Still, they were friends. And he was asking for her help. In fact, he was offering her another paying gig—and if she wanted to take two courses next semester, she could use the extra money.
I’m in! she texted back ever so breezily when she felt exactly the opposite. And thanks, she added.
Thank YOU, was his response.
If only there was a magic spice or ingredient she could add to the food to make Xander Crawford fall for her.
* * *
Okay, she couldn’t help it. C’mon, how could she? Of course Lily found an excuse to hustle over to the Maverick Manor to check out this Heidi who was too nice for Xander Crawford. She was sure Heidi would be a plain-Jane type like her. Then she’d know that it wasn’t her so much as her look that didn’t attract Xander, and maybe she’d feel better.
It’s not you, it’s me. It’s not me, it’s you. Who the hell knew?
Big sunhat pulled down low, red hair tucked up under, Lily dashed into the Manor and stood behind the giant vase of wildflowers. She glanced around the lobby for her brother. No sign of him. She was glad there was no sign of Xander, either—on a date with another woman.
She dashed into the kitchen and peered through the Out door into the dining room.
There. Table eleven by the window. Her brother was smiling and chatting. And facing him was...America’s Next Top Model.
Or close to it.
What? This was Xander’s “it didn’t work out but she’s nice”? Heidi was tall and busty, Lily noted, wearing a pretty yellow sundress with a flounce near her knees. She had on high-heeled sandals. And if Lily wasn’t mistaken, sparkly baby blue toenails. She also had long honey-brown hair in perfect beachy waves.
Lily watched as Heidi laughed at something her brother said and reached over and touched his arm. Andrew could not look happier.
If this woman wasn’t Xander Crawford’s type, then who was? Certainly not Lily Hunt.
It was time to give up on him. Cook his family dinner for the celebration, teach him to cook those three favorite dishes, make some money for her future and then move on.
“Lily? Someone called you?” her boss, Gwendolyn, said, rushing over to her. “Great! If you could whip up three filets, subbing the baked for the rice pilaf, that would be great.”
Before Lily could say a word, Gwen, wearing her frantic expression, was heading over to Jesse Gold’s station, but the cook was nowhere to be found. Gwen flipped a filet mignon and poured béarnaise sauce on it, letting the flames sear it. “Jesse was turning green and almost fell over, so I sent him home. We’re booked tonight, so even me pitching in here won’t be enough.”
“I’m on it,” Lily said, whipping off her hat and declaring the filet done and plating it.
This was good, actually. Being so busy would keep her from thinking about Xander and his horde of dates. Beautiful dates.
“Hey, Lily!” AnnaBeth said with a smile as she came in from the dining room. “Your brother’s here on a hot date. He’s having the filet special, she’s having the lemon sole. Oh, and she’s from South Dakota, by the way. Gonna work your magic on her fish? Is South Dakota famous for anything?”
Lily immediately thought of chislic, like shish kebabs but without the vegetables. Just delicious little chunks of salted meat on tiny skewers. They hadn’t ordered appetizers, but she’d make up a small dish of chislic for them from a filet mignon that Gwen said had ended up searing too long when Jesse had been distracted by not feeling well.
She worked fast and had a little plate ready in no time. “Here,” she told AnnaBeth. “You can tell table eleven this is compliments of the chef.”
“Ooh, that looks delicious,” AnnaBeth said.
Lily smiled and got back to work, starting on Heidi’s sole now that her brother’s filet was at the rare mark. By the time the sole was done, the steak would be perfectly medium.
“Uh, Lily?” AnnaBeth said, rushing over with the plate of chislic. It was untouched. “Your brother’s date took one look at this and said ‘Excuse me,’ and ran out of the dining room. I think she might be in the restroom.”
“Oh no. The dish upset her?”
AnnaBeth bit her lip. “I think so.”
Lily plated the entrées and then dashed to the window on the door, AnnaBeth on her heels. Her brother looked worried. He kept glancing toward the arched doorway that led into the lobby.
