Page 56 of This Time Around (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #3)

But if Jonah thought any of that, his face didn’t show it. He opened his mouth to say something just as two older ladies stepped onto the patio with matching cotton-ball perms and colorful cardigans Kate recognized from the window display in one of the expensive, artsy shops on Main Street.

“Honestly,” the taller woman was saying. “Far be it from me to criticize a passionate performance, but do they not realize how thin the walls are in this place? I could hear every creak of the bedsprings.”

Jonah gave a soft snort while Kate stifled a giggle behind her napkin as the pair drew closer to the table.

“Their headboard must be right up against our bathroom wall,” the other woman was saying. “Maybe we can speak with the manager about leaving a note or something. I don’t want to embarrass them, but maybe they just don’t realize how noisy they are.”

“All that banging. And the moaning and the groaning?—”

The two were mere steps away, and Kate realized the only two vacant seats were at her table. She started to scoot right to make the newcomers welcome when she felt a hand brush hers.

She looked up to see Jonah with a straight face and an unreadable glint in his eyes. “You said you missed acting,” he murmured. “Want to take a shot at it?”

Kate stared at him for a second, mystified by what he might be suggesting.

Which seemed like the perfect reason to agree.

The fact that Kate nodded in agreement before Jonah had told her a damn thing about what he had in mind said a lot about her personality.

She was naturally trusting. Curious. She either took risks or wanted to look like someone who did.

A decade of serving as a counterintelligence expert in the U.S. Marines had left him trained to interrogate subjects, and analyze visual and auditory clues. Military training aside, he had a knack for reading people.

Not that the skill had kept him from making some pretty stupid choices in relationships, but it was still a handy ability to have.

Kate sat looking at him with a curious expression, somewhere between intrigue and anxiousness. Hell, he wasn’t normally the kind of guy to suggest a spontaneous game of make-believe, but bringing up his sister had reminded him of the game they’d played as kids. Still played, actually.

“You pretend you’re a Turkish oil wrestler with a head injury, and I’m your translator,” Jossy would whisper as they walked into a grocery store together, giggling as she got into character.

Not that Kate was anything like his sister.

And he definitely wasn’t feeling brotherly toward her.

Something about Kate filled him with an odd mix of boldness and giddy energy.

It was a far cry from how he’d felt in his marriage, content to let his wife be the creative free spirit while Jonah remained the fuzzy background noise.

The old ladies drew closer. As they seated themselves at the table, Jonah covered Kate’s hand with his. The women kept chattering about the noisily amorous couple in the room next door, and Jonah cleared his throat.

“Ma’am.” Both women looked up, and Jonah flashed an apologetic smile. “I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. About the couple staying next door to your room?”

The two women blinked, frozen in the act of placing their napkins on their laps. The shorter one in the blue sweater spoke first. “Yes?” They exchanged a glance, then looked back at Jonah.

“Right,” he said. “I just wanted to apologize for that.” He smiled at Kate, his best attempt at nervous fondness. While he’d never studied acting the way she had, he knew damn well what a chagrined lover might act like. He watched Kate’s brown eyes widen, but she gave nothing away.

Across the table, the shorter woman tilted her head to one side. “I beg your pardon?”

“My wife and I are on our honeymoon.” Jonah slung his arm around the back of Kate’s chair, relieved when he felt her lean into him. But not quite as relieved when she kicked him under the table.

He wasn’t sure if it was a reprimand or an agreement to play along, but he had his answer soon enough.

“Of course, we’re very sorry.” Kate’s voice quivered a little, and Jonah wondered if it was nerves or part of the act.

Either way, it fit the situation. She brushed a shock of straight, dark hair from her eyes and smiled at him.

“My husband gets a little carried away by passion sometimes. I tried shoving a sock in his mouth, but you know how it is.”

Jonah stifled a laugh as the two women stared. They didn’t look embarrassed or angry, which was a good sign. This was Oregon, after all, and a liberal artsy town at that. People probably had sex on street corners and called it performance art.

“Well.” The taller woman glanced at the shorter one, and the pair seemed to come to some sort of unspoken agreement. She looked back at Jonah and offered a cautious smile. “Congratulations to both of you. Where are you from?”

“Eugene,” Kate offered, and Jonah wondered if that was true or part of her character. “My husband owns a store that sells novelty socks, and I’m a painter.”

“A sock store?” Both women eyed Jonah with confusion before glancing back at Kate. “What do you paint, dear? Watercolors or oils or?—”

“Houses,” Jonah interrupted, earning himself another shin kick.

His arm was still around the back of her chair, and she felt damn good there.

Warm and soft and her hair smelled like vanilla.

“And commercial buildings. Especially skyscrapers,” he added.

“You should see her up there on that crane with a paint sprayer in her hand and a hard hat on her head.”

“Isn’t that something!” The shorter woman extended her hand as the server bustled over and began pouring coffee. “I’m Carol, by the way, and this is Marilee.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Kate said.

They all shook hands while the server arranged a large tray of bacon and ham at the center of the table and set a German apple pancake in front of each of the new arrivals.

Jonah watched as Kate took another bite of hers, and he tried not to fixate on the lovely bow of her mouth.

Her features were unique. Not beautiful, but striking.

She had sharp cheekbones and chin-length hair that might’ve looked black without the glint of late-August sunlight slashing streaks of mahogany through the strands.

She met his eye then, catching him in the act of staring, but not seeming to mind all that much.

“So,” she said, turning her attention back to Carol and Marilee. “What plays are you seeing?”

