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Instead of the usual summer flowers bursting everywhere, there were stalls selling seeds and seedlings ready for planting and pretty baskets full of tools and stoneware pots to create container gardens. Because we lived in the Northeast, planting didn’t happen until after Mother’s Day, which was some weeks away. April was upon us and my weeks with August were marching on by.
Enough for me to worry about them coming to an end? Maybe. I worried about everything else, so why not?
My stomach grumbled as we ended up downwind from two food trucks parked across from the diner in front of our small town hall. There was enough foot traffic for the café and the diner, which were both overflowing with people as well.
“Is there anything better than the Spring Walk?”
“Farmer’s Market?”
Ivy grinned. “Okay, yes, I prefer the veggie stands all summer long, but we’ve been hunkered down from the cold for so long, it finally feels like we’re thawing out.”
Was that what I’d been doing? Me, the little seedling poking out. Or would I be the one stomped under a boot, or frozen by the next winter wind?
My breath caught at the wide shoulders in the crowd. I had to stop looking for him everywhere. Not every wide-shouldered guy in this town was August. And boy, did I not need that today. Things had been weird last night with him. Too intense. Not that we knew any other way around one another when it came to naked mambo time.
And it was always naked mambo time.
I had to confess that not all of it was purely due to my procreation goals. Some of it was just me wanting to feel close to him for a few minutes. It was all I allowed myself. I couldn’t get too attached—no matter how easy he made it.
Ivy dragged me farther into the crowd. I smiled and waved to those I knew, chitchatted with a few others who asked about my overalls. Why, yes, I had a bunch of jeans just like these over at Kinleigh’s Attic. I loved them, but I’d definitely worn them as my own particular brand of billboard.
I caught a glimpse of wide shoulders in a dark jacket. The heavy kind August always wore against the elements. I was just being silly—the guy wasn’t even wearing a hat.
Then the man turned and the strong jaw and a pair of aviators struck me. Sometimes it stole my breath when I got a good look at him not covered in sawdust and the torn-up, long-sleeved thermal shirts he wore. Today he had on a bright white T-shirt with his logo peeking from the unbuttoned midnight Carhartt jacket.
Our gazes locked, and he smiled at me. No hiding, just a sweet, loaded smile full of promise.
Thank goddess for the bib overalls because it wasn’t the cool wind making my nipples tight, that was for sure.
“I forget how hot my brother is.”
“What?” I glanced at Ivy.
The corner of her mouth was tipped up. “I mean, look at all the girls looking at him.” She nodded to the group of women on the bench. “They’re eating him up. I should have brought out some of my spoons.”
“Right.” I frowned. “He’s objectively attractive.”
“Objectively, or is that objectifyingly?”
I cleared my throat. “That would be what those barely college-aged women are doing over there. They should have seen him last night.”
“And you did?”
“Yes, I helped him with his window. He’s cranky and ill-mannered when he doesn’t get his way.”
“Is that right?”
“You know that very well.” I shoved my hands into my hoodie pockets. “He’s perpetually cranky.”
“Not lately. Know anything about that?”
“Of course not.” My heart rate spiked as he cut through the field of people.
He stopped to shake hands with a few and passed out the simple white business card he had stashed on the inside pocket of his jacket more than once before he got to us. He pulled out a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer and quickly doused his hands before he reached into the stroller to tickle Rhiannon’s belly.
My heart turned over. That he’d actually think to do that when so few did unwound me.
“Hey, Ive.” He brushed a kiss over his sister’s cheek, then gave a somewhat friendly nod to her husband. “Lucky Charms.”
