Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Adam regretted suggesting the Brunch House the moment he opened the door.
Loud laughter, tons of talking, and blasting music greeted him, and he hadn’t even stepped inside yet.
Joey did, as if the wall of noise didn’t bother her.
It did bother Adam, and he’d already driven back from Jackson with the radio off.
He liked having quiet time in his life where he didn’t have to have something coming at him all the time.
Life seemed to come hard at him constantly, and Adam often simply needed some silence to help him make the many decisions he needed to, even if they weren’t for him.
Adam had learned early on that his attention to details and the way he handled events and schedules and people meant that he needed a way to cope with the stress that brought.
Sometimes, his favorite classical music and a really big order of French fries did the trick, but he’d found that leaving his headphones home and getting on his bike and going for a forty-mile ride worked better.
Adam had not found the best way to work out in Coral Canyon, as he’d been dealing with Harry, and then this new job, and then buying a house, and now starting something with Joey.
He hadn’t even had time to locate a gym and decide if he should join it.
Adam didn’t love working out indoors or with other people, and he’d found himself more often than not hiking the trails around Coral Canyon by himself.
With winter closing in on them, though, he knew he wouldn’t be able to continue doing that for very long.
Your new house is plenty big enough for a home gym, he told himself as he followed Joey down the hallway that had been erected by a wall on one side and a chest-high barrier on the other.
She turned back to him and said, “This place is really loud.”
Relieved that she’d realized it too, all of his muscles practically sagged off his bones. “We can go somewhere else,” he said. “Heck, lunch places are open by now.”
Joey turned and looked at the several people standing in line in front of them who hadn’t even been seated yet, and then faced him again. “Would you hate me if I said I wanted to go somewhere else?”
“Of course not,” Adam said. He had literally just suggested it.
“We can come here another time when it’s not so busy—maybe a weekday,” Joey said.
Adam turned and went back toward the entrance, squeezing out past another couple trying to come in.
“I’m not as familiar with Coral Canyon as you are,” he said. “What do you suggest?”
Joey gave him a playful look as they started down the sidewalk to go back around the buildings to where they’d parked. “How adventurous are you feeling?” she asked.
Adam chuckled. “Oh, boy, that’s a loaded question.”
“Are you a very adventurous person?” she asked.
Adam sobered and finally shook his head. “I think I would say no to that if I’m being honest.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so either.” She bumped him with her shoulder. “The way you wear slacks everywhere is a dead giveaway.”
“Hey, I like my slacks,” he said, looking down at them.
“I like them too,” Joey shot back. “I’m just saying, you live in Wyoming now, and you manage a country music band. They don’t even wear slacks.”
Adam blinked and looked down the sidewalk. “Well, I don’t think I own jeans.”
“Another thing we can go shopping for,” Joey said.
He scoffed immediately, rejecting the idea. “There is no way I’m taking you jean shopping with me.”
“No?” Joey asked. “Why not?”
He glared over to her. “Because you’re not my mother.”
Joey grinned back at him, full of light and playfulness. “I think it would be fun.”
“I think we should eat,” he said.
“Right.” Joey cleared her throat and shook her hair over her shoulders. She adjusted the scarf around her neck, and while she didn’t wear the pink puffy coat, today’s outerwear was more of a buckskin-rawhide-leather color she’d paired with a scarf in bright pink, blue, and white.
“So I was thinking,” she said. “I would go by the grocery store and get everything that we need for biscuits and gravy, and then I can meet you at your house, and I could cook for you.”
Adam paused at the corner of the parking lot. “Didn’t you spend the morning cooking already?”
“That was baking,” she said.
“Biscuits are also baking,” he shot back.
Joey grinned at him and leaned into his chest with both palms. He still hadn’t had time to find a proper coat, but she gripped the lapels of his windbreaker as he balanced her with both hands on her hips.
“It’ll be quiet at your house,” she said. “Which means we can talk, and I can show you that I’m a good cook.”
“I already know you’re a good cook,” he said. “I want this date to be easy and fun for both of us.”
“Cooking is easy and fun for me,” she said. “And I’ll be with you.” She raised her eyebrows, those pretty blue eyes filled with such hope.
He swallowed and looked away, indecision raging through him. “All right,” he said, making up his mind. “But then tonight, you have to let me take you somewhere nice and pamper you.”
Joey’s eyebrows went up.
“You said you weren’t working,” Adam said, and maybe, if he played his cards right, he could get her to stay all afternoon. They could watch movies on his boring couch, and he could send out for ice cream so that they could have mid-afternoon sundaes.
“I also don’t want you to buy the ingredients,” he said. “Let’s go to the grocery store together.”
“Oh, no,” she said, laughing, but not with any humor. “There is no way I’m letting you in my car.”
“Great,” he said without missing a beat. “Then I’ll drive.”
She threw him a glare but didn’t say anything, and when they reached their cars, she went to his passenger door without another word.
Adam smiled to himself and managed to erase the grin before he got in the driver’s seat. He’d never taken a woman to the grocery store for a date before, but he navigated them there, and even managed to get around to Joey’s side to open her door before she got out.
Of course, that was because he had child safety locks on his car and forgotten, and she couldn’t actually open her door.
