Relief surges through me and I have to remind myself to stop doubting Knox when we hit the tiniest blip. Old habits die so hard. “He is an ass. Thankfully this isn’t a ‘like father, like son’ situation.”
He grins, and those topaz-blue eyes are so full of love and devotion, my heart stops a moment. Then speeds up considerably. He must recognize the look in my eyes because he takes my mouth again, slow and deep, sending flutters through my belly.
When his stomach growls, I pull back and laugh. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
He rolls off me, slow and reluctant, and stares at the ceiling fan making its lazy rounds. “Are you hungry?”
“I sure am.”
We walk downstairs, hand in hand, and circle around the front of the building. The smells coming from the restaurant make my stomach growl too, and I try to remember when I ate last. After Mama’s—and Daddy’s—bombshells, food was the last thing on my mind. I couldn’t wait to meet Knox and tell him all about it.
When we enter, the restaurant is full. Since I don’t work here anymore and it looks like I never will again, I don’t want to take any special liberties. I walk up to the hostess and ask her if she can squeeze us in. She can’t, so either we eat in Mama’s office or we have to order our food to go. That’s a no-brainer.
I hand a menu to Knox. “See what you want.”
He hands the menu back to me. “You already know what I want.”
I smirk and shake my head, handing the menu back to the hostess. “We’ll have a bowl of gumbo, crawfish pies, and crab cakes. Oh, and some peach cobbler, please.”
Knox taps the hostess stand. “Excuse me. Can you add some sweet potato pie and, um, a side of collard greens to that, please?”
I rotate his way, eyebrows thoroughly knitted.
He raises his hands in surrender. “Okay, maybe you do know how to make greens better than I do.”
I can’t do anything but laugh. Of course I know how to make greens better.
We take our food upstairs and I plate it in my kitchen, looking around at the space I’ve made my own. The space I truly love. “I’m so happy I don’t have to give up my apartment any time soon.”
“I still can’t get used to the idea. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when your father told Ms. Lillie that he’d bought the building from my father.”
I laugh and nearly choke on my cobbler. “Trust me, you would not have. It’s a good thing she didn’t require your services again because she went through about five different skin colors. In the end, she knows it’s the best for everyone. Daddy’s writing into the lease that he can’t make any decisions about the property at all. She’ll do it, including expanding the space, so that’s what finally appeased her. She’ll pay a leasing company her rent every month, and we’ll all pretend he doesn’t own the building. Except me, because I’m not paying my father rent.”
He picks up what’s left of our plates and moves them to the living room so we can snuggle on the couch. “You had a lot of nerve saying I was born with a silver spoon.”
“I thought we weren’t going to bring up the past anymore.” Of course, that benefits me more than him because I was actually the asshat the whole time. He didn’t always react well to my actions, but I started it all.
“Whatever you want, love.” He lies back and pulls me on top of him, kissing me again.
Before we get carried away, I say, “Can we go looking at properties this evening for my new restaurant? We have some daylight left.” Every time I think about my dream restaurant being realized, I get all giddy.
“Amber, we just got home”—he looks at that gold watch of his—“five hours ago. Can we start tomorrow?”
I sit up, looking down at him. “Look, mister, if you’re not up to the task, I’ll ask Chef Buccola to assign someone else. Don’t think because you’re my boyfriend that I’m going to let you get in the way of me opening the greatest bistro Austin has ever seen.”
He pulls me down on top of him and grabs two big handfuls of my butt, grinning. “Say it again.”
I roll my eyes because this is not the first time in the past few days he’s asked me to do this. “Ugh, you’re my boyfriend.”
“Damn right I am.”
He claims my mouth again, tasting of the pie I created, sweet and smooth.
Damn right you are.
The End
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Sweet Potato Pie
4 medium round sweet potatoes, washed
1 pound butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 dozen eggs
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
2 tbsp nutmeg
2 tbsp vanilla extract
4 prepared pie shells
Bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees between 90 minutes and 2 hours depending on the size of the potatoes. Allow to cool enough to handle.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove skin from sweet potatoes and blend. Add butter, sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Divide batter among pie shells and bake on middle rack for 35-45 minutes.
Yield: 4 pies
If you enjoyed An Acquired Taste, you’ll love the next book in….
The Everheart Brothers of Texas series
Book 1: An Acquired Taste
View the series here!
Book 2: Coming soon!
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About the Author
Kelly Cain is a native Californian but has spent the last couple of decades in Texas, currently residing in the live music capital of the world, Austin. Consequently, most of her books are set somewhere
