Thankfully Sally wasn’t focused solely on him anymore, she actually seemed to be a bit curious about Jacob. If that was true, this afternoon could trigger their courtship. Unfortunately, Jacob was too wrapped up in his nerves to notice Sally’s invitation, so James nudged his friend.
“Don’t you have something you want to ask?” he whispered to Jacob, raising his brows.
“Uh…oh…yes, erm—Sally,” he cleared his throat, “would you like to accompany me on one of the rowboats?”
James jumped in as well so that the two weren’t going off on their own.
“Joan, shall we join them?”
“Yes, that would be wonderful,” she said, pushing herself to stand up.
Samuel and Chris had joined the picnic and were sitting with Joan’s sisters. And just before the two couples departed, Samuel whispered into James's ear, “One hundred pounds Jacob gets too nervous and sinks his boat with Sally in it.”
James bumped him with his shoulder. “God, I hope nothing so dramatic happens.”
“Have fun!” Mimi shouted after them as she lounged on her blanket.
James took Joan’s hand and placed it on his arm, leading her towards the boats.
Making conversation, he asked, “Do you know how to row?”
“I do. Do you?”
He chuckled, amused at how she could turn the simplest of phrases on him.
“Yes. Do you know how to swim?”
“I do. Are you planning something I should know about?”
“Nothing of the sort, just curious.”
“Curious about anything else?”
Actually, he was quite curious about her. She could be cagey when she wanted to be. At other times he could see her open up to him. Even though he wasn’t interested in her, and he knew she wasn’t interested in him (due to his rake status), there were parts of him that wanted to know parts of her.
He stole a glance at her. She was rather beautiful. Dark hair, almost matching his. And deep green eyes like a forest. The sharp slope of her nose. The soft curve of her kissable lips. Yes, he could admit to them being kissable. Any man with a pulse would concede the point. She was beautiful. Not for him, of course, because she was a lady. Which meant she was looking for marriage and children. The exact future he was avoiding. If he wasn’t avoiding that future, he would certainly be keen on exploring her body. He wanted to see her naked. That escalated. But once the thought was there, he wanted to see more of her. Her sprawled on his bed. Or skinny dipping in the pond at night. He really shouldn’t entertain such thoughts. With his height, and from his peripheral vision, he could see her creamy mounds teasing him. He should be thinking that they were nothing he hadn’t seen before. But he couldn’t quite get there in his mind. They were something—
“You’re staring at me,” she interrupted his thoughts without looking at him. “You’re either curious about something or I have something on my face.”
“I’m curious,” he confessed. And because he was feeling off, and he didn’t want to be the only one suffering, he blurted out, “Have you ever gone skinny dipping?”
He expected her to whirl around and march off before they could even get their boat in the water. He half expected her to sock him in the arm for some reason.
Instead, all she said (without looking at him, mind you) was, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
And yes, now he really would like to know. Before he had just asked to startle her. Throw her off her equilibrium. But that plan hadn’t worked, so now he was verging on desperation to know the answer.
But he wasn’t going to get that answer. At least not right now. They had arrived at the boats, both pulled ashore, and Sally and Jacob were getting in. Which meant that they were now within earshot. He had little doubt that Joan would give up any revealing information in their presence.
James offered Joan a hand into the boat. “Steady now. I’ll hop in and push off using the oars.”
With grace, Joan alighted and sat balanced in the boat. James hopped in and with a giant push, set them off into the pond.
With a quick turn, James rowed, his back to the pond, staring at Joan. “Can you see them?”
“Hardly,” she said, shifting her weight to look around him. “But what little I can see indicates that Sally might be switching her focus from you to Jacob. Not sure how much longer we’ll be needed.”
A pang stung James near his chest. He was enjoying this time around Joan. If he didn’t have much time left with her, he wanted to know more about her.
