Page 107 of When Love Takes Root

I looked at Josiah.

He pulled out my chair. “You said you liked flowers. Plants. Gardening. And I remembered your hair.”

My throat tightened. “My hair?”

“The red. The brown. The copper when light hits it.” He waited until I sat, then eased my chair in with care. “This section made sense.”

I looked down at the table because my face had become a full confession.

“You’re doing too much,” I whispered.

He sat across from me. “Not yet.” I looked up. His smile held enough restraint to make my stomach dip. “Tonight is me being respectful.”

“Josiah.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“You’re flirting.”

“I am.”

“At a botanical conservatory.”

“Correct.”

“With tea.”

“And charcuterie.”

I shook my head, but I could not stop smiling. “You are not normal.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

The server came over and explained the tea blend, something with hibiscus, orange peel, ginger, and rosehips. Josiah listened like she was explaining a circuit diagram, nodding at the right places, asking whether anything on the board had walnuts before sliding that side closer to himself when I made a face. Details were where intention lived.

When the server left, he poured my tea first.

I wrapped both hands around the cup. “You’re very good at this.”

“Dating?”

“Making a woman feel . . .” I paused, searching for a word that did not make me sound like I had been waiting my whole life to be impressed beneath wisteria. “Considered.”

He leaned back, eyes steady on mine. “That’s the goal.”

“You say that like it’s simple.”

“It is simple. It just isn’t common.”

I looked at him over the rim of my cup, and the honesty in that sentence made my chest ache.

We ate slowly, letting the conservatory do what it had been built to do. Josiah fed me a slice of pear drizzled with honey after I accused him of giving me the smaller piece, and I nearly embarrassed myself over how good it tasted. He laughed when I closed my eyes, and I kicked his boot under the table for making fun of me.

“You always fight people who feed you fruit?” he asked.

“Only when they get arrogant about it.”

“I didn’t say anything.”