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“Yes, please,” he drawled in that sweet-as-honey Texas accent, making her heart kick out extra beats.
“Daddy?” she asked, glad the gargled tone had cleared.
“I want the butter pecan, baby.”
“In a cup,” they said together. Clarissa smiled at her father and got busy scooping their treats. He didn’t like ice cream cones—or so he claimed. Clarissa thought it had more to do with the fact that Mama wanted him to cut back on the sugar, but he couldn’t stay away from the ice cream.
He’d tried the sugar-free variety, and Clarissa had spent eight months trying to find a recipe that would give him the flavor he wanted without the sugar Mama didn’t want. She hadn’t found it, and Daddy had just gone back to regular ice cream, claiming that tofu had no place in his treats.
He now compromised by having his ice cream in a cup. He almost always chose butter pecan or maple nut, because he said the taste of the sweet milk came through in them better. Daddy loved everything about dairy, but nothing more than ice cream.
As she rounded the case to deliver the ice cream to the two tough cowboys, she asked, “What are you doin’ here, Spencer?” She shot a quick look at Daddy but didn’t let it linger for long, because the floor was uneven in the shop. She also congratulated herself for saying her ex-boyfriend’s name without choking or talking like a Chipmunk.
“He’s your replacement,” Daddy said.
A strangled noise came from her mouth, and Clarissa’s feet caught on the uneven titles. She yelped as she stumbled forward, managing to lift the cup with the butter pecan high enough to save it, but that required her to smash the waffle cone with all that delectable chocolate ice cream, nuts, and marshmallows right into Spencer Rust’s patriotic plaid shirt.
He grunted as he kept her from falling with his body and then steadied her with his hands on her waist. Pure horror mingled with humiliation inside her, making her pulse positively panicked now.
“I’m sorry,” she said as Daddy took his unscathed cup of ice cream as if she hadn’t just thrown herself into Spencer’s arms and ruined his shirt. Spencer’s cologne muddled her mind, the heat of his hands on her back absolutely delightful.
No, she told herself.Absolutely unwanted.
She looked at her father with round eyes, so many thoughts running through her mind. “I thought you said he was my replacement.”
“I did.” Daddy licked his spoon, too much enjoyment in his eyes for what had just happened. He knew she and Spencer had dated years ago.Of coursehe knew. Just because he was almost seventy didn’t mean he’d lost his memories. Was this some trick to get them back together? There had to be dozens of cowboys applying for the job opening here at Cooper & Co, but she had the very real feeling Daddy would hire this one.
She narrowed her eyes at him, but Daddy just dug his spoon into his butter pecan and took a bite.
With his words ringing in her ears, Clarissa managed to step back, and Spencer’s hands dropped from her body. She stared at the horrible chocolate stain on his chest. It seemed to spread, and when she blinked, the ice cream had covered his whole shirt and then started to melt into her life too.
“I can pay for that,” she said, blinking to get the image of that ice cream to stop spreading. It wasn’t doing that, and she was just so horrified and electrified and terrified-thrilled that her imagination had run wild.
With a jolt, she realized she was still staring at his chest. Maybe that was why she couldn’t look away from the ice cream stain. That chest…
He looked down at his shirt for several long moments too, finally lifting those glittering eyes to hers.
Then he started laughing.
