Page 6 of Grounds for Love

Chapter 3

Rod

Thecookoutatmy brother’s is already in full swing when I get there. I don’t bother going through their house to get to the back yard. I chuckle when I see the number of new faces scattered among my family members. Some I know and some, just like at the town meeting, I have no clue who they are.

Blake sees me, grabs a beer from a cooler, and heads towards me.

“Thanks.” I take the offered beer and twist the top off. “Hannah’s been busy, I see.”

Blake laughs. “You could say that. We haven’t had this big a crowd in years.”

The last one this size was when Grace was with me years ago. “Yeah. I remember the days. It’s good to see such a big turnout. They must have heard that Hannah was cooking.”

“Hey! I can cook. Hannah just prefers it if she does the cooking and I’m an intelligent husband who lets her.”

Then I see her. There must be fifty people in my brother’s back yard and my gaze locks on to hers. She’s wearing a yellow and white sundress with her hair pulled up into a ponytail. She even has a yellow flower in her hair. Her face is alive as she laughs with those gathered around her. A smile looks good on her. Her skin is tanned, her legs are long and lean, and I can imagine the heat under my palms if I ran my hands up and down all that soft skin.

There’s a twitch going on below my waist and I fist my hands to keep from reacting to her.

“Ahhh,” Blake says.

I’d forgotten he was even here. “Shut it,” I snap before he can get anything started.

“That’s Jen Marsh. She and her sister Joy opened the new coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds.”

I listen, but I keep my eyes on the animated emotions playing across her face. “I know who she is.”

“So, you’ve met her?”

I shrug. “No. Not exactly. It’s more like I was rude to her.”

“What? Why in the hell would you be rude to Jen? She’s a sweet, kind woman.”

I rub the back of my neck, irritated at myself. “She brought coffee up to the cabin the other day. I was ready to rip someone a new one for not following the keep out signs, but it was her and I just… I wasn’t prepared for her. I mean… she just showed up in the cabin before we got underway. She was being nice and bringing the crew coffee and cookies as a treat, and I lost it and told her to get out.”

When I don’t get a response from my brother, I tear my gaze away from Jennifer and glare at him. With his arms crossed and his brow almost in his hairline, I know I pissed him off. “I know. I know. I owe her an apology, but I don’t think that would be…wise.”

“Brother, I know you aren’t known on the island for your chipper personality, but being outright rude to a beautiful woman I find curious. It has me wondering why a brother that was raised by the same parents, who was taught politeness—especially to women—would act like that. Know what I came up with?”

“Is there any way I can stop you?” I ask with a sigh.

I hate the sparkly sheen to my brother’s eyes. He’s getting too much enjoyment out of my discomfort. “Um, no. I would surmise, dear brother, that you have a crush on her.”

I level a pointed stare at him. “What are you, a teenager? I know for a fact that you passed that age, what, four decades ago?”

“It’s okay, you know,” Blake says with all kidding absent from his tone.

I move my head and shoulders in a nervous twitch. I’m not liking where this is going. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s okay to find someone of the opposite sex interesting. Dare I say you could even date? The world wouldn’t stop.”

I’m shaking my head before he even finishes. “She’s too young for me.”

Blake’s eyes widen in disbelief. “You’re grasping at straws. She’s not that much younger.”

I sigh loudly and want to walk away, but my asshole brother would only follow me. “Are you forgetting I was rude to her? She’ll never speak to me again.”

“There’s one way to find out. And you do owe her an apology,” he taunts.

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