Lib Novel Page 36
“Tell me you’ve read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” she said, her eyebrows lifting.
“Uh, I wasn’t much of a reader until your son got hold of me,” he admitted.
“We’ll read that one next,” Sly said, dashing back to Jared. “But it’s a series, so you have to be patient if you want to find out the end of the story.”
“I’m a patient man,” Jared said, his eyes sliding to Cora of their own accord.
Her cheeks blushed pink and her eyes darted quickly back to the paper snowflake she was working on, her scissors snipping delicately.
“I think it’s just about time for bed,” she told Sly quietly. “Go brush your teeth and get ready, and I’ll be up to read to you in ten minutes.”
“I want Jared to read to me,” Sly said firmly.
Cora looked to Jared, clearly a little surprised at the request, even though it wasn’t the first time.
“I’d love to,” he said immediately.
“Come on,” Sly said. “You help me pick out my pajamas.”
Cora nodded, so Jared allowed himself to be led upstairs and away from the scene at the table that he wanted so much to allow himself to believe was the very beginning of flirtation.
Sylvester picked out pajamas with Santa Claus faces on them and Jared watched as he carefully brushed his teeth, locking eyes with himself in the mirror with such intensity that it was all Jared could do not to chuckle.
“We’re in the middle of a book right now,” Sly announced as he crawled into bed. “But you should read the first chapter to me. Then you’ll see if you want to read this one too.”
Jared smiled and picked up Treasure Island from the bedside table. As always, he felt a little self-conscious about reading out loud at first, but before long, he was lost in the tale of a boy observing an old admiral in an ancient lodging house, and keeping an eye out for a one-legged man.
And before the end of the first chapter, Sly had drifted off.
Jared closed the book and set it on the bedside table, tucking the boy’s blanket more firmly around him before heading downstairs to his mother.
“Will you stay for a cup of tea?” Her voice was a little softer than usual as she looked up at him. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure,” he told her. “Want me to fix it?”
“We can do it together,” she told him with a faint smile.
He followed her to the kitchen, wondering what she wanted to ask him, but pretty certain he already knew.
While he’d gone upstairs with Sly, she’d had the chance to sit down here and think about what was happening between them. She was going to ask him what his intentions were.
And unlike anytime a woman had asked him that question in the past, this time he wasn’t sure what he would say.
Tell her the truth, a little voice sang from the depths of his heart. Tell her your intentions are serious, that your intentions are to give her and her boy everything they could ever want.
And suddenly he knew that he would tell her all of that and more. He would do anything to spend his quiet evenings here, talking with Cora and reading to Sylvester—doing all he could to bring peace to their lives as well.
“I wanted to ask about the fishing hole,” she said, her gentle voice stopping his train of thought. “Why is it so important to you?”
Everything that had been building in his heart was left on hold as his jangled brain took her question in.
“The fishing hole?” he echoed.
“Yes,” she said, her gray eyes serious. “I know there must be some reason you’re so interested in it other than catching yourself some supper once in a while.”
“I used to come here with my grandfather,” he told her, recalibrating his thoughts as he gazed down at the empty mug in his hand. “I have a lot of brothers and sisters, but he would take me—just me, and we would sit on the big rock that juts out over the creek together.”
“That sounds really special,” she said, nodding.