Oh God. Had she ruined their date? Had “home” brought up bad memories for Heidi?
She had to get back to her station and work on her orders. She had another waitress with four tables that had recently been seated, and she needed to be on point.
They raced back over to Lily’s station, AnnaBeth putting the two dishes on the elegant serving tray. “I’ll try to find out what’s happening.”
Lily didn’t add her special ingredients to the next three tables of orders she’d received from Holly, the other waitress in Lily’s section. Maybe she should mind her own business. She shouldn’t even be here at all. Now thanks to her nosy ways, she’d wrecked her brother’s date when it had clearly been going very well.
She made two of the special pasta entrées, got three more filets going and two more lemon soles, forcing herself to focus on her work and not her urge to rush back to the little window to see if anyone was still at her brother’s table.
AnnaBeth came back into the kitchen with her empty tray.
“Is the food just sitting out on the table getting cold?” Lily asked.
AnnaBeth smiled. “Nope. In fact, come take a look.”
Lily’s eyes widened and she rushed back over to the window. Her brother and Heidi now sat side by side at the round table instead of across from each other. Heidi was holding up a piece of her lemon sole to her brother’s mouth, and he took the bite. Heidi then picked up her napkin and dabbed Andrew’s lips, and then they both laughed and held each other’s gazes.
She had no idea what had happened, but she was glad it had!
Lily’s phone pinged with a text. Probably Xander canceling on hiring her for the party.
She glanced at her phone on the counter. No—the text was from Andrew. Her brother had practically typed a novel.
Heidi’s freshening up in the restroom so just a YEEHA! that you ended up working tonight and made that little SD appetizer for her! Turns out her mom died last year and always used to make chislic every Sunday for family dinner. She got all emotional and excused herself but I found her in the lobby and told her about Mom passing and how Dad still makes her crawdaddy mac and cheese and corn bread every Sunday for us, even though his corn bread is awful, and how we feel her with us. We talked about our moms for a while and then it was like we’d known each other forever. We’re going out again tomorrow night! You rock, Lil. Don’t know how you do it but I’m glad you do.
Huh. She sent back a heart emoji, her own heart bursting with happiness for him and for herself, since she hadn’t ruined his night after all. Au contraire.
At least one Hunt’s love life was going in the right direction.
Chapter Five
Xander had exhausted his excuses for checking to see if Lily “needed help” during the past hour that she’d been in Ambling A’s kitchen. She’d let him help make the béarnaise sauce for the filet mignon, which had smelled amazing, and also peel potatoes, which he’d found less fun, and then she’d shooed him out to be with his family.
Something was different between them, he thought. She was being kind of...distant. Treating him as if he were a client instead of... Instead of what? Someone she was close to?
A friend?
Why couldn’t he seem to get a grip on where he was with Lily? He should be happy she was treating him like a client instead of a crush—if that was what he should call it. In the past week, hadn’t he gone out with three women, one set up by Viv Dalton, two who’d asked him out in town, to
restore order to his head?
And despite making it clear to Viv that she should set him up with only airheads who giggled, she’d arranged a date with a perfectly nice, intelligent, interesting woman named Heidi whose family had moved to Montana from South Dakota last year. They’d had a lot to talk about, and she’d looked a little surprised when he’d said at the end of the date that he was going to be honest and tell her he wasn’t looking for a relationship with anyone and that he knew a great guy who was, if she was interested. Heidi said she trusted his opinion, and voilà, she and Lily Hunt’s brother Andrew were on date number three right now, third night in a row.
The other two women he’d gone out with had been more his type. One giggled even when she’d backed her car—she’d insisted on driving since she had a little two-seater she liked zipping around in—into the sheriff’s SUV. Then she giggled as the sheriff, who didn’t look remotely amused, gave her a Breathalyzer test. They hadn’t had an ounce of alcohol to drink at that point, but afterward, Xander could have used a few bottles of whiskey to get through the next hour of dinner. He’d turned down her suggestion of a nightcap in her condo, seen her safely home and then walked back two miles toward town, where luckily his brother Wilder had been passing by in his truck and given him a ride back to the ranch. Man, had Wilder had a good laugh all the way home.
