Caterina had so many ideas for the restaurant. She’d decided to call it Serendipitous. The boutique hotel would still be Serendipity, but she thought the restaurant should have a separate name, one that went hand in hand with the rest of the complex. And she hoped, no matter how people found out about them, whether through Eliana’s marketing plan, word of mouth, or because they’d stumbled upon Serendipity by happy chance, as their name implied, that they would consider it a wonderful discovery. One they would add to their list of places to return to again and again. Caterina intended to do whatever she could to ensure it, with a creative menu, superior service, and a dining experience that made customers feel pampered. A meal at Serendipitous would indulge the senses and make love to the palate.
As chef and owner, she would have the freedom to flex her culinary muscle, do things she hadn’t been able to do when she worked for someone else. Never again for someone who didn’t value what she could offer, as a chef…or a woman.
But she wouldn’t dwell there. Mitch had been charged with arson and was serving time for his crime. He was lucky to be alive, thanks to Liam, but he’d been seriously burned and would require several skin grafts. Caterina was sorry for his injuries. She didn’t like to think of anyone suffering that much pain, but he’d brought it on himself.
Surprisingly, Eliana and Damien were still an item. Cat wondered if El had finally met her match. From what Cat observed, her commitment-averse sister seemed more interested in the guy with each passing week. Not that Cat objected. Damien seemed like a nice guy. He treated El well, and he was certainly easy on the eyes.
She’d noticed that he didn’t like talking about himself, was adept at redirecting the conversation if asked a personal question, but that was no reason not to like him. Some people were just more private than others. She, of all people, understood that.
Cat’s relationship with Liam had taken a sharp turn as well. One that both surprised and thrilled her. She never would have imagined she could ever fall for him, but it warmed her heart whenever she thought of him and how close they’d become. The Liam she’d gotten to know over the last two months was so different from the man she’d thought he was. Although she’d put up a valiant fight, she’d always been attracted to him. In the beginning, it was purely physical, something she had no control over.
Her body still went into I want to jump that man mode whenever she saw him, but the attraction went so much deeper now. Once they’d put their differences aside, she discovered he was a good man. That was especially obvious when she observed him with his daughter. Cat knew it had to be difficult raising a young daughter on his own, no matter what a great kid Riley was.
Without a partner to consult on child-rearing situations, being a single parent would be a challenge for anyone. Unless you had a live-in nanny or family living close by that could help, you didn’t get to take a break from the responsibility. You were it. Most of the time, she imagined, you had to go with your gut, make a decision, and hope you weren’t screwing the kid up for life.
Her cell rang, and she walked over to the nightstand and picked it up. She smiled when she saw Liam’s name on the screen.
“Hey,” she said. “What’s up?”
“My electrician isn’t going to make it today. He’s got a forty-five-minute drive, and the roads out his way haven’t been cleared. He said he could try to make it over this afternoon if the plows come through, but I told him to forget it. I contacted the crew and told them I was calling the day.”
“Okay. So, there won’t be anyone at the site today?”
“No. I know you’re already upset that we’ve lost a few weeks because of the fire, but one more day isn’t going to make that big of a difference.”
“No, you’re right. I don’t want anyone trying to get here if the roads are bad. They may not have gotten them plowed out here either. We don’t have any guests right now, so I haven’t been downstairs yet to see if the roads are snowed in here.”
Cat wrapped her free hand around her waist and then sat down on the bed. She’d planned to stop by the site that morning to see how far along they were, since she hadn’t been over in almost two weeks. Then, she’d thought she’d go to the new design center that had opened near the mall. She had been wanting to check it out to see if she might get any new inspiration for Serendipity’s dining room, but there was a good chance she’d be stuck at the winery.
“Can I watch a show, Daddy?” Cat heard Riley’s voice in the background.
“Give me a sec, honey. I’m on a work call,” Liam answered her.
A work call? Cat’s heart sighed. She shouldn’t let the comment bother her. Yes, they’d hired him to build Serendipity, so technically this was a work call, but she’d stopped thinking of herself as just his client weeks ago.
