Jess stared at both of them, then over at Jeremy, who cracked open a can of tonic water. “Don’t look at me,” he said, pouring the fizzy liquid into a glass.
Tori kept the innocent look on her face. “What? You guys can be civil, right? Lord, it’s not like I set you up on a blind date or something.”
Except it felt like it. Jeremy pressed a glass of merlot into her hands with a murmur of, “Humor her.” The glass of tonic and lime went to Tori. “Bran?” he asked. “What are you having?”
“That tonic will be fine. I’m driving, after all.”
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Huh. That was surprising. She admired his zero tolerance attitude. “I’m lucky I just have to walk down the path,” she said, trying to lighten the awkward atmosphere. “The boathouse is perfect, Tori. I was wondering though if there’s somewhere I could put the coffee table? The living room is perfect for me to work.”
“Of course!” Tori sat on the sofa and Jess sat beside her, and they immediately started chatting about the boathouse, the decorations and Jess’s future plans for it. It was a good distraction from glancing at Bran the whole time, who was still looking rather hermit-like, but with a pressed shirt and his hair tucked behind his ears. The first time they’d met, she’d thought him to be in his forties, but now she thought it was probably younger. Midthirties, maybe. She tried to imagine him with a man bun and nearly laughed out loud. That wasn’t for Bran.
He was too... She frowned. Too much was all she could seem to come up with. Jeremy said something and Bran chuckled, a low, rough vibration that reached in and ignited something in her belly. Oh, no. This was not a good thing. He was far easier to dismiss as a grouchy old ogre. She didn’t actually want to like him. Or feel the stirrings of, if not attraction, curiosity. She was after his lighthouse. Nothing more. Even if she had started to sketch him earlier today.
Jeremy got up and refilled her wineglass and she settled back down into the sofa, relaxing more. She had friends, of course she did. But over the last few days she had thought back to those relationships. Some were lifers. Some had been relationships of utility, for a time only and then moving on or drifting apart. Some had been intense and brief, leaving her an empty vessel at the end. She listened to Jeremy and Branson and heard that rusty laugh again... They had been friends since they were boys. Jeremy drew her and Tori into the conversation with tales from Merrick Hall, the prep school he and Bran had attended together. Before long they were laughing, and Jessica was wondering about the third best friend, Cole, who sounded like the instigator of the bunch. How wonderful it must be to have friends like that. Like she’d been with Ana. There were times she just missed her so much.
She was just lifting her glass to take a sip when Bran’s gaze reached over and held hers. Unlike their other meetings, this time his eyes were warm and hypnotizing, his lips holding the tiniest bit of humor, slightly hidden by his beard. Her body responded; there was something untamed about him that drew her in. Which sounded silly, of course. He was anything but uncivilized. Perhaps it was just his restless energy. Whatever it was, she couldn’t look away.
Tori appeared with some crudités and crackers, and Jess averted her eyes and instead focused on fixing a cracker with soft cheese and red pepper jelly. It was delicious, and since she’d missed having a real meal at dinnertime, a welcome addition to her stomach after two glasses of wine. When baby Rose woke and needed attending, Jess felt it was time to make her excuses and head home. Tori would be wanting to settle the baby and get some rest.
Bran seemed to agree, because he stood and collected glasses from the coffee table. “Thanks for having me over,” he said, taking them to the kitchen.
“It’s good for the hermit to come out of his cave once in a while.”
Jess couldn’t help it. She snorted as she carried dirty plates to the sink. Tori grinned and Jeremy gave Bran a slap on the back.
“Hey, I get out.” Bran aimed a sharp look at Jess, a teasing glint in his eye. “I mean two days ago is a prime example.”
“Branson,” she said firmly, wishing he wouldn’t tell this story. But Tori and Jeremy were staring at them both, and Branson smiled. She really wished he wouldn’t do that. His smile was devastating.
“What happened?” Jeremy took the bait.
Jess attempted a preemptive strike. “Branson gave me a lift to the resort from the boat rental place, that’s all.” She pinned Bran with a “please don’t do it” glare.
“What were you doing at the boat rental place?”
“I’d rented a boat.”
“But what was Bran doing there?”
He lifted his eyebrows and grinned again. “Come on, Jessica. It’s a good story.”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Hey, you laughed at the story about my underwear earlier. Fair’s fair.”
He was right. She’d giggled at the antics of the boys at boarding school, while sympathizing with the children they’d been, finding love and acceptance among strangers rather than at home. She was going to say he’d been thirteen at the time, but she also knew Tori was not going to let them leave without him spilling the beans. She sighed and capitulated. “Fine.”
She shouldn’t have worried. It became crystal clear that Bran was a born storyteller. Tori rocked Rose in her arms and Jeremy stopped putting dishes in the dishwasher as Bran told the tale with suspense in all the right spots, a dash of humor here and there, and without making her sound utterly stupid. Even she was caught up in it, and she was the subject! He finished with, “So I gave her the car and I took the boat back to Cummins’s, and then dropped her off at the resort.”
Tori shook her head. “What an adventure!”
Jess folded her hands. “Well, all’s well that ends well. Rather than see me risk my own neck again, Branson let me take some pictures of the lighthouse, so I don’t anticipate any new nautical mishaps for a good long while.”
“You brought me food. What was I going to say?”
She laughed. “You could have kicked me off your property like you did the first day. Or ignore me altogether.”