Currant Creek Valley

chapter SIX



NEARLY A WEEK after that stunning kiss, Sam had reached the inescapable conclusion that Alexandra was avoiding him.

She seemed to have unerring instincts for visiting the restaurant to check their progress just as he stepped out for lunch or left to pick something up at the building supply store on the edge of town.

His crew all seemed to like her, even Silent Joe, and reported that she had told them all how much she loved the way her kitchen was coming together. To him, she had left only a quickly scribbled note the second time he had missed her, which read, Looks great, Sam. You’re a genius with a hammer.

He might have resorted to stopping at her current restaurant up at the Silver Strike Resort just for an excuse to see her again, but every time he had considered making a reservation, he had decided against it.

After she had driven away so abruptly the other night without giving him an answer when he had asked point-blank to see her again, it had been easy enough to figure out that was her answer.

She obviously had her reasons for avoiding him. If that’s the way she wanted things, what the hell else could he do? He wasn’t some kind of creepy stalker guy. When a woman made it clear she wasn’t interested, he moved on.

That didn’t mean he had to be happy about it, especially after they shared a kiss that had rocked him to the core.

The gloomy, rainy morning matched his mood as he headed into her sister’s coffee place and bookstore for a midmorning caffeine jolt for his crew.

He just finished ordering for the guys from their complicated list—who knew Silent Joe liked café au lait, extra foamy?—when some gut instinct kicked in. It was probably the same sixth sense that had carried him to the other side of so many dangerous situations when he had been deployed.

He turned around and there she was a few spaces behind him in line at the coffee counter, talking with an older woman who shared the same green eyes behind trendy glasses.

He knew he shouldn’t be so happy to see her but he couldn’t ignore the delight that burst through him like the sun between those clouds outside.

He just liked looking at her, plain and simple. All that long, wavy blond hair, those deep jade eyes, the sweet curve of her mouth. Alexandra McKnight was one hell of an appealing package.

As if she felt the heat of his thoughts, she finally broke off her conversation with the woman and shifted her attention to him. When she saw him, something bright and glittery flashed in those eyes before she shifted her gaze down.

“Wow. Somebody must be thirsty,” Alexandra quipped.

He held up the carry tray with a half-dozen cups. “Making a coffee run for the whole crew this morning. Somebody’s got to do it.”

All he wanted to do was stand there holding the coffee and stare at her. He realized in that moment of seeing her again after all this time just exactly how much he had thought of her in the past week, half the time without even being fully aware.

Thoughts of her had been simmering under his consciousness since he had last seen her drive away on a darkened Hope’s Crossing street.

He had known the whole time he had worked at the restaurant that this was her kitchen. Did she prefer pull handles or knobs? Would she notice this or that extra little touch while she cooked in the kitchen? How could he make the space work best for her?

The other woman suddenly cleared her throat, and he realized Alexandra was staring right back at him, her glittery gaze fixed on his mouth. She had to be remembering that cataclysmic kiss.

And if it had affected her, too, why the hell was she avoiding him?

“Oh. Yes.” She looked away and he saw a hint of color climb her elegant cheekbones. “Mom, this is Sam Delgado. He’s finishing up the restaurant kitchen for Brodie. Sam, this is my mother, Mary Ella McKnight.”

He smiled, juggling the to-go container to his left arm so he could shake her hand. She had auburn hair where her daughter was blonde but they shared the same finely etched bone structure, the same slender build.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. McKnight.”

“Hello, Sam. Alex was telling me how quickly the work is going at the restaurant. I do hope you’re enjoying your stay in Hope’s Crossing.”

“I’ve only been here a week or so, but so far everyone has been very kind. Your daughter even gave me a guided tour the other night.”

“Did she?” Mary Ella gave Alexandra a surprised look.

“You know me. Always doing my part to welcome visitors,” Alexandra murmured.

Mary Ella’s mouth tightened and he sensed some current between them he didn’t quite understand. He probably should be on his way but he was loath to leave now that she couldn’t avoid him, hot coffee notwithstanding.

