by Amy Vastine
“Did you hear me mention your enchiladas on the radio today?” she asked Donovan, who wasn’t any more talkative this afternoon than he was this morning.
He nodded as they walked around, looking for something to eat.
“Those really were the best chicken enchiladas I have ever had. You’re an awesome cook and you’re a really good self-defense teacher. I’m beginning to wonder if you’re good at everything you do. It’s made me determined to find something you aren’t amazing at.”
“That won’t be as hard as you think.”
“We’ll see about that.” Kelly got in line at the Grilled Cheese People. “I’m buying you a very late lunch, by the way, so you better be looking at the menu.”
Donovan ran a hand over the top of his head. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Actually, I do. You have made me dinner two nights in a row. I owe you and I won’t take no for an answer. If you don’t order something, I’ll order for you and force you not to waste food.”
Hands on hips, he relented. “Fine, but you don’t have to do that.”
“We’ll just have to disagree. You know what you’ll agree with me on? This will be the best grilled cheese you’ve ever had. Unless you make some kind of magical grilled cheese.” That was possible. Her forehead scrunched. “You probably do, don’t you?”
“Grilled cheese isn’t that hard. I feel like even a self-proclaimed bad cook like yourself could manage it.”
“Ha!” Kelly had tried to recreate her favorite Grilled Cheese People sandwich a few times and failed miserably. “I have a tendency to either get distracted while cooking it and burn one side or I watch it like a hawk and get the bread nice and brown but the cheese is not melted at all. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I can never get the cheese perfectly melty like they do.”
“Sounds like you have the heat on too high.”
“Wouldn’t that make it more melted?”
Donovan grinned and Kelly felt a flutter in her stomach that she tried to rationalize as hunger. “I feel like even if I explain it to you, you will still be confused.”
“You are not wrong. This is why I don’t cook. It’s so much easier to buy things that are made the way I like and ready to eat.”
They got to the front of the line and Kelly ordered her favorite—buttermilk cheddar on sourdough with bacon and avocado. Just thinking about it made her mouth water. Donovan ordered a pizza melt with loads of mozzarella and pepperoni on a panini. They got their sandwiches and found a picnic table to sit down and eat.
“So where did you learn to cook? The military?” Kelly asked.
“No, not the military. I’m not sure I would be as good if I had learned to cook for a bunch of hungry marines. My mom taught me. She loved cooking so much, she was the kind of person who woke up in the morning and while she made breakfast, she’d start planning what she was going to make for dinner.”
“I don’t even think about what I’m making for dinner when I’m making dinner.”
Donovan coughed a laugh into his fist. “You have to be exaggerating how terrible you are in the kitchen.”
“I don’t believe you aren’t good at everything and you don’t believe I’m as bad as I claim. That’s funny.” Kelly’s cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. “Maybe you can show me how to make something I can’t mess up. If I manage to make something edible on my own, it will prove I’m right about you and you’re right about me. We would both have to admit that you are good at everything and I am not as bad as I think I am. If I bomb, then you are right about you and I am right about me.”
The space between his brows wrinkled. “The way your mind works both fascinates and scares me at the same time.”
“I think that’s the perfect way to find out who’s right about who.”
Donovan leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “You could purposely ruin the dinner just to be right about yourself.”
“True,” Kelly admitted. “But then I would be wrong about you being amazing at everything. If you can’t teach me to cook, I have found your weakness. The beauty of this is either way, we’ll both be right and both be wrong. We’ll just find out about what.”
“Okay...” He took a sip of his soda and tipped the cup in her direction. “I accept this challenge.”
“What are you going to teach me to cook?” She was excited by the possibilities.
“You have to give me some time to think about it. I have to carefully consider my options so I don’t fail...or you don’t fail. Wait, who do I want to fail?”
It was nice to see him loosened up. She didn’t like it when he was all business. “Let’s hope no one fails, I guess.”
“I’m not sure I totally understand what we’re doing,” he said with a chuckle.
Kelly couldn’t stop staring at him. He had very masculine features. He had a broad nose and a heavy brow. His prominent chin was square and his jaw strong. In contradiction to all that manliness, his eyes were soft. In the sunshine, they were more green than brown. Hazel was such an interesting eye color. It was like he was a chameleon, able to change color based on his surroundings.
Donovan dropped his gaze. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Your eyes. They’re so interesting.”
“My eyes are interesting? Have you looked in a mirror? Ever?”
Kelly rolled hers. “I know, I know. Mine are unusual.”
“They’re gorgeous.”
His word choice made her cheeks flush. “Thank you. Some people think it makes me look cold. I always hear people say they look like ice. Yours are so warm. I’m jealous.”
