He likes you. Don’t worry so much, Rosalie.

  Charity’s words bounced through her brain, but Rosalie didn’t know how to stop worrying. She’d been a worrier for as long as she could remember, and part of that anxiety had bred her love of creating games. She’d been so worried about Natasha learning what she needed to learn so the other kids at school wouldn’t make fun of her.

  She’d asked Charity to read the text string between her and Lee, and while it had made her nervous and apprehensive, her nanny’s words had helped calm her. At least for a few minutes.

  A rusty truck turned in front of the windows and came to a stop in the parking stall. Rosalie let out a yelp and ran back to her desk, sure Lee had seen her eagle-eyeing for him through the windows. She reminded herself that the glass was reflective, and people couldn’t actually see inside as she hurled herself into her desk chair.

  She ran her fingers along her curls and pulled the nearest folder in front of her. She had no idea what it was about, but it didn’t matter. Lee wouldn’t examine her desk. Last time, he hadn’t even come near where she spent hours of her time.

  The bell on the glass door jingled as it opened, and Rosalie looked up as if she didn’t know who she’d see there. Handsome walked in, and Rosalie smiled outwardly at him and inwardly at her nickname for him. With a mental jolt, she realized she should’ve been calling him that instead of cowboy.

  “Hey.” She slapped the folder closed and stood, feeling every inch of the flowy, loose fabric around her frame as she moved. She adored this jumpsuit made of fun, splashy flowers against a cream background.

  “Howdy.” Lee swiped his cowboy hat from his head in the most adorable gesture known to mankind. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “Can’t control cows,” she said as she walked toward him. He met her about halfway, and they paused just out of arm’s reach of one another. Rosalie’s heart boomed twice through her ears the same way Thumper stomped on the kitchen floor when he was hungry.

  Then she said, “It’s so great to see you, Lee,” and stepped into his personal space. He put his arms around her, and Rosalie let her eyes drift closed as she turned her head and rested it against his chest.

  This. This was what she missed most about being one-half of a couple. One-half of a life partnership. One-half of a marriage.

  Lee had obviously not come straight from the farm and the “mess of cows” he’d texted about. His shirt smelled like the rainforest scent of dryer sheets, and it felt smooth beneath her cheek.

  “It’s good to see you too,” he said, his voice stuck somewhere in his throat so that the words came out almost like a growl.

  She stepped back, her smile still in place. “So what are we doing this afternoon?”

  He glanced to the rack of games on his right and over to her desk behind her on his left. “You can play hooky?”

  “I cleared my whole schedule just for you.”

  His eyes came back to hers. They burned with forest fires, and Rosalie wanted to lean forward and see if she could feel the heat. She didn’t, and she simply let him soak her in. He scanned her down to her feet, where she wore a pair of off-white sandals that didn’t add any height to her body.

  “I like this…what is this?” He reached out and pinched the fabric of her sleeve between two fingers. “A jumpsuit?”

  “That’s right,” she said, giggling. “It’s a jumpsuit.”

  “I’m not great with fashion.”

  “Leave it to me,” Rosalie said. “I adore clothes, and I could talk your ear off about them.”

  He looked at her again, his mouth curving up into a delicious smile. Rosalie had been thinking about it for days, wondering if she’d made the worst mistake of her life by not letting that mouth touch hers.

  Her lips burned with want, but she sucked in a breath to keep herself from lunging at him. This second date hadn’t even started, and kissing him now would be like doing so on the first date. “Let me grab my purse.”

  “I didn’t see your car out front,” he said.

  “I let Charity take it.” Rosalie turned back to her desk. “She’s my nanny. She’s with Autumn this afternoon, and she can stay as late as I need her to.” She snagged the purse from the corner of the desk where she’d left it. As she faced Lee again, she said, “Well, within reason. She does have school tomorrow.”

  “How old is Charity?” Lee asked.

  “Early twenties,” Rosalie said. “She goes to college. I just meant I could stay out until nine or so pretty easily.”

  “Oh, I see,” Lee said, his voice taking on a flirtatious quality. “You’re trying to kill me on the second date.”