Did Liam not want Riley to know he was on the phone with her? He had kept it all business. Hadn’t asked how she was, what she was up to…if she missed him.
Maybe he told his daughter that because he didn’t want her to know there was anything going on between them. Liam had never asked Cat to do anything that included Riley. He’d brought his daughter to the tree-trimming party, yes, and the open house tour, but those were group things. And Cat hadn’t seen Riley since.
“I have to go,” Liam said. “Riley’s daycare is closed today, so I need to scramble up some breakfast for the two of us.”
“Okay,” Cat said, feeling deflated when she realized he had nothing else to say. “Well, thanks for letting me know.”
“Sure thing. I’ll talk to you later.” And then he disconnected, off to do whatever he and Riley did in their private world—a world she increasingly wondered if he had purposely excluded her from.
Had Liam made a conscious choice to keep Riley and her apart because he didn’t want his daughter to know he and Caterina were—what? Dating? In a relationship? Lovers?
Was he afraid they might form a bond he’d rather they didn’t, in case things went sour? The thought drained more wind from her already-punctured mood. She adored the child. She adored the child’s father. But if she wasn’t just looking for a problem where none existed, and it turned out Liam wanted to keep that part of his life separate from her, it might just break her heart.
I’m in love with him. No horns blared. No bells rang. No gasp raced past her lips. It was a quiet truth. One she’d known in her heart for some time. She’d just never said the words so clearly to herself. So, there it was. She loved Liam.
She closed her eyes where she stood. She wanted love. She wanted children, a family. She wanted it with Liam. And Riley was a big part of it. She hadn’t realized the importance of the whole package until that moment. Now that she had, she didn’t want to settle for anything less. What she didn’t know was if Liam wanted the same thing.
“HI, MISS CATERINA!”
Cat looked down into the dancing eyes and smiling face of Liam’s daughter and gaped in surprise.
“Riley! What are you…?” She blinked up at Liam, who stood behind his daughter with an amused grin deepening the creases at the corners of his gorgeous mouth.
“Do you have a snowsuit? Mine’s purple. It’s my favorite color. Do you like it?” Riley spread her arms to reveal a thick purple jacket over purple snow bibs. A pink wool hat, with a purple pom-pom the size of a grapefruit, bounced around on top like a vivacious cheerleader. It was pulled down over her hair and tied below her chin. Pink snow boots with white fur cuffs completed the ensemble.
“I do like it! It’s very you.”
“Daddy said we could build a snowman, and maybe a fort too. He said you and me could be a team, ‘cause he’d probably still slaughter us with snowballs, ‘cause we’re girls.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” Caterina spared Liam an arched brow. “Is that a challenge, mister?”
He shrugged, poked his tongue along the inside of his cheek. “Just telling it like it is, sweetheart.”
Riley giggled. “Are you Daddy’s sweetheart?” She looked from Ca
t to Liam, and back to Cat again, with a smile so hopeful it grabbed Caterina’s heart and squeezed. It also set off a warning sign in her head that blinked: Caution! Danger! Any answer you give could potentially cause harm, including, but not limited to, misunderstanding, anger, loss of boyfriend, and a broken heart.
“It’s just a term,” Liam said, quick to jump in, saving Cat from stuttering out a response neither of them would feel comfortable with. “You know how I call Aunt Becca sweetheart sometimes, and Grams, because they’re girls, and most girls are sweet. Miss Caterina’s a girl, and she’s our friend, and sometimes she’s even sweet.”
Liam flashed Cat a teasing grin. She didn’t see the humor in it. Did he really think of her as just a friend? Or was he covering because he didn’t want his daughter building her hopes too high when it seemed likely, from the way she’d looked between them with that innocent sparkle in her eyes, that Riley already seemed to be forming an attachment to Caterina?
