Page 19 of Bombshell (Whiskey Dolls 1)

The laugh he let out was caustic, riddled with contempt. “She doesn’t need a reason to do it, trust me. But the one tonight was because she feels I’m not there enough for Eli.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” I offered. I didn’t know him well, but the times I’d seen Pierce with his son back when I was dating Frank, he seemed like a very hands-on dad.

He let out a noncommittal grunt before changing the subject altogether. “Anyway, what are we making tonight?”

“Um, well, we’re supposed to be attempting taco cups.”

He shot me a narrow-eyed look. “What the hell aretaco cups?”

My attempt to hold in my laughter resulted in me snorting, which in turn, made him smile in a way that I felt deep in my belly and between my thighs.Damn it all to hell.

“I haven’t quite figured that out yet. Apparently we shove tortillas into a little cupcake tin, fill them up, and finish everything off in the oven, but I’m kind of skeptical.”

His full lips pursed together as he blew out a breath and rested his hands on his trim hips. “Well, I guess we better get started.”

I gave him a small, self-deprecating grin. “I have to be honest with you, I’m kind of the worst student in the class. I’m not sure you want any help from me.”

His chuckle definitely didn’t send a shiver up my back and across my shoulders. Nope. Not at all.

“You can’t possibly be any worse than I am. Trust me. Eli went through a phase as a toddler where he ate playground sand, but when it comes to my cooking, he straight up refuses to eat it. Hence why I’m taking this class to begin with.”

“I don’t know,” I said on a giggle. “My last meal here was the consistency of rubber.”

He turned to me, giving me those crystal-clear blue eyes. “At least yours was edible. I think mine might have poisoned anyone who attempted to eat it.”

I gave him another smile before looking back to my prep station and sliding him the notes I’d taken, along with the cooking instructions. “Guess we’ll see how we do this time around.”

We lapsed into a silence that was surprisingly companionable as we attempted to cook something that wouldn’t come out looking, smelling, and more than likely tasting like shoe leather. I was attempting to brown hamburger meat in a skillet, worrying about the amount sticking to the bottom of the pan, when he spoke a few minutes later.

“So, how are things between your sister and her husband?”

I let out a sigh of frustration, feeling my shoulders slump as I scraped at the burnt bits on the bottom of the skillet. “Pretty much the same. I tried staking him out at his office the other night to see if there was really something going on with that woman he was with, but I still left there without any answers.”

I felt his penetrating gaze on the side of my face and slowly turned to look at him. He was staring at me with a flummoxed expression, the corners of his mouth trembling with suppressed laughter. “You staked him out?”

My cheeks flushed as I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down. “Yeah. When I say it out loud it sounds pretty ridiculous. I dragged my friend Layla with me, and she said I was being an idiot. But it seemed like a good idea at the time,” I defended. My face drooped into a frown. “I just wish I hadn’t spent so damn much on those binoculars and those stupid black clothes.”

He did something just then that I’d never seen him do in all the years I’d known him. Pierce’s head fell back on a bark of laughter that was so unexpected I jolted before I let the sound wash over me. He had areallygreat laugh. And damn, but he looked good while he was doing it. His throat bobbed, the cords on the side of his neck tensed and flexed, the corners of his eyes creased with laugh lines I hadn’t known existed, and all those straight white teeth were on perfect display.

There hadn’t been a single instance where the man hadn’t looked handsome as sin, but there was just something downright sexy about him when he laughed. I didn’t know what the hell was going on with me, but my lady parts stood up and took notice. This wasn’t a man I was supposed to feel any kind of draw to. For any tiny bit of warmth he might give, there was a wall of ice just around the corner.

Yet, there I was, staring up at him, with what I could only assume was a goofy, lust-struck look you’d expect to see on a school girl if the captain of the football team suddenly came out of nowhere to talk to her.

“Sorry your stakeout didn’t result in any answers.” He chuckled once he was able to speak through the hilarity. “But I have to admit, I’d have liked to have seen that.”

I gave him a sly grin. “Well, if I plan another stakeout, I’ll be sure to call you.”

“How’s it going over here?” Chef Jodi popped up just then like a demented Jack-in-a-Box, scaring the hell out of Pierce and me. I flung my spatula wide while the knife in his hand clattered to the floor

“Jeez, Chef Jodi,” I gasped, placing a hand on my chest. “Maybe don’t scare the hell out of us while we’re wielding dangerous kitchen implements?”

Instead of acknowledging that she’d nearly lost an eye for her carelessness, she looked at our work station with a displeased frown. “Pierce, these knife cuts are...” I glanced down and had to stifle a laugh when I saw that he’d basically massacred a whole head of lettuce and a couple of tomatoes. It looked like a crime scene.

Before I had a chance to make fun of him, she pointed to my skillet. “What do you have going on here?”

“Uh... I’m browning hamburger meat?”

Her face went pale and she slowly started to back away. “All right, well... keep up the good work.”

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