“Just what are you suggesting?” she said.

“I don’t know. I want to be a couple. I don’t mean to rush you, I don’t want to pressure you, but I want you to know what I’m willing to do and I wanted to talk about it before summer is over. Before I wake up one morning and you’ve gone and we haven’t thought about what we could have been together.”

“A couple?”

“I don’t care what kind of couple as long as it boils down to me and you. Will you think about it? Talk to your cousins if you want to. Talk to you mother, maybe. I can’t promise you’ll be happy every day but I can promise I’ll give you my best and anything you need. If I can deliver it, I will. Krista, I just want to be with you. That’s all.”

She touched his cheek. “I think you’re a little crazy,” she said. “Sweet, but a little crazy. I’m not sure I can agree to anything right now. I’m new at this.”

“Then let’s just stay like we are,” he said. “We’ll give it time, let it grow, see where we go. If there’s a day you think it’s not right, not good for you, you’ll call your mom, you’ll tell me you need a ride. But the wild card is, you have to be here if we’re going to test it out. Take a chance on me, Krista.”

“I want to think about this,” she said.

“That’s all I ask.” He pulled her closer. “Now kiss me like the wild woman you are.” He pulled her arms around his neck.

She met his lips willingly. “That’s it. You’re getting a little wild stuff, aren’t you? I’m not wild anymore, Reverend McAllister. I want to be good.”

He laughed. “You are and I love you just the way you are, you sassy little broad.” He smothered her with a kiss that was hot and steamy. It never failed to melt her to the bone. She held on to him so tightly it was a wonder he could breathe.

He wants to be a couple. She wasn’t even sure what that meant. For right now it meant kissing her senseless, leaning back against the hay with him, holding each other and letting their tongues tangle. She could hear his heartbeat; she could taste his desire; she could feel arousal in both of them. Maybe this would be the day.

“What does it mean to be a couple?” she asked him.

“That you’re my girl and I’m your guy,” he said. “It can mean anything you want it to mean. You want me to keep walking you home? Do you want to live together? Do you want to be engaged? Whatever it is that doesn’t make you feel you’re at risk. You can count on me, I promise.”

There was a lot more kissing, leaving her feeling a little crazy and mushy inside. She had a wild urge to undress him. Instead, she broke away a little bit. “What if I only want you to walk me home sometimes? For the next year?” she asked him.

“As long as we’re in the same town so we can do that—you get to call the shots. That’s why I want you to think about staying here. I’ll help make that possible any way I can.”

“I shouldn’t trust so fast,” she said. “I’m inexperienced.”

“Bullshit,” he said. “You’ve had more experience than you can stand. I just want to be with you. But only if you want it, too.”

“I’m not ready,” she said.

“Just think about staying,” he said. “Everything else—let it mellow till you’re ready.”

“It should be at least a year before I make any decisions that could affect me permanently. I have to adjust to this life. This life of being a regular citizen.”

“Then stay a year,” he said. “There are places to rent here just like the city.”

“Aw, shit, let’s just make out,” she said.

“I’m down with that,” he said.

“And don’t try to be cool!”

* * *

Krista and Jake kissed themselves blind for about an hour. A little touching was added, a great deal of pushing and moving against each other, and she could sense the promise of how loving and satisfying making love with him could be. But not today, not in his sister’s hayloft. They reluctantly let go of each other, mostly because Krista needed a bathroom.

“You can use the house bathroom. The door is never locked.”

“Really? Is that wise?”

“No problems so far. The dogs bark when there’s company, remember.”

“And here’s dear Lucy,” she said. “She waited!”

“Told you.” He slid an arm around her waist and led her to the house. He opened the back door for her and she immediately jumped back.

“Hello?” Zoe said, turning from the sink.

“Hey, Zo,” he said, smiling at his sister. “I didn’t know you were home!” Then he went to her, kissing her cheek. She was almost as tall as him. She wore nurse’s scrubs and white tennis shoes.

“I came home a little early. What are you doing here?”

“Just knocking around the farm. This is Krista, my girlfriend.”

Zoe grinned and dried her hands on a dish towel. She stretched out a hand toward Krista, who had suddenly turned shy way down to her toes. “Girlfriend, is it?” she said with a chuckle. “How do you do!”

