Page 23

TWENTY-THREE

Gray entered Meredith’s home and acknowledged Bronwyn first. He’d seen her BMW, so her presence was no surprise. “Bronwyn.”

“Chief Ward.” She didn’t get up. And she didn’t use his name, even though he’d used hers. Did this mean she didn’t approve? He had no idea, so he focused on Mo next.

“Mo.”

“Ward.”

Ooh. Last name only. Mo definitely didn’t approve.

“Behave. Both of you.” Meredith rolled her eyes and pulled a vase from the top of her fridge, filled it with water, and settled the flowers inside. “I’ll take care of them when I get home.” She grabbed her purse from the counter. “Ready?”

Gray looked from Meredith to Bronwyn to Mo, then back to Meredith. She didn’t look at her brother or her friend. “They know their way out.”

“Then yes, let’s go.” Gray opened the door, but Meredith went to Bronwyn first. She placed a gentle kiss on her hair and gave her a side squeeze. Then she went to Mo and repeated the process. But when she stepped back, Mo grabbed her hand and held on. Something unspoken passed between them. Then he released her and, once her back was turned, glared at Gray until his view was blocked by Meredith’s back.

Gray didn’t speak until they were out of hearing range of her house. “Are you going to leave them alone?” he asked as he took her hand and rested it in the crook of his arm.

Her Machiavellian laughter had him seeing a whole new side of this woman who’d fascinated him from the start. “They deserve it for being nosy. Bronwyn claimed she was coming to help me and to run interference if needed. She’s not opposed to us dating. What she really wanted was to have a front-row seat to Mo’s reaction.”

“Because Mo is opposed?”

“No...” She drew out the word like she was tasting it for truth. “I don’t think he’s opposed to you. I think Mo is less willing for me to take risks. And in his mind, you’re a big one.”

“And in yours?” Gray opened the door of his Explorer and stood back as she settled herself into the seat.

“Despite what people think about me, I happen to think taking risks is what makes life beautiful.” She gave him a cheeky grin.

He closed her door and jogged to the driver’s side. It was close the door or kiss her, and it was too soon for kissing. And way too soon for kissing with an audience, which they definitely had. He could feel two sets of eyes tracking his every move all the way down the driveway.

The ride back to his place was smooth and uneventful. She told him about a patient who’d brought her his first lost tooth and asked if she was friends with the tooth fairy. He told her about the Statons’ cows getting loose again, and how it had taken two hours of his afternoon to get everyone back where they belonged. “If I smell like cow patties, you’ll know why. I did shower. But some smells...”

“They linger.” She grinned at him. “Remind me to tell you about the time we got in a fight in the pasture and rolled through a few recent cow piles.”

“You can’t say something like that and leave me hanging. What happened?”

Meredith tried to tell him twice, but her laughter was too much and it took her several miles to calm down enough to speak. When she did, her words were punctuated with fits of giggles. “It was epic. Cal tells it best, so you should get him to give you his version. It was such a big deal that Cassie remembers, and she was only four at the time.”

She blinked eyes that were brimming with laughter-induced tears. “We walked up to the front door of Papa and Granny’s house covered in poop, smelling like, well, poop. We refused to answer questions about how we came to be that way.”

Meredith ran a finger under her eye. “Granny made us strip and use the outdoor shower before she let us inside to use the indoor showers. The outdoor shower is freezing. She didn’t care. She told me there’d better not be any poop left in my hair when I walked back in her house.”

“How old were you?”

Meredith thought about it. “Fifth grade? Maybe sixth?” She laughed then. “I had to wash my hair in the cold water while keeping my body out of it as much as possible. There was a lot of squealing on my part. When I turned off the water and declared myself poop-free, Granny handed me a towel and told me to go to my room and shower again. Then she put Mo in, and Cal went last.”

Gray held up a hand. “You had a room at your grandparents’?”

“We have our parents’ rooms. More or less. Mo and I had our dad’s old room. When we got older, he shared with Cal in Aunt Carol’s old room.”

Something tickled her again, and she laughed harder. “When we were all clean, Granny informed us that she had thrown our clothes on the burn pile. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so mad. Granny put up with a lot, but we pushed her too far that day. We were supposed to be going into town to have dinner. We’d run out to play, and that would have been fine if we’d come back ready to go. As far as Granny was concerned, we were far too old to be going on with such nonsense. She lectured us all the way to dinner.”

Meredith sighed. “We apologized profusely, of course, but that was the day we realized it was possible to tick Granny off.”

“I’m surprised it took you that long. Your granny isn’t a woman I would ever cross.” Gray turned onto the road that led into town.

