I crossed my arms on my chest, careful of the knife. “No more nuts, Clint. She’s had two strokes. Getting that blood pressure down is crucial.”
He stepped into my space. “One of those was a mini-stroke, not that those aren’t bad too. But there’s no telling how many days your mom has left. She likes boiled peanuts, there’s no reason to keep them from her. Especially this week.”
I sighed. “I’m grateful that you’re her snack supplier, but this needs to be the last time you come by. And I’ll take your key, if you don’t mind.”
His face lowered toward mine, the fire in his eyes blazing. “I do mind, Raegan Connelly. Especially seeing as it was your mother herself who gave me the key, long before she had her first stroke or needed Wynnie to look after her.”
My head reared back because Bronwyn didn’t let just anybody call her ‘Wynnie’.
He smiled and it looked almost conniving. “Yeah. You’ve been out of the loop since you got your dream job on Madison Avenue. I’ve been helping out more than you know because I didn’t want you to know.”
He looked to the counter and back to me. “Now, you get Penny’s sandwich ready, I can give her a side dish of peanuts to go with it. Got news for you, hotshot, I don’t give her that many peanuts at a time, so you think I’m gonna stop bein’ her ‘snack supplier,’ you better think again.”
I glared at him as he strode to the pantry, and I noticed he carried two grocery bags filled with cans of boiled peanuts.
He looked back at me, cocking a brow. “Better hop-to, Rae. Your mom gets mighty ornery if she has to eat her lunch after the news.”
The sooner I finished Mom’s lunch, the sooner I could get Clint out of the house.
As I plated her sandwich, Clint’s phone rang. I kept my eyes on the plate of food, but I heard how distracted he sounded.
“Ramsey,” he answered.
Pause.
“I got a moment. What’s up?”
I wondered who might be on the line. Unfortunately, since it was the middle of the day on a Saturday, it could be anyone.
“What the hell for?”
I glanced his way and found him staring at me. My head jerked as I refocused on cutting Mom’s sandwich into four triangles.
He guffawed. “Now that’s a first. Uh, can I bring a woman?”
My stomach sank. It wasn’t like I thought he had been celibate in the past ten years, but I never thought I’d hear him making plans to take his woman somewhere.
“What’s for dinner?”
Another knife to my dead heart. Over the years, I often thought of Clint because of his semi-foodie ways. He appreciated only the best food, but that didn’t mean it had to be healthy or expensive – as evidenced by the boiled peanuts. When we were living together, he often asked me what was for dinner as he scrambled his eggs for breakfast, such was his focus.
My head hung with those thoughts.
“Oh yeah. Definitely better be Beef Wellington. That’s right up my girl Raegan’s, alley. Time?”
My head jerked up at the end of his statement, and I glared at him. Oblivious to my ire, he grinned at me.
“We’ll be there, man. Lookin’ forward to it, but just to say, you didn’t need to do this.”
Pause.
“Later.”
As he tucked his phone away, I crossed my arms on my chest. “Have you lost your mind? Or is there some other woman in your life named Raegan you’re taking to this dinner date?”
He eyed me up and down, again, before he stepped closer and I caught a whiff of his scent. It was different from years ago.
Maybe even better than before, but I couldn’t think about that.
“Thinkin’ I lost my mind the day I told you to follow your dreams. It’s just dinner with my buddy’s younger brother.”
I shook my head and opened my mouth to speak but he put his finger on my lips.
“Caring for your mother is draining on the best of days, Rae. Wynnie hardly ever had a moment for herself. Try as I might to get her to take a few hours, she rarely would. So, it’ll be a cold day in hell when I watch you do that shit to yourself. You’ll get two hours out of the house, tops. You don’t trust her alone that long, I got a buddy who can drop by.”
Ignoring the familiar feel of his finger on my lips, I pulled my head away to say, “That’s not the point.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have a point, Raegan. Breaks like this don’t come around often, you need to take advantage. You got five hours to prepare. Besides, you damn sure don’t have time to make Beef Wellington yourself, and rumor has it, while in the Big Apple you developed a taste for not just the finer things in life, but only the finest things.”
THAT EVENING, I PULLED another plate from the cupboard, and Mom made a scoffing noise. My gaze swung to her and I noticed her pursed lips.
“Is there a problem?”
Her chin dipped. “I may be getting older, Raegan, but I can still hear. And I know Clint said something about taking you to dinner.”
I smiled as I took her plate to her. “Yes, but I didn’t accept.”
“You bloody well should. I didn’t raise you to be a fool.”
I sighed and sat down. “Mom, I—”
“You said yourself, you don’t have a new job up there. Not yet. And before...” she trailed off and I put a hand on her arm.
“Mom, that’s another reason —”
“No, it isn’t,” she bit out.
I leaned back in my seat. “Well, I don’t see the point of —”
Her eyes narrowed. “I like what Clint said about that. ‘You don’t have a point.’ And he’s right, my Rae-of-sunshine. Go. Eat some fancy food with friends of his. Sharing a meal with him doesn’t make it a date.”
I looked to the side as I