“You locked me in,” she said.
Adam laughed and reached for her hand. “I forgot about the safety locks, is all.”
They went inside where Joey pushed around a half-cart and gathered cream, a tube of sausage, and a pound of butter before she turned to look at him. “Tell me what pantry ingredients I’m working with.”
He blinked at her. “Pantry ingredients?”
Joey grinned. “I knew this was going to be fun.”
“Hey, you don’t have to make fun of me,” he said. “I have sugar and stuff.”
“Does your ‘and stuff’ include baking powder?”
Adam shook his head.
“Flour?”
Again, no.
“I’ll get everything I need for the biscuits,” Joey said, and she led him down the baking aisle, where she expertly plucked ingredients in boxes and bags and put them in his cart.
He had no idea how someone made bread or a biscuit from the things she’d selected, but by the time they checked out, they had five bags of groceries that Adam was sure would make more than one meal.
“If you don’t want to keep them at your place,” she said. “I can take them home with me. Grams and I do a lot of baking.”
“Yes, tell me about the pies,” he said.
Joey lit up as she pulled her seat belt across her body. She faced him again and said, “I’m actually really excited about the pies. Grams and I have been talking about doing it for a couple of years, but last year, I was still pretty new to town, and before that, I was off at college.”
“What kinds will you be making?” Adam asked.
“I think we’re gonna do pecan and pumpkin,” Joey mused. “Those are our two specialties.”
“Are you the pumpkin or the pecan?” he asked.
“Pumpkin.” She smiled at him. “I love pumpkin pie.”
“Of course you do.” He smiled too, glad she had something as simple as pie to make her happy.
“You don’t like pumpkin pie?” she asked.
“Not really,” Adam said.
“How very un-American of you,” she teased.
Adam grinned, too. “I like pecan, though, and apple. Apple is as American as they come.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I think I might do apple. I talked to my Aunt Faith about it, and she said not to offer too many varieties.”
“That’s probably smart,” Adam said.
“So I was thinking pumpkin, pecan, and apple, but then I don’t have a citrus option.”
“Apples are kind of citrusy,” he said.
“No, like key lime or lemon chiffon or coconut cream,” she said. “Ooh, coconut cream.” She seemed to disappear inside her own mind for a moment, and Adam let her go.
He pulled up to his house, and Joey glanced over to him. “Oh, we’re here already,” she said.
“Yes, we’re here already.” He grinned at her, and then carried in all the groceries, and he unpacked them while Joey examined his stove and stovetop.
She opened drawers and pulled out the things she would need, muttering about the “lack of measuring cups” and how she would have to make do.
When she met his eyes again, he simply chuckled.
“I thought you knew I didn’t cook,” he said. “Did you think I was lying or was a closet baker?”
She laughed. “No one’s a closet baker.”
“They’re not?” he asked.
“No,” she said, in an almost scoff. “There are people who dedicate entire social media accounts to their baking. People are proud of it.”
He grinned at her. “Do you have a social media account for your baking?”
Joey’s mouth tightened, and she shook her head.
“Well, maybe you should start one,” he said. He genuinely believed she could start a social media account for her baking, and she lifted her head and met his eye. She searched and searched his face, and Adam could practically hear her comparing herself to every other baker out there.
Then that fierceness he loved about her drew through her shoulders and blazed in her eyes. “Maybe I will—starting with these biscuits.”
She put them together quickly, and because they didn’t have to rise, she got them in the oven and then started browning the sausage on the stove. Adam simply watched her, enthralled by the way she moved around the kitchen. His kitchen.
Her presence in his house was absolutely powerful.
By the time she served him an open-faced biscuit with plenty of creamy, peppery sausage gravy over the top and two fried eggs on the side, Adam was pretty sure he’d fallen in love with her.
He forked off a bite, made a big show of smelling it, and then carefully slid the biscuit and gravy into his mouth. Pure perfection exploded through him—and he felt the same way whenever he kissed Joey.
Or looked at Joey.
Or heard her laugh, which she did right now. “Sounds like you like it,” she said, giving him a coy smile.
He swallowed, the amount of pepper absolutely right. “It’s amazing.” He cut into his egg and let the yolk run out. “You’re incredible.” He beamed at her, really liking the way her face pinked up and she ducked her head over her own plate of biscuits and gravy.
Adam was definitely falling for Joey, and he reminded himself that they were still new. This was technically their first date, and he’d always been cautious when it came to the big things in his life.
But Joey made him want to jump on the nearest horse and spur it into a gallop. Full-steam ahead. All the way. So he let himself slip and slide and get a little more comfortable with the idea of having Joey in his life long-term.
And that felt like pure perfection too…though it did cause a slip of fear to settle in the back of his throat that he couldn’t quite swallow down.
Long-term with Joey meant long-term in Coral Canyon, and while Adam was here for now, he certainly didn’t know if he could commit to more than the three years of his contract with Country Quad.
He pushed the troubling thoughts away. Three years was a long time, and Joey had already proven she could leave Coral Canyon to try different parts of the world, to experiment with doing different things with her life.
He simply had to figure out how to be the man that she loved more than this small town where she’d grown up…and all of her family.