Her pink lips turned up at the corners. 'He writes poetry now, and they've started critiquing each other's poems.'
'When do they do this?'
She stuck her hands in two Tom Jones oven mitts. 'Every night after he gets off work.'
'Every night?' His mother hadn't said a thing. He leaned his butt into the stainless counter and folded his arms across his green dress shirt with his store name and fish logo on the breast pocket. 'How long has this been going on?'
'Since we had dinner at her house last week.' She took out two cupcake trays and set them on the counter next to him. 'He's been getting home late each night.'
Rob watched her bend at the waist and take out two more trays from the second oven. 'How late?'
'Ten. Which is late for him. He's usually in bed right after the nine-thirty news on Fox. Sometimes he doesn't even wait until the sports report is over.'
'Mom really hasn't said anything, but I'm glad she has someone to share her interest in poetry.' Someone who didn't happen to be him.
Kate dumped the cupcakes on the counter and began to set them upright.
He told himself to leave. That if he stayed, he'd touch her. If he touched her he was a goner, but he just couldn't force himself out the door. Not yet. 'Do you need help?' he asked.
She looked up at him out of the corners of her brown eyes and smiled. 'Are you volunteering to help me bake?'
Except for granola, which he made because he was addicted to the stuff, Rob wasn't into baking. He'd leave in a minute. 'Sure.'
'That's sweet of you, but you're in luck. These are the last.' She handed him the box of freezer bags. 'If you want to help, you can put six cupcakes in each. Not the hot ones, though. They get too mushy if you don't wait until they cool.'
'How many did you make again?' he asked as he pulled out a plastic bag.
'I have pre orders for five dozen, and I made two dozen extra to sell in the store.' She moved a few feet away and placed a large mixing bowl in a sink of soapy water.
Her domestic side surprised Rob, but again, he didn't know why he should be surprised. He really didn't know all there was to know about Kate. What did surprise him was that he wanted to know more. He glanced over at her as he unzipped the bag and shoved a few cupcakes inside. 'You think you're going to sell all twenty-four?'
'Yeah, I know I am.' She looked at him. 'I've figured out the key to selling anything to the people in this town.'
He closed the bag and started on another. 'What's the key?'
'Giving away samples,' she answered, then turned her attention to washing the dishes. 'They'll buy as long as they get a free sample.' She shook her head, and the ends of her blunt red hair brushed her back. 'I used to think my grandfather wasted money on giving away free coffee, but I've come to learn that he lures people into the store with free coffee. Once they're in here, chatting and drinking, they buy other things.' She set the soapy bowl in the empty side of the sink. 'I'm going to give samples of smoked cheddar next.'
He finished with the third bag and started on the last. 'You going to trick them into buying it?'
She laughed, and the soft, feminine sound from her lips seemed to slip between his ribs and take up space in his chest. 'I'm going to change their way of thinking without them even knowing it.' She looked over at him again, her brown eyes lit up and shining. 'Soon, I'm going to have them all eating seared tuna and wasabi mashed potatoes.'
'Right.' Tonight she reminded him of the girl he'd met in the Duchin Lounge several months ago. Relaxed and warm.
'You don't think I can?' she asked, an edge of steely determination in her voice.
He wondered if he should warn the town that they better get used to Japanese horseradish. 'I think you have your work cut out for you.'
'That's true.' She reached for two cupcake pans and stuck them in the water. 'But I love a challenge. I figure all I have to do is join the Mountain Momma Crafters, then I'm in.'
Rob set the last bag next to the cooling cupcakes, then he shoved a hip into the counter and listened to her while she chatted about turning Gospel into the gourmet eating capital of the Northwest. He watched her hands as she ran the wet washcloth over the pans. At the ends of her long fingers, her short nails were painted a light pink. She set the pan in the empty sink and turned on the water.
'I'll start them out slow,' she continued as she opened a cabinet and stood on her tiptoes. 'Get them hooked on focaccia bread then introduce them to flavored olive oils.'
Rob pushed away from the counter and moved up close behind her. He lifted the bowl from her hands and placed it on the shelf. She looked up at him over her shoulder. Her hair brushed the front of his shirt, but he felt it in his groin. His hands grasped the edge of the bowl to keep from lowering them to her stomach and pulling her back against his chest. Her gaze stared into his, and it would be so easy to lower his mouth to hers.
'Thank you,' she said and ducked beneath his arm before he could give in to his urge to kiss her. She moved to the cupcakes sitting on the counter and tested the temperature with her fingers.
He lowered his arms. 'Are you going to give me one of those?'
'What?' She turned around and looked at him. 'You want a cupcake?'
He nodded. 'Why do you think I'm here?'
' My witty conversation?'
'That too.'
'You're a bad liar,' she said through a laugh. The warm pleasure of it settled in his chest and reminded him that he'd been lonely for a long time. Starved for soft laughter and feminine conversation. Starved for more than just sex. 'I don't have any frosting.'
'I don't care.'
'Wait.' She held up one finger, then disappeared into the walk-in refrigerator. She came back out shaking a can of whipped cream, and Rob couldn't help but notice that her breasts did interesting things to those dice on her shirt. 'I used this in my cocoa this morning.' She picked up a cupcake and squirted it with whipped cream. 'The nice thing about working in a grocery store is that you never run out of anything.' She handed it to him. 'The downside is that you can get fat.'
'You're not fat.' Rob pulled off the paper and took a big bite.
'Not yet.' She tipped her head back and shot whipped cream straight into her mouth. It was the most erotic thing he'd seen in a long time, which told him just how long it had been.
He took another bite, and he recalled the few occasions when he'd had the privilege of eating a whipped cream bikini. He wouldn't object to eating one off of Kate sometime. He finished off his cupcake in four more bites, then held out his hand. 'Give me some of that.' Instead of handing him the can, she placed a hand on his shoulder. She rose onto the balls of her feet, and her breast brushed his arm.
'Open up.'
He didn't trust her. Not for a second. He stared into her gaze a few inches from his and slowly opened his mouth.
She shot cream between his lips and across his cheek.
'Oops, sorry.' She dropped onto her heels.
Rob swallowed. 'You did that on purpose.'
'No, I swear it was an accident.' She shook her head and tried to look contrite, but she ruined it when she burst out laughing.
He wiped his finger across his cheek, then licked it clean. 'Accident my ass.' He held out his hand. 'Give it to me.'
She shook her head and held the can behind her back.
'You don't think I can get that out of your hands?'
'No.'
Of course she didn't. She was stubborn and competitive, and the thought of wrestling with her turned him on more than a whipped cream bikini. 'You wanna bet?'
'What do I get if I win?'
