down and graced him with a smile unlike any she’d ever sent his way. Hesitant but sweeter than honey.
He forced his lips to lift in an answering smile he hoped conveyed encouragement and appreciation.
She continued her journey down the stairs, but she no longer looked into his face. Instead she focused on a spot somewhere below his chin.
The familiar scent of lilacs greeted him as she drew near. He released his grip on the handrail, but that left him with two hands hanging limply at his sides. At a loss as to what to do with them, he clasped them behind his back. It was either that or risk disaster by following his wayward thoughts, which suggested he reach out and brush her rosy cheek with the back of his hand.
Standing on the bottom step, Jessie drew in a deep breath, causing her chest to rise and fall beneath the row of jet-black buttons. She lifted her head. Uncertainty shone in her expressive eyes. He had to say something, but with his throat as dry as Hangtown Creek at the end of the summer, getting words out wasn’t easy.
“You look...” He searched for a word that would adequately describe her, but his mind went blank.
She tilted her head. “Nice?”
“Yes. Nice.”
The instant the lackluster compliment slipped out, he mentally kicked himself. “Nice” was a vast understatement. “Pretty” would have been better. But even that didn’t come close to describing her. He forced his sluggish brain to work.
Beautiful? She was, but he couldn’t say that. Besides, many women could be called beautiful. Jessie was more. She was...gorgeous. Yes! That was it.
“Not just nice. You look go—” He stopped himself just in time. Jessie was his colleague, not his sweetheart. He had no right to shower her with compliments, no matter how much he wanted to do so. “You look good. Very good.”
Her features relaxed. “You look very good yourself.” Her gaze traveled from the toes of his recently polished boots in a steady climb until it rested on his chest. “That’s a beautiful pin. It’s rare to see a pear-shaped sapphire.”
He forced himself to concentrate on what she was saying, which was no easy task. “It was a gift from my mother. She chose that cut because it resembles a drop of water.” That was what Ma Hagerty had told him when she’d passed on the gift.
“And the diamonds around it? Do they represent something, too?”
“Sunlight sparkling on the surface of a lake.”
“I see that. She must be proud of you and all you’ve achieved.”
His thoughts turned to the letter he’d left lying on top of his bureau. “Your parents must be proud of you, as well. Do they know about your new job?”
She shrugged. “They’re both gone.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“How could you? We hardly know each other.”
Her matter-of-fact statement brought reality crashing in on him. “You shouldn’t have to do this. If you’d rather not go to the concert—”
“Not go?” She laughed, a musical sound that eased the tension between his shoulders. “Of course we’ll go. And we’ll make the best of the situation. You might even enjoy yourself. I intend to.”
Her playfulness was contagious. “Even if your escort is a stodgy engineer.”
“I wouldn’t call you stodgy. Serious at times, perhaps, but not stodgy.” She grinned. “In fact, I believe there’s a fun-loving fellow inside you.”
“What makes you think that?”
She focused on the floor and traced the pattern in the runner with the toe of her boot. Her response was so soft he had to lean close to catch it. “You agreed to a game of make-believe for my sake. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to.”
She jerked her head up. “You did? Why?”
“For the same reasons you did, I suppose.”
“Because Corby expected it of us?”
“Yes.” That was true, but only to a point. He hadn’t admitted it before, but he welcomed the opportunity to spend time with her. For the remaining three weeks he could pretend this remarkable woman enjoyed his company as much as he enjoyed hers.
There was no harm in that. Was there?
“Speaking of Corby, we should be going. I’ll say good-night to Maybelle, and we can be off.”
Jessie returned moments later, and they headed down the hill, walking side by side in companionable silence. They reached Main, where a stream of concertgoers dressed in their finest overflowed the plank walkways and spilled into the street.
Eager to keep her from being jostled by the crowd, he held out his arm. She stared at it a moment, wrapped both hands around his elbow and tugged. “Would you come with me, please?”
“What is it?”
“We’re about to make our first major appearance as a couple, and we haven’t formulated a plan. We need to do that.”
Her take-charge manner couldn’t conceal her uneasiness. If following her would put her mind at rest, follow her he would. After all, he didn’t mind having her to himself a little longer.
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