“Glad Flo took the sale well. Sometimes, people don’t respond well to outsiders.” Not that he could complain much. The townsfolk had taken him under their wing almost as soon as he arrived. He had Harry to thank for that.
“She was lovely. It’s comforting really. I see it in her eyes.”
“What’s that?”
“Seeing she loves the diner and cares about what happens to it. Those kind of employees are hard to come by.”
Her sincere positivity warmed his heart. Without realizing it, she’d shown herself to be a polar opposite from the dripping sarcasm he’d grown up with. “That’s one way to look at it and you’re right. Flo’s been at the diner for a long time.”
“I hope she and I can work well together for the benefit of the place. The only thing harder than finding dedicated employees is finding supervisors who appreciate and respect them.” She grit her teeth at those last few words. After running her fingers through her dark hair, Gabriella shook her head. “Sorry, my former boss was…difficult to work with.”
“He was a thieving ass.” Trinity mumbled before shaking her head in frustration. “And his daughter was…was…”
“We don’t have to deal with either one of them anymore.”
Is that why you’re in Marietta? As much as he wanted to ask, he wouldn’t. At least not tonight. Slapping his hands together, Kyle stated, “Ready?”
“For what?”
“Said I’d give you a tour.”
Reaching across the seat, Gabriella gave his hand a quick squeeze. “That would be lovely.”
“I don’t mean to be snarky, but I’m guessing this isn’t going to be a long tour.” With a shrug, Trinity pulled out her phone. “I mean the town isn’t all that big.”
“You never know, Trinity. Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Small towns can have a lot of unexpected, wonderful treasures,” Gabriella said.
It took a moment for Kyle to process Gabriella had been staring at him when she’d complimented the town.
Her dark eyes sparkled as the corner of her mouth slightly curled up.
At that moment, he thanked his lucky stars his coat covered his lap. The instant hard-on she gave him with that sweet smile of hers made him adjust in his seat before shifting the car into drive. “Well said.”
With it being a Wednesday night and after eight, along with the frigid temperatures, most of downtown’s businesses were closed with the exception of Grey’s Saloon. The lighted beer signs flashed at them as he slowed at the intersection. “That’s Grey’s. It’s been here since the town was founded in the 1880s. Ephraim Grey opened it and the family has run it ever since.”
In the back seat, he saw Trinity’s eyebrows rise. She glanced out the window and looked up. “Is there an upstairs?”
“Yep. It’s got a pool table and bar up there. A staging area for special events.”
“Eighteen-eighties, huh? A lot of history. Bet that building would say a lot if it could talk.”
Considering it was a bordello at one time, I’d bet it would have plenty to say.
Kyle tucked that comment away. He had no idea how knowledgeable Trinity was about the facts of life. Putting Gabriella in the weird situation of having to explain anything had to be one of the last things he wanted to do tonight.
Not great first date protocol.
He pointed buildings out as they drove, popping back a couple of peppermints he kept in his cup holder. “That’s the western wear store. You can get some nice clothes in there.”
Gabriella nodded. “Not too far from the diner.”
“My friend Harry—” The man’s name came out like glass against his throat. He cleared it. “Harry’s sister, Joanie, runs it. You might want to ask her about some heavier clothes.”
“Oh, you think we’ll need more than what you gave us?”
He chuckled. “It’s cold like this for another few weeks.”
“Wow. This is a lot different from Texas.” Trinity glanced out the windows. “It’s bluebonnet season there now.”
Remembering the fields of rich blue flowers that could be found all through the Texas Hill Country and beyond, Kyle nodded. “That’s right. Blankets of them, if I recall.”
“Yes.”
“Ever drawn any, Trinity?”
“Oh yes! I have some here in my book. I’ll show them to you when we get back.”
“Looking forward to it.” As she shuffled through her drawings, he took his time driving, pointing out the businesses down Main Street that either of the women might find interesting. “There’s the bookstore, Java Café, nail place, chocolate shop. Up here on the right are the school district offices, the elementary, junior high, and high schools.”