“I don’t think they make you seem cold. Anyone who would judge you based on your eye color is missing out because you are quite the opposite. I’ve listened to you on the radio the last couple days, seen the way you interact with people. You don’t need to be jealous of my eyes. You are a warm person.”
Kelly took the last bite of her sandwich. This was why she was terrible at finding the right person. She found herself attracted to men who were wrong for her. Donovan was a perfect example. She was having these “feelings,” but he was a cop for goodness’ sake! Kelly would never end up with a cop. Never.
* * *
THE FARMERS MARKET was crowded on a late Friday afternoon. Donovan felt pressured to pay attention to everyone walking by the booth whether they stopped to talk to Kelly or not. If her stalker was there, he might not approach her but rather admire her from afar.
Anyone wearing a red Alabama hat got an extra once-over. Guys with red hair did, too. It was frustrating to have such limited information. He wasn’t sure those two leads were even useful. In reality, Kelly’s stalker could be anyone.
“Is that who I think it is?” Kelly asked as a man in a T-shirt and khaki shorts strolled past.
The blond turned and smiled. “Kelly Bonner, what are you doing here?”
“Promo for the station. Did you get a Friday night off from Johnny’s? Who’s going to bring me my food if I order from there tonight?”
“You would have been disappointed if it wasn’t me?”
Donovan stepped a bit closer. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes were glued to this guy. Medium build. No distinguishing features.
“Of course I would!” Kelly replied. “You always remember to bring me extra ketchup.”
“Glad to know I’m making a difference in the world,” he said with a flirtatious grin.
All of Donovan’s internal alarms went off. This was the delivery guy Kelly had talked about. He obviously was a bit infatuated with her. He claimed not to know she was there, but he could have easily lied to make it look like their meeting was coincidental.
“Want to spin the wheel and win a prize?” Kelly offered.
“Nah, that’s okay, but can I get a selfie?” He held up his phone. “I need somethi
ng interesting to post on Instagram and you’re kind of a local celebrity.”
Kelly didn’t hesitate. “I don’t know about being a celebrity but absolutely, we can take a picture.” She came around the table and slipped her arm around his waist.
“Let me get one for the station, too,” Donovan said, thinking on his feet. He could take the photo back to the station and see if Juliette recognized the man.
“Oh, good idea!” Kelly’s intern chimed in. “We can put it up on social media.”
Donovan took a couple and made sure he had a clear shot of the man’s face.
“It was good to see you, Hunter. I’m sure I’ll be ordering from Johnny’s soon and hopefully you’ll show up at my door with extra ketchup.”
Hunter seemed thrilled by that idea. “For sure.”
“I can take everything back to the station, if you want to head home,” Trish said to her. Donovan gave Kelly the please-take-her-up-on-that look because it meant he could get home sooner than later, as well.
Thankfully, she accepted her offer and suggested they take turns each Friday returning their stuff to the station. He respected that Kelly had no ego about her. She saw herself as equal to the station’s intern even though it was likely others would have taken advantage of the young woman’s willingness to please without a second thought.
“What are we going to do once I get my car back?” Kelly asked as they made their way to the parking lot.
“I can follow you or you can keep riding with me. Whatever you want to do.”
“You’re giving me a choice?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he questioned.
“When both your parents are police officers and your uncle is a police captain, you get used to always following other people’s rules.”
No wonder she was always trying to assert her independence. “I’m not here to give you rules. As long as I can do my job, you can do things however you want.”
Donovan’s phone chimed with a text. It was Graham wondering when he was coming home and if he was still making dinner or if he would pick up dinner so they could eat right away. Someone was hungry.
“Everything okay?”
“Graham’s starving and needs food. Now.” It was amazing how someone half Donovan’s size could eat as much as he did.
“Growing boy. How tall was his dad?”
“Ollie was a beast. Six foot three and built like a truck.” Donovan and Ollie had served together in Afghanistan and became friends. It was their friendship that led to Jessica and Ollie meeting and falling in love.
“There you go. He must be growing. Before you know it, he’ll be bigger than you.”
“I’m not ready for that.” Donovan shook his head. “I’m not ready for a lot of things. It’s hilarious that you think I’m this guy who has everything figured out, when I really have no idea what I’m doing half the time. My sister trusted me with the two most important things in her world and I pray every day that I don’t mess them up.”
Kelly stopped and so did he. She placed a hand on his arm. “Graham and Avery are two great kids. You would have to work hard to mess them up.”
“I hope you’re right.” He kept telling himself he only had a couple of years left with Graham to do any major damage and Avery was the most well-adjusted child on the planet.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to teach me how to cook?” she asked once they got in the truck.
“I’m going to show you how to make my mom’s specialty—goulash.”
“Gou-what?”
“Goulash. It’s a Hungarian stew made with macaroni.”
“Aha! I know what macaroni is. You may be surprised, but I have successfully made mac and cheese once.”
