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“Do you?”
She averted her eyes, cleared her throat and changed the subject. “I’ve got the supplies for the fence out in the truck. Ordered everything yesterday, and it came in to the lumber yard this morning, so I went to pick it up. I thought I’d sneak in here and get it unloaded without waking you guys.”
“Yeah? And what were you going to do with the groceries?”
“My plan was to slip in and leave them in the kitchen for you, along with a freshly brewed pot of coffee.” She nodded toward the bag. “There’s hot cocoa mix in there for Ty. With mini-marshmallows.”
Her eyes met his, then traveled down to his chest again. He saw something in them. Attraction. Maybe a hint of desire. Thatwasa good thing, wasn’t it? Assuming he meant to go on with this insane notion. Now that he was face-to-face with it, standing at the threshold of it, it seemed a little crazy. And with Colby reacting as strongly as he was, Jim had to at least consider that he was doing the wrong thing here.
He glanced toward the bedroom, but Ty wasn’t making a sound. Probably still out cold. He normally slept until at least eight-thirty. So it was safe to play with this thing a little, find out just how deeply her interest in him extended. He could at least do that much, couldn’t he?
He moved a little closer to her. She backed up until the table blocked her and looked up at him with eyes so wide he thought he could fall into them.
She was nervous around him, though he couldn’t imagine why. He put his hands on her arms, trailed an easy path from her shoulders to her wrists and back again, as he lowered his head a little closer.
She nearly hit him in the chin with the box of doughnuts when she snatched it off the table and lifted it between them. “I think the coffee’s done,” she blurted. “I’ll just... “ She shoved the doughnut box into his chest and let it go. He had to either take it from her or let it fall, so he took it and backed off a step. Kara darted out from between him and the table faster than a rabbit slipping from the jaws of a hunting dog, shot to the counter and started pouring coffee into the cups she’d brought along. She left his on the counter, took hers and sailed out the back door.
Jim stood there for a moment. Okay, something definitely went wrong here. He wasn’t sure just what, but his approach apparently needed some honing.
He went to put on a shirt, located some shoes and checked on Tyler. Then he carried his coffee outside. Kara had slipped on a pair of calfskin gloves and was taking lumber out of the bed of the pickup and stacking it in the backyard.
“Hey, hey, hold on now. I’m the guy here. Shouldn’t I be doing that?”
She glanced up at him. Wary. Skittish. “No such thing as man’s work in my family.” She shrugged. “Then again, that might be because there were no men. We did it all ourselves.”
“Well, you’re not doing it yourself today.” He set his coffee cup on the stoop and came to the back of the truck, started unloading lumber. As he carried a stack of boards to the pile she’d started, he said, “I’m sorry if I got out of line in there, Kara. I wouldn’t want to scare you for the world.”
She shot him a look, maybe surprised he was being as direct as he was about what had just happened—or almost happened—inside the house.
“You didn’t do anything out of line,” she said.
He grabbed another armful of boards, carried them into the backyard, piled them and turned to face her. “Okay, in case you’re not clear on this, I was about to kiss you in there. And I think you know it.”
“Oh.”
“It scared you.”
“No, it—”
“You scurried away from me like a startled rabbit.”
She shrugged, turning slightly away, apparently unable to look him in the eye. Her cheeks were pink again. “It’s just that... I’m not used to... “
“What?” He came closer but not too close. He didn’t want to scare her off again. “You’re not used to men wanting to kiss you?”
She peeked at him, then lowered her eyes. “No.”
“So the men of Big Falls have all been struck blind, have they?”
The color in her cheeks deepened to rose. “I’m not... this isn’t... “
“I’m surprised they’re not beating down your door, Kara.”
She lifted her chin and met his eyes, a hint of boldness appearing in her own, though he thought she’d had to dig deep to find it. “It wouldn’t matter if they were. It’s not the same.”
“Why not?”
She lifted one shoulder just a little, and he saw her throat move as she swallowed. “They’re not you. They’re not Jimmy Corona.”
