“What do you suppose Andy and Shanna will think when they find out you’re seeing an ex-con?”

“They’ll love you,” he said.

“Oh, I’m not so sure about that,” she said. “They might hide all the valuables.”

He lay down on the grass and pulled her down, too. Then he rose over her and looked into her eyes. “And are you being quiet because suddenly I’m the father of your cousin’s child?”

“Nah, that’s nothing to me. Well, it is something, but you were pretty wonderful about the whole thing. Just the right amount of shock and remorse and happiness and willingness. I don’t know much about men, you know. I mean, I just know about the wrong kind. I have a feeling you’re special and I don’t know why you like me.”

“I told you why,” he said. “I’m not going to keep feeding you compliments and begging you to believe me. Just love me back.”

She was startled for a second. “We were saying like.”

“I know. It’s growing.” He smiled at her. “Kiss me.”

“You’re not going to keep the truth about me from your kids, are you?”

He lowered his lips to hers and covered her mouth in a deep and delicious kiss. She lifted her arms to hold him, rubbing his back, her fingertips gliding up to his neck to thread into his hair. When the kiss was done for the moment he said, “I’m not going to worry about that now. But I won’t lie to them. I’ve never lied to them.” Then he kissed her some more.

Krista had never seen the possibility of this in her life. In fact, she hadn’t imagined there would be a man in her life at all and certainly not one so wonderful. As for this kissing, she couldn’t remember ever kissing like this. It made her insides all squishy and there was such wanting, a pulling, low in her belly. She held him tighter, opened her mouth for him, loved that he moaned.

“Are we almost very good friends?” she asked him.

“I think so, yes.”

“Why are you waiting so long?” she asked.

“I want to go slow. I want us to last. I’m not playing around, Krista. I want you in my life.”

“You understand, I’m probably going to be working through issues the rest of my life?”

“I probably am, too,” he said. “I think I could be happy doing that with you.” He sighed. “It’s hard to be patient. I want the rest of my life to get here right now.”

“And I want every day to last forty-eight hours,” she said.

“I should get you home,” he said. “I have a little work to do back at the lodge.” He stood up and put out a hand to pull her to her feet. He kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you early in the morning.”

“I’ll be there to bring you breakfast.”

“What will you do tonight?”

“Oh, you know,” she said. “We make dinner together. Relax. Talk. Read. Just the three of us tonight. Meg’s husband will be here for the weekend.”

“Was your visit with your mother good?” he asked.

“It’s always good. We took the boat across the lake and had a picnic. We talk about old times. She’s decided to stop working at the flower shop. She’s managed the shop for years but she wants to spend more time with family.” Krista enjoyed the feel of his arm around her shoulders. “She told me an interesting story about that last summer at the lake,” she said on a whim. “I think I kind of remember it. She said there was a story of a man who drove his car into a lake around here and got hurt. There was a little piece in the newspaper—he couldn’t remember who he was and they published his picture asking if anyone knew his identity. He went missing from the hospital and they were looking for him. She thought about that poor man wandering around, not knowing who he was, lost. But then Bunny was gone and we all left. You were here then, right?”

“I think I remember something about that,” he said.

“Do you remember what happened?” she asked.

He stopped walking and turned her toward him. “Is it important to you to find out?” he asked.

She blanched, giving her head a quick shake. “It’s not important. I was just curious.”

“If it matters I can find out,” he said. “I don’t have to tell anyone why I’d be asking.”

She almost laughed. That’s how she ended up doing twenty-three. She was actually a lousy liar and her face showed too much emotion, too much of what she’d rather hide. “How could you ever find out now? It was so long ago!”

“I have a lot of family and friends around,” he said with a shrug. “People who have been around my whole life. I even know a couple of guys who worked as cops around here. Remember, my brother and sister still live here with their families. By the way—I promised to take you to the farm. The next day off you have that your mother isn’t coming, let’s do that.”

“Will I have to meet your family?” she asked.

He laughed. “Are you afraid to meet them?”