“I saw the sign still up for Leonidas when I came in,” he said. “No luck finding his owner, then?”

She shook her head. “For now, I’ve still got company.”

“Leonidas? That’s the name of the dog you’ve been keeping?” her mother asked.

He probably shouldn’t enjoy sharing this little secret with her but he couldn’t help it.

“That’s what I’ve been calling him, anyway,” Alexandra answered. “Remember those Belgian chocolates I gave you for Mother’s Day last year?”

“How could I forget? I only let myself have one of them a week and savored them until Labor Day. This must be some dog.”

“He is pretty great. I still haven’t had any luck finding his home. Every day I call the two vet offices in town, the shelter, everywhere I can think of. I think they’re getting a little annoyed with me. So far, no one has reported a missing chocolate Labrador. It’s the weirdest thing. He had to come from somewhere. Someone certainly seems to have been taking good care of him, right? He was skinny but not starving.”

Ethan had hounded Sam again for a dog when he talked to him on the phone the night before. His son seemed to think adding a canine member to their family was a given once they finally settled into their own place, after all these years of moving around.

He didn’t have the heart to tell the kid they would be so busy settling in that a dog was somewhere far in the future.

At least he had made a little progress that morning finding somewhere to live. He was meeting with a real estate agent later, and Brodie Thorne had given him a lead on a couple places, including one house on the outskirts of town that needed some work but would be livable in the meantime. It was well within his budget.

He started to ask Alexandra if she knew anything about the neighborhood but she spoke before he could.

“My kitchen is looking fantastic.”

Her approval was gratifying, he had to admit. “I’m glad you think so. Maybe you ought to stop by when I’m there so I can show you a couple things.”

“Sure. I could do that,” she said slowly. “I’ve stopped by a few times but...I guess I’ve missed you.”

That color ratcheted up a notch or two, he noticed. He wasn’t the only one who picked up on it. Her mother was giving her a very curious look. He wanted to ask why she was avoiding him but he couldn’t very well do that with Mary Ella standing there.

“It would be good to have your input a little more directly. Could we arrange a time to...” He almost said hook up but didn’t want her to think he meant that in the sexual sense. “Meet up?” he quickly amended. “I can meet you after your shift at the restaurant, if that works for you. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.”

“You’ve got the day off tomorrow, don’t you?” her mother said, quite helpfully, he thought.

Alexandra frowned just briefly but long enough for him to pick up that she didn’t appreciate her mother’s input nearly as much as he did. “Yes. Yes, I do. I guess I could swing by at some point in the day.”

“We should be there all day. Come over anytime that works for you.”

“I’ll do that.” After a bit of an awkward moment, she gestured to the coffee. “You probably should go, unless your crew likes cold coffee.”

“Right.” He had completely forgotten his objective. “See you later, Alexandra. Mrs. McKnight, it was a pleasure to meet you.”

Both women gave him smiles of varying warmth—Mary Ella’s looked welcoming and friendly while Alexandra’s struck him as guarded and wary.

Why? he wondered as he walked out of the bookstore and back to his truck, parked on a side street. They had a great time together, so why was she so determined to keep him at a distance now?

She obviously regretted their kiss. His ego might have been bruised by that if he didn’t remember her heated response, the way her mouth had softened under his and how she had held on to him as if she couldn’t bear to let him go.

He did remember those things, though, which made her reaction afterward all the more baffling.

The woman was a puzzle. A beautiful, funny, complicated puzzle.

One he very much wanted to figure out.

* * *

AFTER SAM WALKED OUT of Books & Brew, taking all that masculine strength with him, the fine tension that had clenched Alex’s shoulders when she saw him standing there began to seep away.

She inhaled deeply, ridiculously aware that she had been holding her breath during the conversation, on edge and off balance.

Drat the man! He had no business bursting into her life right now and messing with her head and her hormones, not when she was so close to grabbing for everything she had ever wanted.