Motioning toward the high school, Gabriella leaned forward. “There weren’t too many cars in the parking lot this morning when we drove in.”
He realized he hadn’t let go of her hand and she hadn’t pulled away. His heart rate jumped. “The high school starts after eight here because of the roads needing to be cleared in the winter. No point always having to call a delayed school start.”
“So you get to sleep in a bit.” Gabriella looked over her shoulder at her daughter. When Gabriella moved, the subtle floral scent of her hair floated in the air and tickled his nose.
He inhaled and blissed out on the fragrance.
“Well, that’s one good thing.” The teen nodded.
Stopping at 5th and Main, Kyle asked, “You’re in high school, right, Trinity?”
A reluctant nod from the back seat. “I’m a freshman.”
Gabriella cleared her throat. “Trinity’s birthday is in the summer, so it looks like she’s a year younger than a lot of her peers, but she’s in all Pre-AP classes.”
“An artist and a scholar, huh?” Kyle glanced in his rearview mirror. “Good for you.”
As they passed one of the streetlights, he noticed Trinity’s grin from his compliment. At least she had a good sense of humor. “I can hear the school bells go off from the fire station.”
“Eight will come early, especially when it’s this cold.”
Kiddo, you have no idea what it’s like in the dead of winter. Saving those tips for another conversation, he pointed. “The gas station, and here we have fire and police stations.”
A sudden giggle escaped his front-seat passenger. “Sorry, you’re a fireman, right?”
“Yes, and a paramedic.”
Gabriella shifted in her seat. “How interesting.”
“Something like that. There’s Tyler Carter’s gym across the street where a lot of us work out.”
Gabriella craned her neck. “Police station next door.”
“Speaking of art, can I buy art supplies anywhere around here?” Trinity’s fingers drummed on the door handle.
“To the left here, Big Z’s hardware store will have some of your stuff. Basics, but for the canvases and specific brushes, you’d have to order online or drive to Bozeman.”
“There’s Big Z’s coming up on the left.” During their slow tour, Kyle pointed out the Chinese food place, the movie theater, pizza parlor, and the Graff Hotel.
“That’s the Graff, huh?” Gabriella leaned close enough to the passenger window that Kyle could see her quick puffs of breath on the glass. “Paige showed me pictures. She said it had a major overhaul. Supposed to be beautiful inside.”
“Maybe I could take you there, sometime.” Dammit, Cavasos. Quit being weird. You don’t pressure a woman you’ve got trapped in your car for another date.
“I would like that.” A gentle squeeze from her hand sent shockwaves through his body.
Maybe it’s not so weird.
Carefully, he turned onto Court Street as a gust of wind whipped between the buildings, shaking the car. “This storm is going to be ugly.”
“Is it supposed to snow?” The girl’s eyes were wide with anticipation. “I mean, I know it’s ridiculously cold and all, but I’ve never seen snow fall before.”
“Looks like som
eone’s adding powdered sugar to everything.” Without thinking, he turned on Church and slowed before turning at the intersection of Church and 2nd.
Trinity’s head popped out from the oversized coat collar like a turtle does from its shell. She looked out the opposite window and pointed. “What’s Harry’s House?”
Swallowing hard, Kyle lingered at the stop sign. The makeshift, windbeaten poster board sign sat on a stake at the bottom of the steps. The streetlight’s glow was just enough to see it at night. “It’s going to be a center for kids. Serve breakfast, after-school snacks; there’ll be classes, study groups.”
“They didn’t have anything like that back home. I just hung out in my grandmother’s salon after school a lot of the time.”
The subtle excitement in the teen’s voice brought a smile to Kyle’s face.
With no one else around, Kyle backed up and easily parallel parked in front of the building. “Wanna go in?”
The two women couldn’t unbuckle their seats fast enough.
Once inside, Kyle flipped on a few lights. “These are the original hardwoods.”