Krista muttered a greeting.

“We just came in to borrow the bathroom before heading back to Waseka,” he said. “It’s right around the corner,” he told Krista, giving her a little shove in that direction. “Ladies first.”

Krista didn’t really have a chance to look around, so stunned was she at running right into Jake’s sister. She hadn’t even had a chance to prepare herself! And then to be called a girlfriend? It was all a little much.

It was an attractive little bathroom, decorated to look like a Victorian powder room. So pretty. And like new. From the outside it looked like a very old house. She’d barely glanced at the kitchen and it appeared new. Jake’s sister must have remodeled.

She could hear them talking and laughing out there. Krista looked in the mirror. Her lips were ruby from kissing, her cheeks flushed. She had a six-inch stalk of hay in her hair. Dear God! She pulled it out and tossed it in the trash can. Then she plucked it out of the trash and tucked it into her pocket, hiding the evidence. Maybe Zoe hadn’t seen it.

Back in the kitchen she found that Zoe had a large basket of vegetables she was washing in her big sink, setting them out to dry on a dish towel on the counter. Gloriously bright colored tomatoes, squash, green beans, cucumbers, scallions, peppers and a colander full of leafy greens.

“My turn,” Jake said, leaving Krista in the kitchen.

“Your vegetable garden is beautiful,” Krista said.

“Thank you. I cheat a little bit—Richard or one of the guys tends it more than I do. I’m pretty busy with work and the grandkids.”

“I think you have everything growing out there. A real farmer’s garden.”

“I hope you’ll stay for dinner. Most of it’s coming out of the garden. I put a pork loin in the slow cooker with a couple of potatoes and onions. Richard needs his meat!”

“I’m sorry, I told my cousins I’d be back by dinner.”

Jake was back so quickly it was like he’d never gone. “Krista’s cousin has been battling cancer,” he said. He dropped an arm over Krista’s shoulders. “Is it okay to say that?” he asked a bit after the fact.

“Yes. Yes, sure. It’s not a secret. Breast cancer,” she said. “She’s been fighting a long time—four years now. She’s so happy to be at the lake house for the summer. She’s looking a little better.”

“You must be filled with hope,” she said. “We’ll add her to our prayers.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Since you can’t stay, will you at least raid the garden? It’s all such good, tasty stuff. And here it is August! We only have another month or six weeks left before fall.”

“I love the fall,” Krista said. “I don’t want summer to end but I can’t wait to see the leaves change color.”

“Where are you from, Krista?”

“Originally, Saint Paul. But I’ve spent the last twenty-three years in California.”

“Well, fall in the Sierras is glorious but our falls are pretty amazing, too, if you remember. Jake, you have to take her to Stillwater! The changing leaves along the Saint Croix River beat everything.” She pulled a grocery bag out of a drawer and handed it to her. “Let’s go pick, should we?”

“That’s very generous of you,” she said.

“I’m happy to thin the garden a little. And tell your cousin it’s all organic—no pesticides or fertilizer. We make our own mulch.” She grabbed a big knife out of her drawer. “Come on—I think I saw a great big broccoli flower just begging to be cut.”

Krista followed her, listening while she chattered away happily. She was a very attractive woman in her fifties, her close-cropped light brown hair streaked with blond. She had those same blue McAllister eyes and they danced happily; her slim arched brows were so expressive. Her smile was infectious.

“Here we go,” she said, lopping off a couple of broccoli stalks. She handed Krista the knife and pulled a pair of scissors out of the pocket of her scrubs. “Bandage scissors will do—I don’t want to go back inside and find a proper pair.” She cut about three inches off the top of leaf lettuce and romaine. “You need beans and tomatoes and scallions to finish a salad. And how about some of the yellow hook-neck squash? It’s still young and so delicious. Jake? Get me another bag! You’re not leaving here without at least two big zucchinis. Every day I see another one as big as a horse’s leg. Steam it with a great big onion.” She dug around and pulled one out of the ground. “Throw in some mushrooms and garlic—but you’re on your own for that. I don’t grow either. Would you like some flowers for your table?”