Kate Hoffmann - The Mighty Quinns - Dermot-Dex

“Well, thanks for the advice,” Dermot said. “I appreciate it.”

Eddie shook his head. “Don’t just sit there. Do something about it. Carpe your diem.”

“Any suggestions?”

“I suggest you take her out for ice cream. Rachel likes ice cream. Buy her a cone at Ivy’s and sit yourself down and have a nice talk. It will do wonders, mark my words.”

“Ice cream. All right, I could do that. That’s about all I can afford right now.”

“Well, do it, then,” he said. “Climb down that ladder and make a date. Now. Before you lose your courage.”

Dermot groaned, then swung his leg over the ladder. “You better get down before she sees you up here.”

“I will,” Eddie said, grinning. “You have a good evening, now.”

Dermot grabbed his shirt from the porch rail and slipped into it as he crossed the yard. He found her surrounded by goats in the paddock near the milking barn. She held one of the kids in her arms, laughing as he nibbled at her hair.

At first, he was reluctant to interrupt her. She looked so pretty, so happy. She was dressed in a loose cotton sundress, her hair full from the humidity in the air. He clenched his fingers as he thought about the last time he’d touched her, buried his face in her hair, pressed his lips to her neck—he drew a ragged breath—and lost himself in the warmth of her body.

Dermot stood on the lowest rail of the gate and braced his hands on the top edge. “I see I’ve been replaced,” he called.

She turned and looked at him. “Hey.”

“I used to be the one who nibbled on your hair. Or have you forgotten already?”

She set the kid down and walked over to the gate. “Are you done for the night?”

He reached out and grabbed her hand. “I am. And I was wondering if you’d like to drive into town and get some ice cream. It’s a beautiful Friday night.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Yeah, maybe I am. Things have been a little tense lately. Would you go out on a date with me?”

She studied him for a long moment then shrugged.

“Sure. Let’s go.”

He opened the gate for her and she stepped out of the pen. Dermot draped his arm around her shoulders as they walked. “What else is there to do in small-town Wisconsin on a Friday night besides watch goats?”

She thought for a long moment. “There’s a football game at the high school. And you can usually find a bingo game somewhere in town, at one of the churches or at the fire hall. And the stores on Center Street stay open late. We could go hang out at Meller’s Five-and-Dime or Big Jimmy’s Hardware.”

“All right,” he said, “we have choices.”

She reached up and grabbed his hand where it rested on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Let’s start with the ice cream.”

They hopped in the truck and headed off to Mapleton. There was only one place for ice cream, Ivy’s Drive-In. Dermot swung the truck beneath the overhang, and a minute later, a carhop put a tag on the windshield and stood next to the driver’s door, awaiting their order.

They both ordered a cone, then hopped out of the truck and walked around to the back. Rachel boosted herself up on the open tailgate, her slender legs dangling.

“I love nights like this,” she said. “So warm and so perfect. Makes me wish winter would never come.”

“I bet it’s beautiful around here in the winter,” Dermot said. “I’d like to see it.”

She bumped his shoulder. “You would not love the winters here. They’re cold and windy. And you don’t have to say things like that.”

“I’m not supposed to say something I really mean?” He grabbed her hand. “I don’t want to argue with you, Rachel. I think we should spend our last few weeks enjoying ourselves.”

The carhop appeared with their ice cream cones, defusing the tension between them. Dermot took a bite and smiled. “Raspberry twirl,” he said. “Good choice. What did you get?”

“I’m just a vanilla girl,” Rachel said.

“You are not vanilla,” Dermot said. He leaned close and dropped a kiss on her lips, licking his as he drew back. “Yum.”

“That’s about as exciting as it’s going to get,” she teased.

“I like kissing you. I could kiss you all night. Where do people go around here to make out? Maybe we could go see that place.”

“I never did that when I was in high school. I was a good girl.”

“Well, maybe you should give it a try now.”

“And maybe you could take me to the homecoming dance, too,” she teased.

“I never went to a high school dance,” he said. “That would be fun.”

She seemed surprised by his admission. “You never went to a dance? I find that hard to believe.”

“Kieran and I really didn’t do a whole lot at school. We spent most of our free time working at my grandfather’s boatyard. We built a racing sloop junior year of high school, and then senior year, we spent every weekend tearing up and down the sound.” He wove his fingers through hers. “Now, if you had gone to our high school, I might have asked you to a dance. Or taken you out on our boat.”

“You never would have noticed me,” she said. “I used to just blend into the walls. I was very plain and very shy. I was the girl with the pencil case. I used to carry all my colored pencils around in this plastic case with a little handle. It kind of became my thing. I was odd.”

“All right. Maybe I wouldn’t have asked you out.”

She reached over and dabbed a bit of ice cream on the end of his nose. “See. I like it when you’re honest with me.”

Dermot stared at her for a long moment. He’d been completely honest with her. She was the one who didn’t believe him. God, she was the most beautiful, exasperating, exciting woman he’d ever known, and every day that they spent together, she grew more beautiful. He lived for her smile and her laugh and the way her eyes lit up when they spoke.

“Would you like to hear another truth?” he asked.

“First you need to clean the ice cream off the end of your nose.”

“You do that,” he said.

When she leaned into him, he caught her by surprise, kissing her again. “Here’s a truth,” he murmured. “I like you a whole lot, Rachel Howe. And if I’m not careful, I might fall in love with you.”

Her breath caught in her throat and she stared at him, wide-eyed. “I like you, too,” she said.

It felt good to say those words out loud. And he didn’t care if all they shared was the occasional kiss from now until he left. He was satisfied just to sit next to her and talk.

He had eighteen days left to figure this all out. It didn’t seem like a lot of time, but for the two of them, it would have to be enough.

SLEEP WAS IMPOSSIBLE. Rachel stared at the ceiling of her bedroom and groaned softly. The heat made her skin sticky and her hair damp. Even the fan in the window didn’t provide any relief. But she knew it wasn’t the heat. It was Dermot.

Her mind was spinning, a tangle of thoughts she just couldn’t seem to sort out. She’d left him at the door a few hours before, determined not to let a few delicious kisses rock her resolve to put distance between them.

Was it so difficult for him to understand? She was only trying to protect herself from the hurt that would eventually come. Surely he could see that she was growing far too dependent on him.

It would be so easy to fall in love, to believe that he was some white knight come to rescue her from all her problems. With a partner, she could keep the farm, she could have time to do her work as an artist, she could honor the promise she made to her father. Everything would fall into place so neatly.

But was she idealizing what they shared because she needed him to make her life easier? Or was she feeling a connection that was meant to last a lifetime? Rachel had thought she’d found love in the past and she’d been proved wrong. So what made her think this was the real thing—and after only three weeks together?