Yeah, good luck with that,his lion chuckled.It’s not likely to happen now that you’ve had a taste of her. This is where we belong. Lounging with Nora.
Jack couldn’t deny that his animal was correct. This felt right.
“Nora,” he finally said, interrupting his reading halfway through a sentence.
She blinked up at him. “Yeah?”
“You’re not so shy with me anymore.”
She shook her head, though he could tell she was surprised by the sudden change in topic. “We’ve spent time together,” she replied. “Now I know you a bit more. I feel more comfortable with you.”
He nodded. “Right, but how come you’re single? Isn’t there someone in this town that caught your eye? Someone you want to make little entrepreneur babies with?”
She snorted out a giggle. “Entrepreneur babies?”
“Well, I figure that you'll start your own place whenever you settle down with your own family. I’m seeing a bookstore in your future.”
Nora gasped as her cheeks turned bright red. “A bookstore?”
“Yup. There isn’t really one in this town, right? Half Moon Key needs a bookstore. You could open one.”
“Well, I mean, we can get Alana to order anything she doesn’t have at Wixx.”
“It’s not the same as a brick-and-mortar bookstore, though, is it?”
“I guess not, no,” she conceded.
“Isn’t that the plan? To open your own business in Half Moon Key?” He drew patterns on her leg as he talked. She shivered under his touch, and though he wanted to keep on inching up and up and up until he reached the apex of her thighs, he stopped himself. It would be pushing too much too soon.
“I don’t think I want to open my own business. I like running the ice cream parlor. Besides, when I have kids, I don’t want their lives to be all roped into the business. I want them to have a childhood.”
He hooked an eyebrow in question. “Oh? What would you like to do with your kids?”
“Can I be super honest?”
He nodded. “Of course. Always be honest with me, Nora. I’ll always be honest with you.”
She took a deep breath, readying herself for what she was about to say. “I would love to be a stay-at-home mom. You know, just soak up all the baby time, and then when the kids go off to school, I could find a job in one of the businesses in town. My family owns enough of them that I should be able to find something pretty easily.”
“I’m not gonna lie. I’m a bit shocked.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. I didn’t think you were going to saythat, but I see you as a stay-at-home mother. I bet you’ll be a great mom one day.”
She gulped. “Yeah.”
Sensing that her response wasn’t as truthful as she intended it to be, he decided to push forward. “What do you mean,yeah?”
“It’s nothing,” she assured him, but her assurances were nothing more than a terrible lie. Her face was so red that he knew she was being less than honest.
“Tell me, Nora. I’m curious what could possibly stand between you and your heart’s desire.”
He didn’t add that he now knewhewas her heart’s desire.
Those kids in her daydreams were his, weren’t they?
His mind was suddenly filled with visions of a handful of kids reading little books on the rug in his cabin while he cooked dinner and Nora taught their youngest the alphabet.