Hey Jude (Lennox Valley Chronicles #1)

“Okay, I’ll check in with them.” I’m slightly disappointed but try not to let on.

A curious expression crosses Jude’s brow for a moment and he walks directly toward me, narrowing his eyes, looking at something on the top of my head.

“Hold still,” he says in a low voice.

“What?” I freeze, my heartbeat hammering faster as he comes so close.

With an eyebrow raised, he slowly reaches up to my hair. I can feel the heat of his chest in front of me and want to bury my face in his warmth. The impulse is so strong I have to clench my hands at my sides to stop myself from doing exactly that. My eyes lift to his, searching. As he pulls his arm back down, he lowers his eyes to meet mine, holding a small leaf in his hand. He twists the stem between his fingers, making it twirl between us, then drops it.

“You had something in your hair.” He grins at me, eyes shining with amusement, then walks away to his truck without looking back.

It takes me a few seconds to remember to breathe.

* * *

After I eat the lunch Wyatt packed for me with Teddy and Dimitri, they show me their progress on the path trim. They’ve dug the edges of the pathway out on either side for rows of alternating perennials and shrubs. The arbor has been installed near the sunken garden entrance, so we chat about the timing of planting what the nursery just delivered.

Dimitri crouches down to point out the channel where the strip lighting will be installed to light the path at night. He grimaces suddenly, squeezing two fingers hard against his forehead.

“Hey, are you okay?” I ask.

“Ah, it’s my head. It’s been killing me all day. Feels worse when I bend over. But I’ll be fine.” He looks like he’s putting on a brave face.

I frown.

“I dunno, man,” says Teddy. “It’s been hours now. It’s still not better?”

Dimitri stands. “No, but I’ve had worse.” He smiles grimly at us. I suspect he’s in more pain than he’s letting on. “It’s just a migraine.”

“Wait, a migraine?” I ask. I had them as a teenager; I know they’re horrid. “Why don’t you head home and rest? You shouldn’t be trying to muscle through a migraine. I’m sure we can handle things. Go take care of yourself.”

“Really?” He looks relieved enough at the possibility of going home that I know he needs to go.

“Yes, really.” I nod. “Please, go rest; I’ll explain to Jude when he gets back,” I say reassuringly.

Dimitri gratefully shuffles off to his car and I turn to Teddy.

“Everyone’s dropping like flies,” he says. “We might have to promote Murphy from mascot to packhorse.”

I laugh. I eye Murphy dozing in his dog bed on the grass. He looks enviably cozy there, despite the cold day. “I don’t know if he can be convinced.”

Teddy’s phone rings. He answers and, after a series of clipped responses, he hangs up. “Well, this is terrible timing,” he says. “You’re not gonna believe this…”

* * *

Jude pulls up and hops out of his truck, jogging over to me with a crease in his brow. “Where is everybody?”

“I sent them home.” I stand up from where I’ve been laying sheets of landscaping fabric between the timbers that will line the pathway. Teddy gave me instructions about what to do before he left.

He looks a bit taken aback. “Uh, bold of you to manage my team for me,” he says, crossing his arms with his eyebrows raised, a mixture of confusion and amusement in his expression. “Care to give me a little more detail?”

“Dimitri had a migraine and Teddy’s kid is sick and needed to be picked up from school. His wife isn’t off work for another couple of hours, so I said he should go,” I explain.

“You realize this means we are down to just the two of us and there’s a truckload of gravel arriving any minute, right?” He screws up his eyebrows incredulously.

“I figured we could handle it,” I say, shrugging defensively. “I mean, would you have done things any differently?”

He considers for a moment, his expression softening slightly as he looks at the ground, then back up at me. “Okay, probably not.”