearly something that Jennie Sue and I don’t need to be in the middle of. Y’all can straighten it out without us.” Lettie turned toward Jennie Sue. “You can drive. Rick, I could use a bushel of cucumbers this week. I’d like to make some bread-and-butter pickles before the end of the season. They make wonderful Christmas presents.”

“Sure thing. How about tomorrow mornin’?” Rick tried to keep his voice completely normal as he let go of Jennie Sue’s hand, but it wasn’t easy. “I’ll call you, Jennie Sue.”

“I’ll be at the bookstore. Stop by if you have time.” She rolled up on her toes and brushed a kiss across his cheek. “And thanks again for saving my life.”

“You can’t drown in a foot of water,” he told her.

“If I hit my head on a rock and landed facedown, I might,” she argued. “See y’all later.” Jennie Sue followed Lettie around the house to the front yard, where her truck was parked.

“Okay, young lady, you are glowing,” Lettie said as she got in and fastened the seat belt. “What happened here today?”

“I slipped as I got out of the creek, and wound up on top of Rick, and he kissed me,” she said. “I liked it, Lettie—a lot. But I like him too much to ruin a friendship with a fling, and I told him so.”

Lettie clucked like an old hen calling in her chickens. “Rick Lawson is the salt of the earth. He’ll do right by you in any relationship.”

Jennie Sue had no doubt that Lettie was speaking the absolute truth.

Chapter Fifteen

Jennie Sue shook out her umbrella and took a deep breath, sucking in the aroma of fresh rain one more time before she went inside the bookstore. With the rain and it being Wednesday, she didn’t figure there’d be many people out and about today, which was fine with her—then she could get the store in shape. Already her efforts were paying off, because they’d sold a lot of romance novels last week.

She used her key to open the door and went straight to the thermostat to adjust it to a cooler temperature before she flipped on the lights and headed to the office to start the coffee and hot water for tea. Once that was done, she started to work on the mystery section, arranging the authors alphabetically by name. She’d only gotten the first shelf cleared off and dusted when she heard the bell above the door.

“Good mornin’.” Nadine’s voice carried through the store. “Where are you? Is there coffee? I brought doughnuts from the café to share with you.”

“Good mornin’ to you. Come on in out of the rain. Coffee should be ready. Thanks for bringin’ doughnuts. I only took time for a glass of milk and a cookie this morning,” Jennie Sue said.

“I’ll drag a chair back here so we can visit while you work. You get the coffee,” Nadine said.

Nadine had found an old metal folding chair and set the box of pastries on the empty shelf when Jennie Sue returned from the office/kitchen. She had a huge apple fritter in one hand and reached out for her cup of coffee with the other from her rickety seat.

“Look at us. We’re dressed alike except that you don’t have Minnie Mouse on your T-shirt.” Nadine pointed at Jennie Sue’s plain dark-blue T-shirt and jeans. “Does that make you old or me young?”

“Might make us the same age,” Jennie Sue answered without mentioning that her skinny jeans fit a lot better than Nadine’s loose ones. “Please tell me that you didn’t drive.” The window was too fogged up for her to see if Nadine’s van was parked by the curb.

“Nope, caught a ride with Rick when he brought me a gallon of strawberries. I’m makin’ jam this afternoon. He was takin’ produce to the café, so I got a box of goodies, and he dropped me here. Lettie is comin’ down in a little while, and she can take me home,” Nadine answered. “Where’s Amos?”

“He called last night and said he was going to Sweetwater this mornin’. Something about flowers for Iris’s grave.” Jennie Sue reached inside the box and chose a doughnut with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

“He needs to sell this place. It was Iris’s dream store, not his.”

Jennie Sue devoured the first doughnut and reached for one with maple icing. “It’s probably hard to let it go—it reminds him of good times with her.”

“She’s been gone now for years, and the place looks like crap. When she was alive, she kept it all dusted and in some kind of order. If I wanted a Sue Grafton book or a Mary Burton, all I had to do was ask Iris, and she’d take me right to them. Amos just puts books any old place.” She reached for her second pastry. “You’re doin’ a good thing here. I can feel Iris smilin’ over my shoulder.”

Jennie Sue licked the sticky sweetness from her fingers, finished off her coffee, and went back to work. “Thank you, Nadine, I appreciate that.”

“Well.” Nadine pursed her lips in a gesture that Jennie Sue recognized as her bearer-of-bad-news expression. “I heard that Cricket was pretty mad last night. She called Elaine and said that Rick wouldn’t even listen to her, that he went to his room with an armload of books and slammed the door.”

“I hate that,” Jennie Sue groaned. “I just wanted to help him pick vegetables, not create another problem. I should’ve had him bring me home earlier.”

“Cricket has a burr in her underbritches and needs to get over it. Jealousy is an ugly thing. Lettie and I had a long talk with her yesterday, but I guess it didn’t take as good as we wanted. Some folks have to learn things the hard way,” Nadine said. “Now let’s talk about what you and Rick were doin’ down at the creek. Lettie said he kissed you.”

A vision of his deep-green eyes as they fluttered shut, leaving his dark lashes to rest on high cheekbones, flashed through her mind. She blinked away the image and nodded. “Yes, he did, but it was the moment.” She went on to tell Nadine about wading and her foot slipping.