“Because you deserve him. And he deserves to end his dating drought. But mostly because you’re going to make really beautiful babies.”
Eve blinked at her. “How did we go from having an affair to having babies?”
Maddy walked to the bed, brought back the blouse she’d picked out, and handed it to Eve. “Affairs can lead to marriage.”
“And then my neighbor can steal my new husband and run off with him and all our money.”
“Pauline did you a favor. But Kenzie’s different.” Maddy finished buttoning the blouse, then handed Eve her coat. “He’s waiting downstairs, and once you see him, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. I swear he’s more nervous than a canary at a cat convention. I don’t think his ‘not dating for years’ was a come-on line at all. He got all spiffed up, and even brought you flowers.”
“He did?”
Maddy nodded, looped her arm through Eve’s, then guided her into the hall. “Promise me you’ll be gentle with him.”
“Are we talking about the same man?”
“We’re talking about the nervous wreck in your kitchen waiting to take out the prettiest girl in the county,” Maddy said, lowering her voice when they reached the bottom of the stairs. “I think you better keep your panties on tonight. If you try jumping his gorgeous bones, you’re liable to give him a heart attack. Why do you think I buttoned your blouse all the way up to your neck?”
Eve felt beads of sweat collecting between her barely confined boobs. She pulled Maddy to a halt in the living room. “I can’t face him. I made a complete ass of myself last night.”
“So did I, but he acted like nothing happened when Sarah and I showed up this evening. He just explained that he had my truck towed here and hid it behind the barn.”
“He did?”
“I really panicked when Rick drove me to where we’d left the truck and it was nowhere to be found. We couldn’t even find where I’d gone off the road.” She preceded Eve into the kitchen. “Here’s your date, completely sober and ready for dinner.”
“These are for you,” Kenzie said, thrusting a bouquet of roses toward her.
“Th-thank you,” she stammered.
Maddy took the roses and handed them to Sarah. “Okay, then,” she said into the awkward silence. “You two go out and have a good time. Sarah and Mrs. B are going to make a batch of fudge, and I’m going to see how much of it Father Daar can eat before he turns green,” she said with a laugh. “I expect you home no later than eleven, and you both had better be sober. Kenzie, did you fill up your gas tank today?” she asked as she ushered them onto the porch and down the stairs.
“Was I supposed to?”
She wagged a finger at him. “Running out of gas in the middle of nowhere is the oldest excuse in the book, and I won’t buy it.”
She opened the passenger door and looked at Eve. “Don’t talk about Parker, politics, or your money problems. Oh, and don’t have anything to drink. There’s probably still enough rum in your system to make an elephant drunk. Get Kenzie to talk about himself.”
She handed Eve her seat-belt buckle as she smiled at Kenzie. “Have fun, you two, and don’t worry about anything here. I’ve got everyone covered,” she said, closing the door and running back to the house.
“Is she always so bossy?” Kenzie asked with a chuckle.
“Sometimes she’s worse.” Eve took a deep breath, figuring she might as well get it out in the open so they could get past it. “Thank you for bringing us home last night.”
He put the truck in gear and headed out the driveway. “You’re welcome. I’m just glad neither of you were hurt when ye went off the road. I’m sorry I can’t say the same for Maddy’s truck. I had a mechanic come look at it today, and he said it probably isn’t worth repairing. Maddy took the news…well, she asked for a large stick, so she could finish it off. Do ye have an idea what she’ll do for transportation now? I offered to buy her a new truck, but she refused.”
Eve’s head snapped toward him. “You offered to buy her a truck?”
He shrugged. “It seemed like a simple solution to her problem.” He glanced at her, his expression concerned. “She has a child, and she shouldn’t be driving an unsafe truck. She borrowed her mother’s car to come here tonight, and it doesn’t appear to be any safer.”
“What was her reaction when you offered to buy her a truck?”