Xander had wanted to cancel the next night’s date, but then he remembered how he’d refused to let Lily get canceled on, so he’d forced himself out with Dede, who was the cheerleading coach for the high school and had a bad habit of screaming “Whooooo!” whenever she was excited about something, holding her arms straight up in the air and shaking imaginary pom-poms. She wasn’t an airhead at all, it turned out, and luckily, she’d ended the date early, sobbing that she’d only asked him out to make her ex jealous and they’d walked right past the guy in the restaurant she’d known he’d be eating in with his family and he hadn’t even blinked.
Dating and relationships sure were hell.
“Go on,” Lily said now, making shooing motions with her hands. “I’m fine in here. It’s my habitat, remember?”
He nodded and smiled but wanted to stick around. Find out what she’d been up to the past few nights since he hadn’t gotten a chance to pop in on her. But her focus was on the heap of steaks and potatoes and asparagus smelling so incredible.
Go, he ordered himself, everything in him resisting leaving the room. “Holler if you get lonesome in here by yourself.”
“The kitchen is the one place I never feel lonely,” she said, locking eyes with him.
He held her gaze, something—hell if he knew what—spinning up inside him. He couldn’t move his feet, couldn’t look away.
But then she was shaking the pan with the asparagus, and turning down the burners on the steaks, and he took one last good look at her profile, the freckles on her nose and cheeks, before slipping out, his chest heavy.
The laughter and loud chatter in the living room grabbed his attention as he headed in, the Crawfords all congregated for the party to celebrate another piece of the Ambling A coming together, becoming home.
Hunter sat with his six-year-old daughter, Wren, on his lap, her long blond hair in two of the most crooked braids Xander had ever seen. Hunter had been mother and father to his sweet little girl since Wren was born, and Xander had to hand it to him for doing such a great job. He braided hair and packed day-camp lunches, and stayed up all night when Wren was sick or had bad dreams. The guy had a lot on his shoulders. Sometimes Xander wondered how he’d do as a father—not that he had any plans to become one anytime soon.
It was crazy how even when you picked the right woman, as Hunter had done with his late wife, your whole life could go belly-up. It was a sober reminder that Xander was 100 percent correct not to get serious about a woman.
Sharing the big couch with Hunter and Wren were Logan and Sarah, Sarah playing some kind of clapping game with her adored niece. Finn was deep in conversation with Wilder in the two club chairs across from the love seat where Xander sat with Knox, who was deep in thought—as usual. Meanwhile, his father sat in his space-age recliner with features that turned on lights and the television, and massaged his back and neck.
“Well, Crawfords,” Max said with a drawn-out shake of his head, “I must say I’m disappointed to see that there’s only one lovely woman joining us for dinner tonight. By this point, I expected at least half of you to be seriously involved.”
“Can we not alk-tay about this in front of En-Wray,” Hunter muttered through gritted teeth, nodding his head at his six-year-old daughter.
“I know pig latin, Daddy,” Wren said with a grin.
Xander laughed. “And there are three lovely women at the table tonight, so there’s your quota, Dad. Sarah, baby Sophia and Wren.”
His father’s gaze moved from Logan’s wife and baby to Hunter’s little girl, and he grinned. “I stand corrected. But still!”
“Don’t you mean four?” Sarah asked. “Isn’t Lily joining us for dinner?” She glanced around at faces but lingered on Xander’s.
“Of course she is,” Max said, slapping his knee. “That talented chef did all the hard work—she should get to sit down and relax and enjoy her own masterpiece.”
“I agree,” Sarah said with a smile. “In fact, I’ll go put a place setting out for her. Be right back.”
Seat her next to me, Xander wanted to tell Sarah, but of course he couldn’t. He watched her dash into the kitchen.
