The Heart of a Hero by Barbara Wallace Page B

conversation to end. Following his abrupt departure the other night, Jake had become a human ghost. He was at work on her roof before she could say hello and packed up before she could say goodbye. He even brought lunch, which he insisted on eating while working.
    “I’ve got other customers to get to,” he’d told her when she commented on his workaholism. “Your roof repairs can’t take all summer.” A perfectly valid reason, if…
    If she didn’t have the nagging feeling he was avoiding her.
    “If I’m going to have this roof for twenty years, then I want to make sure I like what I end up with,” she told him, picking up the samples for another look.
    Behind the counter, Javier snickered. Jake rolled his eyes and leaned against a nearby shelf.
    It wasn’t that Jake hadn’t been cordial. He’d waved when she had waved, spoken if she’d started a conversation. Once she caught him scratching Reynaldo under the collar. Despite all that, however, something between them was off.
    She set the samples on the counter. “I’ll take the light gray. They go best with the paint.”
    “You sure? There might be some samples in the back you haven’t looked at,” she heard Jake mutter.
    “Very amusing. I’d like to see you pick something out from a three-inch square.”
    “I wouldn’t have needed that big a sample.”
    Zoe shot him a smirk. The exchange was the most relaxed conversation they’d had all morning.
    For the past two days, she’d felt as if they were both on guard, with each of them monitoring the other’s actions. She knew why, too. That little slip of hers while standing at the campfire.
    Who wouldn’t be freaked out by their neighbor making goo-golly eyes at him? Lord knows what she’d been thinking by touching his cheek.
    Check that. She knew exactly what she’d been thinking—or in this case, not thinking. She chalked it up to too much sun and the distracting way the campfire light danced across his features, drawing her in.
    And what excuse do you have for the other times? a voice in the back of her head asked.
    Javier promised to have the shingles delivered first thing the following morning. While he was writing up the order, Zoe noticed the young man stealing a glance in Jake’s direction. He’d been doing so their entire visit.
    She turned to give Jake a reassuring smile, pretty sure he’d seen the looks as well. The handyman stood with one hip propped against the shelf and his thumbs hooked in his pockets. To anyone who walked by, he looked like a man casually waiting on his companion. Unless, that is, you were like Zoe and noticed how stiffly he held his shoulders, or that his gaze remained frozen on a spot right behind Javier’s left shoulder.
    What was going through his mind? Coming back here had to be awkward after his abrupt exit last time. Yet he handled the clerk’s surreptitious stares with aplomb. Zoe was impressed.
    Then again, Jake continually impressed her. More so than he should, she worried.
    She returned her attention to the clerk. “How are you doing?” After all, it had been his bad news that precipitated everything. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
    “ Obrigado. I’m doing well. How are you, senhor ?” he asked Jake. “Are you feeling better?”
    The slight rise of color in his cheeks was the onlyindication Jake found the question uncomfortable. “Better,” he replied. To Zoe, he added, “I’m going to wait outside. Come find me when you’re finished.”
    Behind the counter, Javier looked like a young boy who’d been reprimanded. “I ticked him off, didn’t I?”
    “Who? Jake?” She shook her head. “Not at all. He’s only trying to speed me along.”
    “Still, I shouldn’t have said anything. Ira told me Captain Meyers is touchy about things. I wasn’t thinking.”
    Captain Meyers. She knew he’d been an officer.
    She was surprised to hear the manager had shared the information after being so closemouthed with her. Then again, traipsing