They ate at her little kitchen table in a bay that overlooked the wide patio and the river, and he wondered again why she didn’t have any furniture out there so she could sit and enjoy the sound of the rippling water.
It seemed to him a little like someone who lived by the ocean but kept the windows and doors closed against the soothing sight and sound of the waves.
She sat with them but didn’t eat anything. “I already had some with my guests,” she explained when Ethan asked her why she wasn’t eating her own food. “I’m pretty stuffed right now.”
To Sam’s surprise, she and Ethan seemed to hit it off brilliantly. The two of them talked about all sorts of topics, from LEGO creations to Harry Potter trivia to the scientific basis for how yeast acted to make bread rise.
It was the most pleasant hour Sam had enjoyed in weeks. Probably since the night he went hiking with her on Woodrose Mountain.
He hadn’t realized how hungry he had been when he walked inside but he had seconds of everything. When he finished, he pushed the plate away. “Fantastic. As always. Your restaurant is going to be a huge hit, Alexandra. Seriously.”
He wanted to bask in the warmth of her wide, bright smile.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice soft. “I don’t want you to think I’m constantly in need of approval but I’m not going to lie to you, right about now I really appreciate the vote of confidence.”
She was a contradiction of boldness and insecurity. One of the many things that fascinated him about Alexandra McKnight.
All his reasons for staying away from her seemed really ridiculous right now, especially as he sat here in her kitchen and realized how very much he had missed her.
What would it take to convince her to make a little room in her hectic life to see where things might develop between the two of them?
“I’m finished with my dinner. It was very good. I do still like hot dogs, especially the way my dad cooks them on the grill, but this was quite tasty, too. I ate everything except the artichokes. I wouldn’t have eaten those even if they had been dipped in ice cream. I just don’t like artichokes.”
“Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind next time,” she promised.
Sam wanted to believe she meant something by the words but he recognized polite conversation when he heard it. They likely wouldn’t have a next time, unless he figured out some way to persuade her otherwise.
“Is it all right if I play with Leo for a while?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t mind, as long as it’s okay with your dad.”
He probably ought to excuse them both and take Ethan home. On the other hand, it seemed rude to sit here in her kitchen, eat her food and then rush out like a soldier who only had ten minutes for chow before report.
“Not too rough inside the house,” he told his son. “You wouldn’t want to break anything of Ms. McKnight’s.”
His son and her dog headed into the great room, leaving the two of them alone in the kitchen.
She was the first to break the silence left behind them. “So I hear you’re working on the new recreation center.”
“News travels.”
She smiled, tucking behind her ear a wavy blond curl that had slipped out of her loose ponytail, and he had an insane urge to tug the rest of it free, to unleash all that silkiness and dip his fingers in it, as he had done twice before.
“You’re moving to the wrong place if you want to keep any secrets around here,” she told him. “You may not know this but my mother is marrying Harry Lange.”
“So I hear.”
“She probably knew you were going to work on the recreation-center project before you were even asked. Harry has a well-earned reputation of not taking no for an answer. If he wants something, he won’t stop until he finds a way to get it. That’s not an exaggeration, by the way. It’s simple reality.”
“Good to know.”
“What does Harry have you doing at the rec center?”
“Same thing I did at the restaurant, just on a little bigger scale. Finish carpentry. That’s kind of my area of expertise. Apparently I’m picking up the slack for the same guy who was supposed to be wrapping up the work at Brazen.”
“Oh, right. The contractor with the family issues.”
“I hate taking the guy’s jobs since I know all about trying to work through family stuff, but somebody’s got to do it. People can’t wait around indefinitely.”
Through the doorway he could see Ethan on the floor, wrestling with her dog and looking as if he were having the time of his life. He was really going to have to think about adding a dog to their little family unit once things settled down. A chocolate Lab, maybe...