astonished when Margaret hugged her as if they were old and dear friends.
“I’m so happy you could come to dinner,” Margaret said. “It’s been a delight getting to know you better. What a stroke of luck that Ian ended up renting a house next door to yours.”
Good luck or bad? She wasn’t sure about that yet. “Thank you for including me in your family dinner,” she said.
“Nonsense. It was all in honor of you, for that beautiful dress.”
After another round of goodbyes, Ian opened the vehicle door for her and she slipped past him to climb inside, chiding herself for the sudden acceleration of her heartbeat as the scent of him tantalized her senses.
When he climbed into the vehicle, she was again reminded that they were alone, truly alone, for the first time since that devastating kiss the day before.
“Thank you for making time to have dinner with my family,” he said as he backed out of the driveway and began driving around the lake. “I know how busy you are. I think it meant a great deal to my mother to be able to raise a glass to you in thanks for your work on Gemma’s gown.”
“I’m the grateful one,” she assured him. “If not for your mother’s dinner invitation, I would have been stuck with a frozen dinner and then likely would have spent the evening at my sewing machine and cleaning up after puppies otherwise. This was a vast improvement.”
“You work extraordinarily hard.”
Was that a criticism or merely an observation? She couldn’t quite tell. She decided to take it as the latter. “I feel incredibly lucky to have clients who need wedding dresses and who have asked me to design and sew them.”
“Can’t you hire someone to help you? Don’t you worry about burning out from the sixteen-hour days?”
“Right now, I’m happy to have the business. I have to hustle while I can. It’s probably the same reason you’re working on research while you’re here with your family.”
He looked as if he wanted to say something but they reached her driveway before he could, making her wish she lived a little farther away from Gemma.
He started to turn into her driveway but she held out a hand to stop him. “No need to drop me off here. Park where you usually do and I can walk next door to my house. It makes more sense than you having to move your car again in five minutes.”
He appeared reluctant but did as she suggested, parking in his driveway, then walking around to let her out. The night was soft, sweet. Intimate. She found she didn’t want to go inside just yet to deal with puppies and work and reality.
He seemed to feel the same reluctance for the night to end. Instead of walking directly next door to her house, they both seemed to move as one toward the dock between their houses.
“Forgive me if this question is out of bounds,” he said after a moment. “You can tell me it’s none of my business. But do you and Josh have some kind of past?”
“Did he say something to you?” she asked, suddenly mortified.
“No. Nothing,” he assured her. “I just thought I picked up some kind of vibe. You were almost overly polite when you talked to him, if that makes sense. You seemed comfortable talking to everyone else but him. But that might have been my imagination. I could be completely misinterpreting the situation. I’m not always the best at picking up social cues.”
She shoved her hands in the pockets of her sweater. “You didn’t misinterpret anything. I suppose you could call it a history. Josh and I have friends in common, sort of. In a small place like Lake Haven, people around the same age tend to socialize in the same circles. His cousins Katrina and Wynona are my best friends.”
“Ah.”
She might as well tell him the rest of it. “Yes. Josh and I dated a few times. It was never anything serious.”
“Things didn’t work out between you? Since the man is about to marry my sister, I would like to ask why. You don’t have to tell me, if you feel like it’s none of my business.”
Her first impulse was to make some kind of excuse about how people didn’t always click romantically, even after two or three dates. It was true, as she certainly knew.
That wasn’t the whole truth, though, and Samantha found she was reluctant to lie to Ian.