He shot her a sudden grin. “She didn’t say anything for several seconds, then got this really dark look on her face. And then she exploded.”
“I’m not surprised. Maddy might be struggling to make ends meet, what with her ex-husband paying so little child support and her having to help out her mother financially, but she’s very proud.”
“I’m afraid I may have insulted her,” he said, stopping when they reached the main road in Midnight Bay. “Which way?”
“Right. There’s a nice restaurant in Oak Harbor. Don’t worry, I’m sure Maddy appreciates your unusually generous offer. She only exploded because she knew she couldn’t accept it. I’ll share my car with her until she can replace hers, since I have the delivery truck for going back and forth to work.”
“You’re a good friend.” He glanced over, then back at the road. “And you’ll be a good housekeeper for Daar and me, I hope?”
“Mom said she already accepted your offer for both of us.”
“I’d still like to hear it from you.”
Eve finally felt her muscles loosening up. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be a disaster after all. In fact, she might even have a bit of fun.
“Tell me again what my duties will be,” she asked, “besides cooking and cleaning, washing your clothes, and churning butter? Will I have to milk the cow, feed the chickens, and weed the garden?”
He glanced at her sharply, and Eve thought she caught the glimpse of a smile as he looked back at the road. “I have some shirts that need mending.”
“Mom can do that, since I can’t thread a needle without pricking myself. What else? Maybe I can wash your truck once a week? Heck, while I’m at it, I can vacuum it out.”
“I wouldn’t expect ye to clean my truck,” he said, sounding way too serious. “It’s mostly woman’s work that I’m needing. I will milk the cow.”
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but have you been living in a cave all your life?”
He stiffened again. “Excuse me?”
“Nobody says stuff like woman’s work anymore. And even if we are still quite traditional around here, you shouldn’t talk like that if you want to fit in.”
“That’s something else I wish you to do. I need you to help me learn the way of the locals so I don’t stand out.”
She laughed at that. “Then you better get yourself a different truck. This one practically shouts ‘person from away.’”
“It does? Why?”
“Because it costs more money than most people around here earn in two years, and it’s way too clean. How long have you owned it?”
“A little over a month. I bought it when I got my driver’s license. I just got used to how everything works on it; I don’t want a different truck.”
He’d just gotten his license? Maybe that was why he was driving like an old woman. “How long have you been in America?”
“Almost three years.”
“And you just started driving?”
He shrugged. “I had no need to before. So where is this restaurant?” he asked as they drove into Oak Harbor.
“Right there,” she said, pointing to a building sitting on the edge of the harbor. “You can park on the public pier.”
He pulled into an open slot, shut off the engine, and smiled at her. “I hope you’re hungry. Are ye ready to go in, or would you like to walk the pier first?”
“Actually, I’m starved. Let’s walk the pier after.”
Kenzie didn’t know if this date was going well or not, because he didn’t have anything to compare it to. He still couldn’t understand what all the exc
itement was about. In his old time, when a man found a woman he wanted, he simply stole her out from under her papa’s nose.
Kenzie smiled as he walked beside Eve to the restaurant. It was a great compliment to the woman for her future husband to follow her around for months, learning her routine so he could capture her unawares.
But Camry had told him that form of courtship was called stalking today, and would get him arrested.
Kenzie stepped around Eve and opened the restaurant door. She walked inside, slipped off her coat, and handed it to him. Having practiced this with Camry, he hung the coat on a hanger in the foyer, then walked over to the man at the tiny desk. “I would like a table for two, please.”
“Yes, this way,” the man said, picking up two menus and leading them to a nice table in front of a wall of windows, in the middle of several other diners.
“Could we have a table over there?” Kenzie asked. “Against the wall?”
The gentleman looked at him strangely, then led them to the back wall. “Your waiter will be right along,” he said, leaving.
Kenzie pulled out a chair for Eve.
“You didn’t want to enjoy the view of the harbor? I thought you liked being out in the open.”
