Page 20 of The Blessings of Christmas
The door opened and Sarah whirled through. “My oh my,” she said with a smile. “Do I smell chocolate?” She unwound the scarf and hung up her coat. “What have you been up to?”
That had to be the first time someone had asked that without expecting an apology. “Thought I’d get things going.”
Her eyes traveled to the cooling racks. “Will you look at this? You’ve already finished the brownies.” Now, some women at the Rusty Nail put a lot of goop on their eyes. A lot of guys went for that. Not him. He’d take Sarah’s sparkling eyes without any makeup any day.
She turned to another tray. “And are these the Mexican hot chocolate cookies?” You’d think she’d just discovered gold.
Suddenly bashful, he tucked his hands in his jean pockets. “Yeah. Thought I’d try them last night. Seemed to turn out okay. Stanley thought they were great.”
“And you used the stamp on the top?” Pulling out a tray, she studied each detail.
Now wasn’t the time to mention it had taken him four tries to get that darn bell design right on the top. “Yep. Don’t worry. I washed it and put it back in your drawer.”
“Oh, Ryan, you’re the greatest.” Sarah’s arms came around him from the back and squeezed. Soaking in the warmth of her body, he didn’t move. He had to remind himself that this was his sister-in-law. Sweet Sarah. The woman who’d never wanted anything to do with him. But his body hadn’t gotten the message. When she laid her head against his back, he could almost feel his bones melt.
Taking his hands from his pockets, he didn’t know what to do. So he patted the hands locked around him. Ryan’s heart was thumping like the kettle drum in the Fourth of July Parade. “You’re welcome.”
Suddenly her hold sprang loose.
Ryan turned. Sarah came up to his chin, but she wasn’t looking up. Her arms were locked across her chest, knuckles white from the pressure. He wished she’d say something. Maybe she could sense the thoughts galloping through his head. “Sarah?”
“Sorry,” she whispered, eyelashes feathered on her cheeks.
He lifted her chin. “About what?”
“I shouldn't have done that. It was silly.”
Disappointment deflated him. “No it wasn’t. It showed that you appreciate me, I guess.”
“Oh, I do.” She lifted troubled eyes. “I really do.”
“Then what’s wrong? Did I goof up somewhere?” That was the story of his life.
The timer sounded. Reluctantly, he limped off to sweep the loaves of bread from the oven. As usual, his hip ached from all the walking back and forth. At the garage, he stayed in one place as much as possible.
No matter how busy he got, today he was traveling to St. Joe to visit the shoemaker Stanley had mentioned.
A door closed upstairs and Lila came down the steps, yawning. It would take a while for him to get used to that blonde hair, not that she’d didn’t look pretty with it. “How was book club, Sarah?” she asked.
“Oh, fine.” Sarah was cutting the brownies into neat squares, but her knife seemed to wiggle a bit.
“Tell me again, which book did you read?” Lila tied an apron around her.
Even though Ryan was busy sliding the hot trays onto the cooling racks, he didn’t miss the blush in Sarah’s cheeks.
“The truth is, we didn’t really get around to the books.” Sarah’s voice trailed off.
“That’s too bad.” Lila leaned over the brownies and sniffed. “My, these smell wonderful.”
Okay, Ryan was curious. “If your book group didn’t talk about books, what did they talk about?”
“Just stuff.” Finished cutting her squares, Sarah studied them.
Lila’s eyes darted between Sarah and Ryan. “Ohhhh.”
Oh, what?Women were a mystery. He shoved a sheet of sour dough bread into the oven.
“So what are you two up to today?” Lila’s eyes sparkled. “I mean, anything new on your baking schedule, Sarah?”
