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Kevin chuckled and leaned back, stretching an arm out on the couch behind her. “So what’s the protocol here, dog spouse? What nights is she here, what nights is she with me?”
“Can she just…stay here, for a bit? I don’t want her to get confused about having two homes until she’s settled with us.”
And I want her here with me. It was the whole reason she wanted a dog in the first place. A comfort and a companion. Kevin teased about being that for her, but the thought of hopping into another relationship felt like the ultimate threat to her freedom. The thought made her want to scream. Throw a mug across the room. Punch a hole in the wall. Rattle Calvin’s massive bookshelf and watch all of his ratty paperbacks tumble to the floor.
Kevin’s fingers brushed her neck and down her spine. She shivered at his touch and squirmed in her seat.
He dropped his hand. “She’s yours, Jessica. She’ll stay here,” he whispered only to her.
She twisted back to look at his smiling face. “You’ve been so adamant about this being our dog.”
“I know, and I am excited to be a part of this. But I’m not a dumb man. You need her right now as much as she needs you.”
“Thank you,” she whispered back, scratching beneath Honey’s ears.
“Of course, sweetheart. I’m here whenever you need help, okay?”
Sweetheart. She scooted away from him to her side of the couch and resumed research on her tablet as Honey promptly fell asleep in her lap.
His touches, his casual use of sweetheart…it all felt like too much too soon, and the last thing she wanted was to give him false hope. So she stayed far out of his reach the rest of the night, keeping her distance, keeping her heart in the carefully caged box where it belonged.
Jess kneaded dough in the back. Massive headphones covered her ears, music blaring out the gutted silence of the shop. It was only their second week open and customers had already dwindled. The morning rush still felt steady enough, but by noon, the line died down. Zach kept himself busy with restocking paper goods and cleaning, always leaving Jess with a sparkling, spotless bakery by the end of his shift.
The door swung open and she jumped, not expecting Zach to step in the back and bother her during prep. She pushed the headphones down to her shoulders. “What’s up? Need me out there?”
“Depends, do we take special requests?”
“You mean special orders? Like, for a cake?”
“Not sure exactly…want to come and find out?”
Jess removed her headphones and tossed them in her bag, then followed Zach through the door and into the front room.
Jan Fletcher stood at the counter, six jars of her signature jam in front of her. Jan owned a jam-making business in town with her husband, and if rumors were true, they made a killing at the local farmers’ market every summer. Between the no-nonsense look on her face and the way she parked her hands at her hips, Jan certainly looked like she meant business.
Jess gave her best smile. “Jan, lovely to see you.”
“You as well, my dear.” She returned the smile and took a deep breath. “Jessica Valerie, I have come to make you an offer.”
I think I might be tapped out on offers, she thought. “What do you have in mind?”
“Are you and Mr. Perkins doing a booth for Haverfest?”
“We were thinking about it,” Jess answered honestly. “But at the rate we’re going, I’m not feeling very hopeful that we’ll afford one.”
Jan grinned, pushing the jars of jam toward Jess. “Then this is your lucky day.”
She frowned. “How?”
“Dan and I want to set up a booth this year, but we were thinking of offering something a little different than usual.”
“Don’t you guys make a boat load, though? Why mess with a good thing?”
Jan shrugged. “Keeps people on their toes. And right now, it’s not about making money, it’s about making art.”
“Dearest lovely Jan, that is not the way to Jessica’s heart,” Kevin called out from the other side of the shop. “Money is all she cares about right now.”
Jess flicked him off.