“I’m so glad you could meet me for coffee this morning,” Mary Ella said. “I know you were working late last night.”

She focused on her mother instead of this jittery mess of nerves in her stomach. “I love Maura’s coffee.”

“Your sister runs a fine shop, doesn’t she?”

The pride in Mary Ella’s voice made her smile. “She does indeed. Remarkably well, and all while raising the most beautiful baby in the world.”

“Our Henry isn’t that much of a baby anymore.” Her mother’s expression was soft, as it was when she talked about any of her children or grandchildren. “He’s going to be a year old in June. Maura said he’s been trying to take a few steps along the furniture.”

“The time is just flying by. Any day now he’s going to start growing a beard.”

Mary Ella made a face. “Okay, he’s still a baby for a while now. But the older I get, the faster time seems to spin.”

They reached the front of the line and placed their orders, then found a couple padded chairs in one of the conversation nooks Maura had placed throughout her store for the convenience and enjoyment of her customers.

They chatted about Maura and Jack and Sage, just finishing her third year of undergraduate work at the University of Colorado in Boulder, then moved on to talk about Riley and Claire’s upcoming happy event.

Throughout the conversation, Alex became aware that she wasn’t the only one who seemed unsettled this morning. Mary Ella—usually calm as Silver Strike Reservoir on a summer morning—fidgeted in her chair as if she couldn’t quite find a comfortable spot, and her fingers drummed with impatience on the padded armrest as they awaited their order.

When their drinks arrived, Mary Ella took a single sip of her tea and set the cup back on the saucer so abruptly some sloshed over the side and onto her lap.

Worry blossomed inside Alex like a noxious weed in Caroline’s garden. This was not like her mother, usually the epitome of easy grace. Something was up.

“What’s going on? You’re acting like you’ve already had about a dozen cups of tea this morning.”

Mary Ella set her tea—cup, saucer and all—onto the small table between them and tucked a strand of tastefully colored auburn hair behind her ear with fingers that trembled. “This is hard. Harder than I thought it would be.”

That noxious weed of worry grew into a bristly, towering stalk. Something was seriously wrong. Cancer was the first thing that came to mind, maybe because of Caroline or because she had just seen Sam, who had tragically lost his young wife to the devil disease, though she didn’t really have confirmation of that yet.

“What is it? Are you ill?” How would she bear it if she lost her mother? Mary Ella was in her sixties, yes, but she was healthier than the rest of them and still walked four miles every morning and lifted weights at the gym three times a week.

“I’m trying to talk to each of you children separately. I’ve already called and spoken with Lila and Rose. I had a moment last night to talk to Maura and Angie and I’m going over to Riley’s after I talk to you. It doesn’t get easier, I can tell you that.”

Panic fluttered inside her, dark and ugly, and she thought she just might be sick herself. “Is it cancer? If it is, I’ll be there for you every minute. You know I will. I’ll drive you to the chemo, I’ll fix you anything that sounds good that you think you might be able to eat. I’ll even shave my head when your hair falls out.”

Mary Ella’s eyes had gone wide during this little speech and if Alex wasn’t mistaken, sudden tears swam in them. Her mother gave a shocked little laugh and reached for her hand.

Those fingers trembling in hers didn’t set her mind at ease. “Oh, darling. I don’t have cancer, but if I did, I would absolutely want you at my back. You have always been such a wonderful daughter. I couldn’t ask for better children. All of you.”

For a time in those rough teen years, she hadn’t treated her mother very well and the memory still ate at her.

“Okay. Okay. You don’t have cancer.” Relief flooded through the panic. “What’s this about, then?”

“I feel silly, especially now after that little side trip into terrible possibilities. I don’t have cancer, I promise. Everything’s fine. Better than fine, actually.”

Mary Ella’s throat worked as she swallowed hard. “It’s just... I don’t know quite how to say this but...I’m getting married.”

She stared for several long seconds as the words soaked into her brain, not quite sure how to react.

The news wasn’t really unexpected. Mary Ella had been in a relationship for a year now, but accepting something as an inevitable outcome in the abstract was far different from being faced with the blunt reality of it.

