Page 41 of Lessons in Lemonade

“Okay.” She smiles again. Damn, so beautiful. “This is my office.” She waves a hand toward the French doors. “Feel free to use it if you need it.”

Leaving the hallway, we weave back through the kitchen and toward another door, which heads out into the little back yard. I know it shouldn’t surprise me considering food is her thing, but it still does when I see how many fruits, vegetables, and herbs she has planted around the small space.

“Well, isn’t this something.”

On the ground in the middle are perfectly arranged flat gray stones with a wooden pavilion over it. Underneath she has a table with chairs and a hammock.

“It’s my favorite part of the house.” She reaches over and touches the soil of the plant closest to her. Pulling her hand back, she rolls her fingers together before brushing away the loose pieces of dirt.

“Did you do all this?”

“Yes, but at the time Shelby was still here and she helped.”

“Well, you gals outdid yourselves—this garden is something else.”

“Thank you. I’ve spent a lot of time out here dreaming up different ideas and recipes for the restaurant. If I’m not there, I’m here, and both places make me happy.”

I nod, acknowledging her, but I’m thinking back over her social media pictures for the last year. There have been a couple where she’s posing with ripe vegetables or some type of flower, but I never got the impression that they were from a home garden. My level of awe of her has graduated to blatant wonderment—straight hero status.

“So, what do you want to do now?” she asks.

“Anything you want, or nothing at all. I don’t want you to change your life in any way because I’m here.” A breeze blows by us, and stray pieces of her hair fly around her face. She smooths them down and smiles up at me.

“Don’t worry, I won’t, but I am excited that you’re here. I like having a roommate. The company will be really nice.”

“Good.” Reaching over, I tuck a loose strand behind her ear. Seriously, I could touch this girl all day every day if she would let me. “I’m going to grab my things out of the truck and get settled.”

“Okay, I’ll help.” She walks back in the house and toward the front door like she’s on a mission.

“You don’t have to,” I call after her.

“I want to. And then afterward we can . . . I don’t know, maybe Netflix and chill?” she asks, glancing hopefully at me.

A laugh bursts out of my mouth, and she frowns at my reaction as I catch up to her.

“You know that doesn’t mean what you think it means, right?”

Her forehead wrinkles in confusion.

“Though I’m definitely down if you are.”

“What do you mean that’s not what it means?” she asks, looking up at me curiously.

“Nothing. Come on, gorgeous.”

And with that I turn and walk outside.

Shrimp Lasagna Roll-ups

I’VE NEVER MET a man who smolders as much as this one.

Yes, he’s always had this dark sexy look to him, but before I could let it roll off like it amused me. Here, now, it’s more. It’s like he’s got this untapped emotional heat burning under his skin, and every time he looks at me, I feel singed, from the moment his eyes landed on me at OBA and just about every time since then over the last couple of days. It’s unnerving, it’s flattering, and it’s made me confused because we’re just supposed to be friends. I declared it with a thick line in the sand, but every now and then I catch myself dreaming about something more. I don’t know what that more is exactly, but it’s always him in the thought with me.

A thought I refuse to entertain, no matter how he makes me feel.

Jack and I very quickly settle into a routine. He’s still a lot more melancholy than I expected him to be at this point, but then again, this is all change and change can be hard, especially when it’s a change not of your choosing.

In the mornings I make a pot of coffee on my way out the door, and he texts me sometime a bit later to say hello. After the lunch hour slows down, he comes in to eat, and then he drives me home as Taylor closes us down. Taylor loves this arrangement as she’s getting to sleep in. Then at night he offers to cook us dinner, to which I laugh and tell him to sit down, and then we eat in a comfortable silence. Sometimes we eat at the island, but my favorite times are when we eat outside. Afterward, we curl up on the couch together, talking about anything and everything, and we’ve watched a bunch of movies and television series.