Page 45 of Finding Forever

Beth almost smiled. “I just think that’s important information. The kiss wasn’t the problem.”

A slow smile appeared on his face. “Good to know.”

Despite everything twisting inside her, she smiled back.

“Go home, Beth,” he said gently. “We’ll figure the rest out later.”

She nodded and stepped outside.

Beth drove home and this time, she didn’t try to talk herself into a tidy explanation. There wasn’t one.

She had spent six years learning how to live without Jessie.

Now she had to learn something completely different—how to let herself love another man.

Chapter 27

Dave had spent the better part of fifteen minutes pretending his mind was on the job in front of him. It wasn’t.

Every time he tried to concentrate, his thoughts went straight back to Sunday night. To kissing Beth.

More specifically, to Beth kissing him back. And, if he was being completely truthful, to what she’d said afterward.

You’re a good kisser.

He’d heard those four words in his head an embarrassing number of times since then.

Dave stretched the tape measure along the board again. Forty-three inches. He’d measured it three times already, and unless something extraordinary had happened to the laws of mathematics since breakfast, it was still going to be forty-three inches.

When he saw Beth’s truck pull into the parking lot, he forgot the measurement anyway.

“You planning on cutting that sometime today?” Hank asked.

Dave glanced across the room. Hank was sanding the edge of a doorframe. “I’m checking the measurement.”

“You’ve been checking it since I got here.”

“Measure twice, cut once.”

Hank frowned. “You’re on about measure twelve.”

Dave ignored him and looked toward the entrance. A moment later, Beth appeared in the doorway. And just like that, the whole room seemed different.

It was ridiculous. He was sixty-five years old, not a teenager. He certainly hadn’t expected one kiss to leave him wandering around with a smile on his face whenever he thought about it. But this wasn’t just any woman.

It was Beth.

“Morning,” she called as she walked toward them.

“Morning.” His voice sounded normal. That was something, at least.

Hank looked from Dave to Beth and back again.

Dave pretended not to notice.

“How’s it going?” Beth asked.

“Good. We should get most of this finished today. Hank’s working on the last section by the storage room, and I’m finishing the trim around the doorway.”