  Rosalie shouldered her purse and grinned at him. “Kill you? How would I do that, Handsome?”

  His eyebrows went up, and Rosalie’s anxiety jumped with it. “Handsome?”

  “Before I knew your name,” she said. “That’s what I called you in my head.” She shrugged, thinking of last week when he’d come by acting like he’d sat in a pile of burrs and it was all her fault. “And maybe after for a minute or two.”

  Lee simply stood there, staring. Rosalie didn’t want to spend her afternoon doing this. She needed an escape from the walls of this place, where she spent so much of her time.

  She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated way. “Come on, Handsome. I’m playing hooky and you’re off your farm. Let’s see what this afternoon has for us outside these walls.” She moved into him and deliberately laced her hands through his. “You do have a plan, right?”

  “Yes,” he said, his voice almost a croak. “There happens to be something going on at The Southern Bakery this afternoon.”

  “Something?” Rosalie teased, gently turning Lee toward the exit. “Like, us sitting down with pastries and coffee something? Or a dance party something? Or what’s this ‘something’ exactly?”

  Lee moved on wooden legs for a couple of steps, and then he seemed to melt. “Do I look like the type of man to attend a dance party?”

  “Not on a Monday afternoon,” Rosalie teased. They stepped outside, and she turned back to lock the door behind her. When she turned, Lee stood right there. He reached up, following his fingers with his eyes, and moved his hand down the side of her face.

  “I can dance,” he said. “My mama taught me. She said all women in Texas expect a man who can dance.” He gave her a soft, gentle smile as he spoke of his mama. That alone made Rosalie forgive his tardiness and all of his silence from last week. “I can show you at the wedding.”

  “Promise?” she whispered, leaning into his touch when he neared her jaw.

  “Yes,” he said.

  She nodded and held herself upright. “All right then. What’s going on at The Southern Bakery this afternoon?”

  9

  Lee reminded himself of all Rosalie had said last night. She wanted to be with him, and until he proved to her that she’d be better off alone, he was going to be cool and confident. Despite the urgency in his stomach to find a bathroom and throw up, Lee managed to help the gorgeous woman into his truck and then get behind the wheel.

  “Have you been to The Southern Bakery?” he asked as he secured his seat belt.

  “Several times,” she said.

  “Are you from here?” He glanced over at her as he backed out of the parking stall. No one ever seemed to be at her office, and he wondered how she could stand being between walls all day long—alone—every day.

  “No,” she said. “I grew up in Dallas.” She looked over to him, and Lee held the weight of her gaze just fine thanks to his internal self-talk on the way to her office. “You’re from here.”

  “Generationally,” he said. “My great-granddad started the dairy farm, oh, at least a hundred years ago.” He chuckled. “That used to be a joke, but it’s actually true now.”

  “It’s pretty amazing,” she said.

  “My sister applied for the plaque and everything, and we got it up earlier this year. We’re officially a Century Farm in Texas.” His chest swelled with pride, because he could still see Daddy’s face when Clarissa had presented him with the plaque. Daddy didn’t cry very often—Lee had seen it only two or three times in his life—but he’d definitely had tears in his eyes when he’d gazed at the gold plaque that now rested on a stand near the highway turnoff to Sweet Water Falls Farm.

  “Do you love it?” Rosalie asked. “It sure seems like you love it. The farm, I mean.”

  “I do,” Lee said, flicking a quick glance in her direction. “It’s all I’ve ever known, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted to know.” He swallowed, suddenly unsure about spilling such a thing. “What about you? Why’d you come to Sweet Water Falls?”

  “James—my ex-husband—got stationed just down the coast. He was in the Navy. Is.” She reached up and scratched at something on her face. “He is in the Navy. He just lives in California now.” She turned away from Lee, and he’d seen this tactic before. Something stormed mightily in his chest, and he knew he’d go home kissless tonight unless he said something.

  He didn’t want to ruin anything with Rosalie, because the whole relationship felt so delicate already. He shifted in his seat, his mind spinning and screaming at the same time.