He took his own seat facing the entrance, and gave a shrug. “Not as much as I dislike being exposed. I’m sorry you’ll be missing the view, but I prefer having a wall at my back.”
She looked around, then returned her gaze to his. “Are you ex-military? Like Special Ops or something?”
“Yes, I was in the military.” Camry had told him that would be the easiest way to explain his strange habits.
“What branch? Air force, army, marines, or navy?”
Camry hadn’t said anything about branches, but those seemed self-explanatory. “Army.” He picked up his menu. “Ye said you were starved. Do you feel like seafood?”
“You can’t come to Rhapsody and not have seafood,” she said, folding her hands on her unopened menu. “I’ll have lobster.”
Kenzie set down his menu. “Me, too.”
“So, back to this housekeeping thing,” she said, taking a roll out of the basket the waiter set in front of her. “How’s the pay work?”
“We’ll each have two of your largest lobsters,” Kenzie told the waiter. “But first bring us each a glass of single malt Scotch, one with ice and one plain.”
“Maddy said no drinking,” Eve reminded him the moment the waiter left.
“Do you always do what Maddy says?”
She sighed, breaking apart her roll. “It does seem to be a new habit of mine.”
“You look lovely tonight, Eve. That blouse brings out the blue in your eyes.”
She narrowed those brilliant blue eyes at him. “Don’t bother trying to butter me up,” she said, slathering butter onto her roll. “My panties are staying on.”
“Panties?”
She waved her knife in the air. “I don’t know what you think you heard us talking about last evening, but my clothing is staying on tonight. So, does the job pay anything besides room and board?” she asked, taking a large bite of her roll.
“I’m not sure what it should pay. I’ll ask Winter when she and Matt arrive.”
“You have company coming?”
“My brother and sister-in-law are bringing down my horses tomorrow. I’d hoped they could stay for several days, but Winter is heavy with child, so they’re only spending the night. She told me women want to be home when they’re nearing childbirth.”
“Where do they live?”
“In Pine Creek.”
“That’s in western Maine, isn’t it?”
“Yes, up in the mountains.”
“How come you didn’t buy a farm near them?” she asked, taking another bite of her roll.
“Because I prefer to live by the ocean.”
She was too busy chewing to comment. He hoped he’d ordered enough food. The waiter brought their drinks, and Kenzie took a large sip of his.
Eve stared at hers.
“Do ye not like good whisky?” he asked.
“Straight? Without mixing something with it?”
“It would be sacrilegious to put anything but ice in whisky. Go on, give it a try.”
She tentatively took a sip, made a face that made him chuckle, and immediately put the rest of her roll in her mouth.
He took her glass, poured the Scotch into his, and waved the waiter back over. “What would you prefer to drink?” Kenzie asked her.
“Pepsi with no ice,” she told the waiter. “Are you going to eat your roll?”
“No, you eat it.”
So…here he was finally, out on an actual date with a woman he wasn’t sort of related to, and he still couldn’t figure out why men voluntarily put themselves through such a trial. He tried to remember the subjects Camry had said were safe.
“There’s a storm coming,” he said.
She stopped chewing. “Tonight?”
“No, in a couple of days,” he told her, tugging the collar of his shirt. Damn, it was hot in here.
She suddenly set down her roll, folded her hands on the table, and smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I get a little cranky when I’m hungry, and I can see you’d rather be anywhere else but here with me. How about if I stop being such a witch, and you just try to relax?”
“I don’t care to be anywhere else. And you’re a long way from being a witch,” he said in complete honesty, picturing some of the old hags he knew. “I’ve especially never met one with your smile.”
She looked at him strangely, opened her mouth to say something, then popped a piece of roll in it instead.
Kenzie sighed. Maybe he would rather be taking a swim in the ocean right now. The evening seemed to go on for eternity, the only high point coming when the waiter set two five-pound lobsters down in front of Eve, and her eyes actually crossed.