“Does Harry know?” she finally quipped.

Mary Ella made a face. “Very funny. Yes. He’s been asking me since Christmas. I just... It took me a long time to feel comfortable saying yes.”

Their romance had shocked everyone in town, especially because Mary Ella had made no secret the past twenty years of her contempt for the man. She had always considered him greedy and soulless, someone who had betrayed his own son, traded his family away for a handful of gold.

Something had shifted between them the year before, however, around the time Harry’s son, Jackson, had come back into Maura’s life after he discovered they shared a daughter, Sage.

Tension tightened her mother’s features and Alex knew Mary Ella was waiting for some other response from her than a joke. She didn’t quite know what to say. Those strained and difficult teenage years aside, she loved her mother dearly and wasn’t sure Harry Lange was good enough for her.

“Are you...okay with it?” Mary Ella finally asked.

She gave a rueful shake of her head, squeezing her mother’s fingers. “I don’t know, Mom,” she said. “Don’t you think you could hold out for someone a little more financially secure who might take better care of you in your old age so we don’t have to?”

Mary Ella chuckled, some of the tautness of her muscles easing a little at Alex’s light tone. “I don’t care about his money. Harry knows that. I hope my own children do, too.”

“You know I’m teasing, Mom. Though if you were any other woman, I might suspect you of marrying him just to get your hands on his Sarah Colville paintings.”

“I’m considering that a very big bonus. I’m marrying the man I love and in the process gaining an entire houseful of paintings by my favorite artist.”

Mary Ella no longer looked as if she were going to climb the walls in a minute, but anxiety still furrowed her forehead. Alex swallowed the rest of her conflicted emotions and reached across the space between them to hug her.

“I’m happy for you, Mom,” she said, meaning every word. “I may not have been all that crazy about Harry when you started seeing him—you can’t expect to unleash shock waves of epic proportions like that on the whole town without rattling a few people—but he’s started growing on me.”

Mary Ella’s laugh was shaky with relief. “Thank you for saying that, my dear. Your sisters said much the same. Well, except for Lila and Rose, who haven’t really had a chance to get to know him this last year, as the rest of you have. Even they said they trusted my judgment. I only hope Riley will be as understanding.”

Her brother could be overprotective of the women in his family and often tried to boss them all around, but he and Harry also had a weirdly amicable relationship.

“I’m sure he’ll be happy for you,” she said. “If he’s not, Claire will make sure he comes around. So when’s the big day?”

“We thought the holidays would be a special time for a wedding. Claire and Riley’s was so beautiful a few years ago, all those silvery snowflakes. We don’t want anything big, mainly for family and close friends, at Harry’s house. It will be lovely in the winter, with a fire blazing and those windows that look out over the mountains.”

“I’m doing the food, of course.”

“Absolutely not,” Mary Ella answered promptly. “You can plan the menu and hire the caterers if you insist on it, but I want you to be part of the family, front and center, not hiding away in the kitchen by yourself.”

There went her escape plan. Ah, well. “Poor Maura. First she had to deal with Harry as a father-in-law and now he’s going to be her stepfather, too.”

“She’s actually great with it. She and Jack both. We told them first. I hope you don’t mind. Sage, of course, didn’t seem at all surprised.”

“None of us are, Mom. Everyone can see how happy you and Harry are together. He’s been a different person this last year. Amazing, after all these years, to realize the man actually has a heart under all that bluster.”

“A good, caring one. And healthier than it’s been in years.”

No matter her own misgivings about the relationship, she hoped for many joyful years for the two of them. Her mother didn’t need more loss.

“Harry makes you happy. That’s the important thing. You deserve somebody great in your life.”

Mary Ella gave her a careful look. “So do you, my dear.”

“Mom. Don’t start again.”

“I know. I know. It’s just...you’ve been alone all these years. Don’t you ever think maybe there’s somebody great out there looking for you?”