“Yeah, but she’s my granny, and Granny spoils her grandchildren. I’m still spoiled. I know I am. I’m not sorry. My granny would turn the world upside down for me. So would my papa. My entire family. Not everyone has that.”

“No, they don’t.” His comment wiped the humor from Meredith’s gaze, but she didn’t question him.

“Of course, Papa found out about it at dinner. He was most displeased. But not that we’d gotten in a cow-patty fight. He was disappointed that we’d disrespected Granny.”

“Ouch.”

“Oh yeah. The disappointment factor was the worst.”

“How long were they upset?”

“Granny ordered us all desserts at the end of dinner.”

Gray paused at one of Gossamer Falls’ few lights. “That fast?”

Meredith’s smile was soft and held a flirtatiousness he’d never seen from her. “Lucky for you, some Quinns take after Granny. She has a long fuse. When you make her mad, you will know it when she explodes. But then she’s over it. She forgives quickly.” The flirtatiousness faded away. “Papa pointed out that night that we had apologized, and that we had repented, and that God for gives and doesn’t hold a grudge, so neither would they. I’ve never forgotten it.”

She looked out the window. “Mom and Dad weren’t quite so forgiving. Neither were Aunt Carol and Uncle Craig. They told us that while Papa and Granny had forgiven us and our relationships were restored, that didn’t give us a pass on the consequences. We had to clean cow patties out of the pasture for the next four Saturdays. It was disgusting. Never forgot that lesson either. Forgiveness doesn’t mean there aren’t any consequences.”

“Pretty sure I’m living that out right now.” Gray pulled into his driveway. “Your family won’t be quite as quick to forgive me as you’ve been.”

“They’ll come around. Someday it will be a funny story with a lesson. Something we’ll be talking about for decades. Last Christmas, Cal found cow-patty ornaments. He gave one to Mo and to me each. But he also gave one to Granny Quinn. She thought it was hilarious.”

Gray chose not to acknowledge the way Meredith had indicated that she had, in fact, forgiven him or the part where she expected him to be around decades from now. Both statements filled him with hope. He parked and rushed to where Meredith sat waiting for him to open her door. She tucked her hand into his arm without any prompting and, once inside, allowed him to take her coat and scarf. She left her purse, with her phone poking out the top, by the front door.

“Shoes on or off?” she asked him.

“Your preference. I tend to keep mine on. I know there are germs in the world, but I frequently have to run out the door. If my shoes are on, it makes it faster.”

She slid her boots off, revealing feet clad in colorful wool socks. “I tend to take mine off, but only because I like to sit with my feet curled up in the chair. It makes me feel more comfortable.”

“Fair enough.” Whatever made her more comfortable, he was in favor of. He led her through his small front room and into the kitchen.

Gray poured Meredith a glass of water and set the tray of munchies he’d made earlier on the table. “I’m planning seared sea bass, risotto, and a wedge salad. Hope that’s okay.”

Meredith’s expressive features lit with obvious delight.

He gave himself an internal high five. He’d gotten it right.

“That sounds amazing. I’ve never tried to cook sea bass or risotto.”

“In the interest of transparency, the risotto comes from a mix, but it’s very good. Wedge salads only require the knowledge of how to slice iceberg lettuce into, well, wedges. And Cassie made the dressing for me. She said you were a ranch girl and wouldn’t touch blue cheese, so it’s wedge salad with ranch, bacon, and tomatoes.”

Meredith’s laughter stopped him in his tracks. He’d heard her laugh like that twice since he picked her up. He wanted her to laugh that way, many times a day, forever, and he wanted to be the one who made her do it.

“Did Cassie make the sea bass as well?”

“Nope. That’s all me. It’s best right out of the skillet. I have everything prepped. It only takes a few minutes. I was hoping you’d keep me company while I cooked.”

“Gladly.”

She leaned against the counter as he pulled the salads from the fridge where he’d stashed them earlier, then started the risotto. “How did you have time for this? I don’t typically have sea bass in my fridge. Wait.” She narrowed her eyes and made an adorably disgruntled face. “Were you planning this meal for someone else?”

“Jealous, Dr. Quinn?”

“Yes.” Her answer held no hesitation.

Oh, he liked the idea of a jealous Meredith. But he wouldn’t tease her about it. Ever. “As a matter of fact, I threw myself on Cassie’s mercy. I asked her if she had any sea bass, and she did.”

Meredith pretended to clutch her pearls and spoke in a horrible Southern accent. “Why, Chief Ward, what is the meaning of this? Leading my baby cousin into a life of crime? Having her steal from her employer?”