Yet she managed to eat nearly all of both of them, which kept their conversation to a minimum. Kenzie ate his two five-pound lobsters and some of hers—except for the tail she carried in a takeout container as they walked out of the restaurant.
“Would you like to stroll on the pier?” he asked, unlocking the doors as they approached the truck.
“Yes, it’s a beautiful night,” she agreed, setting her package inside.
At the pier rail, Kenzie pointed at one of the larger boats tied to a floating dock. “What does that boat fish for?”
“They don’t have scallop draggers in Scotland?”
“None that look like that, exactly.”
“Do you sail, Kenzie?”
“No,” he said, eyeing the sleek sailing yachts moored out in the harbor. “I did travel to the Outer Hebrides once, and quickly learned that I was born in the highlands for a reason. It was not a voyage I ever wished to repeat.”
“Then how come you chose to live by the ocean, instead of in the mountains near your brother?”
“I can appreciate the sea without going on it. Are ye cold, Eve?” he asked, noticing she was holding her coat closed at her throat.
She moved closer, looking up at him, her lips curved into a beautiful smile. “I am getting a bit chilly.”
Now that her belly was full, Eve was focused solely on him—and obviously expecting him to warm her up, and maybe give her a kiss.
He was fiercely tempted to oblige her, his palms itching to touch the soft skin of her face, his fingers twitching with his need to run them through her soft blond curls.
But if he kissed her, he feared he might not stop.
“Then we’ll go to the truck and I’ll turn on the heater. It’s probably time we started home, anyway.”
Her lips parted in surprise; her eyes widened in shock. A blush rose into her cheeks and she suddenly spun away and marched off to his truck.
Kenzie gave a heartfelt sigh of regret, not sure if he was an idiot, or if he might have just saved her life.
Eve stomped up the porch stairs alone, refusing to look back as Kenzie drove out
the driveway toward his ocean campsite. She hoped that the storm he’d talked about came in tonight, and that his tent blew away—with him in it!
Maddy opened the door just as Eve reached for the knob, and stepped outside. “So, how did it go?” she asked, her expression expectant.
Eve pointed at her face. “Do these lips looked kissed?”
Maddy squinted at her mouth. “No, they don’t. So what happened?”
“Exactly nothing,” Eve snapped. “He didn’t touch me—no body contact, not even his hand brushing against mine. And when we went for a walk on the pier after dinner and he asked if I was cold, I gave him the perfect opening to kiss me. And when he pulled up here and put the truck in gear, I just sat there like an idiot, waiting for him to make his move then. When I finally realized it wasn’t going to happen, I got out and slammed the door on his polite ‘Thank you and good night’ without saying a word.”
Maddy was laughing behind her hand. “Oh, God. This has never happened to you before, has it?”
“Will you quit laughing!”
“Either it really has been years for him, or…” Maddy’s expression turned thoughtful.
“Or what?”
“Or he was playing you.”
“How?” Eve said in surprise.
“He knew you intended to jump his bones tonight, and that’s why he didn’t kiss you. Guys know that the best way to reel in a woman is to ignore her.” Maddy shook her head. “How do you think I got pregnant with Sarah? Billy Kimble ignored me nearly our entire senior year, so I jumped him one night when he was coming out of the locker room after hockey practice.”
“Madeline Kimble, you didn’t!”
She shrugged. “I was seventeen and had the hots for the school hockey hero. I didn’t know jock was spelled J-E-R-K.”
“Well, I am never jumping Kenzie Gregor’s bones. I don’t even like him.”
Maddy wrapped her arm around Eve’s shoulders and led her through the door. “Really? Then why are you so pissed off?”
Chapter Nine
Blatantly ignoring Kenzie as he and Father Daar scurried in and out of the barn getting ready for the horses to arrive, Eve kept herself busy by cleaning out the accumulation of junk in her car while she waited impatiently for her mother to get back from her morning walk.
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