Page 43 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

He stopped one step below her, bringing them almost level with one another. “It’s this place. This town. The festival. The food. Your honey. I haven’t been this excited about cooking in a while, and I love cooking.”

She smiled, and it reached her eyes, making them shine. “Well, if you open a southern cooking inspired restaurant, I want credit on the menu.”

His mind whirled. A southern cooking inspired restaurant? Of course! The closest he’d ever gotten was an oyster dish he’d created for his first restaurant,Oyster and Lime. Five restaurants later and to date, it was still one of his top-rated dishes. He could do it here, in town. That building next door was empty . . .

She laughed and rested her hand on his chest. “I know that look. You’ve just been hit with inspiration, haven’t you? You used to make that same face when you came up with recipes when we were kids.”

The feel of her palm and delicate fingers against his chest shot heat through him. He glanced down at where it rested, then up into her eyes. Her smile faded. Before he could overthink, he placed one foot on the step next to hers and leaned forward. She blinked rapidly, but didn’t retreat. Her lip trembled, and he felt a little smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he closed the space between them. An inch before their lips touched, he paused, wanting to embed this moment in his mind forever.

Her other hand came up to his chest and . . . the back doorbell rang again.

Jo startled away, her face coloring a lovely shade of red. “I’ll get that.” She practically flew around him and down the stairs.

Cash leaned a hand against the wall, dropped his head, and breathed out. He cursed under his breath.

The door opened, and on a whoosh of cold air came the Warner’s voices.

“It smells amazing in here!” Cynthia said.

“Tony’s been cooking up a storm,” Jo said.

And suddenly Cash would’ve traded the thrill of coming up with tonight’s recipes for five more minutes alone with Jo.

Chapter 15

The small group ate dinner in near silence, savoring every bite of Cash’s cooking. The only sounds the yummy noises coming from everyone. It amazed Jo. Cash had been a good cook when he’d left, but this was something else. Every time he opened a new restaurant, theHarvest Ranch Timeshad written an article and found reviews to go along. Jo had believed the reviews, but she hadn’t really had any notion of what they meant until this moment. She’d just thought the critics had used flowery words to sound smart, it’d never occurred to her it was because they were the only words that would work.

With every delicious bite, her heart sunk just a little. By dessert, she’d given up what little hope there’d be clinging to her. All day long, she’d allowed herself to fantasize that he might stay. There’d been moments, looks, words spoken and the moment in the stairwell, that’d brought little sparks of hope. But now she understood. He was too big. Too good at what he did. Too amazing for this little town. He couldn’t stay here. He’d been pushing at the seams as a kid, now he’d surely burst through if he stayed.

That’s why his trip had been so short to begin with. Really, who arrived on Tuesday night and left on Friday night for any kind of trip? A guy who couldn’t miss weekends in his highly successful career.

So, what if he’d pushed his departure date back a couple days to help her, that’s all it’d been. A kind gesture. It wasn’t because he wanted to be here or with her. She couldn’t believe she’d almost let him kiss her. What had she been thinking? That would’ve been a disaster.

She felt her cheeks warm and chanced a quick peek in his direction. His gaze held hers from across the table, intense, bold, uncaring of the possibility that the Warners might catch him in his stare, and holding more than a little desire in it. She swallowed hard.

This was ridiculous. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let this continue. He was leaving again, just like he had all those years ago, and she wasn’t going to fall back into the funk she’d been in then again. She titled her chin and stared him down. She hoped he could read in her gaze what she’d been too chicken to say all along.

This is just pretend.

He narrowed his eyes, and she knew he understood.

“This is by far the best cobbler I’ve ever had,” Ryan said.

While still holding her gaze, Cash raised his brows, the expression saying it all, “this isn’t over,” before he answered Ryan. “Thank you.”

“This entire meal has been so fantastic,” Cynthia said. “You could start a restaurant cooking like this.”

Cash looked at Cynthia, a small smug smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You think?”

“Definitely,” she said.

Jo chuckled and rolled her eyes. “It was okay.”

Cash smiled at her. “Just okay, huh?”

“It was good,” she said, trying to sound casual.

“How kind,” he said.

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