Page 44 of A Convenient Heart
Merritt’s heart was pounding. He wasn’t supposed to see her dress before the wedding! And she also wrestled a sinking feeling of disappointment as she backed into the room to allow him inside. He had to have seen the dress, but there’d been no reaction.
Maybe it wasn’t as special as she’d thought.
He shut the door with a decisive click and turned to face her, hands on his hips beneath his coat.
He blinked. His eyes raked up and down, and his hands dropped to his sides.
The disappointment she’d felt seconds ago swelled and changed into something else entirely at the look in his eyes.
“What—” He cleared his throat, and his eyes jumped to her face. “You look—I can’t—” He shook his head.
A sense of shyness threatened to overtake her, but she fought through it, just as she fought off the blush stealing up into her neck.
“I’ve never rendered someone speechless before. I suppose the dress was a good investment.”
If Jack kept looking at her like that, she’d wear the dress every Sunday to church. Maybe Saturdays too.
“It’s not the dress.” There was a roughness to his voice that sent prickles of goosebumps up her arms. “It’s you. You’re beautiful. Like a princess from some book.”
Pleasure suffused her. She’d been trying not to think about the kiss Jack had given her this morning, but it had broken into her thoughts in quiet moments throughout the day.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets, still looking at her with warmth in his eyes, and scooted around her toward the kitchen. “You mind if I make a pot of coffee?”
She followed a step behind him, stopping in the doorway when he crossed toward the stove and the shelf where she kept her coffeepot.
He filled the pot with water but hesitated before bringing it to the stove.
“I’m happy for you to make yourself at home,” she murmured, leaning one hip against the doorway. “This will be your home, too, in another two days.”
He’d turned away from her to put the pot on, but she saw the way one hand fisted at his side.
“I need to?—”
“I’m disappointed?—”
Their words tumbled over each other and he half smiled. “What’re you disappointed about?”
She jutted her chin up. “I thought you might kiss me hello. Didn’t you want to?”
If he was upset by her directness, he didn’t show it. “The wanting is the problem,” he said dryly. “If I let myself get too close, I won’t want to let you go.”
Oh.
Warmth crept into her neck.
There was a sincerity that rang through his words, something in his tone that she couldn’t understand.
“You won’t have to let me go, not after Sunday.”
He moved to the shelf to pull down two tin mugs. The scent of coffee began to filter through the room. “I know you’ve got your plans. I was talking to Mr. Carson today after our meeting and started thinking…you and I don’t have to rush things.”
Her stomach swooped. Rush things? Didn’t he want to marry her? Confusion swirled. Hadn’t he just said he didn’t want to let her go?
“I’ve been thinking…won’t you want your parents to be here to see you married? We could send them train tickets…”
He’d spoken the words over his shoulder but trailed off as he turned to face her, still across the room.
“They won’t return to Calvin,” she said quietly. Was this why he’d wanted to delay the wedding? Thinking of her parents?
