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I laughed, feeling slightly shy all of a sudden. When I glanced up at him from under my lashes, he was watching me with that intense look that told me if I went up on my tiptoes and kissed him, he’d kiss me back.
Crab cakes, Rory. Just crab cakes. “Fine then, teach me your crab cake ways.” I raised a finger. “But only if you let me treat you to a drink this time.”
He grinned. “Absolutely.”
He followed me back out to the bar where I opened a bottle of red wine and poured two glasses and handed him one. We clinked. “To Ernest Buffalobeam,” he said.
I laughed. “Best lights salesman in Mud Gulch.”
As we entered the kitchen, scratching suddenly sounded at the back door. Gage looked up at me questioningly. I set my wine glass down and hurried to the refrigerator where I removed a pile of takeout containers I’d prepared toward the end of my shift. “Hold on,” I said. “This will just take a second.”
I exited the kitchen and made my way to the back door where the scratching sounds were getting louder. “Hold on, hold on,” I said as I twisted the lock and pulled the heavy door open. My smile was instantaneous as I went down on my knees to greet the hungry visitors, setting the containers on the floor.
The four dogs all came toward me in a rush of wet noses and doggy kisses as I laughed. “Okay, step back, and I’ll give you your dinner,” I said as I reached for the containers. They danced around and whined but made room for me to open each box and set them on the ground one by one.
I stood up as they started hungrily eating, glancing at Gage who was standing a little behind me on the other side of the doorway, his lips tilted in a small smile.
“Gage, meet Loki, Alamo, Katniss, and Tahoe,” I said, pointing at one after the other.
The dogs finished their food and Gage stepped forward, squatting as he let each dog sniff his hand before petting them sort of tentatively. They leaned into him, clearly smitten, and my heart gave a hard knock. “Hey, guys,” he said. “This must be a regular thing.” He glanced up at me. “Do they need homes?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve tried to take them home several times to join the rest of the brood, but they keep running away. They prefer life down on the docks.”
“The rest of the brood?” he asked as he stood.
“I have four rescues.”
“And you want more?”
“I would if they showed any interest, even though the brood and I live in close quarters. I got my mom’s house when she died. It has a small yard. I wish I had more space, but we make it work. And I…well, I like animals, so…” I shrugged. It wasn’t only that I liked them. I’d always sort of…understood them in a way others didn’t seem to. It was hard to explain except that I’d just always instinctively known how to handle different personalities and because of it, they seemed to trust me right off the bat.
His eyes moved over my face, his expression one I didn’t know him well enough to discern. “My family, we work with several charities that help animals too.”
“What do you know? We have something in common after all.”
“Who would have guessed?” He smiled and one of the dogs butted his leg and he laughed, going down on his haunches again. After a few minutes, Alamo’s ears perked up and he turned in the other direction, heading toward whatever had caught his attention. The other dogs began wandering off too and I gathered the containers and locked the door.
I turned to Gage, our eyes meeting in the dim light of the back hall. My heart picked up speed and I felt that pull once again, only like before, it was the pull only enhanced by something I couldn’t put into words. It made me feel confused and slightly needy. Insecure.
“You okay, Cakes?” he asked softly.
I let out a breath, tearing my eyes from his. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. Let’s go make some crab cakes, shall we?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Gage
“Here, put this in your mouth.” She gave me a raise of her brow before parting her lips so I could put the bite of crab cake I’d just cut onto her tongue. Her eyes met mine as I slipped the fork between her lips and I swallowed, the moment slow and intimate and heavy with delicious possibilities that had nothing to do with food.
I watched as she chewed for a moment, her eyes widening and then rolling upward as she groaned and clutched the side of the metal table. Jesus. It was warm in the kitchen but I suddenly felt hot, my clothes far too tight. “Oh my God, that’s good. Wait, did you really make this with ingredients from this kitchen?” She looked around. “Or did you sneak in a few magic crab cake fairies while I wasn’t looking?”
I laughed. “I not only used ingredients you already had around here, but only six of them.”
“Just how?” She ran her finger over her bottom lip and I followed the movement. I was simultaneously turned on and deeply pleased by her reaction to the food I’d made.
“That’s all you need,” I said. “You wrote down what I did. You can do it too. You just swap out that sixth ingredient to make them all different. But it’s basically the same recipe. The trick is getting that outer shell perfectly golden brown and then serving them piping hot.”
She nodded but still looked dubious. “I’ll certainly try to recreate this magic.” She took a swig of her wine and I picked up my glass and drained it. “Thank you, Gage. It was really nice of you to take the time to give me a cooking class.”