He pointed a spatula at her. “I’ll have you know that your baby cousin didn’t steal from her employer. She orders seafood on Thursday and had time to add to the order for me.”

“I didn’t know that.” The adorable disgruntled face was back. And the fact that he thought it was adorable was proof of how far gone he was.

“She stopped in a few weeks ago to see Donovan. I have no idea how it came up in conversation, but Donovan must have told her that I love fresh seafood. She offered to let me place an order with hers if I wanted something specific. It was a long shot today, but she caught the guy making the delivery before he left Asheville. They’d gotten fresh sea bass in this morning.” He tapped the fillets he’d pulled from the fridge. “These babies were swimming yesterday.”

“How does she get fish that fresh? It has to be outrageously expensive.”

Gray gave her a look.

“Oh. Right. She isn’t paying for it.” She frowned. “But you are.”

He stepped closer to her, lifted a curl from her shoulder, and rubbed it between his fingers. “I don’t have a lot of experience with dating. It probably would have made more sense to take you to a nice restaurant, but I didn’t want to give you a chance to change your mind. Since we don’t have any fine dining in Gossamer Falls, at least none that we mere mortals can access, I thought I’d bring the experience to you. Here. In my home. Is that okay?”

Meredith trembled against Gray. He’d thought of everything. And he’d been so intentional about his decisions. “More than okay.”

“Good.” He didn’t move toward her, but his eyes spoke of so many things she’d barely given herself permission to dream of.

“Now”—he reached for her waist, and with far less effort than it should have taken, he lifted her to the counter—“tell me more about your childhood while I cook.”

So she did. She told him about growing up in Gossamer Falls, running around all over Quinn land, going off to college and being so homesick she thought she would die from the agony of it.

She watched Gray move around the kitchen with a grace that spoke of his confidence in his skills. And she discovered that she liked watching him cook.

And that wasn’t something she’d ever thought about any man. Ever.

He plated the bass, risotto, salads, and crusty rolls and turned to her. “I’ll be right back.” He left the kitchen a few times, taking the dishes with him, and finally taking her water.

When he returned the last time, he stepped in front of her and placed his hands on her waist. “Dinner is served.” He pulled her off the counter and set her feet on the floor but didn’t move his hands.

She looked up at the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat and decided that she wasn’t the only one drowning in sensation.

“We should eat.” His voice was gruff, his hands still firm at her waist, his body unmoving.

“The food could get cold.”

“Yes.”

“Gray?”

“Yes?”

“Would it mess up your plan for the perfect date if you kissed me first?”

His eyes held hers as his hands traveled up to cup her face. “Meredith.” The word was a whisper just before his lips brushed across hers. “You’re supposed to make me wait.” Another brush of lips. “You’re supposed to insist on lots of dates, each one more extravagant than the last.”

The next kiss held her lips a few seconds longer.

“Otherwise, I might think you’ve forgiven me.” His lips traveled to her ear. “I don’t deserve that.”

She leaned into his caress. “Maybe I don’t care what you think you deserve.” She turned her head to capture his lips with her own. “You obviously need someone in your life who will appreciate you and take care of you.”

“Are you volunteering?” His lips brushed her chin, then her nose.

“Is the position still available?”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “The position was only ever yours.”

“It’s filled now.”

His smile soothed all the hurts and raw edges from the last few weeks. “You’re still going to get the dates and surprises.”

“I like surprises.”

He closed his eyes and pulled in a long breath, then released it at the same time he released all of her except one hand. “Come on. Let’s eat.”

She followed him into the dining room on shaking legs and then had the most romantic meal of her life. The bass was perfection. The risotto creamy. The wedge crunchy and crisp. And when she couldn’t possibly eat another bite, he cleared the dishes and returned to her, holding her coat. “Come on. Let’s walk off dinner.”

“Please tell me we aren’t going to Gossamer Falls.”

He laughed. “Too crowded. I have a better spot in mind.”

Meredith slid into her boots, and for the next couple of hours, she let him convince her that she was the only one he wanted, the only one he would ever want, and the only one who could ever have pulled him out of the abyss he’d placed himself in.

As he drove her home, far too late for grown-ups with real jobs to be out at night but far sooner than she wanted to, she said, “Gray?”

“Hmm?” His thumb ran across her hand where he held it.

“Will you be my plus-one for the wedding?”

His hand clenched on hers. “I might have to work while we’re there.”

“I know. But I’m still asking you to please be my plus-one, as a date.”

“Then yes, I’d love to be your plus-one.”

“So it’s a date.”

“It’s a date.”