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“Please give him mine.”
“I will.” He watched silently as she worked. “You wield a very wicked knife, MissCarmichael.”
She chuckled in spite of herself. “Years of practice. This will be my first time feeding Sylvie’s boarders. Just hoping I don’t burn anything.”
“I doubt that will happen.”
“When you cook, anything can happen.” Getting accustomed to a new stove could be tricky, and she was very nervous about how the meal would turn out, but his presence had her even more at sixes and sevens. “I really need to get this fish done.”
A small smile curved his lips. “Is this your polite way of telling me to be on my way?”
“Yes.”
For a moment he didn’t say anything, and a silence rose thick with all that had to remain unsaid. “You have a scale on your cheek,” he told her.
When he reached for it, Eddy gently backed out of range and brushed it away with a blind hand. “I’m covered with them,” she added with false amusement, in yet another attempt to keep the conversation light. In truth, as much as she wanted to feel his touch, she didn’t want the memory of it added to the inner turmoil she was already battling because of him.
If he was offended, he didn’t show it. “Have dinner with me.”
Her heart was pounding so loudly she was certain he could hear it, but she kept her wits about her. She studied him with his fine good looks and even finer clothes. “Will your fiancée be joining us?” she asked pointedly.
His head dropped.
“I had no idea you were a dishonorable man, Mr.Fontaine.”
“I’m not.” He added, “At least not usually.”
“Then you should go home.”
A long moment passed. “Eddy, I—”
“I have work to do, Rhine,” she said quietly.
He looked off into the distance for a moment, then turned back and nodded tersely. “My apologies.”
She watched him walk back to his carriage and drive away. Confident she’d done the right thing, she returned to the fish.
As Rhine drove off to meet Natalie for dinner, he tried to put his finger on how he felt in the wake of Eddy’s response to his invitation. Humbled. He’d never had a woman back away from his touch before, but then he’d never met a woman like Eddy Carmichael before. Considering how fragile and near death she’d been when he and Jim came across her in the desert, seeing her fully recovered was immensely pleasing. However, she was like a fish knife through the chest of a man’s ego. She apparently didn’t care that he was wealthy, charming, or that women had found him irresistible since birth. He had a fiancée, and although they hadn’t talked about it directly, he knew he was the wrong race. Rhine considered himself to be a man of honor, and as one already engaged he was supposed to be leaving her alone, but something inside still refused to listen.
“So, when does the saloon go on sale?”
Rhine paused over his glass of wine and studied Natalie’s hopeful eyes. He set the glass down. “Are you ready to order?” They were eating at McGuire’s, one of the fanciest and most exclusive places in town. The place was crowded but he had no appetite.
She smiled at him over her menu. “Rhine, I know that’s why you went to San Francisco, so stop teasing me. When?”
He had one woman in his life that he couldn’t have, and a woman he did have that he’d begun to question his future with. “Have you decided what you want to eat, Natalie?”
“Oh all right, pull my leg a bit longer.”
The waiter came over. Natalie ordered the lamb and Rhine chose a steak. When the waiter thanked them and left to take their requests to the kitchen, Natalie said, “Since you’re so intent upon making me wait for my surprise, I’d like you to accompany me to Vera’s dress shop so I can pick out my wedding costume.”
“When?”
“Sometime soon. Whenever your schedule allows.”
He nodded. “I’ll let you know.”
“Before the end of the month, though, Rhine.”
