"All right, the final fish then we move on to the broth." He scooped up a spoonful and began to eat as he kept his eyes glued to her.
Damn, damn, damn. She had no clue, not even a guess. After a couple of minutes trying to decipher she shook her head, giving him a wry smile. "I don't know."
"All right. What vegetables?"
"Potatoes."
"All right, that was a given, but good."
He made her feel like she was in high school again, trying to ace an oral exam. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. "Onion." Another given answer.
He nodded.
She gave him an apologetic smile. "If there's any other vegetables in there I can't taste them."
He beamed at her with a reassuring nod. "Seasoning."
"Salt and pepper."
Gabriel rolled his eyes, as if to say she was stating the obvious, but nodded.
She had no idea from there. Didn't her Grams always put thyme in hers? She eyed Gabriel closely as though if she looked at him long enough the answer would appear on his forehead for her to see. She sighed, "Thyme?"
He laughed, "Your grandmother's recipe?”
She opened her mouth to protest, but instead she nodded guiltily. "Yeah."
"Well, finish up eating. Try some of the salad and biscuits," he ordered, grabbing a biscuit himself, slicing it in half and buttering it up.
"Well, did I get it right?" She sincerely wanted to know. His enthusiasm for cooking and her sudden need to please him made it impossible for her not to want to know.
He clucked his tongue off of the roof of his mouth and then gave her a wink. "Can't tell ya. But I'll let you know when you're ready." He pointed to her near empty bowl. "Now finish up, I have a big day planned for us."
She groaned inwardly, itching to toss one of the biscuits at him, but they looked too scrumptious to waste in a food fight. As she finished eating she couldn't help but wonder what he had in store for them.
"What I would like to know, is in what world this constitutes work?" Beth raised a cynical brow at Gabriel as he took aim and once again missed capturing the neck of the glass bottle with the red ring.
Gabriel straightened up and smiled over at Beth, who was reclining against the counter of the ring toss booth at the annual Portland fair, watching him in amusement. "Well, considering you've been forced to stay here twenty minutes and counting while I fail repeatedly to do this, I would constitute that as work." Pulling out his wallet he dug out another bill and handed it to the middle-aged, toothless male carnie manning the game and was rewarded with another pail of rings.
Beth pointed to the bear hanging from the game station ceiling. "You realize you could have easily paid for one for well less than it has cost you so far to attempt to win."
Gabriel huffed. "Yeah, I know," he grumbled, tossing a ring and growling as with a faint ting sound it went flying off of the bottle top and onto the floor with the rest of his failures. But it was now a matter of principle more than anything. The large pink teddy bear hanging from the ceiling of the booth taunted him. He'd be damned if he was going to walk away without Beth having that bear. He ignored the fact that she seemed more interested in teasing him than the prize.
He tossed several more rings, each one making an annoying ting before adding to his pile of failures. This was getting ridiculous and he knew it.
Beth pushed off of the counter and wrapped her arms around him from behind, kissing the back of his neck. "I think we found the one and only thing that Mr Reynolds can't do," she whispered in his ear.
The feel of her lips on his neck made him want to forget the fair, take her home and introduce her to more intense activities, but he pushed down the urge. He wanted to spend more time with her, in a carefree and fun environment, because admittedly he was having some confusion over what he wanted from her.
Beth was sweet, sexy and as he was finding out today an extremely fun woman to be around. She was the type of woman who he could seriously see himself being with, for the long run. The sex had been phenomenal the previous night and hopefully she would be open to a little more diversified play tonight.
But for the moment he needed only one thing... To win that damned bear...
Noticing her amused grin he stepped back from the counter and motioned towards the bucket, which had a few rings remaining. "By all means, let's see what you have."
She looked at the bucket, up at him and then back to the bucket. Taking her bottom lip between her teeth she took a moment before nodding. "You promise this won't bruise your male ego if I land this?" she asked, pulling a ring from the bucket.
Crossing his arms over his chest he shook his head. "Not in the least baby. Show me how it's done," he teased, not really expecting to see her pull it off.