AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mmm. I wish you would have let me know before I was dressed and ready to go,” she said. “If it helps to ease some of your disappointment, I’d be mo
re than willing to go back to bed after the farmer’s market.”
“I’m definitely going to take you up on that,” he said, pulling her close and pressing a kiss to her neck.
She stood there in the middle of the crowd, enjoying the sensation of his lips brushing against her skin. When he slid his hands underneath the edge of her sweater, she said, “As much as I’m enjoying this moment, the sooner we finish shopping, the sooner we can leave.”
He continued to nip at the sensitive skin of her neck for a moment more before he lifted his head and agreed, “Excellent point. So where are we headed now?”
Taryn scanned the crowd looking for their next stop. Suddenly, she said, “Oh! Bruce is here. I’m going to make you the best dinner of all time tonight. “
She made a beeline for the mushroom stall, dragging him in tow and said, “Hey! I thought you weren’t here.”
“Taryn, hey!” Bruce said, his face lighting up. “Yeah. They moved us into a corner without even telling us. Someone was setting up in our spot when I got here. Traffic hasn’t been terrible, though.”
“Glad to hear it!”
She saw Bruce’s eyes shift to Evan, who stood behind her.
“Oh, jeez. I’m sorry. Bruce, this is Evan. Evan, this is Bruce.”
After a long moment, Evan stepped up, wrapping one hand around her waist, and holding out his other hand. “Good to meet you.”
Taryn saw surprise flicker over Bruce’s face but he stuck out his hand to shake Evan’s.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Bruce said. A moment later, he asked her, “In the market for some mushrooms today?”
Evan piped in, “So the best dinner of all time is mushrooms?”
Bruce smiled and said, “Depends on what she gets.”
“Some porcini mushrooms and a white truffle if you’ve got it. One of the medium-sized ones.”
“Tonight, you eat like a king,” Bruce said.
Evan grinned and said, “That’s excellent news.”
Bruce turned back to address her again and said, “You got my last one of the day. Good thing you got here early.”
“Figured they’d go quick,” she said. “What do I owe you?”
“Seventy five, my dear,” Bruce said. “I’ll tell Mindy you were by. Ron’s working this weekend so she’s stuck with the kids. She’ll be sorry she missed you.”
Taryn reached into her wallet and paid while Evan stared on incredulously. After collecting her change, she added the mushrooms and truffle to her bag and bid Bruce goodbye.
As they walked away, Evan wrapped an arm around her waist and asked, “Did you seriously just spend that much money on mushrooms?”
“A truffle, too,” she said defensively. “It’s worth the cost. Trust me.”
“I thought you were a poor college kid before this. Where’d you get such a refined palate from?” Evan teased, bumping her with his hip as they walked.
Taryn hesitated for a minute and said, “One of my foster families, the woman, Betty. She was a chef. She used to make the most incredible food. By the time I was eleven, I had tried escargots, foie gras, truffles, and all kinds of strange stuff.”
“Wow,” Evan said. “Sounds awesome. Except for the snails.”
“It was. They were nice people, but about a year after I moved in with them, Betty got cancer. She died pretty quickly after that, and her husband Joe just lost it. He wasn’t really in any shape to take care of a twelve-year-old by himself. So that put my refined palate on hiatus.”
He was silent, as if he was trying to decide what to say. Before he could speak, she continued on, “I used to love to watch her cook, though. Now that I’m able to, I really want to start experimenting more in the kitchen. It’s nice to have a guinea pig.”
