Forever Love on Fireweed Island (Island County Book 4) (6 page)

Have to admit, I’m not a romance kind of guy, but maybe I’ve been missing out. The nuances you described sound like I’d thoroughly enjoy this story and the characters. But life is an adventure, right? And what better way to experience adventures than with a soul mate? I’m in.

He hadn’t said anything sexual or even personal, but somehow, his words stirred something in me. Yes. Life was an adventure.

Whether big or small steps were taken, we could all afford to be a little more daring, and I, for one, was about to start with my sister’s tuna tamale pie.

I was wandering down the aisle of the farmer’s market two streets down from my house, looking at all the fresh produce and crafts. I’d managed to make it out unscathed the night before from the tuna tamale pie, and it wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever eaten. The flavors definitely weren’t meant to mingle with one another, and the texture was a little questionable, but the important thing was that no one got sick. We’d all survived.

I squeezed my bouquet with brightly colored dahlias and daisies poking out the top of the brown paper wrapping and bent over to sniff a lavender-vanilla sachet.

“We grow all our lavender on Hound Island,” the woman volunteered. She’d been sitting behind the table in her booth and stood up to shake my hand. Her sparkling blue eyes took me in as if I were a longtime friend, and I noticed her hair had several silver streaks running throughout. “I make all my own soaps, scrubs, sachets, and dryer sheets. The dryer sheets are reusable. Just add a little of this to the fabric.” She held up a tiny glass bottle.

“Everything smells incredible. So you have a farm on Hound Island?”

She nodded. “We have eight acres of lavender. My one son lives there with me and tends to the propagation since my husband passed away. My other son lives here on Fireweed.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

The woman’s smile deepened. “Don’t be. My husband had a full life, and we were lucky to be loved by him. He probably lived more in his years here than many ever do in a lifetime. Plus, he’s still very much a part of our life.”

I nodded and smiled, noticing a familiar spark behind the woman’s gaze.

“I’m Jewels Jennings. I grew up on Fireweed and just came back here to live.”

“I’m Hildie.” She handed me a business card. “This is our first farmer’s market on Fireweed. My son, who lives here, thought it would be a good one to try.”

“Was it a good idea?” I asked, setting my bouquet down and grabbing a couple of bars of soap. Judging by the bustling crowds, I’d assume it had been.

“So far, so good, and everyone here is quite friendly.”

“Not like that on Hound?” I asked, handing her cash for the soap.

Hound Island was a tiny island not far from here, but they only had ferry service a couple of times each day, and it wasn’t a tourist island like this one. A person generally needed a reason to go to Hound to even remember it existed.

“Everyone is extremely friendly on Hound Island, but there aren’t many people to be friendly with.”

I nodded, stuffing the soaps in my purse. “I’d imagine that to be the case.”

Hildie’s gaze shot over my shoulder, and a huge grin lined her lips before she brought her gaze back to meet mine.

“It was nice to meet you. Hope to see you again,” I said, taking off toward the gourmet popcorn booth.

“See you again,” she called after me.

“Would you like a sample?” the man asked, holding out a kernel of caramel corn in between the tongs. He wore a striped hat and tie, and his completely white hair matched his mustache.

“Would love one.” I shifted my bouquet and held my hand open, popping the fluffy kernel in my mouth. The buttery-sugar goodness melted in my mouth. Thank goodness I went to the cash machine. “I need a bag of this.”

The man chuckled, and we exchanged cash for popcorn as I went on my way. I was so busy concentrating on how to get the bag open with one hand that I crashed right into a very solid someone.

“Whoa. Need a little help?” the man’s voice sounded recognizable, but I couldn’t quite place it.

I took a step back and lifted my gaze to see Jake Harlen, recluse fireman, smiling at me with an amused glint in his eye. He was a good six inches taller than me, and his scruffiness from a few days without shaving looked really sexy. His blond hair was mussed, and I noticed his beard was slightly darker.

I also noticed myself noticing and quickly looked away.

“I got it. Just needed an extra hand or two to get this bag open.”

“Today’s your lucky day. I’ve got two right here.” He wiggled his fingers, and his blue eyes locked onto mine. There was no denying the man was attractive, and by all appearances, he knew it and used it to his advantage.

“I’m fine,” I told him.

“Bag’s still not open,” he said, glancing down at the popcorn I was clutching close to my chest.

“I’ve decided I don’t want any until later.”

“Oh, okay.” He glanced over toward the lavender booth and waved. Jake was dressed in a pair of low-slung cargo shorts and a black t-shirt. A red and blue plaid, unbuttoned shirt clung to his shoulders like he’d burst out of it with one simple movement. There was no doubt he took good care of himself out on his twenty acres doing goodness knows what.

“Burn feeling any better?” he asked, and my eyes flashed up to his. A grin threatened to take over from the sparkle in his eye once he realized I’d been checking him out.

“Yep. Burn is totally good. I think today is my last day of having to wear sundresses.”

“Well, you look beautiful in it.” The heat in his gaze nearly shredded my senses to bits.

Even though the temperature was probably only in the seventies, my entire body turned into a molten mess. I wasn’t prepared for witty interaction, let alone flirtatious compliments from a man who looked this good. I’d been married for six years, and prior to that, I was in college studying hard all the way through until I came out the other side with my Masters of Library Science. Flirting wasn’t in my arsenal of daily living.

I glanced down at my dress and back up at him. “Thanks. My ex-husband bought it for me, and I’m not particularly fond of it or him.”

I cringed, unable to believe those words left my mouth. The poor guy tried to compliment me after saving my life only days before, and that was what I’d managed to tell him?

“Duly noted.” He didn’t take his gaze away, his smile unguarded as he studied me.