“It’s beautiful.” Gabriella gasped. “Mind if I look around? I won’t touch anything.”
“Sure.” The faint smell of dust lingered in the crisp air.
Slowly, she wandered through the rooms with child-like wonder. “This is going to be amazing.”
“The kids in town need a place, especially during the winter.” He followed her, intrigued by her interest in an old, remodeled house.
Trinity tapped the doorframe with her knuckles. “More drab brown paint. They must have had a sale.”
“That’s gonna change. If you want to see the colors we’re using, I’ve got the paint colors upstairs.”
“Thanks, I’ll go check in a minute. Gonna go look at the kitchen.”
Multiple ladders, sheets of new drywall, buckets of paint and plaster, as well as a large Igloo cylinder water cooler lined the far wall. The windows were delivered yesterday and he’d already separated them into groups for each section of the house.
The increased pounding of his heart echoed in his ears as the joy of anticipation built in his chest. He couldn’t wait to get started on the next phase of the project. Kyle always felt better after he’d fixed something. “You can’t really see it all that well, but the outside trim is green. They’ve painted it already, but I think it needs an extra coat. Inside, it needs a lot of work to get it functional.”
“What do you have to do to get it to code?” As she ran her hands along the walls, Gabriella’s footsteps echoed through the house. “Are you just getting started or finishing…? Oh, just getting started.”
It took him a second to realize she’d asked and answered the question. “How would you know that?”
She tapped the bucket of plaster with her boot. “The seal on those buckets of plaster aren’t broken. You’ve got no trash anywhere. The new windows are still wrapped. Some of those tools look like they’ve never been used.”
Damn, this woman knows about home repair, too? Would there be anything he wouldn’t like about her?
“You know a thing or two about construction?” The subtle floral scent of her hair tickled his nose and caressed his face as they walked into one of the back rooms. With Trinity out of sight, Kyle counted to ten to keep himself distracted enough to not lean in and start nibbling on Gabriella’s perfect earlobe. He swallowed hard when he ran out of numbers.
Be a gentleman. Be a gentleman.
She opened a closet, glanced in, and closed it. “My family knows a thing or two about getting things put together.”
“There are two things you learn about being in Gabby’s family.” Trinity had wandered in.
Kyle looked over his shoulder. “What two things?”
“You learn how to fix things and you learn how to cook.”
“Speaking of cooking, how did you know about barbacoa?”
The amusement in the teen’s voice brought a smile to Kyle’s face. Score one for me. “Other than being stationed in San Antonio?”
“Yes.”
“My grandmother used to make it.”
Gabriella’s eyebrow cocked up. “What’s your last name, again?”
“Cavasos.”
“Cavasos.” A slow smirk spread across her face. “Your father’s mother or mother’s?”
“Father’s.” His maternal grandmother was a loving woman, but she had plenty of help. She probably didn’t even know where the kitchen in her house was.
“You learn to cook too?”
“Nope, I can make one thing. Lemon chicken.”
“It’s better than macaroni and cheese,” Gabriella gave him a wink. “Sounds like you got more on-the-job training about fixing things than cooking.”
“Something like that.” Too bad I’m about the only one out of my siblings who learned.
Trinity approached the wall behind them and swept her hand over it like she held a large paintbrush. “What does Abuela say, Gabby?”
Without pause, the dark-haired beauty replied, “Vengo de una familia muy chambeadora, sin miedo al trabajo.”
Hearing the familiar words float over her full lips just about set his pants on fire. “Which means…” he managed to squeak out.
“Basically, we’re a hardworking family.”
“Does your mother have any other sayings?” It wasn’t until that moment he realized how much he missed hearing the easy tempo of the language his father spoke to him on many occasions. Please talk more Spanish to me.
She faced him. “Sure. Mi abuela era una extraordinaria cocinera y mi abuelo no había nada que no supiera arreglar.”
He watched her lips move as she spoke, loving the way the double rr’s rolled off her tongue. The way the sounds flowed together like melted chocolate.