Ugh. Slip an engagement ring on her finger and a woman seemed to think everyone else needed one.

“Mom, can’t we just celebrate your happy news?”

“Hear me out. Last week I met this really nice young lawyer at the firm that handles Harry’s affairs in Denver. He’s been divorced about six months. No kids. He’s great-looking. Brown hair, blue eyes. He dresses well and it’s obvious he takes care of himself. More important, he’s funny and charming and kind. We had dinner with him and the entire time, I kept thinking how the two of you would be perfect for each other.”

“I’m not in the market for nice young lawyers, Mom.”

Mary Ella looked undeterred. “Okay. That’s fine. What about doctors, then? One of Harry’s cardiac specialists is also unmarried. He looks just like that scruffy Irish fellow you and Claire think is so good-looking.”

It took her a minute to figure out her mother meant Colin Farrell. Scruffy Irish fellow, indeed.

While she had to admit to being intrigued by the concept of a physician who looked like Colin Farrell, she couldn’t help worrying that all of Harry’s connections had apparently widened her dating pool, at least as far as her mother was concerned.

“I appreciate that. Really I do. But I’m not looking for a lawyer or a doctor. I’m really happy with my life. I just bought a house, after all, and the restaurant will be opening in a few weeks. Everything is perfect.”

Mary Ella looked doubtful. “What about that nice construction worker? He definitely looks like he could fill out a tool belt.”

“Mom!”

“What? What did I say?”

She shook her head, trying to banish that image from her entirely too active imagination.

“I mean it. My life is arranged exactly the way I want it.”

Mary Ella grew quiet. She sipped at her tea for a long moment then set her cup down on the saucer and faced Alex squarely, her green eyes a murky mix of sadness, concern and that lingering joy that couldn’t quite be squelched.

“Not all men are like your father, Alexandra. You know that, right?”

They rarely approached the topic of James McKnight. She really didn’t want to discuss it now.

“You think I don’t want to make a commitment to a man because of Dad?”

“You were so close to your father.” Mary Ella seemed to be picking over her words as carefully as Alex chose produce at the farmers’ market. “I remember how you used to love cooking something special for him on weekend mornings. I would wake up and you would already be hard at work in the kitchen trying to come up with something unique. He would come in from his run, scoop you up in his arms and call you his little Julia Child.”

She hated remembering those weekend mornings. “He had everything a man could want. But he still walked away from all of us.”

“Oh, darling. Your father loved you and your brother and sisters. I have to think he loved me, as well. But there was always some core of him that could never be happy, no matter what I did or any of you children did. I’m not sure he had the capacity to be truly happy. We married so young and I think part of him could never stop wondering about the roads he didn’t have the chance to travel and what might have been waiting for him there.”

Mary Ella touched her hand. “That didn’t mean he didn’t love you, Alex. All of you. I know he did. The time he spent with you children was some of his happiest.”

When she let herself see anything past her anger, she truly missed those happy times. Her father had been clever and fun, curious about everything around him.

Maybe, if she hadn’t been dealing with the ache of abandonment, she might have been more discriminating in her choices later in life. She wouldn’t have been so desperate for someone to love her that she completely ignored common sense and simple instincts.

“I’m going to tell you something I don’t think I’ve ever voiced before,” Mary Ella said. “If your father hadn’t been killed in that accident at the dig, I honestly think he would have come to his senses and realized everything he was giving up. He would have come to see how very much his family meant to him.”

“We’ll never know, will we?”

“No. And that grieves my heart for you children more than I can say.”

Alex shook her head. “Let’s not talk about this. This is a happy day. You’re getting married!” She injected all the enthusiasm she could in her voice, became as perky as Rachael freaking Ray sucking helium. “I’m so happy for you and Harry. As long as he treats you well, who cares that he has a reputation for being the crankiest man in town?”

Mary Ella laughed and allowed herself to be distracted, much to Alex’s relief. They talked a few more moments about the wedding plans and the restaurant and then Mary Ella left, with the excuse that she was meeting Claire and Riley at the Center of Hope Café to share the news with them.

