One Day in Apple Grove(77)
“You’re going to cook another meal on the grill?”
He looked at her as if she’d asked him to balance the federal budget. “I’m a guy. Guys like to grill meat.”
Pushing up her sleeves, she said, “I hope you have something green in your fridge.”
“I think there’s a bag with cheese that I should have tossed out a few weeks ago.”
“Is that something else about men? They don’t eat green things?”
“Not unless they’re forced by their moms.”
“I’ve seen you eat salad before,” she said, frowning at him with her hands at her hips.
“Ah,” he said, “but that’s because I had ulterior motives. I wanted to talk you into my bed.”
Her mouth fell open in shock and he laughed, snagging her again, reeling her in for a kiss. This time it was a toe-tingling, toss-me-over-your-shoulder-and-take-me-to-bed kind of kiss.
“Maybe we could eat later,” she said, slipping out of his arms and tugging on his hand.
They were laughing as they ran up the stairs.
Chapter 15
Jack sat up in bed and said, “Did you hear that?”
Cait brushed the hair out of her eyes. It was still dark outside. “What?”
Jack tilted his head to one side and said, “That!”
“No. What did you hear?”
He got out of bed and told her, “Be right back.”
Intrigued enough to follow him, she pulled his T-shirt over her head and walked to the top of the stairs. When she heard him calling Jamie, her heart broke. If anyone ever needed a dog, it was Dr. Jack Gannon. She vowed to get to the bottom of Ms. Blackwell’s false-sounding story, so she could find a way to get Jamie back where he belonged…with Jack.
She got back into bed but kept the shirt on. She liked the feel of the soft material as it slid off her shoulder, Jack’s were so much broader than hers.
“Hey,” she called out to him as he walked into the room. “Did you find whatever the noise was?”
He shook his head. “Must be hearing things.”
He never said a word to her about thinking it was Jamie as he climbed back into bed and pulled her close. After a few minutes, she realized that he wasn’t going to—just one more thing he kept locked inside of him, making her even more determined than ever to help him heal.
Lying there while he slept, she laid out her plan for the day: First, she was going to stop by and see Rhonda and see if she’d dug anything up about that Blackwell woman. Second, she’d catch up with Peggy at the diner and see if her friend had heard anything about the woman who claimed Jamie. Third, she was going to talk to her dad again and see what he’d come up with to help Jack.
With that busy day planned and a full schedule of handyman jobs ahead of her, Cait slipped out of bed and hit the showers. Jack was still sleeping when she was clean and dressed, so she pressed a kiss to his forehead and headed downstairs to start breakfast.
She was turning the sausage to brown up on the other side when Jack walked in, his hair still damp from his shower. Their gazes locked, reminding her of the night before and the way they’d exhausted one another before they finally drifted off to sleep in one another’s arms.
The intimacy of the moment had her belly tingling. She’d never had a relationship like this one. It had taken a man like Jack to make her realize that while she’d been in relationships with other men, not one of them had ever fully engaged her heart and her mind at the same time.
But she’d never dated anyone who’d kept something so huge from her before. When would he confide in her?
“Do you have any idea how right it feels coming downstairs in the morning and finding you in my kitchen?”
She laughed. “If I was drinking coffee and reading the paper, instead of making you breakfast, would it still feel right?”
He grabbed her around the waist, pulled her flush against him, and kissed her breathless. Once he set her back on her feet, he grinned. “Does that answer your question, silly woman?”
“Silly?”
“Yeah,” he said, grabbing a mug and filling it with fresh, hot coffee. “You here with me is essential…you cooking is definitely a bonus.”
Using the tongs, she lifted the links from the pan, and asked, “Over easy?”
“That’s another thing, Cait,” he said quietly. “You remember little things that matter.”
“In all fairness, you know that I like my coffee with milk and too much sugar.”
“That’s easy. It worried the physician in me,” he told her.
“Not the point.” She wiped out the pan and added margarine to it.
“Why don’t you just cook the eggs in the sausage drippings?”