“Memorizing it. If Sarah sees me following a recipe she’ll know I’ve pulled a fast one.”
“Why don’t you just ask her out? It’d be a hell of a lot simpler than whatever it is you’ve got going on.”
“Simple isn’t necessarily best.” Dan started at the beginning again.
“Yeah, but it isn’t necessarily the worst, either.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Sarah asked later when she and Dan were alone in the kitchen. The others had moved into the living room where they’d broken out board games to pass the time.
“Of course.” Dan picked shards of eggshell out of his batter and wiped his fingers surreptitiously on a piece of paper towel. Sarah pretended not to see. She had noticed the hesitant way he moved about the kitchen, though, as if he didn’t spend much time cooking. Too busy going on covert missions, she suspected. Not that she’d done much cooking these past few years, either. Not a lot of time for that no matter what branch of the military you joined. She’d done a fair amount in the past, though.
“I used to work at a bakery in junior high,” she said conversationally. “Just about every afternoon after school. I came up with this recipe then—it was one of the store’s best sellers. They still carry it today.”
“Nice.” Dan was measuring out an amount of flour that seemed out of proportion to the rest of his ingredients. When he grabbed a box of cornstarch from Regan’s cupboard, Sarah only just stopped herself from intercepting him. Cornstarch in brownies? That didn’t seem right.
“We never named the prizes for this contest. What do I get when I win?” She turned back to her own batter.
“If you win, you get whatever you want. Just remember—you don’t have to make me run around the Hall to see me naked. I’ll indulge that desire any time you like.”
She wouldn’t mind indulging that desire right now, but she only said, “I’m sore from sledding yesterday. If I win, I want…” She hesitated, unable to mouth the words she’d planned. She was supposed to say she wanted him to leave her alone. Instead, she heard herself say, “… an hour massage.”
“That could be fun.”
She berated herself for continuing to embroil herself in a relationship that meant nothing to Dan. “Or maybe you should run around the Hall naked four times.”
“You don’t have much of an imagination, Metlin. Let’s stick to the massage.”
But she did have an imagination. An all-too vivid one. She could picture exactly what it would feel to have Dan’s hands all over her, rubbing oil into her sore muscles, skimming up and down her arms, legs and body. She was getting warm just thinking about it.
“If I win I want to give you a massage with a happy ending.”
She didn’t even know how to answer that, except to focus on her brownies.
She’d better win. No matter how much she ached to lose.
“Those look wonderful!” Autumn Cruz said as she took the decorative tin full of brownies from Sarah’s hands later that evening. They’d driven over to the Cruz ranch in several vehicles, but Dan had made sure to get a seat next to Sarah. He’d taken her hand and held it during the drive, but otherwise hadn’t made a move. He knew they’d be together tonight in some form or other. It just remained to be seen how far they’d go.
He hoped to make love to Sarah, but he could be patient if he needed to be. He wanted to fully explore this relationship. All afternoon he’d watched Sarah as she baked, as she talked and laughed with Regan and the others, and as she’d stared out the windows at the distance from time to time, lost in thought. He wanted to know what she was thinking about. He wanted to know everything about her. Mason was right, it was far too soon to think about marriage, but he was beginning to think that Sarah was the woman he’d someday propose to. He wanted her to know that’s what he ultimately wanted, even if it was early days yet. He wasn’t sure she was ready to hear that, though. Somehow he needed to convince her he was for real. He’d keep challenging her to contests and doing his best to win them, but it was time for him to show her what he was really all about.
“Those look… interesting,” Autumn said to him when he handed her his own offering. He wasn’t sure about the results of his experiment. While Sarah’s brownies were a deep chocolaty brown, his were decidedly… pale. He’d added baking chocolate, so that couldn’t be it, but something was wrong.
“No one can taste those brownies yet,” Regan chimed in as she entered the Cruz guest house behind him. “We’re doing a blind taste test later one when everyone’s here to determine which recipe is best.”
“Okay, I’ll put these aside then.” Autumn moved away to do just that and Regan caught up to Dan.
“Mason says you’re getting serious about being interested in Sarah.”