With all the tea she had already nervously consumed, Alex doubted Mary Ella would have room left for any of Dermot’s food, but she wisely kept that opinion to herself.

After her mother left, she wandered around the bookstore for several minutes, purchased a couple foodie magazines and a cookbook for ideas.

She put them in her vehicle, which she had parked in the little lot behind Maura’s store, then headed across and down Main Street to the little fenced yard at String Fever where she had left Leo to play with Chester while she met her mother.

The two dogs were nestled together in a patch of spring sunlight that had burst through the gloom while she was at the bookstore. The sight of them, Leo’s head resting on Chester’s plump haunches, made her smile and pushed away a little of her restlessness.

She left them to it and peeked her head into the store to grab the leash she had left in Claire’s office. Evie stood behind the counter talking to one customer with another one waiting to grab her attention. She never disturbed her when she was busy so she only held up the leash and waved at her friend to let her know she was taking Leo with her.

By the time she walked back out, Leo was waiting for her by the rear door of the store, his tail wagging a greeting. He really was a great dog. Somebody had to be missing him somewhere.

Outside the fenced garden, she paused, the leash dangling in her hand. Every instinct she might have for self-preservation was urging her to take the safe course for the rest of the day—to climb back into her SUV and head home and work on her fledgling vegetable-and-herb garden along the banks of the creek.

The day before, Caroline had supervised from the patio while Alex took some perennial starts from her friend’s yards. Caroline, the expert gardener, had also offered some solid planting advice about what would work best for the soil she had.

Alex had big ideas for growing fresh herbs she could use in some of the dishes she wanted to serve at the restaurant and she couldn’t wait to get started.

Still, she found herself turning up the steep Main Street toward Brazen. She would only stop for a moment, she told herself. Just to prove to both of them she wasn’t running scared of him.

Clouds still hovered around the rugged mountaintops but the weather appeared to be clearing. In the wake of the early morning rain, everything looked clean and new, saturated with color, and the air smelled sweetly of spring growth.

She waved to Prudence Clover, riding down the hill on her cruising bike with the big straw basket in the front, and then to Darwin Leeds, who was out replacing a broken slat on his fence.

As she neared the restaurant, she told herself the little skitter in her chest was just happiness that she lived in such a beautiful place, surrounded by friends.

It certainly had nothing to do with anticipation about seeing Sam twice in one morning, only anticipation at seeing the familiar old fire station coming back to life.

The freshly painted wide red doors that had once opened for water tankers and ladder trucks gleamed a welcome in the morning light with their replacement windows. She couldn’t wait to open them on summer days and put seating on the flagstone patio so people could sit and look out at the charming, bustling town below. It would be a beautiful place to enjoy the summer sunshine and the evening stars.

When she pushed open the side door, raucous classic rock music competed with the buzz of power tools. The smell of sawdust and wood glue filled the air.

She saw Sam first thing. His back was to her as he worked a board through some kind of big saw hooked up to a power compressor. He wore black ear protectors, which probably masked the sound of her arrival. From behind, his T-shirt accentuated those wide shoulders that tapered down to slim hips and the muscled biceps that flexed with each movement, complete with that very sexy tattoo on his right arm.

Nerves curled in her stomach, glittery and bright, and she tightened her grip on the dog’s leash. This was stupid. He was just a good-looking man she happened to have kissed. Quite passionately.

Ignoring the clamoring impulse to just turn around and walk right back down the hill, she forced herself to wait a moment more until he turned off the power saw, then she cleared her throat.

He turned around, his brown eyes and long dark lashes magnified behind the clear safety goggles he wore.

“Alexandra! Hi. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.” He set the board aside and pulled off all his protective wear then headed toward her.

“And Leo. Hey, there.”

She knew she shouldn’t be charmed by this big, tough-looking construction worker bending down to give a stray dog the love, but a traitorous warmth trickled through her when he rubbed Leo’s ears and throat.

