Page 23 of Kiss Me Now
“I’m hardly alone, Ian,” Miss Lily objected as she slid her arm through his. “Mary is always great company, and Brooke here has been an absolute breath of fresh air.”
“I agree with Ian,” I said. “There’s no real substitute for family, is there?”Come around more, you selfish idiot. Heaven knows why your grandmother ever misses you, but she does.
“Can’t argue with that,” Ian said. “And I’m here to make sure you get all the love and attention you need.” He dropped a kiss on his gran’s fluffy white hair.
“I always have that in spades, but I’ll never say no to more.” She smiled up at him.
“Well, I’ll leave you two to enjoy each other,” I said. “I need to get dinner started anyway.”
“I’m glad you’re here, actually,” Ian said. “I was pretty distracted last weekend and I didn’t have a chance to get to know you very well. I’d love to get to know Gran’s first new neighbor in years and thank you for keeping an eye on my favorite person.”
“That’s an excellent idea, Ian. Such a good boy. You should take her out to dinner.”
“That’s not what I meant, Gran.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea,” Gran said. “You should go to Caps! As in mushrooms,” she added, smiling at me.
“Uh, sorry?” Had I missed a step in the conversation?
“Caps specializes in mushroom dishes. Funny name for a restaurant, isn’t it? Don’t worry, they make plenty of other delicious dishes too. Best risotto I’ve had outside of Florence. Get that.”
Yeah, right. The last thing I wanted to do was spend an awkward evening trying to dodge Ian’s jabs. I opened my mouth to say so, but Miss Lily spoke up first.
“You’ll love it. They do a peach shortbread with a whipped mascarpone topping that is to die for. And at eighty, I don’t say that lightly.”
“Oh, I don’t think tonight will work,” I said. “I’ve got so much work to do still.”
“You just said you were going to make dinner. Use that time to let someone else make it for you, and Ian is an added bonus. He’s a charming dinner companion.”
I had never had a reason to doubt Miss Lily until now. Clearly, she had some bias here. Ian had been anything but charming up to this point. I tried to sidestep the invitation again. “That’s all right. You two should go enjoy it. You can tell me all about it tomorrow.”
“Nonsense,” Miss Lily declared. “I can’t get a moment’s peace when I go into town to eat. Everyone wants to stop by my table and visit. But you two will be left alone, and it will make me happy to sit and have a peaceful night with Mary and imagine you two enjoying some truly divine cooking.”
There was no way to escape this gracefully. I couldn’t care less about offending Ian, but offend Miss Lily? I’d rather eat wormy dirt.
“Gran’s never wrong about food,” Ian said. “What do you say we give it a try? I’ll swing by at seven-thirty.”
“Sure.” I offered my most neighborly smile, but the slight twitch on Ian’s lips suggested I must look more annoyed than neighborly. Too bad. “But I want to be home early, so make it seven o’clock.” The sooner we started, the sooner we’d get it over with.
“Sounds great. I’ll be there promptly.”
“Good boy,” Miss Lily said, patting his arm. “Now you come help me finish this weeding so Brooke can go gussy up.”
“I’m not going to gussy up,” I protested.
“Definitely don’t bother on my account,” Ian said. “Creekville won’t mind your understated look.”
My “understated look”?! Oh, I’d show him “understated.” But all I said was, “See you soon.” Then I gathered my garden tote and headed toward my house without a backward glance.
When a knock soundedon the door at exactly seven o’clock, I glanced over my reflection and gave the sexy woman smiling back at me a wink. I’d taken a long shower to steam the garden dirt from beneath my nails and off my skin. I’d worked with the humidity and applied some curl spray while I dried my hair, leaving the long strands to fall in loose waves that looked more dark gold than light brown tonight. I couldn’t do much about covering my freckles, but I didn’t care. I liked the feel of the sun streaming down on my head and shoulders while I worked in the garden without a hat, and the freckles were a fair trade.
I’d picked a sleeveless coral shift and four-inch sandals, determined to limit the amount of looming Ian Greene could do with the six inches of height he had on me. I topped it off with a pearl pendant on a thin silver chain. “You got class for days, sis.”Understated, Ian had said. I snorted. Understatedelegance, maybe. What a jagweed.
I went to answer the door before he could knock again. I pulled it open just as he lifted his hand. The result was him standing with his fist in the air, pointlessly, while he looked confused at having nothing to do with it.Maybe punch your own face, dude. But he just let it drift down after a second.
“You look nice.”
Nice?I lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t sound so surprised.”
