“Why all the green stuff? Whatever happened to a plain egg sandwich?” He was handling the water and teakettle tasks fairly easily, even with Haydn underfoot in the kitchen with him.
Her cat hopped up onto the back of the settee and sat perched just behind Sophie. “This is a nice twist. It’s on white bread with the crusts cut off.”
“You don’t usually cut the crusts off your sandwiches.”
“No.” She finished off the one sandwich in a few bites and reached for a second. “But these are all about the presentation. The whole point is for everything to look appealing and snackable. Tasty tidbits. Finger foods. This one is roast beef and watercress with what looks like a tomato jam, maybe?”
She bit into it to confirm. Because of course she needed to know if her guess was on target. She licked her fingers to catch every bit of the fantastic tomato jam. “Mmm. Yup.”
He snickered. “Finger foods.”
She widened her eyes at him in mock dismay. “Naughty!”
He only grinned at her and took a sandwich, inhaling it in one bite then slowly licking his fingers.
Instant nipple tightening. She cleared her throat. But she was saved from replying to his sally by the beeping of the hot water heater.
The water had heated in record time, and he was already pouring it into the teapot to steep the tea. “So what’s the difference between Earl Grey and Lady Grey?”
She swallowed her bite of sandwich before answering. “I don’t know specifically. I just know I feel like I want that more today. It’s got a lighter taste to it, and I like the flavor when I add a lump of brown sugar.”
“That’s fair.” He made sure her teacup and the container of sugar cubes were in easy reach. “How are the sandwiches?”
“So good.” She handed him a finger sandwich. “This one looks like chicken and pesto with sundried tomato. I want to try the crumpets next.”
He looked around on the table. “Since I recognize most everything else here, I’m guessing the crumpets are the pancake-looking things stacked next to the scones.”
She nodded. “I haven’t quite got the knack of making them yet. Mine don’t ever show this many air pockets.”
She proceeded to butter one, then added a dollop of strawberry preserves.
“Too sweet for me.” He popped the chicken sandwich into his mouth whole, chewing thoughtfully.
“There’s a place in Seattle near Pike’s Place Market that serves crumpets and they’re hearty breakfast sandwiches. There’s a green eggs and ham with cheese crumpet where they mix pesto into beaten eggs and cook them to stack with the ham and cheese. It ends up being huge.”
“When did you go to Seattle?”
“Hmm?” She glanced up and was caught by the intensity of his hazel eyes. “I don’t think you’d come back yet from the military. I used to go traveling on long weekends every once in a while. Just to see places I’d been wanting to visit.”
The lopsided grin was back. “Yeah? Where else did you go?”
Nowhere that hadn’t made her wish he’d been with her.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’d remember better if I had my phone so I could show you my favorite pictures from each place.” She tried to remember when she’d started her adventures. “I think I started the long weekend trips right after my first internship. I had to save my pennies for each and every one. First on my list was Baltimore.”
He reached for another sandwich. “Why Baltimore?”
She shrugged. “I wanted to see the Inner Harbor on my own, without anyone dragging me to go see anything in particular. I explored a couple of restaurants off the main tourist path, a few blocks away from the harbor area.”
He nodded, a sparkle in his eyes.
It was sort of funny that they’d never talked about her trips in detail. She’d never brought them up because they were both usually so caught up in the present. What could be done to solidly establish the kennels, how to gain acceptance and support from the community, and more considerations to make now last as long as possible.
She nibbled at her crumpet and continued. “I mostly visited cities. Denver, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston. I wanted a change of pace from the usual suburbia.”
He reached for the teapot and poured tea into her cup. “Do you like cities better? Would you want to move to one?”
She added a lump of brown sugar to her tea and stirred with the amazingly cute teaspoon. “No. If I wanted to live in the city, I’d have gotten an apartment in Philly. The old city area is really nice. But I like living in the suburbs. It’s quieter, with more room to breathe, but the fun of the city is only twenty or thirty minutes away. It’s really easy to have whichever surrounding I’m in the mood for where I live right now.”
“But what if you moved someplace else? Is there somewhere in the country you’d rather live? Some other country you’d want to try living in for a while?”
This was a faintly familiar conversation. She smiled. “We talked about places we wanted to go back in high school. I’ve been working through my list, visiting and having fun. I’m pretty satisfied with that.”