Page 31 of The Birchwood House

“You did very well,” he told her. “Honestly—for someone who hasn’t played in years? That was actually—well, you put up a good fight there.”

She wrinkled her nose at him, sure that he had been going to say, “That was actually challenging for me,” but she decided to let it slide.

He is somewhat arrogant,she thought,but he’s not mean. I think he’s just very honest—it’s not that he’s trying to be condescending.

She watched him as he replaced the chess pieces onto the board. His energy was much more relaxed than it had been when she’d talked to him at his office. Then, he’d been uptight, as if he was holding tension inside every bone in his body. Now he seemed at ease. Her heart fluttered a little as she realized just how handsome she found him.

They reached the end of the tables and came across a game of darts.

“One more?” she said, feeling ready for a challenge that she would be better equipped to win. “I love darts.”

“Deal.” He nodded, then held out his hand for a quick shake. “May the best citizen of Coral Sands win.”

They began to play, and it was immediately clear that they were both excellent dart-throwers. They laughed and whooped as they played, and after Evan hit a perfect bullseye, he turned to her with a joyful expression. The sight of his smile was so attractive to her that she became flooded with a desire to kiss him.

Impulsively, she took his head in her hands and started to pull him toward her. Just before their lips touched, however, she stopped herself.

She hurriedly pulled her hands away and took a step back. Evan blinked at her. She flushed with embarrassment, wondering what to say.

“Why did you stop?” he asked quietly after another few moments.

Audrey looked up at the ceiling and sighed, wondering what to tell him. She hardly understood her own emotions. The question she was asking herself wasn’t why she had stopped, but why she had wanted to kiss him so much in the first place.

“You said in your office that you were surprised that someone as ambitious as me would end up in a small, slow-paced town like Coral Sands,” she said. She sighed again. “I mean, that’s true. I’m used to living life at a faster pace, and I need to keep in mind that some decisions shouldn’t be made at lightning speed. I think I should pump the breaks here. I mean—the disintegration of my marriage is still fresh. Now isn’t the time for me to be impulsively kissing the mayor of my new town in an antique store basement.”

He nodded, looking disappointed. “I understand,” he told her.

“Come on,” she said, her tone a little more brisk than she’d meant it to be. “We’ve got a game of darts to finish. What do you say?”

He smiled and picked up another dart. “I say that I’m going to win.”

“I say I’m going to win,” she retorted with a grin.

He turned back to the dart board, and she watched him, wondering if he’d been hurt by her sudden pull away.

Well, he’s definitely a gentleman,she thought.He’s not trying to pressure me into anything I’m not ready for. That’s a silver lining to our little awkward moment, that’s for sure.

Audrey picked up the last dart and threw it at the target. It landed directly next to Evan’s dart, exactly in the bullseye position.

She nearly blurted, “Well, our darts are kissing even if we aren’t,” but she stopped herself. Instead, she turned to him with a smile. “See? Ambitious and successful.”

Evan smiled, and there was a look in his eyes that she couldn’t quite read, but she suspected it was a desire to get to know her better.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Elaine tugged open the closet of one of the upstairs bedrooms and was greeted by the pungent odor of mothballs.

“Dusty,” she murmured, gazing at the interior of the closet, which was filled with hanging clothes and a few boxes. The closet had never been equipped with electricity, so there was no closet light that she could turn on.

“What’s in there?” Michelle called to her from across the room.

“Well, dust,” Elaine replied with a laugh. “And I’m not sure. I guess I’ll just start taking items out one by one and setting them on the bed.”

The old fourposter bed was covered in a faded quilt, and she and Michelle had already folded it over in half to reveal a surface that wasn’t covered in dust. After they were finished cleaning out the closet and washing the windows—a task that Michelle was eagerly engaged in—she intended to wash the quilt and the sheets that were under it.

“Sounds good to me, then I can see them better,” Michelle chuckled and scrubbed hard at the pane of glass she was working on. The windows in that room were bordered by stained glassroses, and she’d been practically squealing when she first saw them.

Elaine took down one of the boxes from the top shelf and opened it, releasing a cloud of dust as she did so. Inside the box was a collection of postcards, and her heart gave a jolt when she saw them.