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Amalie rocked back on her knees. “Oh no. You’re one of those!”
He grinned. “No. I’ve already put together four just like this for my office.”
“Fair enough. Am I to sit back and admire your skill and dexterity, or am I allowed to help?” she asked.
“You can totally help if you want, but since I work alone, an audience would be awesome.”
“I choose to sit and watch you, because you’re so pretty.”
Sean wadded up the instructions and threw them at her.
She laughed, and their day together began.
After the nonsense wore off, Amalie’s thoughts wandered. She wanted to talk about the message fromAncestry, but she didn’t want the pity, or Sean trying to commiserate with her, so she stayed silent, keeping the humiliation to herself.
As soon as the first shelf was put together, Sean put it on one side of her fireplace and moved the unopened box of books beside it.
Amalie immediately plopped down and began transferring books from the box to her new shelving.
Sean paused in the act of opening the second box to watch. She was a beautiful and obviously competent woman, but in some ways, he still saw the child in her, looking for approval, wanting to belong. She’d grown up lonely. He wanted to fill her up with so much love and attention that she never felt lonely again. But there was a fine line between attention and smothering, and he never wanted to be that man. She’d come to him if and when she wanted, or not at all, and it would change nothing. In his heart, she would always be his first love.
After the second shelf was done, and the last box of books unpacked, they gathered up the packing and boxes and carried them to the trash bin, then hurried back inside.
Amalie was beaming. “Look how pretty! They balance out the room, and the dark color of the wood grain is exactly my taste. All teasing aside, thank you, Sean. The gifts in my life have been few and far between, but you are the best gift of all.”
Sean walked up behind her, slid his arms beneath her breasts, and pulled her back against his chest. Sheleaned into his body, her head beneath his chin, and let the silence envelope them.
Then Sean’s phone rang. He groaned.
“If it’s work, somebody is going to have to wait,” he muttered, then saw caller ID and read the text. “False alarm. Mom’s just letting me know she’s leaving Betty Raines’s house and heading up the mountain to check on Uncle John. She checks in because I ask her to. That way I know where to go looking if she doesn’t show up.”
Amalie turned to face him. “Family isn’t just who you love or who you’re related to. Family is insurance, too. Right? I mean, you always know there’s someone who’ll worry if you don’t show up. Someone you’re accountable to. Someone who’d know you’d gone missing.”
He cupped her face and brushed a kiss across her lips. “You could always check in with me. I would consider it an honor.”
“Then, if I have the occasion to leave town, I will let you know when I do and where I’m going, okay?”
“Okay,” he said, then followed her to the kitchen table, as she took a big pot from the refrigerator and set it on the stove to reheat.
Wind rattled the dry bushes against the house. This felt like Oklahoma weather in winter. Cold and windy, and hardly any snow. At least here, it did snow without added insult of freezing rain. The trade-off was welcome, and she was glad she’d decided on chili and jalapeño hush puppies for lunch.
She turned on the fire under the pot of chili, thenturned on the deep fryer to the correct temperature and left it to heat while she mixed up the batter.
“Sean?”
He looked up. “Yeah?”
“I’m putting jalapeños in the hush puppies. What’s your heat level?”
“Wow, that sounds good. Make them like you like them and it will work for me.”
She forked a bunch of pickled slices out of the jar and began chopping them up on the cutting board, then raked them into the hush puppy mix and gave it a stir.
A few minutes later, the chili was beginning to bubble, the deep fryer was at optimum temperature, and she began dropping in the batter, a spoonful at a time. By the time she’d finished, she had a shallow bowl heaping full of crunchy bites.
“Lunch is ready.”
Sean got up. “Everything smells so good. Do you want the pot of chili on the table?”
