He leaned forward and ran his finger down the side of her face. “How are you feeling, Irene?”
“I want you to kiss me.”
“Not a problem.” He leaned closer and rubbed his lips over hers. “It’s my pleasure,” he added.
He kissed her thoroughly. Any ideas she’d had about the two of them having an innocent, friendly visit were long gone. Worse, she had no desire to stop what they were doing.
It was a warm and sunny day, so they were sitting outside on the patio at the brick oven pizza place. It shouldn’t have surprised her when someone stopped at the table to say hello.
“Hey, Renie, How are you?”
“Good, Will. How are you?”
“Will?” Jace asked. “Will Rice?”
“Yep, that’s me.”
“I’m Jace. Jace Rice.”
“Jace? No kidding, how the hell are you?”
Will pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with them. They spent a few minutes catching up before Will settled his gaze on Renie.
“How did you and Jace meet?”
Jace answered before she could. “We both worked at Black Mountain Ranch this summer.” He went on to tell Ben’s brother how he’d recently returned from Spain.
“How long will you be on this side of the hill?”
“I’d planned to stay a few hours, but then Aunt Ginny invited me for dinner.”
“That’s right, she called to tell me there was a family dinner, mentioned somebody was in town, but I didn’t quite catch who she was talking about. Great, then. Maeve, that’s my wife, and I will catch up with you later.”
Will was eyeing Renie and she knew what he was thinking. She hoped he didn’t want to talk about it. He got up from the table instead, but rested his hand on her shoulder.
“And you? I’ll see you later too, won’t I?”
“He know about Billy?” Jace asked after Will walked away.
“Yep.”
“Then you’re in for an awkward conversation. He couldn’t have missed the lip-lock we were in when he approached the table.”
It was Renie’s turn to put her face in her hands. More than Will, she was worried about Billy. She had to call him, but she had no idea what she would say.
“What’s happening with him?”
“I’m sure he’s furious.”
“Let’s go back to the house. You can call him from there. I’ll make myself scarce. Maybe I’ll visit Uncle Bud and Aunt Ginny for a while.”
“Why are you being so nice about this?”
“Oh, I’m not. Not at all. I fully expect you to be honest with him, Irene. And I’m not leaving. I’m staying for dinner, and I plan to be sitting next to you when I do.”
Jace dropped her off at Ben’s, but didn’t come in. He drove away before she’d gotten inside.
“Oh dear, what’s happened?” her mother asked.