The only surprising thing about that was she’d only succeeded once. “How many times did you try to make it and fail?”
“I lost count. Did you know that if you overcook noodles they basically melt together like a disgusting paste? And if you don’t cook them long enough, they crunch when you bite into them. Also disgusting, by the way.”
Donovan couldn’t keep a straight face. “You are a complete wonder.”
“Maybe under your guidance, I’ll become the best goulash maker in the world.”
“Let’s not get carried away. I thought it only had to be edible.”
Kelly’s laughter filled the cab of the truck. He liked the way her eyes crinkled at the edges when she laughed. “You do not get to be the judge, by the way. I need impartial judges. The kids are going to have to eat what I make and give me their honest opinion.”
“My kids?” The warning bells in his head went off again. “You think Avery is an impartial judge? You could rob a bank and Avery would still think you were the nicest person she knows.”
“Kids have a hard time pretending to like something that tastes terrible. You know it’s true.”
He couldn’t deny it. Even when they were trying to be nice, their faces gave their true feelings away. “You’re right. They would be the only ones to give it to you straight.”
When they got to her building, Donovan went in with her to check her apartment. She didn’t have a very big place. It was a two-bedroom, but Kelly used the second room as a cluttered office. The cleanest room in the house was the kitchen, probably because it never got used the way it was supposed to.
“All clear,” he said, joining her in the hall where he had her wait.
“Well, you enjoy your weekend off duty. I’ll be hiding in my apartment all weekend since I can’t be wandering around town with my superfan looking for me.”
Just like the last time the bells went off and the time before that, he ignored them. He couldn’t leave her trapped in her apartment all weekend. “Maybe you could come over and learn how to make goulash tomorrow night.”
“Are you sure?”
“I think I need to look into your little delivery guy friend before I leave you here with no other way to feed yourself.”
“Hunter? He couldn’t be. He’s a nice guy. He’s not stalker material.”
“Why? Because he just ‘happened’ to run into you tonight? He had no idea you were there even though you’ve been talking about it on the radio for a couple days?”
Kelly’s face fell. He didn’t mean to make her feel bad for being a bit naive, but he needed to point out to her how easily it could be anyone she knew.
“It was sort of weird that he wanted a picture. What if I encouraged him without meaning to?”
“Let me look into him. Come over tomorrow and cook. We can even throw in some self-defense training if you want.”
“That sounds...perfect,” Kelly said. “Thanks for everything this week. I appreciate all that you’ve done to keep me safe.”
Donovan gave her a single nod. He held the door open for her and wished her a good evening. He waited until he heard the click of the lock, letting him know she was safely inside for the night.
It wasn’t often that he didn’t cook dinner. Tonight seemed as good a night as any to splurge on some fast food instead. A couple burgers, some chicken nuggets and three french fries weren’t going to break the bank. Jessica would approve as long as they ate it around the dinner table.
“So how was your day?” he asked Avery once they were all settled.
“I had a spelling test and I got them all right. Some of the words had four letters in them.”
“Nice job.” Donovan held up a hand for a high-five. Avery slapped it hard.
“You’ll be spelling words like constitution and bibliography before we know it,” Graham said before shoving half his burger in his mouth.
“What’s a biblinographney?” Avery asked with a mouth full of french fries.
Donovan looked to Graham. “I have no idea. It’s part of a book or something?”
“It’s like the works cited
when you write a report. A list of all the books you used for reference.”
“That’s right,” Donovan said, trying to play it off. “I knew that.”
“Sure you did,” Graham said with an obvious air of sarcasm.
“Did you keep Kelly safe today from the mean guy?” Avery asked.
He’d been home ten minutes and she was already asking about Kelly. “I did.”
“How come she didn’t come over for dinner tonight?” Avery’s questions persisted. “Doesn’t she like french fries?”
Donovan assumed Kelly would have loved some french fries given that she had no issue scarfing down a basket of tater tots with her grilled cheese sandwich this afternoon. “She had to go home after work today, but she’s coming over for dinner tomorrow.”
“Yay!” Avery cheered.
“Again?” Graham questioned.
Donovan couldn’t tell if he was asking because he was surprised or upset. He knew he shouldn’t be bringing her over again, but he kept doing it anyway. If either of the kids had an issue with it, he’d have to cancel.
“Is that a problem?”
“No, I’m glad. I wanted to ask her something, so it’s cool.”
Cool? That wasn’t a word Graham used very often to describe anything that Donovan had to do with.
“What did you want to ask her?”
“If I wanted you to know, I would have asked you,” Graham said. “I want to ask Kelly, not you. It’s private.”
“Well, I’m your guardian and if you need to talk to another adult about something, I should probably know what it is.”
“It’s about girls. Do you know about girls? Are you a girl?” he sassed.