“Grandmother loves being in the kitchen,” Gabi said, taking his hand and letting him pull her up.
She thought maybe he pulled extra hard, because she stumbled straight into him. He caught her and held her close for just a second, long enough to add emphasis to his earlier taunt about spending the night with her one of these days.
She regarded him suspiciously. “What are you up to, Wade?”
“Same thing I’ve been up to for a while now,” he said, not even trying to evade her direct look. “Trying to get your attention.” He shook his head and lamented, “Jimmy says I’m going about it all wrong, though.”
Gabi couldn’t help laughing at the thought of the teenager giving Wade advice on handling a woman. “Isn’t he a little young to be your romance coach?”
Wade gave her a rueful look. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but he seems to have an amazing aptitude for that kind of thing.”
“I can’t imagine it. So, is he the one who taught you that maneuver you just pulled, the one that had me landing in your arms?”
“Absolutely not,” Wade said, his expression innocent. “That was purely an accident.”
“Not buying it,” she told him. “I think you’re sneaky. And if it wasn’t Jimmy who planted that idea in your head, it was Cora Jane.”
“I am definitely not taking advice from your grandmother,” he said indignantly. “I may not be above courting her as an ally, but anything that happens between you and me will be all about us. She is not giving me dating tips. That would be just plain weird.”
Gabi laughed as his masculine pride kicked in with a vengeance. “Okay, okay, these are your moves.”
He glanced at her curiously. “Any of them working?”
“I didn’t slug you just now, did I? And I haven’t gone out of my way lately to avoid your company. In fact, when Grandmother told me you and Jimmy were stopping by for dinner, I was actually looking forward to filling you in on my day. I don’t know what your standards are, but that could all be considered progress, I think.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed, clearly pleased.
Gabi noticed that several interested looks were directed their way as they joined the others at the kitchen table. Jimmy had a smirk on his face. Cora Jane’s expression was smug. And even Samantha looked a little like the cat that swallowed the canary. Clearly the man had more than one ally in the room.
Jerry, however, regarded the two of them with sympathy, as if he understood the pressure they were under from too much unsolicited interference. He gave Gabi a reassuring wink.
Then, for a time after Grandmother said grace, the conversation quieted down as they passed bowls of corn pudding, salad and grilled vegetables to go with the perfectly blackened fish that Jerry had made with his personal blend of Cajun spices.
“Better than Boone’s Harbor,” Gabi declared when she’d tasted her first spicy bite. “Jerry, this is fantastic!”
“The man has a gift,” Cora Jane declared.
“Unfortunately, she refuses to let me put this on the menu at Castle’s,” Jerry said with feigned dismay. “I’ve tried for years to talk her into it.”
“And I’ve told him that grilled or fried fish is what our customers expect. Besides, now that Boone has a more Cajun menu at his restaurant, I see no reason to compete with that,” Cora Jane said. “Seems to me restaurants should try to support one another, keep things different so we can grow our own loyal customer bases, rather than trying to drive one another out of business.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Jerry admitted, regarding Cora Jane fondly. “And look how long that strategy has worked for Castle’s. Who am I to try to force change on a set-in-her-ways woman with a mile-wide stubborn streak?”
“Stubborn? Set in my ways?” Cora Jane said indignantly. “This from the man who throws a fit if he can’t find his favorite soup kettle?”
“I brought that cast-iron soup kettle from Louisiana,” Jerry retorted. “It’s been properly seasoned, the same as that skillet I brought with me. I’ll bet you can’t find me any chef worth his salt who doesn’t have his favorite tools. Haven’t you noticed on those TV chef competitions, they all show up with their own sets of fancy knives?”
“So you’re calling yourself a chef now?” Cora Jane taunted as everyone at the table sat back to watch the sparks fly. “Weren’t you just a plain old cook when you walked in the door to apply for a job all those years ago?”
“I was a chef then,” Jerry said, “but you’d advertised for a cook. I didn’t want to sound too fancy. Besides, I took one look at you and knew I’d do just about anything to get that job. I’d have called myself a busboy if that would have kept me around you.”
The color rose in Cora Jane’s cheeks at that. “I was a married woman!” she protested.
“And I didn’t step one inch across a single line until after Caleb was gone and you’d had time to mourn,” he reminded her. “I had too much respect for him and for you.”
Gabi watched her grandmother’s expression soften as she let Jerry take her hand.
“I’m grateful for that,” Cora Jane said quietly.
Gabi noticed that Jimmy was studying the older couple with a thoroughly bemused expression.
“Are you two, like, dating or something?” he asked.
“It’s the orsomething I want to know about,” Samantha chimed in.
Jerry guffawed at the impudent questions, but Cora Jane frowned at both of them. To Samantha, she said, “Did I not have any influence at all over your manners?”
“Some,” Samantha said, not looking the faintest bit guilty. “But you also taught me that if I wanted to know something, the best way to find out was to ask.”
“I
