was an established fact that he could be a total jerk. He should work very hard not to add idiot to the assessment.
The scent of the rain and moo shu pork followed her into the car. “That smells good,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say.
He fired up the engine and headed out onto the beach road. By the time he pulled into her driveway, the silence was like a thick, heavy blanket that might suffocate both of them.
The rain had let up a bit, so he didn’t get totally soaked climbing the stairs to her front door. But when they got inside, the lights were out.
“Oh, great,” she said with an audible groan. “I’d like to believe this is a widespread power outage, but I’ll bet there’s a fuse somewhere that’s blown.” She reached into her purse, withdrew her cell phone, and launched the flashlight app. “But I’m not letting perfectly good moo shu pork go cold while I figure it out.
“You stay here,” she instructed. “I’m going to get paper plates and matches. There are candles out on the porch.”
“I can make my way to the porch,” he said.
She gave him the once-over. That look made him itch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“I know the way,” he interrupted.
She nodded, and he turned away from her. He headed toward the porch and lowered himself into one of the Adirondack chairs. Rain dripped from the eaves with a relaxing sound, and beyond the curtain of drizzle, the Atlantic crashed against the sand with a rhythmic roar.
He could get used to sitting out here.
She arrived a few minutes later with a tray filled with paper plates, food cartons, and a couple of beers. She lit a bunch of citronella candles, which flickered in the moist breeze. The light cast a golden glow over their corner of the world.
She handed him a beer and then a thick, rigid paper plate heaped with food. “Chopsticks?” she asked.
He nodded, and she handed him one of the disposable sets that had come with the food. Then she sat down next to him and tucked into her dinner.
They ate in silence until he finished his food and put the empty plate on the floor beside him. “So, I’ve been thinking about what I want,” he said.
“Not a castle, I take it?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m sorry about that. I just…” He looked out toward the ocean. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought everything through last week. But I think I have a much clearer picture now.”
“Okay. So?”
“The thing is, I like this house. I think this is exactly the kind of place my grandfather wanted to build out there.”
“So a Carolina Coastal house, only smaller and not on stilts.”
Her words irked him in some deep way. But then again, she’d watched him struggle up the stairs a few moments ago. But he didn’t want to focus on that, so he leaned forward and asked, “Why smaller?”
“Well, this house is ridiculously large. Probably six thousand square feet. I rattle around in here. And I’m pretty sure we’ll have a zoning limit of five thousand square feet. But even that’s kind of large, since it’s just going to be you living out there, right?”
“I want a bigger house.”
She jumped a little, and he regretted his dictatorial tone. He was out of practice when it came to being in polite company. “I’m sorry, I—”
“No, it’s fine,” she interrupted. “You’re the client. You should get what you want, but there are challenges to building a large off-the-grid house.”
“Those challenges weren’t a problem with your castle?”
“My castle, as you put it, had only three bedrooms and was maybe three thousand square feet.”
He studied her. There was a tiny glob of plum sauce at the corner of her mouth, and he fought the urge to wipe it away. Or maybe lick it away.
Damn. He pushed the idea out of his head and focused on the issue at hand. “Well, the thing is, I want a big house with a wraparound porch.”
“How many bedrooms do you want?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Five. Six. More.”
“So, um, are you planning to raise a family out there or what?”
* * *
Topher barked out a bitter-sounding laugh that suggested he hadn’t gotten her intended humor. He turned his gaze beyond the porch railing at the ocean, now a dark-gray shadow as the rainy evening edged toward night. Jessica took this moment to truly study him.