  “Rosalie,” he said, practically strangling the steering wheel. “I just have to ask somethin’, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “You’re over your ex-husband, aren’t you?” He wished he didn’t have to focus on the road, so he flipped on his blinker and pulled over. He faced her fully, glad she’d turned away from the window to look at him too. “You’ve only talked about him twice now, which I get. We’re still new.” He gestured between the two of them. “But every time, you seem so sad. So…withdrawn. It’s like you’re still missing him.”

  Rosalie blinked, and Lee didn’t like that she didn’t jump to deny what he’d said.

  “If you’re not ready for a relationship.” Lee cleared his throat, unable to volunteer a break-up. He didn’t want to stop seeing Rosalie. He didn’t even want to suggest it. Maybe he could just wait until she was ready. He didn’t need to get married right away or anything. Between the two of them, they had two kids already.

  So he let the words hang there, knotted as they were. Rosalie finally opened her mouth and said, “I can admit I didn’t want the divorce.”

  Lee just nodded, his heart sinking all the way into his liver. “All right,” he said.

  “James got injured on a ship,” Rosalie said. “There was an explosion and he lost part of one leg and feeling in the other. He’s in a wheelchair, and he couldn’t do what he used to do on the ship. So he came home, and I don’t know. He wasn’t the same.”

  Lee had never been through anything like that, so he just sat and listened. He looked down to give her a chance to breathe, and he picked at a thread on the seat cover.

  “I still loved him,” Rosalie said. “He didn’t want to ‘saddle me’ with his care for the rest of our lives.” She took a deep breath in, and Lee lifted his head enough to watch her do it. She seemed to strengthen right there in front of his eyes, and he’d never found anything or anyone so attractive in his whole life.

  “He was here for a while,” she said. “He’s a great dad, and he took Autumn all the time so I could build Curious Kids.”

  “That’s great,” Lee said, the frog he’d apparently swallowed on the drive into town still in his throat. He’d been ribbiting everything he’d said for the past twenty minutes.

  “He got a good opportunity in Navy Intelligence in California,” she said. “He moved a few months ago.” She moved her hand closer to his and covered his fingers with hers. “I’m over him, Lee. You’re the first man I’ve dated since the divorce, and yes, maybe the idea of kissing someone else hadn’t occurred to me until Thursday night.”

  Their eyes met, and Lee offered her a small smile.

  “Maybe I panicked,” she said. “But I’m over him. I want there to continue being an us.”

  “I’m not in a hurry, Rosalie.”

  “Okay,” she said. “But are we in a hurry to get to something at The Southern Bakery?”

  Lee followed her gaze toward the clock on his dashboard and nearly swore. “Yes,” he said instead. With reluctance, he slipped his hand away from hers and merged back onto the street.

  “What are we doing there?” she asked.

  Glad they were on safer topics, Lee pressed harder on the accelerator. “They’re doing a taste-test this afternoon. Starts at four.” If he hadn’t been late leaving the farm, he wouldn’t be in such a rush right now. Lee hated nothing more than being late, and he dang near took the next corner on two wheels. “They’re rolling out a couple of new menu items this summer, and we get to help them decide.”

  “Wow,” Rosalie said, her voice a bit too high.

  He looked over to her, finding her fingers now gripping the handle above the door tightly. “Sorry,” he said. “I swear I’m not always a crazy driver.”

  “You’re zero for two,” she joked, her smile radiant and kind. Lee chuckled, but he didn’t let up on the gas pedal. He did not want to be late for the taste-testing, not when Mama had called in the favor specifically for him.

  They arrived at The Southern Bakery, and Lee hurried the two of them inside. Thankfully, they still had at least two minutes before the clock would strike four, and he found the woman he needed to hug and say hello to only three steps inside the front door of the bakery.

  “Miss Mildred,” he said, moving into her instantly. Hugging her was like getting a good, hearty hug from Mama, and Lee closed his eyes and grinned for all he was worth as the older woman’s arms came around him.

