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Sam tossed Sara her cell phone and winked. “I happen to like having my own little blond hurricane blowing around the house.” She got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans from their walk-in closet. “Don’t worry about dinner. I’ll pick up some steaks to grill this afternoon.”
“Don’t you dare,” Sara said, opening the door and leaning on the frame. They both heard Moxie coming down the stairs at the same moment and smiled. “The kitchen manager at work keeps telling me I’m on vacation and won’t let me get back there to cook anything. Dinner is all mine tonight. I adore Cuban food.”
Sara blew Sam a kiss and ducked out the door, only to stick her head back in a second later. “Sam?”
???“Yes?” Sam walked out of their bathroom with a toothbrush dangling from her mouth. “Did you forget something?”
“How did you feel when you finished Moxie’s basketball court yesterday?”
Sam paused, and her shoulders relaxed. “So happy.” She lowered the toothbrush slowly, a slow smile spreading like sunlight over her face. “Happier than I’ve been since we opened Lake Haven.”
Sara smiled, quietly pulling the door shut behind her.
Chapter Ten
The heat settled quickly that evening, and the cool breeze coming in from the water brushed the treetops with the first light of golden hour as Sara put the finishing touches on dinner. She dabbed at the front of her sleeveless white linen dress with a clean towel and club soda with one hand and stirred the Arroz Amarillo on the stovetop with the other.
“Sam?” Sara spun around to find Sam at the table opening a bottle of Chilean Chardonnay. “Would you take over rice duty here while I sort out this spoonful of black beans I just dropped down the front of me?”
“Of course, hang on.” Sam crossed the kitchen in two strides and took the wooden spoon. “How did you manage to do that?”
“You just mind your own business, Draper,” Sara teased, pouring a bit more soda on the front of her dress. “Although, I may have to change. This dress is getting more transparent by the second.”
Sam did the sexy growl Sara loved, and she laughed, rubbing the wet spot with a fluffy kitchen towel. “There, I think I’ve basically gotten it out, and I don’t seem to look too naked.”
Both looked up when they heard the front door open, and a few seconds later, Moxie walked in with an easy smile and pushed her cute new glasses up on her nose. “Hey.”
“Hey, Moximillion.” Sam turned, still stirring the rice in front of her. “I feel like I haven’t seen you all day.”
“Yeah, I kinda stayed with Mary most of the day. She closed the drugstore because she wants us to paint it. Or…” Moxie grinned, pulling at her paint-stained T-shirt. “She wants me to paint it, anyway.”
???“Let me guess,” Sara said, taking over at the stove. “While she eats cinnamon rolls behind the counter and gives you directions?”
“Well, it was pecan brownies again today, but yeah, that’s right.” Moxie reached for a cookie out of the cookie jar on the counter and put the lid back carefully, leaning over to check out what Sara was cooking. “It’s okay, though. She’s paying me, and I like her a lot.”
Sara took the frosty glass of pale gold wine Sam offered her and glanced over her shoulder at Moxie. “Mary was my first friend when I landed in McCall, and I actually bought my first house from her.”
“She’s still your best friend, isn’t she?”
Sara smiled, dipping a small silver spoon into a bubbling shrimp dish on the back burner and blowing on it before she tasted it. “She absolutely is, but how did you know?”
“Because she says that she loves you like she loves her daughters.” Moxie smiled, finishing the last of her cookie and wiping a smear of chocolate on the back of her jeans. “She told me the whole story of how you came here one summer from…Georgia, right?”
“Yep, Savannah.”
“Well, she said you came in and opened up the diner, stole Sam’s heart and—” Moxie paused, eyes flicking skyward as if trying to remember Mary’s exact words. “Oh yeah, I remember. She said that you ‘brought the color back to McCall.’”
Sara turned to Sam, and they both smiled as their eyes teared up. Sam folded her into her arms and hugged her tight. As Sara pulled away, she nodded toward Moxie eyeing the cookie jar, and Sam smiled.
“All right, Moxie,” Sam said, motioning her toward the counter. “I mean, I hate to call you out here, but you’re going at this cookie thing all wrong.”
A flash of worry crossed Moxie’s face for just a second until Sam winked in her direction. “Okay,” she said, her face relaxing into a smile. “I’m listening.”
“It’s a common mistake, but what you’re experiencing here is a simple volume problem.”
Moxie tilted her head and looked back to the jar. “A what?”
“Well,” Sam said, sliding the drawer under the cookie jar open and directing Moxie’s attention to a small stack of paper bags. “You’re taking them one at a time. What you want to do here is maximize your volume by dropping a few of those bad boys in a sack”—Sam dropped three cookies into a bag and folded it over—“and boom. Now you’ve just minimized your return trips to the jar. You can even tear the bag open for an instant disposable plate later.”
