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“What? This I need to hear.”
Walking out of the kitchen, they headed to the office where they could talk about what had happened in the last week.
Travis turned to Tanner with a grin. “What’s going on with you and the new cook?”
“I’ll tell you when we reach the office. Let’s just say my one-night stand followed me home.”
Travis’s eyes widened and he laughed. “Has Eugenia gotten involved?”
“Oh, yes. I did everything I could not to believe in her, but finally, I just gave up.”
“She can wear on you,” Travis said. “Look out, little brother, you could be getting married before me.”
The thought terrorized him.
“Oh no, that’s never going to happen.”
It was after lunch before he had a chance to get back to the kitchen.
Once again, she was making bread. Now she was rolling out the dough and then cutting the rolls from the main dough ball.
When he walked in, she glanced up. “You can’t seem to stay away.”
“We need to talk,” he said.
“About me leaving?” she asked.
“No, not about that,” he said. “I’ve been thinking. We need to get our stories straight for Eugenia.”
He glanced around. “You know she’s doing her best to matchmake us. She told me that you don’t want to get remarried and I’m not wanting anything permanent, so we need to do something to throw her off.”
The woman laughed at him and wiped her hands on a towel hanging off her apron. Flour was spread over the stainless-steel table and floor as she rolled the dough and then cut off enough for a roll.
“What are you proposing,” she asked, smiling as she put two pans of rolls to rise in the oven.
He’d been thinking about this all morning and wondered if it would work. It could fool the ghost and give them each what they wanted. Their freedom.
But would it cure his insatiable need to be deep inside Emily?
“I think we play along with her schemes and make her think that we’re a couple, but in reality, we’re just doing this to make her happy. Then we’ll have a big emotional break-up and tell her it just didn’t work out.”
Emily frowned at him. “But what is to keep her from trying to match us with other people?”
The thought of Emily with someone else sent a pang of jealousy through him. For a second, it made him tense as the effects rendered him immobile.
“The plan hasn’t evolved that far. For now, let’s just let her think we’re together,” he said, knowing he would have a hard time thinking of her with another man. Any man.
The smell of lavender filled the kitchen. Oh no, had she been here the entire time while they talked about how to fool her? That could be disastrous.
A big bowl rose into the air and slammed down on the ground, sounding like a gunshot, taking him back to Iraq.
The sounds of gunfire were all around him and he flung himself to the side to miss a rocket flying over his head.
His buddy was standing beside him. “That was close.”
“Watch out,” he screamed and covered his friend’s body to save him from the bullets flying. Brandon had been hit and Tanner knew he was next. They would circle back and kill him. Somehow he had to hide or play dead.
Hands were touching him. Cool, soft fingers were stroking his face and he heard her voice in the distance. “Tanner, come back to me. You’re safe. I’m protecting you. Nothing can hurt you here.”
