A Valentine Kiss. Christy McKellen

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СКАЧАТЬ spent almost two hours there. It was time spent waiting for vendors to find a moment to talk to them in between serving people, and eating to fill that time. She found herself growing more comfortable as the minutes went by, the tension that was always inside her around him easing.

      He was a wonderful ambassador for the vineyard, she thought as she watched him, and even though all the vendors remembered her and their event—especially since she had used many of them multiple times before—it was Jordan they responded to. He spoke to them with such warmth, with such praise, that she could almost see their spines straighten with pride. He played up his enjoyment of their food so much that sometimes she found herself giggling.

      The sound was strange, even to her, and she wondered why it was so easy to relax around him now. Her determination to focus on the event and ignore whatever was between them had been decided just that morning. A few hours later and she had spoken to him about the past, made herself vulnerable by admitting that she hadn’t thought she was worthy of him, and had walked down an intimidating staircase. And now she was laughing with him. At him.

      She knew that at some point he had gone from entertaining the vendors to trying to make her laugh. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she chose not to ponder it then. Not when for the first time in a long time she felt...free.

      ‘Ice cream?’

      She looked at him when she heard his voice, and realised that she had been staring off into space while she thought about the day.

      ‘I’m not sure it’s warm enough for ice cream,’ she replied, feeling self-conscious now.

      ‘The sun is shining, Mila. We should thank it by offering it the traditional food of appreciation.’

      Her lips curved. ‘And that’s ice cream?’

      ‘Yes, it is.’ He smiled back at her and her heart thumped. It was as if they were on a first date, she thought, and then immediately cast the thought aside.

      ‘Besides, we have one more vendor to see,’ he continued, ‘and he still hasn’t returned from his supply run.’

      She shrugged off her hesitation. ‘Sure—okay.’

      She followed him to the ice-cream stand, where they joined a long line.

      ‘Seems like everyone wants to make a sacrifice to the gods,’ she said, and smiled at him when he looked at her.

      ‘I told you so,’ he replied, and took her hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

      And the truth was that on that day, after talking, after laughing together, with the winter sun shining on their faces, holding hands did seem natural. But it wasn’t, she reminded herself, and let go of his hand under the guise of looking for the notepad where she had written down the names of all the vendors and made notes.

      ‘I think we’ve done pretty well today,’ she said, and pretended not to notice the disappointment that had flashed across his face. ‘Of the six vendors here, three are interested and are available for two weeks—the end of this month and the beginning of next. It cuts our time in half. Not ideal, but I think it’s doable. And if we speak to the owner of the Bacon Bites food truck when he gets back, we could have four.’

      ‘So that means we only have to replace two or three?’

      Jordan slipped his hands into the pockets of his jacket, and she wondered if it was because he was tempted to take her hand again.

      Her hand itched at the thought.

      ‘Yes, but we still need to hear from two vendors who aren’t here. Lulu said she would follow up on those. But I think we could substitute any who don’t come with some of the other vendors here. I chatted to the woman who owns the chocolate truck over there—’ she gestured to it with her head ‘—and she thought our event sounded great. She told me to come over if we were interested.’

      ‘How did you manage to speak to her?’

      ‘Oh, it was between your moan of delight for the meat pies and your groan of appreciation for the burger sliders,’ she teased, and saw the tension that had entered his body after she’d let go of his hand fade.

      ‘They have good food here,’ he said, with a shrug and a smile.

      Before she could respond they were at the front of the line. Behind the glass casing of the van she could see a variety of ice cream flavours that made her mouth water. After a few minutes of looking, she still couldn’t decide between the chocolate hazelnut flavour and the vanilla toffee.

      ‘How about you take the chocolate hazelnut and I take the vanilla toffee?’ he said when she told him as much, and she smiled at the proposal.

      ‘Perfect!’

      She relayed their order to the patient vendor, and watched with delight at he made the sugar cone their ice cream would be served in from scratch.

      Her first lick was deliciously creamy, and the thrill of cold ran down her spine. But then she realised that Jordan was watching her—with amusement and something else in his eyes—and she wondered if the thrill had come from the cold.

      ‘This is great,’ she said to avoid feeling awkward. ‘Want some?’

      ‘Sure,’ he replied, and moved closer.

      He watched her as he tasted the ice cream, and suddenly it was a year ago, when they’d been on honeymoon in Mauritius and had come across an ice-cream stand. It had been perfect for the hot summer’s day after they’d been at the beach all morning.

      Sharing their ice creams with one another had been...sensual, she thought, just as it was now. Shivers went up her spine at the look in his eyes—the look that told her that even though they weren’t together any more he still wanted her.

      He offered her a lick of his, and as though she was in a trance she leaned forward and tasted it, her eyes still on his. The flavour was just as delectable as she’d thought it would be, but the thought barely registered. Instead she was wondering if their sharing ice cream would end the way it had in Mauritius—with a passion that could have heated the entire resort for a week.

      The thought had her moving backwards so quickly she almost stumbled. She regained her balance in time to realise that there was ice cream on her nose. She spent a few seconds trying to figure out how to remove it, and sighed when she saw that neither of them had taken a serviette.

      ‘Do you want some help?’ he asked, and she looked up to see that he was watching her—again—this time with an amused expression. And then she thought that she must have been crossing her eyes to look at the spot of ice cream on her nose, and she flushed.

      ‘No, thanks—I’ll manage.’ She rubbed her nose with her sleeve and quickly turned to look for the vendor they were waiting for, hoping with all her might that he would be there. Relief swamped her when she saw that he was, and she turned back to Jordan, who was now watching her with a guarded expression.

      ‘We should go over there,’ she said, and gestured behind her.

      He nodded and started walking, and she took a moment to instruct her emotions to stop fluttering around and get into place. When she was sure she had them under control she followed him—and wished with all her СКАЧАТЬ