Page 32 of Love Notes

“Smart man.”

Ryan nodded and took a mouthful of his burger.

I took one of mine and then said around my mouthful, “These burgers are fantastic.”

“Right?I don’t even like blue cheese that much, but these?Incredible.”

“They really are.You were so right about them.”

Ryan looked pleased that I agreed with him and shy about being right at the same time.It was an expression that I’d begun to associate with him, and it always made me wonder if he was naturally reserved, or if there was some other reason he was uncomfortable being praised.Because if there was a reason, I couldn’t spot it.Ryan wasn’t just a talented artisan but an incredible artist as well.And maybe I wouldn’t have liked him as much if he’d had an ego as big as that talent, but he would have had a right to one.

“What are you making today?”I asked him as we ate.“Or do you give yourself a few days off after Founders Day?”

“I’m finishing up my Windsor chairs,” he said.“My next order is for a dining table and twenty chairs.”

“Twenty?Who hastwentydinner guests?I don’t even know twenty people!”I tried to think.“Well, not twenty people I’d want to invite to my house.”

“Me too,” Ryan said with a shrug.“It’s gonna be a big job.I’ll have to move everything around just to give myself room to work on it.I think the guy is a CEO of something.Whatever he is, he didn’t even blink when I told him he’d have to arrange his own shipping.It’ll be interesting watching them get a truck big enough down the driveway.”

“How long is a table for twenty people?”I asked.

“This one’s twenty-four feet.”

“Wow!You wouldn’t even fit that anywhere in this cabin!”

“Wouldn’t get it through the door,” Ryan agreed.“What about you?When you finish the fourth book, do you start on the fifth one straightaway?”

“Oh, no,” I said.“I have to procrastinate for months first, then forget when my deadline is, then look it up and panic, and then book somewhere to stay because I’ve told myself that if I’m not at home, I won’t be distracted by anything.”I tilted my head.“And then, hopefully, I’ll get totally distracted by a handsome woodworker who makes me water lilies.”

“Am I distracting you?”

“Only in the best possible way.With water lilies and burgers and phenomenal sex.”

His blush was expected, but it was his laugh I enjoyed the most.I hoped to hear it over and over again, for as long as I was in Harmony Lake.

OVER THE NEXTweek, Adam started leaving little notes for me whenever he visited the workshop.I pretended not to see where he put them so I didn’t have to try to read them in front of him.I figured he thought I might be embarrassed by some of the things he wrote in there, but I wasn’t.I loved that he was happy and that he liked being with me and that his notes seemed to imply that he was falling for me—I felt the same.Just, I didn’t want him to know how much I struggled to read, which felt like a huge backward step emotionally.I’d worked a lot of years coming to terms with the fact that my dyslexia didn’t mean there was anything wrong with me, only that my brain was wired a little differently than most people’s.But, come on, he was awriter.The only thing that would have been more awkward was if he was also allergic to sawdust.

On Friday night, I invited Adam to Lucy’s Bar for the weekly dinner with the guys.We were the first ones to arrive, already sitting in the booth when Conor appeared.He didn’t say anything about the way we were sitting next to each other this time, but his eyebrows lifted briefly when he saw our clasped hands resting on the table.

He eased himself into the booth across from us.“How’s it going?”

“Good,” I said, feeling my face heat.

“That was a hell of a Founders Day,” he said.

“It’s all everyone is talking about,” I teased.“It’s like, ‘Did you guys hear that Dallas Blade paid big dollars for Conor at the bachelor auction?’It’s big news, Conor.You’re like a band groupie now.”

He glowered.“I was talking about the fire.”

“Nobody else is,” I said.

He snorted.

Haider was next to arrive, his smile not as bright as usual, even though it was obvious he was trying.I knew that Phillip Brauning was on his way back to Europe.The fact that Haider wasn’t happier about it meant that clearly more had happened between them than he’d been willing to share with me at first, and I couldn’t blame him for that after how I’d reacted the last time.But we’d caught up the day after Founders Day when I’d gone into town.I’d detoured to meet Haider out by the old bridge, and we’d hashed things out while we’d failed to catch skippers in the cold stream.I was glad when Haider sat next to me and knocked his shoulder against mine.

“Hey,” I said.

He took note of mine and Adam’s hands, and his expression did something complicated before it landed back on a smile.“Hey.”

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