“I don’t know. Didn’t you ask?”
“No. Gray only said to cater for about thirty people.”
“Surely he meant adults and kids.”
Rylan shrugged. “Who knows. I’ll get extra burgers and dogs. I can always freeze whatever doesn’t get used.”
“True.” She cracked her door when he turned off the engine. “We should probably get two carts. That way, we can keep the heavy stuff in one and the rest in the other. You don’t want to squash the burger buns.”
“Right. One cart each.” He stepped out of the truck and walked around to meet her. “It’s a good thing you’re here. I’d have never thought about that, plus I’d probably end up having to do two runs through the store.”
Mazey smiled at him. “That’s what friends are for.”
“Shopping together?” He’d never gone grocery shopping with anyone. Not even Renee.
She linked her arm through his and tugged him forward. “Yep. Get a move on. I need to get home in enough time to make the pies tonight.”
“You’re not going to make them at my place?” He’d been looking forward to watching her bake.
“What?” She looked up at him as they walked into the store. “You thought I’d make them at your place?”
“Well, yeah, I just assumed . . . but now I think about it you’d have to bring whatever you might need. I don’t have much in the way of kitchen accessories. Only the basic standard things. Definitely no pie plates.”
“I love to bake.” Mazey let him go and reached for a cart. “I’ve done more baking in the last few weeks than I have in the last few years.”
The frown that took over her face made him wonder why she hadn’t baked as much before moving to Sunnyville. Had her job taken up all her time? “I, for one, am really glad you’re baking a lot.” He rubbed his belly. “You can never have too much pie.”
“Pie isn’t the only thing I can bake.”
Rylan laughed. “Of that, I have no doubt. After weeks of eating your cooking at work, I don’t doubt you could bake anything you wanted to. You can bake or cook for me any time you want.”
She stopped, her head tipping slightly to the side as she frowned at him. “You’d want me to cook for you outside of work?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I? So far, I’ve loved everything of yours I’ve tasted, and it beats going out or getting carryout.” Rylan tried not to think about what else, other than Mazey’s food, he’d tasted. Or the things he hadn’t.
“Hmmm . . .” Turning, she pushed her cart toward the fresh produce section. “Get your list out.”
He didn’t know what had just happened. He’d said something that put a shimmer of sadness in her eyes he hadn’t seen before. Did she not like cooking for others? Had she done it before and had to stop?
There was so much about her he didn’t know. As her friend, did he have the right to ask?
Right or not, Rylan promised he’d get to the bottom of that look she’d given him.
He wanted to know what caused it and then he wanted to make sure he erased it from her memory.
Then he wanted to make sure nothing put that sad look in her eyes ever again.
19
Mazey juggled two shopping bags as she stepped through the doorway between Rylan’s garage and house.
She’d been so surprised when they pulled into the driveway a few minutes ago. His home was not what she’d expected. She thought it would be something similar to her place, a small house with a bit of a yard. He was a bachelor, after all. But it wasn’t.
Rylan lived in a big two-story with an attached garage.
It didn’t fit her assumptions at all.
The fact he lived in a house and not an apartment had come as a shock but this...
