The Secret Wedding Wish. Cathy Gillen Thacker

      Janey shook her head in silent self-admonition and refused to meet his gaze. “I probably shouldn’t have kissed you,” she murmured in a low, throaty tone.

      “Probably not, if it was for all the wrong reasons. Then again, if it’s for all the right reasons, like this…” he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her sweetly, tenderly, until she trembled in his arms once again, “I don’t mind at all.”

      A guilty flush stained her cheeks. She lowered her glance. Refusing to acknowledge their latest kiss, or her potent reaction to it, she splayed her hands across his chest and murmured, “What I was trying to say Thad, is that there seems to be no shortage of embarrassing family moments on my behalf for you to witness.”

      Trying not to feel disappointed she had used their mutual attraction to make a point with her family, Thad shrugged. And because it was what she seemed to want, he let her go. “They just don’t want to see you hurt. I can understand that. As I said, I am equally as protective about my sister. Which, by the way, is why I’m here. Molly has eloped.”

      Janey blinked, her full attention on him once again. “With Johnny Byrne?”

      “Yesterday, apparently.”

      “Why?”

      “That’s just it. Nobody knows. They’re still in Gatlinburg. Due back tomorrow. Anyway, my mother and stepfather want to put together a reception for the two of them. Friday is the only evening this week The Wedding Inn is open. My mother is hoping you’re not too busy to make the cake.”

      She shot him an unexpectedly flirtatious glance. “Ah. And you’re here to persuade me.” She seemed to like the idea.

      An answering warmth sizzled through him. “I volunteered.”

      As she tilted her head to the side, the silky chestnut strands that had escaped her hair clip gently brushed the slender nape of her neck. “Well, I do owe you a favor.” Her eyes twinkled merrily.

      “Which is the polite way of saying you’re already booked.”

      Janey stepped closer and stood, gloved hands on her hips, legs braced apart, her sneaker-clad feet planted firmly in the grass that edged her vegetable garden. “I can fit it in.” She paused to wet her lips. “I’m going to have to know what kind of cake they want, though.”

      “I’ll have Molly and Johnny come over to your shop tomorrow, as soon as they arrive,” Thad promised, thinking he might stop by, too. After all, he was on his own schedule, this time of year. It wouldn’t be that way two months from now. Which meant whatever courting had to be done to make her his, would have to be done now. And he did want to make her his. “So what are you doing here?” He nodded at the garden.

      “Weeding. Or trying to—I don’t seem to be getting very far.” She dropped to her knees beside the row of bush beans, and picked up her hand tool. “Want to help?”

      Thad made a face as he hunkered down beside her. He knew it wasn’t going to win him any points with her, but he decided to be honest with her anyway. “It’s not really my thing.”

      She shot him a glance from beneath a fringe of thick, chestnut-colored lashes. “That’s surprising, given the fact your dad owns a gardening and landscape business.”

      Deciding if he was going to hang around, he might as well get comfortable, Thad shrugged and dropped to the grass beside her. He reclined next to her, long legs stretched out, the weight of his torso resting on his bent elbow. “I never was much for rooting around in the dirt.”

      She rooted out a sticker bush and a clump of dandelion with a practiced motion of the spade and set them aside. “Nicely put.”

      “Not that you don’t look good doing it.” She did. She really did. Watching the play of worn denim across her slender thighs and delectably sweet butt, and the taut stretch of cotton across her breasts, it was all he could do not to tumble her here and now and see how far he’d get in his pursuit of her. The responsible adult part of her might protest, but the reckless impetuous woman and wild heart inside would probably be all for it.

      Unfortunately, the fact was they were in broad daylight, and there wasn’t so much as a privacy fence or decent hedge to shield them from the prying eyes of the neighbors, so any real move on his part would have to wait.

      She grinned over at him. “Flattery will get you precisely…nowhere.”

      “Then how about a date?” Thad asked, beginning to realize he wanted a lot more than a few stolen kisses or casual conversations with her. He let his glance rove her hair, her face, her lips, before returning ever so slowly and deliberately to her molten amber eyes. “Where will that get me?”