“Sometimes?” Cat decided to roll with it, for Riley’s sake. Now wasn’t the time to ask Liam to clarify his feelings for her. She would though. And soon. He’d stolen her heart. Riley had too. She wanted more than friendship. She wanted forever. If that was an impossible dream, she’d rather wake up to the reality now, deal with it, and move forward.
She wouldn’t make the same mistakes she’d made with Mitch, or any of the other men she’d believed, and trusted, and been wrong about. Her bad. She’d made the choice to overlook, make excuses, and convince herself all was right with her world, even when the threads of doubt had tiptoed around her brain whispering, Are you sure, Caterina?
No, she wouldn’t make the same mistake this time. Because this time, she’d truly, impossibly—damn her if it was already too late—fallen in love with the man. And this time, her heart would be at too much risk if she handed it over completely to a man who wouldn’t cherish it.
“LIAM! STOP!”
His laughter rolled over Caterina as she struggled beneath him. She pushed. She kicked. She balled up her fist, swung wildly, and finally managed to land a hit.
“Ouch! Jesus!” He pulled up with a jerk, rubbed his nose. “Not the face, sweetheart.”
“Oh, what’s the matter, dish it out but can’t take it? Worried I’ll mess up your pretty boy looks?”
“No, damn it. That hurt.”
“Then you shouldn’t have tackled me and shoved snow down my coat.”
“You started it. So, I get to finish it.” Liam picked up a palm full of snow and washed her face with it. Cat sputtered.
“You…you!” She couldn’t think of a good enough word. And it was hard to sound mad when she was laughing between her screams. She tried to reciprocate, clutching up a handful of snow, but he caught her arm and held it down.
“Give,” he said. Amusement sparkled in his eyes like sunbeams on a crystal blue sea. “Admit it. I win. Pledge your allegiance to the new master of Snow Kingdom.”
He jerked suddenly when a snowball hit him square in the chest. He swung his head, narrowed his eyes, then threw his head back and roared.
Riley let out a peal of laughter. He stood up slowly, never taking his eyes from the girl. “I see the snow princess has stolen out from behind the castle walls to try and rescue her queen.”
He began stalking her. Riley squealed in delight as he gave chase. “Queen Precious, help me.” She screamed. “King Evil Ice is after me.”
Cat scrambled up and reentered the fray. After exchanging several volleys, Liam decided to end the game by seizing a laughing Riley and tossing her up in the air, before catching her again and setting her on his hip.
“I’ve got you now, princess. And I think I’m going to lock you in my ice tower, so no handsome princes will ever be able to take you away from me.”
Riley giggled, then planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. A sweet stab of longing pierced Caterina’s heart. Let me have this, she wished. Just let me have this.
“I THINK I can separate an egg.” Liam looked at Cat as if he’d done it a couple of million times and it was no more difficult than blinking, which took no thought or concentration whatsoever.
Cat frowned at him. “Okay, we need three egg whites.” She took the two small glass bowls she’d gotten out for separating the eggs and slid them across the kitchen island toward him.
“Not a speck of yolk,” she said firmly, which earned her an exaggerated eye roll.
“What do I get to do?” Riley asked, standing beside Cat in a white chef apron that Caterina had rolled several times at the waist, so the girl wouldn’t trip on it. She looked so adorable, and so excited to be able to help, Caterina felt hard-pressed not to pick her up and hug the stuffing out of her.
“Since you were such a good measurer when we baked cookies, you can help me measure the corn syrup and salt into the mixing bowl.”
“Okay.” Riley gazed up at Cat with adoring eyes. “I like coming to your house, Miss Caterina.”
“Well, I like it when you come over. Now, let’s measure the corn syrup first.”
Liam watched them from across the island, with an unreadable expression.
“We need two cups,” Caterina told Riley, her mind conjuring all the possible things he might be thinking, just to make herself crazy.
She showed Riley the mark to fill to on the quart glass measuring bowl. Next, they needed a quarter teaspoon of salt. “You can use your finger to level it out, Riley. When you’re baking, the measurements need to be precise, or your recipe won’t come out perfect.”
“What’s precise?”
