into a wine cooler (another housewarming gift—this one from his other sister Mathilda—for apparently his siblings thought he was far more of an entertainer than he was. Maybe he should hint that he needed cocktail plates).
“Feel better?” he asked as Vivien came into the room.
Her tousled, slightly damp hair hung in whisky-colored waves around her shoulders, making her appear as if she’d just rolled out of bed…which was an image he’d never forgotten and now was sharply reminded of.
She’d changed from loose cargo pants, work boots, and snug tee into a soft yellow sundress that ended just above her knees. Her feet and pretty legs were bare and blindingly white except for bright pink nail polish on her toes.
“Much better, thank you,” she said, and took the glass he offered. “And this’ll help even more.” She smiled, and his heart gave a little shimmy because that smile seemed genuine and relaxed.
“Let’s sit on the patio,” he said, opening the slider. “It’s hours until sunset, but there’s shade.”
“You got really lucky to get this place,” she said, wandering to the edge of the patio. “Wow…there’s not much here between you and down there.”
It wasn’t a straight drop-off down the bluff, but you didn’t want to take a leap off the patio either, because you’d be rolling down a bumpy incline studded with rocks, trees, and other barriers. At the bottom was a well-traveled, curvy road that hugged the lakeshore.
Jake noticed she didn’t take a step back from the drop-off and smiled to himself. No, the woman he’d known hadn’t changed much. He could even hear her humming something under her breath. It sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“I’m getting some huge boulders brought in to shore up the edge there,” he said, coming to stand next to her and wondering why she hadn’t said anything about the tray he’d so painstakingly put together. “Before any of my nieces and nephew come over. And I’ll have some low bushes—I don’t know what kind—planted there along the top, and a small barrier put in behind them to make it even safer without obstructing the view.”
“It’s going to be absolutely lovely— Oh, wow, yum!”
Ah. She’d seen the tray.
“How did you know I love Castelvetrano olives?” she said, spearing two of them with a toothpick in one quick movement. “And I didn’t realize how hungry I am. It all looks so good. You didn’t have to go through all that trouble, Jake,” she said, even as she speared two more olives with unbridled enthusiasm. “But thank you.”
“It wasn’t any trouble at all,” he replied as she drew the olives off the toothpick with her mouth. His knees went a little weak at the sight of her lush pink lips puckering like that, accompanied by her low moan of appreciation—and he distracted himself by taking a sip of his wine. He gave his own hum of approval over the vintage. “It’s just as good as I hoped. Do you like it?”
“It’s very good. I’m a sucker for unusual whites, and this one fits the bill. It’s got a little bit of pear, don’t you think?”
“Sure,” he said, not exactly certain he tasted pear, but enjoying the crispness of it nonetheless. He sat down in one of the two Adirondack chairs he’d arranged in front of a tile-topped metal table that had a well in the center for a fire pit (another housewarming gift, one he’d bought for himself and had only used once), hoping she’d follow suit. This sort of pacing and walking around the patio that she was doing made him feel like she was planning to bolt at any minute.
To his relief, she took a seat in the other chair, stretched her legs out in front of her, and crossed them at the ankles. She tipped her head against the back and heaved a sigh. “Thank you, Jake. I really needed this.”
“Not as much as I did,” he joked. “I didn’t eat lunch.”
Vivien gave a short laugh and rolled her head along the chair back to look at him. Her amber-brown eyes were fringed by thick lashes the same honey color of her hair, softly dark against her creamy skin, and for a moment he was a little breathless, caught by her gaze. He thought she looked so soft and lovely with all the shades of honey, bourbon, cream, and amber that were Vivien next to the fresh lemon-yellow dress. She was close enough that he could smell whatever it was she’d