Page 42 of Wish You Faith

“You’re laughing at me.” Rosie turned away.

“No.” He turned her back to face him. He took the scarf off his neck. “I’ll tie it for you. It won’t snag. Promise.”

“We’ll have to wait and see. If I get strangled…”

“Then I’ll rescue you with a kiss of life…”

Rosie’s jaw dropped. She stepped back and laughed.

“Come here.” Evan folded the scarf in two, lining up the fringed ends. Then he gently placed the scarf around her neck and threaded the ends through the loop in the center. He adjusted it. “There. Comfortable?”

“So warm. It feels soft. Wool?” She squished the scarf.

“Cashmere. My brother gave it to me one Christmas. My initials are monogrammed on it.” He pointed.

Rosie lifted it up. “ERC. What does R stand for?”

“Ren.”

“Ren? Evan Ren Cavanaugh. Nice middle name.”

“Thank you. My mother’s last name is Ren. Her mom is British, but her dad is from Shanghai originally. Mom and Dad both grew up in Seattle where they met, and now still live.”

A small crowd was forming around the Piper’s Place kiosk.

“If you want hot chocolate, now is the time before they sell out,” Rosie said.

“Maybe we should get out of this cold and go inside the restaurant,” Evan suggested. “It’s only across the street, right? Do we need a reservation?”

“How about we stand in line here and I’ll call to see how long the wait is?” Rosie’s phone was in her hand quickly and she speed-dialed Piper’s Place.

That told Evan that she probably dined there frequently enough to save their number on her phone. He inched forward in the queue as Rosie talked to the front desk on her phone.

“Two hours?” Rosie sighed. “Thank you.”

She hung up. “We should’ve made a reservation. There’s a two-hour wait for a table.”

“Business must be good there.”

Rosie nodded. “Even after they closed on Sundays, business is still good the other six days.”

“Christian-owned?”

“Piper Peyton owns it. She married last year and made her husband the co-owner. They’re both chefs so they cook together in the kitchen. Isn’t that romantic?”

Romantic?

Evan was getting ideas. He cleared his throat.

They reached the kiosk and ordered large cups of hot chocolate for both of them.

“I thought you might run out by the time we got to the front of the line,” Rosie said.

“We just send someone to get more from the kitchen across the street,” the kiosk manager said.

“Nice to be this close to the pantry also.”

When the man saw that Rosie was eyeing the cupcakes, he said, “These cupcakes are a fresh batch we baked this afternoon.”

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