“It stopped raining and he needed a walk anyway,” she explained quickly. “I’ve been trying to exercise him whenever I can in public areas in the hopes that somebody driving by might recognize him.”

“How’s that working out for you?”

She held up the leash. “He’s still with me instead of where he belongs.”

“Maybe with you is where he belongs.”

She made a face. “He has a home somewhere. I’m sure they’re missing him. I don’t mind watching him temporarily but once the restaurant opens, I won’t have time to take care of him very well.”

Saying that aloud made her sadder than it should. Already, the dog was seeping into her heart. She couldn’t allow that. It would hurt too badly when he left.

“Have time to give me a quick tour so I can check out the progress?” she asked quickly, eager to change the subject.

He shoved work gloves in his back pocket. “Sure. Love to.”

Did he sense the currents sparkling between them like dust motes in a beam of sunlight? she wondered as he showed her around the kitchen.

Eventually they circled back around to the spot where they had started. Alex planted her hands on her hips and gave a long look around at the total package. It was everything she had dreamed and more.

In her mind, she could see it in a few weeks’ time, teeming with her crew instead of his, with the scent of delicious food cooking replacing the sharp construction smells.

“I’m very impressed. You do good work, Sam Delgado. I can’t believe you’ve done all this in a week. You’re nearly finished.”

She should be jumping up and down with excitement about that, not fighting this vague depression that he would be out of her life soon.

“We’re ahead of schedule. Another few days should do it, then we’ll leave it to the painters and decorators. And speaking of work...I’ve been meaning to stop by the resort restaurant to have a meal so I can check yours out. Seems only fair, since you’ll see mine every day while you work in here.”

She would think of him. While she stood at that gleaming countertop, she would remember those big hands that had fashioned it. Eventually he would become just another memory in thirtysomething years of them.

That thought shouldn’t have made her suddenly sad, either.

“I would have thought the divine hamburger I fixed you the other day was proof enough of my mad cooking skills.”

He shrugged. “Still. I should have a second taste, just to be sure.”

Was he talking about her cooking or that kiss? She wasn’t quite sure...and wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Out of nowhere, she was struck by the desire to cook him a really fabulous meal in her own kitchen at home. Coquilles St. Jacques, maybe, plump scallops in a dry white wine sauce with baby chanterelle mushrooms and Gruyère cheese.

The impulse unnerved her. She never cooked privately for anyone but close friends, and Sam Delgado was far from that. She swallowed the invitation before it could be anything more than an idea. Her cozy little house on Currant Creek was her haven. Just the idea of him in her comfortable space made her feel as if someone had dropped an ice cube down the back of her shirt.

The restaurant would do. She would make sure they served him a meal he would never forget.

“You do know I’m just the sous-chef there, right?” she said. Technically that was true, but the executive chef, Simon Petit, had two other restaurants, one in Denver and one in Aspen, so she had been doing the heavy lifting for years and had created about half of the items on the menu. With none of the credit, of course.

“Good enough for me. Do I need a reservation?”

She ought to tell him yes and that they were booked out for weeks, but this was the off-season and he probably could walk in any night of the week. “I’ll take care of it. When do you want to come?”

“How about tonight around eight-thirty?”

That meant she would see him three times in one day. So much for trying to keep a safe distance. “Great,” she said, lying through her teeth. “I’ll make sure we have a good table ready for you.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“Sorry to interrupt your work. I’d better let you get back to it.”

“I’ll see you tonight then.”

His words were perfectly polite, innocent even, but she shivered anyway. Those nerves skittered around inside her like shallots in hot oil.

Firmly ignoring her reaction, she gripped the dog’s leash, gave Sam a jaunty wave and headed back outside.

Once more in the murky sunlight, she marched briskly down the hill. Only when she was certain she was out of sight of Sam or any of his crew did she lean against a convenient tree trunk and press a hand to her stomach.

She had a serious crush on the man. It was ridiculous at her age and completely counterproductive. She was going to have to do something drastic to exorcise it before she made a complete fool of herself.