Page 13 of Breaking the Rules of Love

“You like it?” I ask, warming up inside.

“Absolutely. What’s in it? It tastes…spicy or herbal or something.” He takes a second sip and smacks his lips together with a smile.

“It’s got atinybit of fresh mint and fresh basil in it,” I reply. “I found the recipe online and thought I’d try it out. You really like it?”

Jake is gulping down another big swig but does his best to nod as he does so. Delight fills my belly as I watch him swallow. He sets down his glass and wipes his lips with his thick forearm.

“A lemon tart and herb lemonade?” He grins. “You’re one of those ‘good homegrown women,’ as my dad used to say, aren’t you?”

I burst out laughing and try not to make the ugly face I make when I laugh too hard. “Homegrown women? What’s that mean?”

Jake chuckles and sort of shrugs. “I guess he meant women who can cook, clean, do all the things he says women these days aren’t any good at doing. According to him, that is.”

I nod and smile to myself. “Ah, I see. Is that whatyoulike in a woman, Jake?”

I probably shouldn’t have said that.

Jake fixes his eyes—those amazing blue eyes—on me, and I feel my heartbeat start to quicken.

“I don’t know,” he says after a moment. “Is that the kind of woman you are, Sadie?”

Did he really just ask me that?

Why is he asking me that?

Is he implying what I think he’s implying?

My hand starts to quiver as I raise my glass to my lips for a sip of diluted herb lemonade. It’s bland and pretty awful going down, to be honest. Once I’m finished, I set it aside and smile back at him. “Well, I don’t know. I guess we’d have to ask your dad, wouldn’t we?”

Jake gives me this look that sort of takes me a second to decipher, but once I do, I want to smack myself with something really heavy.

“Okay,wowthat didn’t come out the way I wanted it to,” I say quickly. “I wasn’t—I didn’t mean to imply that I want to get with your dad or something–”

“It’s fine, Sadie,” Jake laughs. “My dad’s in his early seventies. I don’t think you’d want to anyway.”

We both get a good laugh out of my blunder, and I take a deep breath and inhale the scent of freshly cut grass coming in from outside as Jake continues to down what’s left of his lemonade.

“This is just so suburban, isn’t it?” I say, doing anything I can to change the subject.

“Are you not from the suburbs?” he asks. I shake my head.

“Manhattan originally. My mom is still there, but the city was driving me crazy. Where did you move from?”

“The total opposite,” he replies. “Vermont. Tiny little town.”

“Lots of private security jobs out there?” I tease.

“Oh, you betcha.” Jake replies with a little smile and a glance down at the table that clearly says he doesn’t want to talk about it. Whatever brought him here to Stamford is a sore subject for him.

He takes his rag and uses it to wipe more sweat from his neck. But after a moment, he glances at it and then at me.

“Say, Sadie. I know this might be a bit imposing. But would you mind if I jumped in your shower real quick?” For a second, I’m not sure if I heard him correctly. “Normally I’d never ask such a thing, but I’m still unpacking at my place, and all my bathroom stuff is still in boxes.”

“Yeah, of course you can!” I blurt out.Oh God, that sounded way too eager!But how am I supposed to help myself? Jake naked upstairs in my bathroom? That sounds pretty great to me.

“You’re going to fix my plumbing up there while you’re at it, right?” I ask.

Jake cocks his head to the side. “You have a plumbing issue?”

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