Let Them Talk

Sydney poked at it suspiciously with a knife.

Laura placed her hands on her hips. “The recipe is from that aphrodisiac cookbook you assigned for the book club,” she reminded Sydney. “It’s no wonder that Seedling banned it. None of the recipes work!”

Sydney glanced up with surprise. “You baked?”

“You read the book?” Isabel asked. “From cover to cover?”

“Yes,” she bit out. Well, she had flipped through the book from cover to cover, reading the sidebars, bullet points and lists. That counted as reading. It was how she’d gotten through school. It was also how she’d gotten through the monthly Seedling Women’s Reading Circle meetings until they’d figured out she wasn’t reading the books and banned her from the club.

Isabel leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. “Why did you read the book?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said as she tried to remove the bread from the pan with the knife. “Weren’t you trying to get out of it just a few weeks ago?”

“Okay—” Laura raised her hands up in surrender “—maybe I read it because I was hoping to use the information on my next-door neighbor.”

“Connor Adams?” Sydney asked as she tried to saw through the bread.

Laura nodded. “I really, really want to date him,” she admitted and struggled with the wave of disappointment. Usually when she said a wish out loud, it galvanized her into action. This time she felt as if her goal was far out of reach.

“You mean sleep with him,” Sydney corrected as she continued to saw, still not getting any results.

Laura closed her eyes as she pictured Connor. His short wavy black hair was tousled and his scruffy beard did little to hide his angular jaw. His high cheekbones, strong nose and piercing blue eyes often made him look fierce.

Muscular from maintaining the public parks around Seedling, Connor’s skin was golden from the sun and his hands were calloused from hard work. He towered over most people, his legs thick and powerful. The T-shirts he favored stretched across his solid chest and arms.

But Laura knew that Connor used that strength to protect and to create. She’d seen his gentle side and his playfulness. The sexual magnetism. He had no idea how much his voice, his smile and his laugh heightened her awareness of him.

Usually she would brazenly approach any man who caught her eye, but it was different with Connor. There was more to lose; she wouldn’t bounce back from his rejection quite so easily. This hesitation, this caution, was new to her. She didn’t like it, but she also couldn’t change it.

Sydney was right. Laura wanted more than a platonic relationship with Connor Adams. He was the only man who’d ever understood her, who’d ever liked her as a person. But if he was interested in her, they would have already wound up in bed together. Still, she couldn’t get him out of her mind, and the only way Laura knew to get a guy out of her system was a hot fling. “I’m not talking about anything serious, just letting this attraction play out. But I’m not his type, so I need to think outside of the traditional seduction box.”

“Why?” Isabel asked. “The two of you would be perfect together.”

“He dates the Miss Seedlings of the world,” Laura said with a grimace. “Beauty contestants. Homemakers. You know, the nurturing type. The women who can whip up a culinary masterpiece from scratch while making holiday decorations and maintaining a perfect home.”

“Those women are scary,” Sydney muttered as she gave up slicing the bread. “Are you sure he’s not interested in you?”

“I seem to have been friend-zoned. That has never happened to me before.”

“Try some of the seductive techniques from the last book we read,” Sydney suggested with a sly smile. “They worked very well on Matthew.”

“Really? Because they didn’t work on Sean,” Isabel said. “I must have been—wait a second. Laura, is that why you assigned that stupid How to Seduce a Man book? So you could try it out on Connor?”

“Of course.” She saw no reason to deny it. “But it didn’t do me any good. And Connor is moving out this weekend. If anything is going to happen, it would have to occur in the next forty-eight hours.”

“What’s the rush?” Isabel asked. “He’s still going to be in Seedling. The town is small and you will see each other frequently.”

“But he won’t be at my doorstep. Consistency of visits and proximity gave me the edge and now I’ve lost that. I need to up my game!”

“What are you going to do?” Isabel asked.