In an attempt to redeem myself, I pushed my shoulders back and looked him straight in the eye, which did nothing but give my stomach a reason to believe it got swooped into the middle of a tornado. I wasn’t sure if it was the beautiful color of his eyes or how he used them to look at me that shifted my entire world off-kilter.

“Thank you again for the whole rescue thing.”

“My pleasure. I didn’t expect it to make the front page, but I guess it
is
a small town with a low crime rate.”

“They wanted to infuse everyone’s weekend with some humor, I suppose.”

“How so?” His brow arched, and he took a step toward me, catching me off-guard.

“I didn’t realize I wasn’t as high off the ground as it felt.”

“The camera distorted things,” he assured me, his smile completely disarming.

“It would be quite the distortion.”

“It was,” his voice was low as he reached for my arm reassuringly and squeezed it softly.

Jake seemed nothing like the recluse the island folks had been making him out to be.

“You two know one another?” Hildie didn’t even wait for a response. “I should have known that’s why I liked you.” She came up behind us. “Any friend of my son’s is a friend of mine.”

“Oh, I don’t actually—” I began, but Jake cut me off.

“She’s the woman I told you about who was stuck in the tree.”

I pressed my lips together as the wind in my sails blew right out to sea and my shoulders sank into the bay.

“Oh, yes, dear. That’s why she looked familiar.” She nodded and smiled. “Well, she’s lovely.”

“She is indeed. I’m trying to convince her that the camera can distort images greatly, depending on the kind of lens used.”

“So very true.” Hildie nodded and waved at one of the other vendors. “Well, she is lovely.”

“Thank you,” I said, wondering if those two remembered I was here.

I caught Jake looking at me in a sideways glance, and he hid a smile as Hildie slid two more bars of soap into my purse.

“On the farm,” she whispered and patted my arm.

It wasn’t more than a second or two before Hildie was off to talk to the nursery that specialized in roses, and I was left standing next to her son. I wanted this to be one of those moments where I casually asked if I could take him out for a cup of coffee as a thank you, but instead, my heart raced and stayed in the safe zone.

“So your mom runs a lavender farm on Hound Island.”

“Among other things. It’s hard to keep track of her sometimes. She’s got way more going on than I do.”

“That’s good. Keeps you on your toes.”

He smiled and nodded. Finding out Hildie and Jake were mother and son made it impossible not to see the same spark in both of their eyes. There was this certain gusto for life that seemed to radiate from them.

“Please tell your mom thanks again.” I adjusted my flowers in my arm and clutched the popcorn with my other hand. “And I really appreciate you getting me down to safety.”

“How did the dog come out?” he asked.

“Not even a bruised rib. Coco’s got a knack for escaping death . . . or so I’ve been told.”

“And no more trees for you since then?” he asked, a curve sweeping the corners of his mouth.

“Trees are not my first choice of where to spend time, no.” I watched Hildie talking expressively with her hands as she described something, and I turned my gaze back to her son. “Any sort of place more than a few feet off the ground doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.”

“Letting go of fears can be really invigorating.”

“Can be, but might not be.” I smiled, seeing Hildie out of the corner of my eye.

“Why don’t you have coffee with me?” he asked, as it dawned on me that what I was seeing was his mom recreating the newspaper scene with the rose vendor.

Jake followed my gaze to see his mother with her arms flailing toward the sky, and her legs kicking out as she reenacted the event that brought Jake and me together. Her gaze turned to ours, and she whipped her arms next to her as the rose vendor gave out a chuckle. She’d been caught, but it was hard not to get a kick out of her reenactment of events.

“Your mom’s pretty flexible,” I said, grinning and holding in a laugh.

Jake rubbed his hands over his face and groaned. “She credits yoga, and I’m so sorry for that little skit. Sometimes, things just get away from her and she can’t help herself. Both my parents were storytellers.” His hands dropped from his face. “And the tradition lives on.”

Hildie wasn’t even fazed as she continued gabbing with the vendor, one topic traded out for the next.

“I think she’s adorable. Like I said, I’m glad I could provide entertainment for Fireweed.”

“So, coffee?” He sucked in a breath. “Later this afternoon?”

“Coming through,” someone yelled, and I glanced toward the man’s voice.

A huge cart filled with flowers came barreling toward us with two barking huskies leading the way and a teenager pushing it from behind. The grassy aisles were narrow, and there really wasn’t any room for all five of us plus a cart. I quickly attempted to jump out of the way but wound up backing right into Jake and stepping on his toes.

To keep me upright, his hands slid right along my hips to steady me, and I drew in a deep breath as his touch swirled a million different emotions through my blood.

 “Sorry,” I breathed, sliding my foot off his as the vendor pushed the cart by.

Feeling his warm body press against mine and his fingers sink gently into my hips created an unexpected complication to my fairly simple routine of Saturday wandering and shopping. I felt every inch of him against me, and I liked it.

Actually, I loved it.

Feeling all of him next to me sent my world into another orbit. For years, I’d read stories about connections like this and yearned for that kind of spark myself, even told myself I’d had it with Rich. But that was the problem. I had to convince myself that I had the tingles and sparks with the man I’d married, and I didn’t.

I couldn’t even get a jumpstart when it counted, and I tried. But that was probably how my subconscious tried to save me from even more heartache with Rich. I knew his jumper cables were plugged in somewhere else, and I refused to be his weekend wife.

And now I stood with my butt pushed into Mr. Reclusive Fireman’s thighs, and every single tingle of the moment shocked me into believing I wasn’t completely dead to the opposite sex.

Judging by how quickly he’d stilled, I’d like to think the sensation was mutual.

The aisle had cleared, but I remained firmly planted next to him, his hands still gripping me and the connection zipping through us. I shouldn’t be feeling this level of attraction in the middle of a farmer’s market just because we were pressed up against one another.