Cris move closer to her again, his hand wrapping around her rib cage. His thumb stroked lazily along a rib below the edge of her breast. “We know what you’re thinking, Tara.” Cris’s tone was low and seductive as he whispered into her ear. “The answer’s yes. Anytime, anyplace.”
“I think Zack and I had better get going.” Horrified that somehow they might know what she was thinking about, Tara finished off all but a small amount of tea left in her cup.
“Aw, Mom!” Zack peered around Lars’s body. “Can’t we thay a little longer?”
Tara realized she was trying to run from the intense emotions Cris and Lars were causing her to feel. It wasn’t fair to Zack to rush him along, but she couldn’t process what she was feeling right now.
Lars shot a dirty look at Cris before looking back at Tara. “Please stay, for a little while longer.”
“All right.” Tara sat down and sipped at the last of her tea. There were some leaves floating around at the bottom so she left those.
Cris had leaned back a bit, giving her some room to breathe. She felt both relieved and disappointed at the same time. She glanced over at him, but he was watching Lars teach Zack how to play cat’s cradle with a long piece of string. She almost interfered because she knew Zack’s fine motor skills might not be up to the task, but Lars patiently arranged Zack’s fingers in the pattern they needed to be to hold the string.
Zack blossomed under Lars’s attention. He grinned up at her and lifted his hands to show her and Cris the X-shaped design the string made around his fingers. “Look what I can do!” The pride in his tone filled her heart with joy. This was the kind of life she wanted for her son. Finding joy in the simplest of tasks. She never thought of playing string games with Zack to help his dexterity, but she would remember this moment.
“Great job, Zack!” Cris clapped. “I’m impressed.”
“Here, I’ll show you the next step. Now, watch carefully what I do with my fingers.” As soon as Lars spoke, Zack looked up at him like some sort of superhero.
He does look a bit like Thor. She’d always been partial to the Norse god in comic books.
“Have you had a chance to talk to Luc and Georges about your car?” Cris asked her. He’d kept a bit of distance between them and she missed the heat that radiated off him.
“No, I called there this morning, but there wasn’t any answer.”
“They are usually in the shop by noon. You can give them a try again later on.”
Tara sighed. She couldn’t put off the truth any longer. Although in the short time she’d been in this town, it’d grown on her. “I can plan better if I know what I have to deal with.”
“Catherine can help.” He glanced down into her cup. “She reads tea leaves. Want to see if she can predict your future?”
“Really, she can do that?”
“She’s scary accurate, too.” Cris grinned and picked up her teacup. “Hold your cup by the handle.” When she grasped the small loop, he wrapped his fingers around her hand. “Now move the cup in a circle clockwise.”
He led her hand in swirling the minute amount of tea in her cup. “And then slowly turn your cup upside down.” She carefully flipped her cup over on the saucer and then let it sit there.
Tara glanced over at Catherine, who was talking with a group of people.
“She’ll come over and read them when it’s ready.” Cris winked at her.
“This is silly.” Tara reached for her cup, but Cris caught her hand before she could reach it. “You can’t predict the future.”
“What about Fate or destiny?” Cris asked as he held her hand but stroked the back of it with his other hand. “Don’t you believe some things are written in the stars and meant to be?”
“That’s very romantic, but it’s not reality.” Tara wanted to go along with his game, but dreams didn’t come true and life wasn’t meant to be kind.
“I owe you so much more than a simple