“Yes,” she said. “What if they take one look at me and know I’m not good enough for you?”

“Oh, we better do this soon,” he said. “You have to stop being afraid. You’re too stubborn and strong to be afraid of a farmer and his wife, Krista!” They walked a little while. “That story,” he said. “It’s important to you, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t want anyone to know I was asking,” she said. Then she felt her cheeks grow hot.

“Someday you’ll tell me the whole story,” he said.

“Maybe,” she said. “I’m still figuring out my wayward life and how I ended up in prison.”

“I can look it up anytime, remember?”

“Then why don’t you?” she said. “Why don’t you do that before you kiss me anymore?”

“Honey, I know as much as I need to know. And you know about me. I was a nineteen-year-old jerk who took advantage of some young girl, got her pregnant, ran away before she could even tell me... That wasn’t even me at my worst. I was such a miserable idiot. I had a temper and got in fights. I resented responsibility, treated my family badly. I was jealous and thought the world owed me. I might not have gone to jail but I wasn’t a very good person.”

“And you just grew out of it?”

“Sort of. Kicking and screaming the whole way.”

“What turned you around?” she asked.

“Church.”

She stopped walking and looked at him. “Come again? You started going to church?”

“I was raised in the church. Not hellfire and brimstone, just a nice small-town Methodist church. When I was in my twenties and my wife was leaving me, a guy I worked with said, ‘Jake, come on to church with me Sunday.’ I said, ‘No, thank you.’ Long story short he kept asking and I finally went and found peaceful solutions to some of my problems. I found some answers and even more questions. Things started to be different then. Better.”

She was surprised. Then again, it made sense. “So, you’re religious.”

“I guess I am. It works for me. Life just hasn’t been as hard since. It was such a struggle.” He shrugged.

“Oh, God,” she said in a breath. “I’m never going to have sex, am I?”

He threw back his head and roared with laughter. “See how fun you are? I didn’t take a vow of celibacy, so beware.”

“Thank God for that,” she said. “Hey! Am I a project?”

He frowned. “What kind of project?”

“You know—be nice to the poor ex-con. Save the bad lady.”

“For Pete’s sake, do you have to make everything about you? You don’t need saving. But you could use a decent boyfriend. That’s the only job I’m after. But I should be completely honest. I don’t tell many people at the lodge. I’m actually an ordained nondenominational Christian minister. I don’t work as a minister. Well, maybe I do a little bit—I teach a Sunday school class at my church.”

Her mouth hung open. “Oh, God, I wanna die right now...”

“Let me guess, it’s about you again.”

“You’re a fucking minister? Oh, Jesus, this isn’t happening to me. How many times have I cursed since I’ve known you? Maybe not too many—you being my boss and everything.” She ran a hand through her hair and spun around in a circle. “Dear God, I’ve been kissing and begging for sex with my boss and my boss is a secret minister!”

He laughed at her. “You’ll get used to it. I’m not a bad guy. And I think I swear more than you do, especially during football season. Don’t freak out on me—sex is definitely in your future.”

“I bet it’s not,” she said. “I bet you’re way too decent for me.”

He put his arm around her shoulders again. “Come on, lighten up. I’m just a guy. Don’t be so judgmental. You never suspected—that means I’ve just been a guy who, on the outside, seems normal and stable enough that you’d take a chance on me. And you’re just a woman who is fun and pretty and sane enough that I’d want to be around you. You are, you know. It’s kind of crazy that you’re the most sane woman I’ve dated in the last twenty years. You shouldn’t be. But you have this basic good sense. I watch it in the restaurant. You walk up to a table and know in ten seconds whether they’re going to need a lot of attention or need to be left alone. And you’re so good with the other employees.”

“You learn to make the right friends where I came from,” she said.

“That’s what it is—street smarts. That’s not a bad thing, you know. That just means a good survival instinct and common sense.”

“You should have told me this minister thing before you kissed me!”

“And how would that have changed anything?” he asked.