“You needed to get quiet, fast,” he clarified. It was what he’d concluded had been his reason for the impromptu kiss. He was a man used to doing whatever a job required to achieve success. “I silenced you.”
“Lucky for you that it was on my cheek, or I’d have silenced you.” She raised her knee for emphasis.
Even as he chuckled, Zach’s stomach clenched. “Yeah, lucky for me.”
*
Please let todaygo okay. Isabelle silently prayed as she parked her car at Harvey Farm. She’d wanted to help hostess Sophie and Cole’s shower, but the Butterflies had insisted that she was doing enough and to let them handle the party. The reality was she’d marked off everything that could be marked off her list until closer to the wedding, and until others completed their tasks, such as Zach finding the bride’s wayward father to walk her down the aisle and the Butterflies finishing Sophie’s wedding dress.
Although the sun shined, the air held a crispness that it hadn’t the day before and Isabelle grabbed her jacket from the backseat prior to locking the car’s doors.
His shoes crunching through the grass, Zach joined her. “Smile, Blondie.”
“I can’t.” Pulling her gaze from the event barn in the distance, she crinkled her nose at him. “I’m too worried about what you’re going to do to embarrass me today.”
Rather than come back with some smart comment, he took her hand and turned her toward him. “I enjoy our sparring, Blondie. You’re a worthy opponent. But I’m not going to intentionally embarrass you at your sister’s wedding shower. I’m not all a bad guy.”
“Just mostly,” she mumbled, buying herself a moment to let what he said sink in. To take in the warm comfort of his hand holding hers. His hand should not be comforting.
The gold flecks in his eyes glistened. “Exactly. It’s what makes me good at my job.”
“Yeah, well, just don’t forget that your job is the only reason you’re here today.”
“I won’t. It’s you forgetting that concerns me.”
“No worries there,” she assured. “I would never really date a military man, so you have nothing to be concerned about on that front.”
He gave her a curious look. “I meant you forgetting to pretend to be affectionate toward me, so no one sees through our ruse.”
Heat flooded her cheeks. She should have known he hadn’t thought…
“I’ll stomach my way through it,” she managed, moving around him to head toward the event barn. A breeze whipped at her dress, flapping the long skirt about her knee boots.
“There’s my girl.” He kept pace beside her.
“But only until you find my father.”
“And you teach me to quilt,” he countered.
That he wanted to learn seemed so strange. Not that the quilt shop didn’t have numerous male customers. Just that Zach seemed too larger than life to spend hours at the machine.
“A Quilts of Valor quilt,” he clarified, taking her hand back when she stumbled in an uneven spot hidden by the grass right before they reached the gravel road that led to the event barn. There were a few cars coming up the main drive, so Isabelle didn’t pull her hand free.
“You’d be better off taking Sophie’s class.” Her sister’s enthusiasm for the organization was admirable. “You only refused to be ornery.”
Stepping across the small ditch that separated the grass and gravel, Zach held out both hands and lifted her across the divide.
Oh! He’d picked her up as if she weighed nothing and, surprised, she stared up at him, taking in the angles of his face, the strong line of his nose, the cleft in his chin.
“I refused your offer of signing me up for Sophie’s class because that wasn’t our deal.” He clasped his fingers with hers. “You’re supposed to teach me.”
Standing next to him made her feel dainty and feminine. She bit into her lower lip. “I’m a teacher who knows how to delegate.”
He laughed. “Odd, when I get the impression you have great difficulty delegating most things.”
Isabelle couldn’t argue. She was used to being in charge. Things went smoother that way.
“You’re a bit of a control freak, aren’t you, Blondie?” he asked as they began walking toward the barn.
