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ChapterFifteen
Rayna lifted the lightweight carrier and moved it a few steps farther down the back porch, the weeds inside bouncing when she set it down again.
“You’re looking productive today,” a voice said from behind her.
She turned and found Connor regarding her with a friendly grin. “Oh, hi. What are you doing here?” she asked as she pulled off her gardening gloves and wished she wasn’t covered in a layer of sand and dirt and sweat.
Normally she would’ve hired a company to weed, but given her uncertain financial future, she tried to cut back wherever she could. Plus, she’d always loved gardening. Richard hadn’t considered it appropriate for his wife to be seen in the dirt like a laborer, but she’d always found tending her flowers relaxing.
“I had a meeting with Adam and thought I’d drop by. I have good news for you, and seeing as how Adam had another meeting, I get to be the lucky man who gets to tell you.”
“Good news? Really?” She was afraid to get her hopes up too much but… maybe an affordable settlement?
“The family agreed to our offer.”
“I made an offer?”
“You entrusted us to work on your behalf, so yes.”
“How much?” she asked, barely daring to breathe.
Connor grinned. “For what the insurance companies will pay out. It’s a nice sum, and the girls’ parents were surprisingly reasonable when it came to not fighting for more from you since you were a victim in this.”
Her knees felt weak, and she reached behind her, trying to find the edge of the short stone wall so she could sit before she collapsed from relief.
Connor rushed to her side and helped guide her down, and she wrapped her hands around his forearms, squeezing them. “It’s real? It’s over already?”
“It’s over,” he said. “They weren’t greedy as much as desperate. Their daughter left behind a young child—not Richard’s,” he added, “and burial expenses. I think they just needed help to stay afloat.”
“Oh, Connor.” She leaned forward and slid her arms around him, hugging him tight. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you. You have no idea what this means to me.”
Connor held her for a moment before pulling back, his gaze tender as he stared at her.
“I have an idea. And now that you’re not technically a client, would you do me the honor of going out with me?”
Rayna gasped. “Going… A date?” He asked her out when she had to look like a grimy street urchin?
“Yes, a date—my first since my wife passed.”
What would people think? Richard had only just passed but… “Yes,” she said without giving herself time to form excuses. She and Richard hadn’t had a real marriage in years. If people wanted to gossip, let them.
“Yes?”
“Yes,” she said firmly, nodding. Smiling. “I don’t care if people talk,” she said. “I’ve never met a man as kind and caring as you.”
Connor lifted his hand and lightly ran his knuckles down her cheek.
“I feel the same way about you,” he told her. “I’d really like to kiss you, Rayna.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“We haven’t even gone on a date yet,” he said, pretending to be shocked.
Rayna laughed, feeling as light and carefree as a schoolgirl with no worries. “Maybe not, but you have fixed me breakfast. Surely that counts for something?”
“Well now, I think you’re right,” he said, moving toward her, his gaze lowering to her lips. “I believe it does.”
“So? What do you think?”
