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“Kind of.” She sniffed the candle again and then nuzzled against me to compare. “The candle is pine. You’re more of a spruce. You smell like Christmas.”
I pulled her up against me and kissed her hard and fast, letting go again before anyone would notice. “Christ, you’re cute.”
She blinked at me, her expression slightly stunned, then found a distraction over my shoulder. “Sunflowers! I need sunflowers.” She pulled me to the tables of flowers. She ignored the roses, considered the mums, and eventually went with her first instinct and settled on half a dozen golden sunflowers.
After flowers, we grabbed apple pastries for breakfast before we finally reached the tent with a chalkboard sign that read “Rick and Brenda’s Jams and Jellies.” My stomach clenched. This was why we were here, to see my old neighbors, but suddenly that seemed like a bad idea. The past was the past. And Nora…well, I still hadn’t told her about my past. Or what that meant for my present. My future.
“Nora, wait—”
But it was too late.
“Oh, my god,” she whispered. “Look.”
I looked. There were the regular-sized jars of jam lining the back wall of the tent. Then there were also rows and rows of itty-bitty, teeny-tiny jars topped with little red strings tied in little red bows. Cute overload.
“Look at this!” Nora squealed. She grabbed a teeny jar and held it up for me to inspect. “Look!It’s a tiny jar of jam!”
I looked at the jar and then at her. “Yup.”
“I could eat this all in two bites! I could eat four little jars of jam and not have to worry about sharing, or germs, or, I don’t know, making toast.”
She seemed very excited about this prospect. “Toast?” I echoed.
“Exactly. I don’t need to waste time making toast when I can just eat it with a spoon.” She grabbed two more jars off the shelves. “I need one of every kind.”
I stared at her, trying to make sense of her sudden enthusiasm for jam—or maybe tiny jars?—or the combination? But really, I didn’t give a shit. She wanted jam, then she could have jam. I started on the other end, getting one of every kind.
“I like her,” a voice said.
I turned my head to see Brenda, her salt-and-pepper hair pulled back in a neat bun, wearing her standard flannel and boots. Same as she had always been. A wave of bittersweet nostalgia hit me hard. Five years ago I had seen this woman almost daily. Alison and I had bought a five-acre plot of land next to their farm, thinking we would try homesteading. There had been a lot of good memories there, before everything turned to shit.
“Well, you would,” I said, smiling at my old neighbor affectionately. “She’s going to buy all your jam.”
“That’s a definite possibility,” Nora admitted. “I can’t resist teeny tiny jars of anything, really, but jam especially.”
Brenda smiled wide at her. “Oh, yes, I like you.” Then she pulled me into a hug. “Good to see you again, Michael. It’s been too long. Introduce me to your lady friend.”
I winced, because lady friend sounded like a prostitute, but I made the introductions. And it wasn’t so bad. Standing here, between my old life and Nora. It didn’t sting the way I had expected. Even the awkwardness was minimal, although I suspected that had more to do with Nora than me.
“Do you want to try a sample, Nora?” Brenda asked. Generous of her considering Nora was nothing if not a willing customer and didn’t need to be bribed with free samples.
“I would love to!” Nora said, her face lighting up.
Brenda twisted open a jar, spread a generous layer of jam on a cracker, and handed it to Nora. “Strawberry pepper. It’s sweet with a kick.”
Nora took a bite and her eyes went wide. “This is amazing!”
She was about to eat the rest, but I couldn’t resist. I grabbed her wrist and detoured it to my mouth. I took the cracker with my teeth and swept my tongue across her thumb to get a smudge of jam. Delicious. Sweet strawberries, hot jalapeno peppers, and Nora.
“Hey!” she protested. “Get your own!”
I grinned at her. “You need to learn to share, kitten.”
She stuck her tongue out like a bratty kid, but that only made me want to kiss her more. I’d take that as an invitation, thank you. I started to lean in, not caring who was watching, when her face tilted away from mine and she said, “You have to try this jam. It’s incredible.”
I turned to see who she was talking to.
Oh, shit.
