Berries and Cream Chai (Cupid's Coffeeshop Book 6) by Hunt Courtney

Author:Hunt, Courtney [Hunt, Courtney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-09T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

When Joe had imagined getting naked at Berry Hill Farm, it was not peeling off clothes so covered in mud that they stood on their own, wrapping himself in a towel on the back porch, and dashing to the guest room shower. In the shower, he leaned his head again the tile, closed his eyes, and groaned. Had he really fallen in the mud right in front of her? He hadn’t experienced this big of a disaster with the opposite sex since he tried to ask Mary Beth Michaels to the sixth grade formal, with Patrick snickering behind him.

Flirting came reflexively to him. He knew he was handsome, though he took no credit for an accident of birth. Still, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t use it to his advantage. Chatting with pretty girls was as easy as breathing. As his grandmother used to say, Joe could talk the ears off a potato. And, once he’d gotten older and grown into his looks, he pretty much could have any girl he wanted with a crook of his finger. And he pretty much had.

But now, he really liked Molly. He looked forward to chatting with her. He’d even confided in her about his dad. They’d strayed off his usual empty chit-chat and patter, the surface conversation that kept people from getting too close or from seeing the real person inside. In the past few days, they’d become friends.

Joe didn’t really have friends. Since he and his mom left Ashford Falls, they’d wandered for a bit until she met her husband. After a whirlwind romance, his mother settled down, happy in her role as trophy wife to a realtor nearly 30 years her senior. Joe finished high school in Florida, where his mother’s new husband barely tolerated his wife’s “youthful indiscretion.” Once he graduated, Joe drifted from place to place, never setting down roots or making ties. And feeling the lack.

Now, he’d been in Ashford Falls nearly nine months. Other than his final year of high school in Florida, he’d never lived in one place so long. And slowly, despite his best efforts, he seemed to be developing some roots in the small town. So far, he’d rekindled ties with Patrick and Zooey and he found, even as Patrick drove him crazy, he was grateful for it. And now, he had Molly as a friend. Roots. Anchors. Ties.

He’d nearly kissed her, when she was laughing up at him, her leaf green eyes sparkling. She truly was lovely, a beautiful person inside and out.

And that’s why Joe needed to keep his hands to himself. For the first time in his life, he wanted a friendship with a woman more than he wanted a quick release and an even quicker exit.

Well, Joe admitted to himself maybe not more than the physical. Molly was lovely after all. But equally. And that alone was a first for him.

He just wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

He finished showering and dressed in the spare jeans and t-shirt he kept in his saddlebags.

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