Page 58 of Reluctant Rogue

“Yes. Thing is, well,” she stumbled a little over the words. “They said I could bring a plus one… if you’d be interested? I know you said you weren’t going home for Thanksgiving. I don’t know if you have other plans, I just thought I’d…”

He crossed the room and silenced her by the simple expedient of placing one finger to her lips. “No, I’m not going home for Thanksgiving. Mom and Pop are in Europe, and won’t be back until after Christmas. No, I don’t have other plans. And yes, I’d love to come with you to Thanksgiving with your friend and his family.”

She beamed at him. “All right! Max said they’d eat about three, so I figure we should arrive about one-ish? Not much later than that, anyway. I thought maybe I’d take a pie. I don’t want to go empty-handed.”

“They’re already bound to have pies,” Liam told her. “But you can never have enough dinner rolls, especially with a family gathering the size you’re talking about. And there’s this Irish brand of butter, it’s a higher quality than you usually find, we can take some of that, it’d be great on dinner rolls with Thanksgiving dinner.”

“They’ll need more pies,” Naomi insisted stubbornly, abandoning her inspection of a plate of brownies under a glass dome, turning to frown at him. “What if only one or two people bring pies? Max has a huge family, from what he was telling me. There might not be enough for everyone.”

“They’ll have pie, at least pumpkin and apple. It’s tradition.”

They were still continuing theirsotto voceargument when Renee walked into the dining room from the kitchen. Her brows went up as she stood regarding them. “What’s this about?”

“We’ve been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner,” Naomi explained. “Liam wants to bring dinner rolls and some kind of Irish butter, but I think we should bring a pie.”

“Kerrygold,” Liam nodded approvingly. “Made in Ireland, with milk from grass-fed cows and a higher butterfat content. Best butter in the world.”

Renee looked distinctly interested. “You don’t say? I’ll have to pick some up. In the meantime, I have a solution for your dilemma. Why not take both?””

Naomi smacked her forehead with her open palm. “Why didn’t I think of that? That’s perfect! After all, there are two of us going, and I already know there will be a lot of people there.”

“Renee, my love,” Liam flirted blatantly, pretending to bat his eyelashes. “If I pick up a pound of butter a day or two early, may I keep it overnight in your refrigerator?”

Naomi rolled her eyes at Liam, and turned her attention to Renee. “We’re going to have to find a bakery and put in our order tomorrow. Renee, you know what’s in this area much better than either of us, is there a place you can recommend?”

Renee pondered the question. “There is Anna’s Bakery over near the mall. But, you know, I’m preparing a full Thanksgiving dinner for our guests, no reason not to take one of my pies and some rolls.”

Naomi exchanged a hopeful glance with Liam. “That would be wonderful,” she blurted out. “We love your baking. But we don’t want to impose.”

“It’s no imposition. I’ll already be doing the baking, it’s no trouble for me to make an extra pie and two dozen extra rolls. You can pay me what Anna’s would charge, and you don’t have to worry about finding parking and standing in line to pick it up on Thursday morning.”

“That sounds like a plan to me,” Liam approved, and he and Naomi grinned at each other. “Thank you so much, Renee.”

“Yes, thank you,” Naomi echoed, all but bouncing on her toes in happiness.

“What kind of pie do you want?”

Naomi settled back on her heels. “Liam did make the point that they were almost certain to have pumpkin and apple.”

“Tradition,” Liam nodded.

“Then I have just the thing.” Renee smiled benignly on them both. “I’m famous for my chocolate pecan pie.”

Naomi squealed, and darted forward to hug Renee enthusiastically. “Perfect! Thank you so much!”

Renee eyed the pile of cookies and brownies on the paper plate Naomi was balancing. “Long night planned?”

Naomi grinned, bouncing on her toes. “New novel, favorite author.”

Renee laughed. “’Nuf said. I’ll let you get to it. Enjoy.”

“I will. Good night, Renee.”

“Good night, both of you.”

Renee headed into the lobby, toward the hallway that led to her and Angus’ private suite.

Liam lifted Naomi’s purse strap, which was threatening to slide down her arm, and repositioned it on her shoulder. He nipped the plate of sweets from her hand.