Page 118 of Tumbleweed Temptation
Ridiculous. They’d been friends who slept together. That didn’t mean true love, no matter what the romance novels claimed. She should have known better than that.
“I guess we don’t have as much to do with this competition?” Sofia asked, oblivious to Ginny’s racing mind.
“Not much we can do.”
“So are we good?”
“Once we have everything in the refrigerator, sure.”
“Who’s competing against me tonight?”
“You, Darla and Patricia Gamez. It should be interesting, a healthy breakfast challenge for people who usually eat breakfast tacos and biscuits and gravy.”
“All I know is, I’m not going to use the quinoa.”
“So far that has not been a popular choice.”
“Oh, hey, here comes Austin.”
Ginny pivoted to look out the front window. Austin was approaching, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched against the wind. Not wearing a jacket. The wind chill had to be in the forties, easily. What was he thinking?
“Hey, sorry I’m late,” he said, pushing through the door and letting a cold draft in. “What do you need me to do?”
Ginny hadn’t finished processing the new information she’d gotten from Sofia, and she didn’t know how to react, anyway. No matter what, he hadn’t trusted her enough to tell the truth. “We’ve got it,” she said, turning away to unload the baskets into the enormous refrigerator.
The enormous, unorganized refrigerator. She found herself clearing a shelf so that she could isolate their ingredients for easy access. Really not how she wanted to occupy her time when her brain was racing with all the information she’d just received.
She heard the bell over the door and looked over the pass through bar to see Sofia had taken off, leaving Ginny and Austin alone in the restaurant.
She finished putting the items away, slid the empty basket up on top of the refrigerator and walked out of the kitchen to see Austin standing by the register, hands deep in his jacket pockets.
“Not a very big place.”
She wished she didn’t feel this tug toward him, wished she had something else to do with her hands. She ran her fingertips back and forth over the back of a booth. “We knew that when we picked it. Maybe this shouldn’t have been the last competition, though, since it is so small.”
“You sure you don’t need me to do anything to get ready?”
“No. Are you going out to the McKay place today?”
His gaze snapped to hers. “You heard about that?”
“Actually Sofia just told me that Con asked for some help, and she said that you’ve been doing the heavy lifting the past few weeks.”
His gaze drifted away and he didn’t answer.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“The family didn’t want anyone to know what was going on. They asked me to keep it to myself. I didn’t want to keep a secret from you, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”
That tug again, and empathy for both him and the McKay family. “How is he doing?”
“We always knew he was a tough old guy. That might serve him well now.”
“Might.”
“Early detection gives you a better chance.”
“And he didn’t have that.”