“Exact,” Cat said. “You know, just right.”
“Oh. What if you make a mistake, and it don’t come out perfect?”
Cat thought a moment. She knew what she’d do if something in her kitchen was anything less than perfect. She’d toss it out and start over. Her standards were extremely high, as they should be and as her customers deserved, but she wasn’t going to tell a four-year-old she had to throw out her first bowl of homemade marshmallow fluff because she’d accidentally put in a half teaspoon of salt instead of a quarter.
“Sometimes it won’t, but it might still taste okay, so you can eat it, anyway. But the next time you make it, maybe you’re extra careful when you measure, and it comes out better. And then you start to get the hang of it, and every time you make the same recipe you get better at it, until you get so good at it, you make it perfect almost every time.”
“That’s just like tying shoes, Daddy,” Riley said, glancing over at Liam with a look of pride at her analogy.
“Yep,” Liam said, “just like it. The more you do it, the better you get.”
“Till you can do magic, like Miss Caterina.”
Liam looked at Cat, held her gaze. “Yeah. Just like.”
His eyes glowed with a warmth that fed her dream and fueled her hopes. She didn’t want to misinterpret the easy mood they’d been enjoying since coming inside to make hot chocolate and homemade marshmallow fluff for something more than it was. Like love. The kind she felt for him.
“Are you done separating those eggs?” she asked. Better to focus on the task at hand than to ponder his affections right now, she thought.
His eyes held hers for another heartbeat before he picked up the bowl of egg whites and handed it across the island to her.
Cat started to pour them into the mixing bowl, then stopped. “Liam! There’s some yolk in here!”
“Not that much. No more than a few drops.”
“No more than a few drops! Ugh!” She walked over to the sideboard, pulled out the under-the-counter trash bin, and dumped the fouled egg whites.
“Why’d you do that? It was only a few drops!”
“We’re whipping the whites. They need to get stiff, Liam. They’re not going to get stiff if they’re fouled.” She pulled three more eggs from the carton and expertly separated the whites from the yolks, poured them into the mixing bowl. “You said you knew how to separate them. I trusted you.”
Liam
shook his head. “Lord save me from perfectionists.”
“It’s not about being a perfectionist, Liam.” Caterina stuck her nose in the air. “Some things you can let slide. Egg whites is not one of them!”
A short while later the three of them sat around the large square coffee table in the library enjoying hot chocolate with fresh marshmallow cream and a sampling of Caterina’s homemade pastries.
Their wet coats, hats, gloves, and boots lined the hearth. A fire crackled in the large fieldstone fireplace, its cheerful flames licking over the logs, lending a toasty warmth to the room that seemed to wrap around them and fill Cat with a deep contentment she hadn’t felt in years.
Riley sat between them on the couch, as happy, it seemed, as a bee that had found a forgotten glass of sweet cola on the veranda in summer. Occasionally, she would look up at Cat and Liam and smile, or ask a question, or tell a story about one of her friends from preschool.
Liam stretched his arm along the back of the couch between them, draped it behind Cat and let his hand dangle on her shoulder. Every few minutes he’d run a finger along the side of her neck, or trace her ear, or wrap a strand of her hair around it. Small gestures, light touches, intimate in their simplicity. And she hoped she wasn’t blowing them all out of proportion.
Was he even aware of doing it?
“We should get going, Riley,” Liam said a short while after they’d finished their chocolate.
“Do we have to, Daddy?”
“Afraid so, kiddo. I’ve got to make some work calls, and then I need to rustle us up some dinner, and you need to get a bath.” He stood up and reached for her hand. “Tell Miss Caterina goodbye.”
“Bye,” Riley said, then surprised Cat by throwing her arms around her in a hug.
“Bye, Riley.” Cat gave her a light squeeze. “Thanks for helping me defeat King Evil Ice and save Snow Kingdom today.”
Riley looked up, her small mouth wiggling with a grin. She leaned forward and whispered into Cat’s ear. Cat’s eyes shot up to Liam, and he frowned.
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