AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You like curry?” The surprise was clear on his face, with the slight widening of his eyes and his brows winging up toward his hairline.
“I love it. I paid my way through college working at an Indian restaurant a few blocks from campus.” Memories played through her mind, filling her with a warmth she’d rarely felt since those days. “Being in the Midwest, most of the college kids avoided it, but it was like my own delicious oasis away from the stress. The couple who owned it were super nice, and they would sometimes slip extra ‘tips’ in my pocket at the end of the night. I miss them.” It surprised her how easily that story had slipped out. She’d never really shared it with anyone.
But then, nobody had ever really asked, had they?
“You’re from the Midwest?”
“No. I was born and raised in Maryland. I went to Michigan State on a partial scholarship.”
“That’s a long way from home.”
“Yeah. That was the point.” Crap. She hadn’t meant to say that. “Anyway, feel free to make it as spicy as you like. Bring on the heat.”
An odd expression flickered in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly she couldn’t read it. “Why don’t you come downstairs and taste test for me, let me know when it’s how you like it?”
“Really, it’s no bother. I don’t want to make extra work for you. I can handle it.”
“It’s no trouble. I want you to enjoy your food, not suffer through it.” When she opened her mouth to argue, he held up a hand, amusement lighting his eyes despite the firm set of his jaw. “Consider it a compromise. And, really, you’re helping me out.”
“I am?”
“Yes. I’ll never sleep tonight if I’m worrying that you didn’t enjoy your dinner. And I need my beauty rest.”
“Please. You’re already gorgeous.” Crap again. Shereallyhadn’t meant to say that.
“Be that as it may, I can be very grouchy if I don’t get enough sleep, and I don’t think either of us wants that. So come downstairs and help me finish dinner.”
Yes, Daddy. The way he was speaking, firmly but with that cajoling sort of tone, made the words tremble on her lips. Even without his confirmation earlier, there was no doubt the man was all Daddy.
But he wasn’therDaddy, so she simply nodded. “All right.”
“Good girl.”
Ugh, if he kept calling her that, it was only a matter of time before she slipped up. Hopefully, the police would catch Nate and she could go home before she did something really stupid and embarrassing.
CHAPTER7
He was man enough to admit when he was wrong. And he’d been very wrong about MaryAnn. At least when it came to her tolerance for spicy foods. She’d done as he’d requested and taste tested for him as he increased the heat in his curry, and by the time she was satisfied, it was almosttoohot, even for him.
Not that he’d ever tell her that.
At every turn, she surprised him with some new facet of herself. Two days later, he still didn’t feel like he had a really good handle on who she was.
There was trauma there, of that he was certain. Not buried very deeply, but even though it didn’t take much to startle her, and she was obviously prone to panic attacks, it didn’t seem to define her.
UNO, as it turned out, wasn’t the only game where she absolutely wiped the floor with her opponents. So far, she’d completely destroyed him at Scrabble, obliterated all of his Battleships without breaking a sweat, and bankrupted him twice in Monopoly.
If he didn’t know any better, he’d have sworn she was cheating.
“How did you get so good at literally every single board game in existence?” he asked as she packed up the checkerboard she’d just used to embarrass him even further.
“My little brother and I used to play a lot of different games. Our grandmother got us a new one every Christmas until she passed, and we were—” She paused in the act of scooping the pieces into the box, as if unsure of how to phrase what she wanted to say. “We were alone a lot, so we both got a lot of practice.”
At the mention of her brother, his internal radar went off. He’d avoided digging into her past too much since it wasn’t really relevant to keeping her safe at the moment, and this was the first she’d mentioned any of her family. “My little brother just liked to knock things over, and then cry to mom if I got mad at him. Now he’s a construction worker and demolition days are his favorite.”
“Living his dreams, it sounds like.”
“Absolutely. What about yours? What’s he up to these days?”