  “Mister Leland Cooper,” Miss Mildred said. “How very good to see you, young man.” She laughed in her elderly tone as she stepped back. She always wore a string of pearls around her neck, and today was no exception. Her pink and yellow tank top boasted a lot of flowers, and she wore a flowing, straight white skirt with that. She was a picture-perfect summer afternoon in the South, and Lee kissed both of her cheeks.

  “It’s wonderful to see you, ma’am,” he said, remembering all of his proper Texas manners. “Mama sends her best regards. She misses you so.”

  Miss Mildred cupped his face in one hand and smiled at him the way only grandmothers can do. “You tell her I’ll come out this week and bring some of her favorites. Is she on lemonade, sweet tea, or that herbal stuff she likes?”

  “With the weather the way it is, she and Daddy have broken out the lemonade,” Lee said, chuckling. “I’ll tell her.”

  “Jenni-Lynn is around here,” Miss Mildred said. “Are you sure you two can’t go out on just one date?”

  Lee shook his head. “No, ma’am.” He stepped back and made room for Rosalie. He claimed her hand in his, bringing her forward. “This is Rosalie Reynolds. We just started seein’ one another.” He beamed out all of his shininess at Rosalie and then Miss Mildred.

  “My, my.” Miss Mildred dripped her gaze down the length of Rosalie. “Aren’t you a pretty thing?” She looked at Lee without a trace of kidding anywhere. “A bit out of your league, Mister Cooper.”

  “Shh,” Lee said, starting to chuckle again. “She doesn’t know that yet, Miss Mildred.” He nodded toward her. “Rosalie, Miss Mildred. She and my mama go way back to Georgia.”

  “Lee,” another woman said, and he turned to find Jenni-Lynn only a couple of feet from him. The bakery held a lot of people, and she had to squeeze past someone to arrive in front of him. He laughed as he hugged her too. His mama sure had been disappointed when there had been zero spark between him and Jenni-Lynn. Her mama too, if Miss Mildred’s constant reminder that her daughter was still single meant anything.

  “Howdy, Jen,” he said. He hugged her quick and stepped back, once again bringing Rosalie to his side. “Jen, this is Rosalie Reynolds.” He glanced at Rosalie, whose smile hadn’t moved a single millimeter. “Rosalie, this is Jenni-Lynn. We’ve known each other about five decades now.”

  “Please,” Jenni-Lynn said, her voice one of royals and dignitaries. “I am not fifty years old yet, Lee.”

  “You’re not fifty, are you, Lee?” Rosalie asked.

  “No,” he said with a scoff. “Just a joke our mamas used to say. That we knew each other before we were born.” He edged closer to Rosalie so she’d know he didn’t want to be with anyone but her. He released her hand and slid his along her waist, bringing her even closer. “Where do you want us, Jenni-Lynn?”

  “Table six,” she said. “So lovely to meet you, Rosalie. We need someone to tie Lee down again.”

  “It’s our second date,” Lee said. “And y’all are makin’ me regret I brought her here.”

  Jenni-Lynn gave him a knowing look, and Lee definitely should’ve made a better decision for this afternoon’s time with Rosalie. The Southern socialite missed nothing when it came to relationships, and she’d been the one to tell Cherry that Charlie Hooper simply wasn’t into her and would never ask her to be his wife.

  “Mother, we need to begin.” She turned in her sleeveless sundress, and Lee nodded Rosalie toward table six, which sat in the back corner of the bakery.

  “See you at the wedding, Jenni-Lynn.”

  “Wouldn’t miss it,” she drawled out. Her mama followed her toward the front of the bakery, where the refrigerated cases sat, and soon after, all the chatter in the room quieted.

  “Welcome to The Southern Bakery,” Jenni-Lynn said. “Thank you for coming to be part of our journey today.”

  Rosalie looked at him, and Lee ducked his head closer to her so she could whisper in his ear. “Not that I care, but how old are you?”

  Lee tilted his head and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. He’d had this question for weeks now, after he’d read her bio on her company website. “Forty-two,” he said under his breath. He didn’t want to cause a problem during the taste-test, that was for sure. Mama would never forgive him if he made a scene. “I’ll admit I’ve wondered about you,” he whispered. “I read your bio on the Curious Kids site.”