Currant Creek Valley - By RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,57
lot of time with my family and friends, and I’m very busy working most of the time. It’s hard to be lonely when you’re so busy.”
Did staying busy help stave off the loneliness for her the same way it had for him since Kelli had died?
“I think my dad is lonely when I’m not here,” Ethan offered. “He lives all by himself while I’m with my aunt and uncle and my cousins. I don’t see why I can’t just move here with him now.”
Ugh. He got so tired of rehashing the same argument. Ethan just couldn’t let it rest. “A few more weeks. School will be out before you know it and you’ll be coming here for good. Then you’ll be missing your life back in Denver.”
“We always want what we don’t have, Ethan,” Alexandra said. “Let that be a lesson for you. And here’s another one. Brownies always make everything better.”
She held out a plate where she had piled several more of those luscious people treats. As Sam took them from her, their hands brushed and that little sizzle of current arced between them. He didn’t miss the way she quickly slid her hand away and curled it against her leg.
They walked through the great room. When they reached the front door, Ethan rushed outside first and stood on her sidewalk, looking up at the stars beginning to appear in the twilight. They had spent far longer inside her house than he had intended, but it sure as hell beat fixing the plumbing.
“I meant to tell you, I’m coming Friday night to your restaurant opening,” he said. “Brodie invited me to join him and Evie.”
Something wild and a little panicky flickered briefly in her gaze and he was sorry he brought it up.
“Great,” she said in an overly cheerful voice. “The more the merrier, right? Oh, and you’ll have a chance to meet Claire and Maura and their husbands. We were just talking about it when they were here. They’re all sitting with Brodie. Are you taking anyone?”
The question came out of nowhere and it took him a moment to process it. A date? Did she really think he wanted to date anybody else while this inconvenient heat bubbled and seethed between them?
“I hadn’t planned on it, no.”
“You really should. You wouldn’t want to be the only one at the table without a date. Awkward.”
Evie and Brodie struck him as very warm and casual. He doubted anyone would make him feel like a loser for showing up alone at a social event like a restaurant opening.
“My wife has been gone for two years. It won’t be the first time I’ve spent an evening without a date. I’ll survive a little social anxiety.”
“Have you met my friend Charlotte yet? She runs the candy store in town. I think you would really like her.”
He glanced at Ethan, who was too busy trying to pick out constellations to pay them any attention. “Are you really trying to set me up with one of your friends?”
She tossed that mischievous strand of hair behind her ear again. “If you want to look at it that way.”
His rough laugh sounded strained, even to him. “How else am I supposed to look at it?”
“I just thought the two of you might get along, that’s all. Charlotte is really wonderful. Warm and kind and a little bit shy. She doesn’t date a lot. She’s made some amazing changes in her life lately and I’d like to see her go out a little more.”
“With me.”
After everything between them, she really wanted him to date one of her friends. If he needed further proof that she wanted to ignore this attraction, she had just handed it to him, served up as prettily as she arranged food on a plate.
He knew he shouldn’t find that so damn depressing.
“Forget I said anything. It was just a suggestion.” She sounded defensive, flustered, and he didn’t know whether he wanted to shake her or kiss her.
Okay, yes, he did. Kissing would always be the clear winner.
“I have no problem going by myself but if it makes you feel any better, I understand Brodie’s mother will be part of the party. She can be my unofficial date.”
“Katherine?” She laughed, looking enthralled by the idea, and he decided he would never understand her. “You might have competition there. Both of them try to play it cool but she and Charlotte’s dad, Dermot, have this funny little unspoken thing going between them.”