Moonlight Cove

“I have no social life,” Jess declared. “None.”

“Really?” Abby said. “Then Will didn’t—”

Jess cut her off. “I haven’t seen Will in ages.”

Gram listened to all this without a word, but Jess couldn’t help noticing the smile that was tugging at her lips. She frowned at her grandmother. “What?”

“I was just thinking that it’s a good thing Will’s coming for dinner today,” Nell said innocently. “The two of you will be able to catch up. Maybe get your stories straight.”

“Will is coming for dinner?” Jess repeated. “Who invited him?” If it was her father or Connor, she was going to kill them. “And what do you mean about getting our stories straight? There’s no story.”

“That’s not the way I hear it,” Gram said, then gave her a defiant look. “And I’m the one who invited him.”

“But—” She was about to protest, but Gram cut her off with a chiding look.

“You know he doesn’t have any family left in the area,” Gram said. “He should spend Sundays with people who care about him. Will has always been welcome here. That is not about to change just because it might make you uncomfortable.”

“Who said anything about being uncomfortable?” Jess said. “I guess I’m just surprised that he accepted.” She’d have thought the O’Brien Sunday dinner would be the last place he’d want to be at the moment. Not only would he have to face her, but he’d have to deal with the prying eyes of her entire family.

“Of course he accepted,” Gram said. “Why wouldn’t he?”

“I just thought he might find it awkward,” Jess said before she’d considered the ramifications of such a remark.

“Why would Will feel awkward around us?” Abby asked, seizing on the comment. “Like Gram said, he’s practically family. He’s been hanging around with Kevin and Connor since grade school. I can’t even count the number of holidays he’s spent over here.”

“I just meant…” Jess began, then realized she had no reasonable explanation. “Oh, never mind. I’ll go see if Mom needs help setting the table.”

Before she could leave, though, her grandmother pinned her with a look. “You wouldn’t be trying to avoid talking about Will kissing you at Brady’s recently, would you?”

Jess regarded her with shock. “How do you know about that?”

Gram chuckled. “Word about a thing like that gets around.”

“Indeed, it does,” Abby agreed. Her broad grin proved she’d known about it, too. “Who knew Dillon Brady could be such a gossip?”

“I heard about it from his wife,” Gram added.

“Well, I have nothing to say about it,” Jess said, all but running from the kitchen.

“I imagine Will might be more forthcoming,” Gram called after her. “He’s awfully fond of my chicken and dumplings. I suspect that’ll loosen his tongue.”

Jess bit back a groan and kept going. If she could have, she would have bolted from the house and not looked back, but the commotion that would cause wasn’t worth it. Nope, she just had to stay here and do her best to steer clear of Will so that none of the too-eager observers in her family would get any wild ideas that something had changed between the two of them. If it had. She honestly couldn’t be sure.

When she found the dining room table set and no sign of her mother, she wandered outside. No sooner was she seated in a rocker on the porch than Will himself appeared, carrying a large bouquet of flowers.

She blinked at the lavish arrangement. “Will, that’s a really bad idea. You shouldn’t have brought me flowers. It will stir up a hornet’s nest.”

He laughed. “Then it’s a good thing they’re not for you. I brought them for your grandmother to thank her for including me today.”

Jess sat back, not sure whether she felt more embarrassed or deflated. “Oh, of course. She’ll love them. But you probably ought to know that she’s more interested in information.”

“Oh?” he said, immediately looking troubled.

“She’s heard about the kiss. So has Abby. I imagine everyone else knows about it by now as well. The way I hear it, Dillon and Kate are bigger blabbermouths than the O’Briens.”

He sat down hard in the chair next to hers. “I see.”

“Gram seems to think we should get our stories straight.”

He stared at her blankly. “What stories?”

“The ones where we deny it meant anything or try to convince them that our lips locked by accident,” she said with a shrug. “Anything to keep them from jumping on this and starting some kind of matchmaking frenzy.”

“Why do I think it’s probably too late for that?” he asked bleakly.

“Because you know the O’Briens. We’re nothing if not eager to meddle.”

“So what’s our story?” he asked. “Any thoughts?”

“I’m all for trying out the accidental lip-lock theory,” she said.

Will had the audacity to laugh. “No one who saw us that night is going to buy that. The first kiss, maybe, but there were two.”

Jess shivered. “I remember.” The second had been even more potent than the first. “Maybe they don’t know that.”

“Maybe instead of worrying about them, we should be focusing on what the kisses really meant,” he suggested, looking directly into her eyes in a way that disconcerted her.

Jess shook her head.

“Why not?”

“I’m not ready to start analyzing what happened,” she said.

“You’d rather pretend that nothing did?”

“I’d like to try,” she admitted wistfully. “But I’m pretty sure that’s going to be impossible.”

Will tried to conceal a smile but didn’t quite pull it off.

Jess scowled at him. “Don’t let that go to your head. I’m just saying it’s not so easy to un-ring that bell.”

“I wouldn’t dream of trying,” he said quickly.

She gave him a plaintive look. “Why did you come here today?”

He held her gaze for a long time before he said, “For your grandmother’s chicken and dumplings, of course.”

“You know Kevin cooked, right? It might not be the same as Gram’s.”