“We saw The Merry Wives of Windsor last night and plan to see UniSon tomorrow at one thirty,” Carol said. “How about you two?”

“ Off the Rails was terrific,” Kate replied, glancing at Jonah. “There’s this really captivating story line about Indian boarding schools in the American West. Cedric Lamar gave an amazing performance.”

“I saw that earlier in the season!” Carol said. “What did you think of Barret O’Brien’s performance?”

Jonah expected to see a flicker of panic in Kate’s eyes, maybe an uncertainty over whether the actor in question was male or female. He readied himself to answer. But her expression didn’t waver a bit, and her reply was cool and even.

“I thought ’Barret’s performance was surprisingly understated, but still delightfully irreverent,” Kate said. “How about you?”

“I agree.” Carol’s gaze swung to Jonah, and he held off biting into the slice of bacon he’d just lifted. He could sense another question coming. “So tell me about your wedding. Where was it?”

Marilee’s face lit up. “I want to hear about the flowers and the music.”

“We just adore weddings!”

A tiny snap of anger zinged through Jonah’s chest, and it took him a few beats to remember this wasn’t a real question. Not about his real marriage, anyway. The one that hadn’t ended well.

Luckily, Kate was quicker on her feet than he was.

“It was beautiful,” she gushed. “We had it out at Ponderosa Resort in Central Oregon. Do you know it?”

Carol tilted her head to one side. “That’s in the desert part of the state, right?”

“It’s the high desert, yes,” Kate replied.

“But there are so many trees and glorious mountain views. We got married right at sunset on the big grassy lawn with these little wild rabbits hopping around everywhere and tall vases of gladiolas in all different colors. You could hear coyotes yipping and smell the sagebrush on the breeze. It was magical.”

Jonah looked at her, struck by the image she’d just painted. Was this something she’d envisioned for herself, or just an act? Something she’d experienced at some point?

She turned to look at him, and he couldn’t help feeling moved by their imaginary ceremony. “She walked down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon, and the recessional was the throne room song from Star Wars .”

Kate laughed, which was the opposite of what his ex-wife had done when he’d suggested it for their wedding.

“You know I love your whimsy, darling,” she’d said, placing her hand on his arm the way she used to. “But maybe we could find something with more meaning for the two of us together?”

“It was awesome,” Kate said, jarring Jonah back to the present. “And afterward, we served cupcakes instead of regular cake.”

“Great combinations,” Jonah added. “Flavors like salted caramel and rhubarb pineapple and grilled peach with lavender.”

“And the dance,” Kate continued, sounding a little breathless now. “Our first dance was Happy by Pharrell Williams. Everyone was jumping all over the place, especially little kids. I’ve never seen so much joy in one place.”

“Lovely!” Marilee clasped her hands on the table and glanced at Carol with a wistful look in her eye. “Weddings are so much fun!”

Carol gave a coy smile and dabbed the corner of her mouth with a napkin as she leaned in close across the table. “Don’t tell anyone, but sometimes we like to crash them.”

Kate laughed, and Jonah glanced over, surprised to see such delight in her eyes. They were brown, but not a dull brown. More like the color of copper or toffee.

“I don’t like the word crash ,” Marilee was saying. “ Attend without an invitation sounds nicer.”

“It does,” Kate agreed, placing her left hand over Jonah’s right one, which was resting next to his plate of bacon. She looked down at their pile of fingers and palms, then frowned and pulled her hand back.

But she wasn’t fast enough for Carol, whose gaze skimmed over Kate’s bare ring finger. “They’re being soldered,” Jonah said. “Her rings. She really wanted to wear them for the honeymoon, but there was a mix-up at the goldsmith and they didn’t have them done in time.”

Kate shot him a grateful look, and Jonah smiled, glad the women didn’t seem concerned by his own lack of a wedding band. Even when he’d been married, he’d never worn one. Not really his style, and his ex had never minded.

Stop thinking about your ex-wife, asshole.

“This is such a lovely place to honeymoon,” Carol said, smiling at the two of them. “You’re seeing Shakespeare in Love , aren’t you?”

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get tickets,” Kate admitted. “It’s okay, though. We’ll make plenty of romance of our own.”

She smiled up at Jonah, and he felt his heart leap up and lodge itself in his throat.

“Don’t worry, ladies,” he assured their tablemates. “We promise to keep it down from now on.”

“I know!” Carol looked at Marilee with an excited gleam in her eye. “We were going to skip Shakespeare in Love today anyway so we could go wine tasting. What if we made the tickets a wedding gift?”

Kate’s eyes went wide. “Oh no. We couldn’t possibly.”

“I insist,” Marilee said. “We were planning to gift them to someone at the box office anyway as our good deed for the day.”

“They’re front row,” Carol added. “Very nice seats.”

Jonah shook his head, not willing to let the charade go this far. “Really, you shouldn’t?—”

“No, we insist!” Marilee fished into the little pocketbook she’d brought with her, pulling out a pair of tickets. “We want you to have them.”

Kate’s gaze dropped to the tickets, and Jonah knew how much she wanted them. “We’ll pay you for them,” he offered. “Those aren’t cheap.”

“Absolutely not,” Marilee said. “I got them free anyway for being a longtime donor. We were just planning to give them away.”

“And you two look nice,” Carol added.

“Very nice.”

Jonah watched Kate’s throat move as she swallowed. She looked up at him and gave a cautious smile. “What do you think, sweetie?”

He smiled back, his chest tightening with excitement for more than the play. “I think it’s a date.”