When her eyes met his, Kyle worried if he got any more turned on, he might bust his zipper. “Translation, please.”
A healthy blush colored her cheeks as the gentle scent of whatever perfume she wore danced around him. Gabriella’s eyes zeroed in on his mouth. “It means—”
“That my grandmother is a great cook and my grandfather can fix anything.” Trinity stepped back still facing the wall as though she were eyeing a canvas.
Nothing like a teen stepping in to kill the mood.
“Thank you, Trinity.”Well, that worked better than a bucket of ice water poured down the front of my pants. Kyle mentally laughed off his libido.
“You’re welcome. I’m gonna go look around some more.” She peeled off her coat and hat, tossing them to Gabriella without asking before leaving the room. “This is very exciting.”
His father’s side spoke Spanish growing up, but since Patrick’s death, Kyle hadn’t kept it up. Now, learning that Gabriella spoke it, he seriously considered digging out that unopened Rosetta Stone language program sitting on his shelf upstairs.
In the meantime, he’d keep asking her questions because the more he learned, the more his addiction for her grew. “Does Trinity speak Spanish, too?”
Adjusting the extra coat and hat in her arms, Gabriella nodded. “She speaks some. I think she can understand it more than she speaks it, but she would do fine in a class at school.”
“She’s a smart kid.”
Gabriella blew out a long breath, kind of like his mom used to do when he’d pushed her to the edge. “She’s a great kid. What’s the budget for this place? Was it bad?”
“Not terrible, but we’re hoping the money we’re raising helps cover all the costs plus some operating expenses.”
She sighed contentedly as she ran a hand along the original wood doorframe, as if this were the most comfortable place for her to be. “Really, what are y’all doing to raise money?”
His lust continued to climb as he watched her lovingly trace a line of imperfection in the wood. He had to unzip his coat to make sure he didn’t burst into flames. “There was a bake sale.”
She smirked. “Really? How did that go?”
<
br /> “Decent. They raised over thirty thousand. Covered all the inside remodel.” He motioned toward the hallway. “Show you some more of the place?”
Her eyebrows hit her hairline. “Good grief, thirty thousand? That’s a lot of cupcakes.”
“The guys made it and they auctioned off what was made.”
“Ah, yes, hot guys and cookies. Always a winning combination. What did you make?”
Her compliment took him off guard. “I didn’t make anything. They didn’t ask.”
“Seriously?”
Placing his hand in the small of her back, he walked her into the back room. The large window looked out into the darkened backyard. “Speaking of making things, we’re going to make all this a kitchen back here, extend it from in there. Easier access for cooking classes. More natural light.”
He patted the wall behind them.
She peeked around the corner and cringed. “Those seventies cabinets should be the first to go. They don’t match the tiled countertops at all.”
Narrowing her gaze, she pursed her lips as though deep in thought. She stood in the doorway between the two rooms. “Knocking out part of this wall out will certainly help open the place up. Since it’s load bearing, you can’t knock it all out, but you can certainly remove this middle section. Make an arched opening.”
“Why arched?” His heart raced in anticipation of her answer.
“Because the arch is the strongest structure you can have in a building.”
“Right.” If her daughter weren’t here, he would have kissed Gabriella until they were both naked and screaming each other’s names. She might be under layers of clothes, but Kyle had a pretty good idea how beautiful her curves were.
Clueless to his growing libido, she pointed. “Might want to consider an island where the kids can sit around it, hang out. Good place to do arts and crafts. Cooking classes.”
“Not a bad idea.” I’m gonna have to sit in a snowbank by the end of tonight to get my sheets to lay flat.
“Nice that the appliances are all on one side of the kitchen in there. You don’t have to run new lines to everything. What do you mean they didn’t ask you to bake anything?”
It took him a second to realize she’d returned to the Bachelor Bake-Off. “Didn’t ask me? The Bake-Off? They only needed a few guys.”
Burning with Desire Page 7