the platter on over to Jackson. Their hands touched in the process, and there was that surge of heat again.
“Thank you.” His voice sounded slightly hoarse in his own ears. “This all smells delicious.”
“Nanny Lucy could make biscuits that melted in your mouth, but she never did master yeast rolls.” Nessa wondered how words went from her brain to her mouth with all the chemistry between her and Jackson dancing around the room. She hoped that April and Flynn were so focused on dinner that they couldn’t see it, or they would tease her later.
Jackson was going to be kind of like a partner in her craft business, and she could not mess that up. She would not fantasize about seeing him without that shirt on at the falls. She couldn’t start something up with him. That was as far as she got with her vows, because she did visualize him without a shirt on—his broad chest muscles under her hands, the soft black hair that had to be on his chest tickling her fingertips.
“Nessa!” April’s tone brought her back to the present.
“What?” She came near to jumping out of her skin. The adrenaline from the shock of April’s voice sent her heart to pumping double time.
“You were staring off into space like you were high,” April said. “Flynn asked you to pass the butter.”
“I’m not high.” Nessa’s face suddenly felt hot. “I was trying to remember exactly what time the apple pie comes out of the oven.” Yes, it was a lie, but she had forgotten to set the timer.
“In ten minutes,” Flynn replied. “Apple pie is one of my favorites, so I won’t let you burn it.”
“Thanks.” Nessa sent the butter dish around the table to Flynn. “So, Jackson, what have you been working on this week?”
“Three more hope chests,” he answered between bites. “I could use some part-time help, but . . .” He shrugged and went back to eating.
“What’s the problem?” Nessa asked.
“I bet getting people to come out here to the sticks for just part-time work would be tough, right?” Flynn asked.
“Yep.” Jackson nodded.
“I’ll take the job,” Flynn said. “I don’t know a lot about building anything, but I can fetch, and I can learn. I’ve been wondering what I’m going to do now that the house is painted and rewired. I can be over there right after dinner tomorrow and work until five or six, whatever time you quit.”
“Are you serious?” Jackson asked.
Nessa crossed her fingers under the table. That would get Flynn out of the house half the day. It didn’t take a psychoanalyst to see that he was going to get bored if he didn’t have something to do. And if he was bored, he might slip back into his old ways. She remembered that he’d always been a little hyper, even as a kid. While she was content to read a book or sit and watch Nanny Lucy cut out fabric for quilts, he was always running here, there, and yonder. She’d never given a thought to the fact that he had to live in a walk-up apartment when he went home, or that he spent a lot of days alone while his mother worked. Then when his mama died, he had to live with his father, and that couldn’t have been pleasant. No wonder he’d felt free as a bird let loose from a cage when he came to Blossom.
“I’m very serious,” Flynn answered. “I’ll work the first week for free. If we get along and you think I’m learning the job, then you can start paying me the second week. That sound fair?”
“More than fair,” Jackson answered. “You sure you want to start tomorrow afternoon?”
“Sounds good to me.” Flynn nodded.
“That’s not fair,” April said. “I’m the one who needs a job, and I bet I could learn just as fast as Flynn can.”
Nessa slathered a hot roll with butter and wished that she could throw in her name for the job. But that would never work. She got hot flashes just sitting close to the guy. Working right beside him in a small workshop was out of the question.
“You said you like animals, right?” Jackson smiled across the table.
“Love them. Animals and flowers never break your heart,” April said.
“Our vet is an older lady, and she also has an animal shelter right beside her small-animal clinic. When I was in there last week, she mentioned that she’d like to hire part-time help. It’s getting harder and harder to get