Page 86 of Between the Lines

Maude slipped her hand into Ollie’s, their fingers fitting together naturally, and they kept walking as the sky deepened toward evening. Milo shook himself and bounded ahead, oblivious and joyful.

They turned back toward Ollie’s place, the sun dipping lower now, the light warmer and softer as it slid toward evening. Milo seemed to sense the change in direction and picked up his pace, clearly pleased with himself for having successfully completed a beach walk.

Ollie glanced over at Maude. “So,” he said. “About dinner...”

Maude gave him a look. “We already postponed once because of Robbie getting hurt. You’re not changing your mind about cooking for me, are you?”

“Nope.” He held up his free hand. “But before you get too excited, I should warn you—my cooking skills are nothing special.”

“That’s all right,” she said easily. “I’m not hard to please.”

“I do a decent stir-fry,” he continued. “Which is what I planned on making. Shrimp, vegetables, rice. Nothing fancy. No secret ingredients or anything like that. Although, my knife skills are decent.”

She laughed. “They should be. You’re a surgeon.”

“Just trying to manage expectations,” he said. “I don’t want you thinking you’re getting some kind of gourmet experience.”

“As long as it’s edible, I’m happy.”

“It’s edible,” he assured her. “I’ve been feeding myself for a while now without incident.”

“Good enough for me.”

They reached his place and Milo tugged toward the house, tail wagging, already anticipating food or at least the possibility of food. Ollie unlocked the door and stepped aside to let Maude in.

“Make yourself comfortable,” he said. He wiped Milo’s feet off with an old towel, then went into the kitchen and washed his hands. “I’ll get started, and if you want to help, you can. But if you just feel like supervising or getting us drinks, I won’t object.”

Maude glanced around. For a tiny home, his kitchen was pretty high-end. He had the upgraded cabinets and quartz countertops. Not that surprising. “I make an excellent sous-chef if you need one, but I’m fine being in a supervisory position. And since you offered to cook…”

“Right.” Ollie laughed, clearly amused. “In that case, you’re on drinks. Water for me, please.”

“On it.” She found glasses and started filling them with ice and water from the fridge door. Milo had already laid down in the living room, the walk having done its job. She looked around. “Where’s Robbie going to put shelves?”

“Around the windows in the living room. He’s going to build in a window seat with storage underneath it, too. It’s going to be just what I need.” Ollie got out a wok, cutting board, and a very professional-looking knife.

“That sounds great.” Not to mention it would be income for Robbie. She moved past Ollie to put his water close to where he was working, then took a seat at the breakfast bar to watch.

He pulled ingredients from the fridge. A red pepper, a carrot, and a bundle of spring onions. He got rice and a small can of something from the pantry. He held up the can. “You good with water chestnuts?”

She nodded. “Yep. And you said this wasn’t going to be fancy.”

He grinned. “Okay, a little fancy.” He got the rice cooking first, then moved on to washing the veggies. His hands were under the faucet when his doorbell rang. He frowned. “No clue who that is. Probably a package.”

Maude hopped up from her seat. “I’ll get it.”

“Thanks.”

She opened the door, expecting to see a box. Instead, a young man stood there, backpack over one shoulder.

He gave her an odd look, then glanced past her.

“Can I help you?”

He looked at her again. “Yeah. I need to talk to my dad.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

By the time the sun dipped low enough to throw long shadows across the living room, Paige had settled into her usual end-of-day routine. When she wasn’t doing something with Graham, that was.