The Cook's Secret Ingredient. Meg Maxwell

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СКАЧАТЬ ready for desserty-werty?” Edmund said to Danny, kissing his soft little cheek. “I know I am!”

      “Me!” Danny shouted.

      Olivia glanced at Carson, who was brooding in his seat. She’d say for this round, each man had scored a point each. They both made sense.

      Carson let out a breath and shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest.

      Edmund stood and lifted Danny out of his high chair and set him down. “Sweets, why don’t you go play with your toys for a few minutes until Mrs. Hilliard brings out dessert.”

      The boy went running for his toy chest, surrounded by brightly colored bean bags and low bookshelves.

      “Right after I overheard that young lady telling her friend about finding true love,” Edmund said, “I started having all these strange feelings.” He glanced at Carson. “About wanting that for myself. I loved your mother, Carson. Very much. The last eighteen months especially, I’ve found myself changing, becoming very family-oriented when I wasn’t before.”

      Carson glanced out the window, but Olivia could tell he was listening.

      “After five years as a widow,” Carson continued, “with a new appreciation for loved ones, I found myself longing to find love again. And so I made an appointment with Madam Miranda to see what she might say about my chances.”

      Carson let out a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t want you to find love again, Dad. I just don’t want you to go on some crazy wild-goose chase and end up getting hurt by a gold digger.”

      “I know you care, Carson,” Edmund said, his tone reverent. “And I appreciate that you do. But I believed Madam Miranda. I consider myself a pretty good judge of character and that woman looked me in the eye with truth.”

      It was like a hug. After Carson’s criticism of her mother, after her own years and years of trying to find some rational explanation for her mother’s abilities, to hear her last client say this with conviction in his voice was like the warm hug that Olivia had needed for six weeks. Her only other family member—Aunt Sarah, very likely Edmund Ford’s second great love—was somewhere out there, long out of hugging distance.

      “Will you stay for dessert?” Edmund asked her.

      She took another glance at Carson. The man was scowling. His plan to have her derail his father’s belief in her mother’s fortune hadn’t exactly worked.

      “I’d better get going. Thank you for dinner,” she said. “I’m so glad we got to meet.”

      “Well, rest assured that I will make good on your mother’s prediction for me,” Edmund said. “I will find my green-eyed, hair-cutting Sarah.” Olivia smiled and he took both her hands in his. “I’m very sorry for your loss, Olivia. I know how it feels to lose someone you love so deeply.”

      What a dear man he was. “Thank you.”

      “I’ll see you out,” Carson said between gritted teeth.

      “Bye, Danny,” Olivia said, smiling at the toddler.

      “Bye!” Danny said with a smile and a wave and his grandfather joined him in his toy area.

      As she and Carson walked through the marble foyer and out the front door, Olivia could tell Carson was waiting until they were outside to let her have it for not backing him up. She could feel the tension in him.

      But all he said, while looking around the circular drive, was “Where is your car?”

      “I walked, actually. My car is almost fifteen years old and might not have made it up the hill to the drive.”

      He seemed surprised. “I’ll walk you home. Let me just tell my dad and Danny I’ll be gone for a while.”

      “Oh, you don’t have to—”

      “I insist,” he said.

      Now he’d have a half hour to give her an earful about how she’d messed up the one thing he wanted.

      * * *

      “I suppose you feel like I got to eat that amazing rosemary chicken and roasted potatoes and perfectly timed asparagus for nothing,” Olivia said as they headed down the hill toward town.

      Carson raised an eyebrow and glanced at her, struck again by how lovely she was. She had a delicate, fine-boned face and her long light brown hair framed it in waves. The cool breeze blew her sweater against her full breasts and he found himself sucking in a breath at how sexy she was. Flower-appliqué felt skirt and yellow cowboy boots and all. He realized he was staring at her and glanced ahead at the twinkling lights in the distance, where the shops and restaurants of Blue Gulch Street were just winding down. How could he be attracted to her?

      “Meaning, I don’t think your dad will give up on the quest to find this woman,” Olivia said.

      “Well, I appreciated that you came and were fair,” Carson said. “It’s not like you were necessarily on either our sides.” He felt her looking at him. “And I don’t think he’ll give up, either. I’ve tried for two weeks now, ever since he first mentioned it to me. You were my last hope.”

      “Two weeks? My mom’s been gone for six, and I know their appointment was just days before she passed away.”

      “He said he tucked the fortune away, let himself really think about it, and then decided he was ready to see if it was possible, if there really could be a second great love out there.”

      “Carson?” she said, darting a glance at him. “Is the reason you’re so against his trying to find the woman because of your mother?”

      “My mother died five years ago. I don’t begrudge my father love or companionship. It’s the fortune-telling aspect that I have problems with.”

      “My mom tried to keep a list of all the marriages she was responsible for. Her last count was three hundred twelve.”

      Please. “I don’t believe that.”

      “You don’t believe much,” she said.

      That wasn’t true. He believed in a lot. In his love for his son. In doing his job and helping bring criminals to justice by tracking them down for the police. In the way Olivia Mack’s big brown eyes drew him, making him unable to look away from her face.

      Olivia looked past him toward the beautiful horse pasture. The thoroughbreds weren’t out tonight. “Did you grow up in that house?” she asked.

      “No, I grew up in Oak Creek.” A town over, Oak Creek was the fancy cousin of Blue Gulch, filled with estate ranches and mansions. “My father sold the family house a year after my mother died. He said the memories were killing him and he needed a fresh start and had always liked Blue Gulch with its quaint mile-long downtown.”

      “Ah,” she said. “That’s why I haven’t seen you around. I think just about everyone in town has been to the food truck in the two weeks it’s been open.”

      “I meant to tell you—the shrimp po’boy was pretty darn good. I have no СКАЧАТЬ