Chapter 26 #2
She sets her ginger beer down on the counter with a sharp clack. “He’d be a fool to do that.”
“Sure, and he might come home one day to find a reused breakup Post-it, but a lot of people are fools for love.” I’m tempted to offer myself up as example number one.
Instead, I say, “Look at Dottie’s friend Ann.
She’s positive she’s been cyberdating a celebrity, and she made plans to meet him in person this weekend. ”
“We can’t let her do that!” She takes a step toward the front of the house, as if she’s ready to charge to the bakery several days early to keep Ann from the catfish guy.
I wrap my hand around her arm, turning her toward me. “We can’t stop her. We have to honor her free will. Same goes for José. You can’t force people to do what you want, even if you think it’s good for them.”
“So we should just let them get scammed?”
“I didn’t say that. We’re doing everything we can to help José, and Liam, Mick, and I are going to be in the bakery where Ann’s meeting this guy. We plan on having a talk with him. We’ll let him know that Ann has friends.”
Her expression softens, and she wraps her arm around me. “You’re going to rough some guy up, Cormac? I didn’t expect it of you.”
“Liam and Mick are the muscle. But I have certain other skills I can contribute.”
“I’ll just bet you do.” She reaches for my glasses, and this time I let her remove them.
Smiling, she sets them on her nose, looking unsurprisingly adorable in the horn-rimmed lenses. “I have a new appreciation for how blind you are.”
“And I have a new regret for it,” I say, studying her blurry edges.
Her smile turns warm and soft—the middle of a chocolate chip cookie. I get a bit carried away, enough to say something stupid.
“Will you stay the night, Nora?”
I regret the words as soon as they come out, because something on her face changes. I understand what she’s going to say before she says it. She likes being with me, and we have fun together, but she doesn’t want more.
Maybe because of this Jonah guy.
Maybe because I’m me. Good enough to sleep with, but not for a relationship. Definitely not worth risking her harmony with her mother.
I should probably take that to heart and do the smart thing, like she’s hoping José will. I should give up and move on. But I’ll take what I can get, even if it’s not what I have the audacity to want.
She clears her throat as she removes the glasses and hands them back to me. “No, that’s not a good idea, but we could hang out for a while. I’m not ready to go home just yet either.”
And what do you know? All I need is that buoy of hope from her—not big enough to save a drowning man, but enough to keep him afloat for a few hours.
I kiss her, and she kisses me back softly, sweetly, before giving me a wicked smile. “In the Shirtless Chef’s latest video, he made chocolate pudding. It looked really good.”
“I doubt I have any of the ingredients.”
She starts playing with the bottom hem of my shirt. “But you do have one of those crappy instant pudding packets in the pantry. We can make do.”
“Do I have to take my shirt off?”
“Absolutely.” She lifts the hem and splays her warm palm over my chest. “I’ve grown pretty fond of this chest.”
Tell me less.
I tug the shirt off and toss it aside. “Let’s make some terrible pudding. Can I eat it off you?”
“That was kind of the idea.”
I pull her closer by the bottom of her shirt. “You should be shirtless too.”
Smiling, she says, “I suppose it would only be fair.”
She yanks her shirt off, then unfastens her bra and dangles it off one finger like a pendulum before letting it fly.
Cookie will probably find it before we do, but right now my focus is on Nora shirtless in my kitchen.
“What were we doing?” I ask.
She laughs as she pulls a saucepan out of one of the cupboards, then locates a whisk.
“How do you know where everything is?” I ask, my gaze following her breasts. “I never know where anything is.”
“It’s a talent.”
She pours milk into the saucepan and raises her eyebrows. “Are you going to participate, or are you just going to watch?”
“I wish it were magically possible to do both,” I say, but I grab the pudding powder and open it. I pour it in from behind her, my chest pressing against her back. She leans into me as she starts whisking the mixture, and the scent of chocolate floods the air.
“This was a good idea,” I admit. “Maybe I like this Shirtless Chef.”
“I’m holding you to that,” she says as I lean in and lightly bite her neck.
It’s laughably easy to make the pudding.
We still almost burn it.
When it’s done, we let it cool, and then I dip a rubber spatula into it and lift it to her lips.
“Is it good?”
She smiles teasingly at me as she licks the spatula, her eyes locked with mine.
“You know exactly what that’s doing to me,” I say.
She takes another lick and then leans up and kisses me, her tongue coated with chocolate.
“What do you think?” she asks.
I use one arm to clear the counter, pushing everything to one side in a quick swipe. Then I wrap my hands around her waist and lift her up onto the counter while she lets out a throaty laugh.
“I think we should play my new favorite game,” I say.
She weaves a hand into my hair. “Which one is that?”
“The one where I lick sweet things off you, then bury my head between your legs.”
Her smile is full of heat as she says, “It just so happens I like that game too.”