He looked up when she turned the corner. He just gave her an easy half-smile and turned back to the pan. There was already a stack of pancakes warming under foil on the counter, and a bowl of strawberries cut into pieces.
She poured herself a coffee. From the pot already made. She was surprised at how steady her hand was. After kissing him and then him sharing his darkest secret, she’d expected to feel different. Nervous, maybe.
But the strange thing was she felt very much herself. Possibly a bit quieter inside than usual. Settled into something new but that felt exactly right.
She was not certain yet what the something was. She would know when she knew.
“Pancakes don’t like to be rushed,” she said, reading her own note off the card on the counter.
“Trust the bubbles,” he quoted her grandmother’s note on the recipe.
He flipped the pancake currently in the pan. It was perfectly browned to a lightly crispy golden crust over a fluffy, light middle.
“Nice!” she exclaimed. “Most people flip too soon. Takes real restraint to wait for the bubbles.”
“I have many fine qualities, Ma’am.”
She noticed he’d even warmed maple syrup in a small saucepan. It was a detail she hadn’t thought to suggest, and the degree of attention to detail he’d put into pancake making humbled her. Odd how such a small kindness as warming syrup moved her nearly as much as their kiss yesterday.
Lily appeared in the doorway trailing a seal by a flipper.
“Mr. Reno’s making pancakes?” she asked sleepily.
“I sure am,” he replied cheerfully.
Grace stifled a laugh as Lily’s gaze shot hopefully to the ceiling.
“There’s no pancake on the ceiling,” Lily declared, disappointed.
Reno didn’t laugh out loud, but his shoulders shook, and from her angle beside him, Grace saw the struggle on his face. He finally collected himself enough to say, “Well, I can flip one up there, but then you’ll have one less to eat. What’s your preference, Princess?”
Grace was alarmed at how long it took Lily to decide. But finally her daughter allowed that she’d rather eat all her pancakes.
If I could write Susannah Perry a note, this is what I would tell her. The man who took your husband down is in my kitchen at five AM. making pancakes for my daughter and me, and thought to warm the syrup for us . Whatever you’ve done with the money he sends, I hope it has been helpful to you. I hope your children are safe and well. He sleeps with lights on because if he sleeps with them off, he sees you.
“A pancake breakfast on a Wednesday is going to spoil us,” she said.
“Then I’d better make them every Wednesday.”
She liked the idea of him waking up here every Wednesday so he could make them pancakes.
Grace stood to gather the plates and he jumped up to help, wincing because he moved too fast and his knee complained. She cleared the table and he carried over pans from the stove, and they ended up at the sink together. When she reached past him to put a plate in the basin, her hand brushed the back of his forearm, and she had two simultaneous options. She could keep her hand moving. She could let it stay.
She let it stay.
He didn’t move his arm. She didn’t look at him and he didn’t look at her, and a second passed, and then another second, and then she moved on to the next plate because she would feel silly if she didn’t.
If she’d ever had a rush of thrill the first few times she accidentally touched Liam, she had no memory of it because she’d been six. She doubted it had felt this exhilarating back then.
They went their separate ways to get ready to leave. He went to shave and she got Lily dressed and packed for school. They headed out in his truck. He waved to the deputy who waved back.
She watched him drive. He drove the way he did everything, which was carefully but without making a big deal of his care. Lily kept up a steady commentary from the back about a seal who might have a birthday today, possibly. The seal had not decided.
Reno listened. He nodded at the appropriate moments. He asked what kind of cake the seal wanted.
“Carrot,” Lily said firmly. “With a frog on top.”
“That seems custom-order.”
