“Why does your cousin dislike me?”
“He thinks you’re going to break my heart.”
“You told him that I’m going to leave?”
“No,” Tris said. “He could see that you’re a city girl and they don’t stay in Edilean.”
Jecca held up a crescent wrench and a bolt. “What part of me looks city?”
“Maybe it was your jacket.”
Smiling, Jecca told how Andrea had dropped a curling iron on it and singed the leather. Of course she couldn’t wear it again, so she tossed it to Jecca. “She was letting me know that she was too good to wear damaged goods, but I wasn’t. So that’s Roan’s problem?”
“Yes.” Tris handed Jecca a short screwdriver when she reached for it. “He knows I wouldn’t bring anyone up here unless I was serious about her, so he’s concerned.”
“You know I really can’t—”
“Don’t say it,” Tris said. “I’ve heard it too many times. Would you like to go fishing tomorrow? And by that I mean I fish while you and Nell do art things.”
She had the chain in her hands as she looked at him. “Not a bad idea. The lures could be yellow sapphires.”
“Think they’ll catch more fish?”
“More customers,” Jecca said.
“Any chance you’ll get that thing put together before dawn?” he asked in a low voice as he stood up. It didn’t seem possible set="0em" but his sweatpants had fallen even lower on his hips.
She knew what he meant by his question, and her eyes were riveted by his bare torso.
“You know that first night when you felt my face?” he asked softly.
“Yes,” she said.
“That felt so good that I thought maybe we could go into the moonlight and I could, well, feel your entire body.”
She looked up at him. In the light of the single floor lamp, his eyes were like a blue fire.
“Hold this!” she said, handing him one end of the heavy chain. “I’m going to beat Joey’s time.”
“I don’t know what that means, but I like your tone.”
She finished putting the chainsaw together in just under four minutes. Maybe someday she’d brag to her brother that she’d at last beat his time. Except that she wouldn’t be able to tell him the circumstances of her speed.
Tristan came around the table in an instant and pulled her into his arms. “Outside,” he murmured. There were too many people inside and they didn’t want to disturb them.
Jecca was kissing his shoulders, his bare chest.
He took her hand and led her to the front door, then outside. “Come on,” he whispered. “I
know where the moonlight dances with the flowers.”
Yet again, she was following him through the dark, her trust in him complete. She heard night sounds around them and it felt oh so familiar. The sounds, the smells, the cool air, the darkness that surrounded them, Tris’s hand holding hers, all these were what had made her fall in love with him.
At that thought, Jecca knew she should correct herself, but being with Tris in the dark was too sweet to want to think of anything but love.
She smelled the flowers before she saw them. Whereas the area that she had seen around the cabin was mostly rough, here was an exquisite little garden. The moonlight did indeed dance on three small beds of white flowers that surrounded a patch of soft grass.
“Come with me,” Tristan said as he held both her hands and led her into the enchanted little place. Once inside, he kissed her face, her neck, and his hands easily slipped the robe off her shoulders, then expertly unbuttoned her pajama top. The soft fabric slid away. When her bare skin touched his, she gasped.