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After a cup of coffee and a three-egg omelet, Adam texted Syd. You want to take the dogs for a walk?

He hit Send with a smile. He’d decided that even though he was leaving, he wanted to spend as much time with Syd as possible before his time was up. He wanted to get to know her as best as he could.

He needed to know going back to Chicago was the right decision.

How could it not be? Cooking was his dream.

Although being with Sydney was amazing and staying with her, in the hopes that things would keep going forward and result in marriage, was definitely on his mind, he knew there was no guarantee of that.

It wasn’t Syd’s fault, but Veronika’s shadow hung over everything. Made him think twice and question if he could ever really find a woman who wouldn’t change after a certain period of time.

He expected that by hanging out with her as much as he could that he’d have those doubts erased. Or confirmed. He didn’t want the latter, obviously. Syd seemed so … perfect.

But even thinking that word made him doubt the veracity of it. No one was perfect.

She texted him back. That would be great. When?

Now okay?

Sure, meet you outside in 5

He got up. “Come on, Sugarbelle. Your boyfriend wants to see you.” He was going to miss Sydney, no doubt about that, but Sugarbelle was really going to miss Mackie.

He got her leash on and took her outside. After a minute or two, Sydney came out. Mackie wagged his tail excitedly at the sight of Sugarbelle, and as soon as they were close enough, the sniffing began.

Adam shook his head. “I don’t get the sniffing. Do they not smell exactly like they smelled the last time they saw each other?”

Sydney laughed. “Yeah, who knows. It’s a dog thing. Park, right?”

“Right.”

They started walking, and almost immediately, Sydney’s happiness seemed to fade.

“You okay?”

She looked up at him. “Yeah. Just … something didn’t go the way I thought it would.” She shrugged and shifted her gaze down the street. “It’s all right. I have a few more things to try.”

He had no idea what it could be, but clearly she was feeling some disappointment. “Anything I can help with?”

She shook her head. “Not really. What’s new with you? Working tonight?”

“Nothing new. And yes, I’m working tonight. Might run to the market this afternoon, if you need anything.”

“I think I’m good. Making a new recipe or something tried and true?”

“I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at duck.”

“I love duck. There was this little restaurant near where I lived in the city that did the most amazing duck. It was only on their fall menu. Duck breast with sage and cranberries. Really good.”

“Sounds good. Duck is tricky. You really have to render the fat and get the skin crispy or the whole dish falls down.”

“Now you’re making me hungry.”

He smiled. “You want to be my taste-tester?”

“I’d love that.” Her expression suddenly turned stern. “I will be honest, though.”

“I’d hope so.”

They stopped so Mackie and Sugarbelle could investigate a particularly interesting mailbox post.

“Is there anything you want to learn to cook?” Adam asked. Having her over for a lesson would be a great way to spend quality time together. “The dogs could hang out in the backyard while we work.”

She seemed to think that through. “How about a good red sauce for pasta? Or vodka sauce. I’d love to learn to make that. Still want to learn how to make bread, too. Okay, and brownies. From scratch. Are they hard? I looked up a few recipes, and it seemed complicated.”

He grinned. “We can do all of those. How about red sauce tomorrow?”

“Really? Yeah, I’d love that. What can I bring?”

“Bring a big pot. We’ll each make a batch, side by side.”

“What about ingredients? You can’t give me your time and buy everything.”

He shrugged. “I’m already headed to the store.”

She dug into her pocket. “Here. Twenty bucks. I know it’s not much, but put it toward my share.”

“That’s more than enough.” He took the money. He wanted her to feel like she was part of this, not that she was indebted to him. Although she had already spent enough on him, if he counted the auction.

The dogs were done sniffing, so the walking resumed.

“What time tomorrow?” she asked.

“How about four? Then we can make the sauce and have an early dinner with it before I head to work.”

“That sounds great.” She went quiet a moment. “Are we making it from real tomatoes? I mean fresh. Or canned?”

“Canned are easier. But we can start with fresh, if you want. It’s just more work. They have to be skinned and seeded.”

“Canned.” She cut her eyes at him. “I suppose it would be good to know how to do it from fresh, but I’m too lazy to do that much work every time I want sauce.”

He laughed. “I don’t think lazy is a word I’d apply to you.”

“I’m not, about most things, but I feel like shortcuts for certain things, when it comes to cooking, are just fine. Like pie dough. That seems so finicky and hard to get right that buying those frozen, premade shells feels like the way to go.”

“Pie dough isn’t that hard.”

“Sure, not for you.”

The park was just up ahead, and the dogs picked up their pace.

“I can teach you that, too. It’s a good thing to have in your repertoire because it’s good for sweet and savory things.”

“Savory?”

“Chicken pot pie, quiche, stuff like that.”

“Oh, right. Maybe I should let you teach me.”

They headed into the park. There were a few other dogs there, bigger ones, but thankfully neither Mackie nor Sugarbelle seemed interested in getting closer.

“You know what else I’d really like to learn? I know it seems simple, but I have a feeling there’s a trick to it. And I’m sure you know what it is.”

“What’s that?”

“A baked potato.” Her smile widened. “Can we add that to the list?”

“You bet. But they really are easy.”

“If you say so.”

“If you want to come over tonight, I can show you how to make them and we could have them for dinner. Fully loaded. Cheese, sour cream, butter, crumbled bacon.” The duck could wait. “What do you say?”

“I say what time do you want me?”

“Let’s do four again.” This was working out better than he’d imagined. In fact, he might get to spend time with her every day this way.

And if she ran out of things she wanted to learn to cook, he’d talk her into a few more. Maybe he’d even talk her into coming to Chicago.

Anything was possible.