“My parents have taken the last load to my sister’s place,” he said.
Delia stopped her work and spun around on the stool to face him. “So...they’re gone? I thought they were leaving later this evening. I was going to say goodbye to them before they left—” She winced. “But they’re gone?”
“I mean, they’ll be five miles down the road,” he said with a reassuring smile. “You could pop by and see them anytime, and they’d be thrilled to see you.”
“True.” Her smile slipped. “I feel like I’ve been a terrible neighbor.”
“Not true,” he replied. “I just brought back a box of garbage bags my mother borrowed from you. It’s on the side porch. My parents think you’re wonderful. You know what they say—if you want to know if you’re a good neighbor, ask your neighbor.”
“Right...” Delia met his gaze. “Did Violet tell you what happened?”
“No...” In fact, she’d been a little evasive.
“Violet told my boys that you and I aren’t really courting, and they were...hurt, mostly.” She pressed her lips together, but they still trembled a little. So Violet had told them.
“I’m sorry she did that. I told her where things really stood with us, but I hadn’t wanted her to tell the boys anything.”
“They were so hurt that I’d do that to them.”
“Do what, exactly?” he asked. Because he was ready to defend Delia!
“Let them believe there was more between us,” she said. “My youngest said I lied. And...honestly? If they’d misled me, I’d have said the same thing.”
“Delia...” he said gently.
“No, no,” she said. “Don’t try and make me feel better.”
“Did you talk things through yet?” he asked.
“We had a good talk,” she said. “They agreed to let me get to know some men and stop chasing them off first. My boys only wanted to protect me.”
“I thought you didn’t want their protection,” he said.
“I don’t...” Her cheeks suddenly bloomed pink, and she dropped her gaze. “Elias, I have a confession to make.”
“Oh?” He stepped closer, and she refused to raise her eyes.
“It was starting to feel real—our courtship—to me.” She looked up then, and embarrassment was written all over her face.
“For me, too,” he said, and relief rushed through him. He wasn’t the only one! “I was feeling so foolish, because spending that time with you and facing off with your boys and...” He smiled hopefully. “It was feeling awfully real to me, too. I started looking forward to seeing you and getting your advice, and...” He was saying too much, so he stopped talking, and he caught her hand. It just felt natural to reach out and take her hand in his, and she stepped a little closer.
“It did start to feel real, didn’t it?” A smile touched her lips. “That might have scared you a bit.”
“Not scared at all,” he replied.
It had felt natural to open up to her, to hold her hand, to hold her close...and he found some powerful, testosterone-driven part of him that wanted to make sure no other man held her like that. Only him.
“Maybe it was all of these hard things coming together at once,” she said softly. “The kinner—all of our kinner—struggling as they were, and your parents needing your help, and my mamm needing my help but not wanting it...”
“Maybe it was simpler than that,” he replied. “I thought you were beautiful. You kind of liked me.”
“You make me sound so cold,” she laughed. “I more than ‘kind of like’ you, you silly man.”
More? That felt like a victory, he had to admit. But then her smile slipped.
“I’m sorry if I made things weird between us when I cried,” she went on. “I was treating you like you were more than just a friend, and that was wrong of me, and—”
Elias didn’t want to hear any more of her recriminations—blaming herself for whatever this was that had sprung up between them. As if her vulnerability had been a problem! He’d been honored to be the man at her side, but he didn’t quite know how to say that, so instead, he put his finger under her chin, tipped her surprised face up and then lowered his lips over hers.
Her words evaporated on her lips, and her eyes fluttered closed as he drew her in close against him. What he’d wanted was her in his arms, and now that she was here, he never wanted to let her go. She was warm and soft, and she felt like sunshine and comfort. The scent of moist earth and growing plants swirled around them, and when he finally, regretfully, pulled back from the kiss, he found Delia blinking up at him in such an endearingly bewildered way that he almost kissed her again.
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “We might have been putting up an act for our kinner, but what I’ve been feeling is real. And I don’t want to hear you blame yourself for overstepping, or think you did anything that made me uncomfortable. You didn’t.”
“Oh...” she breathed. “What...what are you feeling?”
What was it? He felt protective of her and jealous at the thought of some other man courting her. He felt upside down and turned around, but in the best possible way. He trusted her, he wanted to know what she was thinking, and all he seemed to want lately was an excuse to be close to her again. Any excuse, really. He’d even return a borrowed box of garbage bags.
“What am I feeling?” he repeated slowly. “Delia, I know this is crazy and fast, and I don’t expect you to feel anything back, but—” He shouldn’t say it. He really shouldn’t! He should stop now while he had any morsel of dignity left! “—I fell in love with you.”
There. The words were out. But they were also true. While he and Delia had been pretending, he’d dropped all his defenses, and he’d fallen head over heels in love with Delia Swarey.
Delia’s heart skipped a beat, and a fat bumblebee buzzed past them, bobbing through the warm, still air toward a flower. Outside, she could hear the boys calling to each other—something about the hose getting tangled. But she and Elias were tucked away in this greenhouse, his warm hands on her waist, and his chocolate brown eyes searching hers. Her face still felt tickled from where his beard had brushed against her when he’d kissed her.
She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Still, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. She felt so protected and safe in his arms like this, and she desperately wanted it to last for as long as possible.
“I know it wasn’t the plan,” Elias said tenderly. “But I thought I sensed something more from you, too. Was I imagining it?”
“No, you didn’t imagine it,” she whispered. “When I said this had started to feel real, I meant that it wasn’t pretend for me anymore. And I felt so foolish! Because we know what this was—it was playacting.”
