Let It Be Me by Becky Wade (top young adult novels .TXT) 📕

of someone who lifted heavy weights at the gym. Nonetheless, he clearly did spend time exercising. His frame was imposing. His chest and abdomen, firm and smooth.

“Leah?”

At the sound of his voice, she turned, her motion halting.

He’d straightened to his full height, his face a portrait of surprise.

“Oh! Hello.” She approached him.

The dark stubble on his cheeks informed her that he hadn’t shaved this morning. Hurriedly, she worked to absorb the remaining details of his appearance. . . . The piercing pale gray of his eyes. The blunt nose and determined lips. The weathered plane of his forehead. The vertical furrow between his brows. He looked like a man who’d been to war and lived to tell the tale.

“Dr. Grant.”

“Professor Montgomery.”

“Nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you again, too.”

“You told me once that you like to mow your lawn.”

“And you told me once that you like hiking.”

“I guess neither of us was lying.”

He smiled. “What brings you to this part of town?”

“I get bored walking my neighborhood, so I frequently drive to areas of town I haven’t yet explored and walk other people’s neighborhoods,” she lied.

“You’re not carrying a purse.” His attention flicked down to her tennis shoes and back up. “So where’s your graphing calculator?”

She laughed. “I’m heartened to inform you that I actually can accomplish quite a bit of math in my head, so I keep my calculator near me most of the time but am not obliged to keep it with me all of the time.”

“You’re not afraid you might encounter a math problem you can’t solve in your head while out walking?”

“If I do encounter that type of problem while out walking, I’m confident that I’ll be able to remember it well enough to input it into my calculator at the first available opportunity.”

“Very brave.”

And there it was, that living, crackling, thrilling allure. And not because of his shirtlessness. Because of him. His quickness and understated humor. And also them. Their alchemy.

Very, very intriguing.

It was glorious to banter with him again. In fact, talking to him gave her the same feeling she’d experienced when she’d returned to Misty River from New England—the delight of coming home.

“Ah,” she whispered.

Wait. Had she said that out loud?

Ah what?” Sebastian asked. He could not believe that Leah Montgomery was standing in front of him. He felt like he had the first time he’d seen her inside his wrecked car—dazzled and stupid. His responses to her were much too big. Ridiculous. His heart was pounding, and his senses were rushing.

She’d dressed in a light blue workout top, yoga pants, socks that had pom poms at the back of her ankles above her tennis shoes. She’d pulled the front of her hair to one side and fastened it with a barrette. Exertion had turned her cheeks pink, and she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Ah, isn’t this summer heat wonderful?” she finished in answer to his question.

“Ah, isn’t this mountain air perfect?” he countered.

“It is.”

“Go on any doomed road trips recently, Professor?”

“No.” She sniffed. “I did, however, go on a lovely road trip. Have you repaired any damaged baby hearts lately?”

“A few. Competed in any chess tournaments?”

“Sadly, no. Listened to Sinatra?”

“Happily, yes.”

“Driven off the side of any roads?”

He made a sound of amusement. “Nope. Gone out to dinner with my friend Ben?”

“Not yet, but we’ve scheduled it for Wednesday.”

That information sent a slash of pain through him. After a few moments, he realized he’d been staring at her too long without saying anything. He motioned toward his house. “Would you like to come in?”

“Certainly, though I don’t want to interrupt your mowing.”

“The mowing can wait.”

They walked across overgrown grass he wished he’d had the chance to cut before she’d seen it.

Mowing his lawn was a throwback to the set of foster parents he’d lived with the longest. Jim had taught Sebastian to mow. Once he’d learned how, Sebastian had run the lawnmower over their front and back lawns every two weeks.

Jim’s motto had been “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” By that point in Sebastian’s life, after El Salvador, Sebastian had agreed. He’d found that he liked mowing and mowing well. It relaxed him to do something outdoors with his hands. Back then, many things in his life—mostly the fact that he had no parents—had been a mess. But he’d had the ability to cut the grass perfectly.

Things could and did go wrong with his patients’ health, but to this day, he had this. He could still control his lawn.

“Ben and some of our other friends are coming by any minute,” he said. “They’re going to help me trim the hedges and plant flowers.”

“Sounds like you’ve compiled a whole landscaping team.” She paused in front of the entry to look up at the structure. “Your house is gorgeous.”

Her compliment pleased him more than anything had in weeks. “Thank you.”

“Did you hire an architect to draw up plans?”

“Yes. I was not an easy client. I’m sure she was glad to get rid of me.” He held the front door open for her.

Inside the foyer, he grabbed his T-shirt off the small table next to the door. In one fluid movement, he pulled it over his head.

“May I have a tour?” she asked, then added, “Is that a presumptuous thing to request?” before he could respond to her first question.

“I’d be glad to give you a tour.”

He wanted to take her face in his hands and make out with her. Instead, he led her to the one-story side of his house. While she was distracted, looking at the surroundings, he studied her gentle profile. Her opinion of his place meant something to him. It felt as if he was watching her open a gift he’d given her.

“It’s fabulous the way the ceiling’s vaulted and supported with all those beams,” she said. “And I like how this whole area is just one open space. Kitchen, dining room, sitting area.”

“This is the part of the house I use the