The Book Club Hotel(26)

Halloween. That one word was all it took for the memories to come pouring back.

She remembered the sharp bite of the cold air, the darkness of the barn, the shadows cloaking the intimacy of the moment. They’d been talking about Christmas trees, or maybe it was the pumpkin harvest, she couldn’t even remember, but she remembered the moment she’d dug her fingers into the front of his shirt and tugged him toward her. She’d tugged him so hard he’d had to put out a hand to steady both of them, and for a single breathless moment she’d thought what am I doing? and then she’d kissed him. In fact, she hadn’t as much kissed him as consumed him. She’d been ravenous, burning up in the heat of the moment. It embarrassed her to remember it, although to be fair, he’d been right there with her, his mouth urgent against hers, his hands holding her hard against him as they’d pressed closer. The whole thing was a dizzying blur of erotic pleasure and guilt. Guilt because she wasn’t sure she was ready emotionally to kiss another man; pleasure because—well, that part was obvious. Noah Peterson clearly had skills she’d known nothing about until that moment.

But now she knew.

Her gaze slid cautiously to his and for a moment they looked at each other, connected by the memory of that stolen intimacy.

This was the moment to say something funny and dismissive that would signal to him that everything was fine and that he didn’t need to worry about being alone with her on a dark night.

But her mind blanked.

Noah looked at her for a moment longer and then shifted his attention to Delphi. “Can you watch the kitten for me, honey? Your mother and I need to have a talk about a few things.”

Hattie felt a flash of horror. He wanted to talk about it? That was the last thing she wanted.

Keeping a protective hand on the basket, Delphi looked up at him. “I know. Christmas trees. You have to talk about Christmas trees. Because you’re the Christmas tree man.”

“That’s right.” The smile crinkled his eyes and tilted the corners of his mouth. “I’m the Christmas tree man.” Giving the child’s shoulder a quick squeeze, he walked toward Hattie.

She stared at him stupidly. “You want to talk about Christmas trees?”

“Your order. It would be helpful to know what you need before you come over this afternoon.”

“Oh.” She forced herself to relax. “Yes. I scribbled it down somewhere. It’s on my desk.” She grabbed her notebook, ripped out the relevant page and thrust it toward him. “Here—”

“Thanks.” He glanced at it and tucked it into his pocket.

“It’s mostly the same as last year, except that this year I’d like to put a tree in the library.”

“Sounds good. Size?”

Size? Over six foot, she thought, because she’d had to lift herself onto her toes to kiss him.

She was so flustered by the direction of her own thoughts that her brain had stopped working. “I don’t know.”

“Show me the space and I’ll find something suitable.” He walked through the door toward the reception area and Hattie checked Delphi.

“Don’t move. You’re in charge. You’re basically running the whole show.”

“I won’t move.” Delphi crossed her legs and sat firm, taking her new responsibilities seriously.

She followed Noah through to reception. For once everything was quiet, so she crossed the hallway to the room that she and Brent had turned into a library. “That child is five going on twenty-five. I swear I’m going to wake up one morning and discover she’s already off to college.”

“She’s growing up fast.”

“She is. A little too fast. I can’t keep up.” Thank goodness for Delphi, who was always a safe topic of conversation.

Hattie pushed open the door and instantly felt some of the stress leave her. Books did that to her, and this room was full of books. The shelves were walnut and reached up to the ceiling. A fire flickered in the hearth. Two deep, comfortable sofas faced each other across a low table, which was stacked with more books. What wouldn’t she give to curl up on one of those sofas and read for the rest of the day?

“I love this room.” Noah reached up and pulled a book from the shelf. His sweater emphasized the width of his shoulders, and a flash of sensation rippled down her spine and settled somewhere deep inside her.

“Me, too.” It was a struggle to sound normal and she wasn’t sure she managed it.

“I currently have eight books on my nightstand, and with the amount of work on the farm I’m not likely to cut that down to seven anytime soon. Not that I don’t love reading, but since Dad hurt his shoulder there’s not much time to do anything except work and sleep. I’m guessing you know how that feels.” He put the book back and turned. “So we should probably do this so that you can get back to Delphi and the inn.”

Her mouth was dry. “Do this?”

“We should talk about this. Figure out what it is you want.”

If she knew that, she wouldn’t be in this quandary. She knew she had to move on one day, whatever that was supposed to mean, but how would she know when that day came?

“We don’t need to talk about it.”

There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes followed by understanding. “The tree,” he said slowly. “We should figure out what you want this tree to look like.”