“I nagged you. I was obnoxious. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. I hounded you for months.”
“I can make all that look like amateur hour… if I have to. Of course, I doubt I’ll have to.”
Daisy paused with her fork in midair. “Oh?”
“I have a secret weapon.”
“What is it?”
He ate a piece of bacon. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?”
“Dumb,” Daisy said. “This is the dumbest conversation ever. I have to get to work.” She took her empty plate to the sink and rinsed it. “Elsie, I’ll be ready in five minutes.”
“Okay. All I need is my pocketbook. What car are we taking?”
Daisy stopped at the kitchen door. “I forgot about the cars.”
“Take the black car,” Steve said. “I’m staying home for most of the day. There should be carpenters arriving any minute, I need to make arrangements to have new carpet put down, and I need to do something about getting the Ford SUV repaired.” He kicked back from the table and stacked the plates.
When Daisy came flying down the stairs he was waiting at the front door. He reached out for her as she skimmed past, spun her around, and pulled her to him with enough speed to make her breath catch in her throat. The kiss was long and deep, stirring the embers of desire until he was sure they were glowing hot, ready to flame. His hands gentled when he broke from the kiss.
“Be careful out there,” he said. He watched her sway for a moment, her eyes unfocused, and knew he’d accomplished his goal.
Daisy turned without a word. She left the house, got into the black car beside Elsie, and gripped the steering wheel, wondering how she was going to drive when her body was humming in private places and her mind was filled with erotic thoughts of Steve Crow.
“You okay?” Elsie said. “You look kinda dopey.”
“I’m fine.” And she definitely wasn’t dopey, she thought. In fact, she was pretty smart. She’d figured out Steve’s secret weapon. Now all she had to do was figure out how to survive it.
It was five-thirty when Daisy and Elsie got back to the house. The windows had been replaced and the grounds repaired. Inside, two men were still laying new carpet.
“The police haven’t found your car yet,” Steve told Elsie. “You’re going to have to go down to the station and sign some forms. Tomorrow I’ll ride with Daisy, and you can have the day off.”
Kevin ambled in from the kitchen. “This has been an utterly cool day,” he said to Daisy. “Bob and I made a cake. And then we ate it. If you’re nice to me, I might give you the recipe for your next cookbook.”
“Maybe I’ll call my next book
“Mom called. Boy, are you in big trouble. She saw your picture on the evening news in Texas. They played the clip where they said you were the oil tycoon’s live-in girlfriend.”
“Great. I hope you set her straight.”
“I tried, but it was tough, what with all the yelling going on.”
“I got a TV show I want to catch,” Elsie said. “One of them cable stations is running an Errol Flynn festival.”
“Is that the guy with the sword and the cheesy mustache?” Kevin said, following Elsie into the family room.
“There isn’t anything cheesy about any part of Errol Flynn,” she told him. “He was what you call a swashbuckler. He could have grown any kind of mustache he wanted.”
“Hope you’re hungry,” Steve said to Daisy. “I’ve been slaving over a hot stove all day making spaghetti sauce.”
Daisy looked in the pot. “I’m impressed. This smells terrific.”
“Of course. It’s my specialty.” He slid his arms around her waist and deposited a lingering kiss at the nape of her neck.
“Forget it,” she said. “I know what your secret weapon is, and it’s not going to work.”
“That’s because you haven’t tasted it yet. No woman has been able to resist my secret weapon once they’ve sat down and feasted on it.”
Daisy’s mouth dropped open. “That’s… outrageous!”
“You’re going to want to have seconds, and thirds, then when you wake up tomorrow you’re going to have an insatiable craving to eat more for breakfast.”
“What an ego!”
His voice was silky. “It’s all in the spices.”
“Wait a minute. What are you talking about?”
“My spaghetti sauce, of course.My secret weapon. Everyone always loves my spaghetti sauce.”
“Sure. I knew that.”
“What did you think we were talking about?”
Her gaze inadvertently slid below his waist.
“You thought that was my secret weapon?”
“Of course not. I knew it was the spaghetti sauce. You men are all alike. You think all it takes is a pot of hot tomatoes to turn us women into slavering idiots. I suppose you thought one look at your sauce would have me panting. Well, let me tell you something, buster, it takes more than spaghetti sauce to weaken my resolve.”
“Want to know what we’re having for dessert?”
“No!”
He dumped spaghetti into boiling water and took a bowl of freshly grated cheese from the refrigerator. “As long as we’re on the subject, I want to clear the air a little. I don’t want to push you into a marriage you don’t want.”
“No?”
“My intention is to hang around until you decide you’re going to go nuts and start screaming and foaming at the mouth if you don’t get… married.”
“And you think your cooking is good enough to do that, huh?”
“Do you want a serious answer, or do you want to flirt some more?”
“Serious answer,” she said.
“There’s always been a physical attraction between us that borders on the frightening. I’d be a fool not to use it to my advantage. But I’d be an even bigger fool if I thought that was enough to sustain a marriage.”
“We haven’t known each other for very long.”
“We haven’t been best friends and lovers for very long, but we’ve known each other for almost a year.”
It was true, Daisy thought. Knowing him wasn’t the problem. Loving him wasn’t the problem either. The love grew stronger every day. The problem was with timing. It was the wrong time.
“I don’t have the emotional strength to make a life decision right now.”
“I understand that, but I’m not going to let my soul mate slip through my fingers just because I fell in love with her at the wrong time.”
“So where does that leave us?” Daisy asked.
He nudged against her, his mouth caressing the rim of her ear when he spoke. “I suppose it brings us back to my secret weapon.”
“Spaghetti sauce?”
“Spaghetti sauce is only the beginning.” His hand snaked under her shirt as he kissed her neck and lowered his mouth to her collarbone. “Wait until you taste my brownies.”
She shivered. “Oh Lord,” she whispered, “I love brownies.” She felt him stir against her and hazily thought his ultimate secret weapon was in the process of losing its secret status. “We shouldn’t be doing this in the kitchen,” she said. “Elsie and Kevin…”
He sighed and pushed her to arm’s length. “You’re right. Besides, I think the spaghetti is done.”
When the table was set, they called everyone in from the TV room. Bob was the first one to the table. He bounded in and took a seat, thumping his two front paws on either side of a place setting. His ears were perked, his eyes were bright. “Woof!” he said, smiling and panting.
Elsie took a seat across from him. “Didn’t anybody ever tell him he was a dog?”
