Page 20 of Love Notes

He shook his head with a smile.“Nah, they can shift as they dry.If I put one of last year’s on the lathe, you’d see it’d be wobbly when you turn it.You have to balance it before you finish shaping the outside.”

“Oh, so that’s the part that takes all the time.”

“Yeah, and then you have to sand it and finish it with linseed oil and beeswax.”

“Wow.It’s actually a lot like writing a book,” I said.I ran my fingers over the edge of the bowl.“This is just your first draft.Most of the work is still to come.”

Ryan reached out and picked a twist of wood shavings off my shirt.I dipped my chin to watch as his fingers skated across my chest, and warmth flooded through me.

Ryan dropped his hand, his cheeks pink.“So, ah, thanks for lunch.”

“We didn’t eat the cupcakes yet,” I pointed out.

He glanced at his half-made chair, forehead wrinkling.

“I’m keeping you from what you should be doing,” I said.“Tell you what, dinner tonight at the cabin?We can have cupcakes for dessert.”

“That sounds great,” he said.

“Come over whenever you’re finished up here,” I said.

“Okay,” he said.“See you then.”

“See you then,” I echoed.

Tonight couldn’t come soon enough.

I FINISHED UPworking just before six.Outside, the sunlight was golden.I cleaned up the workshop and took the quickest shower I could under the hose outside, the memory of Adam stumbling across me naked still branded in my mind.Then I dressed and checked for any messages in the group chat with Sam, Haider, and Conor that I might have missed.Conor’s annoyed rant about one of the guys he worked with at the fire station sounded hilarious delivered in Siri’s calm, measured tones.

When I got to the cabin, the cat was sitting on the front porch, right outside the door like she was waiting for an invitation inside.

I knocked on the door and heard footsteps a moment before Adam opened it.He was wearing track pants and a soft-looking T-shirt and had bare feet.He appeared right at home, and something about the sight of him, so cozy and domestic inmyhouse, kicked me in the solar plexus.

“Hey,” he said, stepping back to let me through.“Come on in.”

The cat strutted through the door.

“Oh, wow,” he said.“You too, I guess?”He gave me a questioning look.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I said.“She’ll yell to get out before she pees on anything, right?”

“I mean, hopefully.”He stepped aside and let me in.“We’re having pasta.It’s literally sauce from a jar though.I kind of used up all my culinary skills last time.”

“Sounds great,” I said, my gaze caught by the coffee table.The laptop was open and so were a bunch of books and notepads.“You look like you’ve got a lot done.”

Adam winced.“I’m still in my research phase.I’m worried I might only be enjoying it so much because I’m actually procrastinating.When you pick up a bit of wood for whittling, how do you know what it’s going to be?”

I flushed.“Ah, I sit with it for a while and wait for it to tell me.”

Adam didn’t laugh.

“That’s what I wish my notes were doing,” he said with a sigh.“Except so far it’s been total radio silence.But I got a really great book at the library today, and I’m sure I’ll find something in there that’ll spark an idea.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.Yeah, it’ll all come together.”He drew a deep breath, his smile back.“Okay, let me get dinner started.”

I followed him into the kitchen to help, still marveling at how right it felt for him to be here in my space.He fit in that easy way as if we’d known each other for years.

---