Five long minutes later, Lily came out of the kitchen holding a platter of steaks that smelled so good everyone went silent for a moment. Sarah was right behind her with a tray of big bowls holding roasted potatoes and asparagus. Xander hopped up and asked if he could help bring anything out, but Lily smiled and said this was everything.
Then she glanced around and looked kind of uncomfortable and said, “Sorry that I’m not exactly dressed for a dinner party. I really just expected to be in the kitchen, not joining you.”
“What?” Max said, eyeing her. “You look just like the rest of us. One of the boys.”
Oh, Dad, Xander thought. Enough with the asides.
Lily bit her lip and awkwardly smiled, shifting a glance to Sarah, who was casually dressed but not quite to the degree Lily was. Lily wore a red scoop-neck T-shirt with a white apron over it, loose jeans and blue sneakers, her red hair back in a ponytail.
Luckily everyone else was focused on the aroma and platters and trooped into the huge dining room, Max taking his place at the head of the long farmhouse table. Xander took a seat down at the other end to avoid any marriage-oriented conversation his father might start up. Logan and Sarah sat across from him, baby Sophia sleeping in her carrier on the hutch along the far wall.
Lily took a seat right beside him.
“First, a toast,” Max said, raising his wineglass. “To the Ambling A and all the hard work you boys have put into turning this place into a home. I couldn’t be prouder of you. I’ll include myself in there, since I’m out there busting these old bones every day, too.”
They all laughed and raised their glasses, clinking.
“And thank you to Lily, our chef for the evening, for this amazing dinner,” Max added.
There was more clinking.
“My pleasure,” Lily said. “Well, everyone, bon appétit!”
Platters and bowls were passed around, everyone commenting on how good everything looked.
“Oh, and Lily,” Max said, “I have to apologize for my son Knox and all that brouhaha with your date. But it looks like things worked out just fine. I mean, here you are, sitting next to Xander at a family dinner.” He winked and loaded his plate with potatoes.
“Really, Dad?” Knox said with a shake of his head. “And no need to do my apologizing for me. I spoke to Lily privately in the kitchen right after she arrived.”
Xander had noti
ced Knox go into the kitchen and come out a couple minutes later. He’d figured his brother was making amends.
Lily’s cheeks were as red as her T-shirt. “Xander and I are just friends.”
“Just friends,” Xander seconded.
“Ah, so we can talk about all the dates you went on this past week,” Wilder said. “Any work out?”
“Come on, Xan,” his father said. “Tell me you have one second date.”
Was it his imagination or was Lily pushing her potatoes around on her plate, her expression both grim and forced pleasant?
“Let’s leave Xander’s private life to himself,” Sarah said. “You boys. Seriously!”
“Yeah, let’s listen to Sarah,” Xander agreed, wanting to hug her.
“Fine, fine,” Max said. “Now, Lily, I hear you have three brothers, so you’re used to all this testosterone.”
Lily laughed. “Definitely.”
The conversation thankfully turned to stories about the Hunt brothers and the Crawford brothers, both matched for mischief.
“Oh, Lily,” Hunter said. “I’m really sorry but Wren and I won’t be able to make your kids’ cooking class tomorrow afternoon. I forgot I promised a friend I’d help him move. Wren was really looking forward to it.”
“Aww,” Wren said, looking pretty sad. “Now I won’t know how to make tacos.”
“Well, I’ll be hosting more kids’ classes,” Lily assured her. “The next one is for kids a bit older than you, Wren, but I’ll have another one for your age group in September. That’s just a month away.”
Xander recalled Lily mentioning she taught cooking classes at the town rec center, but he hadn’t known Hunter and Wren signed up. “Why don’t I take my niece to the class?” he said. “I’m free tomorrow afternoon. And then I get to spend some time with my favorite six-year-old.”
And Lily, he thought.
“Yay!” Wren said. “I want to learn how to make tacos! I love tacos!”
Rust Creek Falls Cinderella Page 6