‘I know,’ I replied with a broad smile. The facial movement dislodging a tear, which made a beeline down my cheek and did nothing to back up my words.
‘Do you want to start, Frank? I’ll be there in a sec,’ Jesse called.
Frank began giving the other men instructions as Jesse’s hand wrapped gently around my biceps and led me round the corner of the nearby outbuilding, out of sight of the others.
‘What’s up?’ I asked.
‘Nothing, but I’m worried about you,’ Jesse replied.
‘Honestly, you really don’t need to be. I’m tough as old boots. I think that was probably allergies actually, the more I think about it.’
His expression told me he smelled something and it wasn’t coming from the countryside. ‘It’s OK not to be invincible – or be seen to be invincible – all the time, Felicity.’
I looked up at him, ‘Is that what you think I’m trying to do?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I’m not. And I’m not sure you know me well enough to make a judgement like that just yet.’
‘It’s not always about the length of time you’ve known someone. You can know someone for years and still not have a clue what’s going on with them. Alternatively, you can be minding your own business getting building supplies and get knocked on your arse by some random woman in a hazmat suit and a short time later, feel like you’ve known her for a lot longer than a few hours.’
‘Is that how you feel?’ I asked, surprise filling my voice, replacing the defensive tone completely.
‘Kind of. It’s hard to explain.’
‘You looked like you were feeling mad as hell, if I’m honest,’ I said with a grin.
‘I was too busy seeing stars to think much at all!’ The corners of his mouth tipped up and his eyes glittered with amusement.
‘Oh, come on,’ I teased back. ‘I barely tapped you.’
The laugh this time was full and rich. ‘Barely tapped me? You knocked me on my backside and drew blood!’
‘Such a drama queen. I’m sure you could have steadied yourself better. There’s quite the difference in our size, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘I’d definitely noticed,’ Jesse replied, looking down at me from his significant height advantage. ‘But the added lumber made a hell of a lever to add force.’
I put my hand to my cheek. ‘I still can’t believe I did that.’
‘Me neither.’ He grinned. ‘But I’m kind of glad you did.’
‘You are?’ The faintest flutter of butterflies in my stomach took flight.
‘Yeah.’ He paused. ‘Julie’s not stopped talking about you since she met you, especially as you tagged her café in a social media post. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s certainly brought in new custom and boosted her figures. She’s a worrier when it comes to the bottom line so anything that helps with that, I’m really grateful for.’
The butterflies fled back into the shadows.
‘Oh. Yes! Of course. I really like her too. She’s lovely! I hope we’ll get to spend more time together. The post was nothing. Social media was part of my job before so I’ve just got good about knowing how and what to do to catch people’s attention. I’m glad it’s had a good effect. The café’s a great place so it deserves to be known.’
Jesse made a sound of agreement as he pinned me with a look. ‘What just happened?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You shut down. One minute, we were talking and opening up and the next moment, all the barriers were right back in place.’
‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I replied, a tad more coldly than I’d meant.
Jesse didn’t flinch.
