“Actually, I’d like to take you out to dinner.”
Her lips parted in shock, making him wonder if he’d misjudged her feelings. Then a joyful smile crossed her face, like a ray of pure sunshine. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Perfect. It’s a date.”
A date.
What had he gotten himself into?
Ten
Charlie was on a roll.So, naturally, the universe had to take her down a peg.
After a delightful Friday night, celebrating with the Damsels at Pepe’s Cantina, she’d woken on Saturday with a splitting headache. At first, she blamed the booze. But by noon, her nose was running, and her throat ached. She dosed with vitamin C, orange juice, and hot tea. It didn’t help. On Sunday morning, she felt even worse.
With enormous reluctance, she texted Knox:
I’m so sorry, but I have to cancel. I caught the crud and I’m sick in bed.
Knox: Sorry you’re sick. Do you need anything?
Charlie: I’ll be okay. I have a can of chicken noodle soup somewhere.
Feeling awash in self-pity, she settled herself on the couch with a couple of blankets, a box of tissues, and a tumbler of ice water. Since she was in a nostalgic mood, she grabbed her box set ofThe Hidden Forestand started watching the third season from the beginning. In her opinion, it was the show’s best season, containing her favorite episodes. At some point, she drifted off to sleep, and when she woke at six, she was ravenous with hunger.
This sucks.If she hadn’t caught a lousy cold, she would have been dining with Knox at Il Terrazzo—an Italian restaurant ranked as one of Victoria’s most romantic dining spots. Instead, she was trying to decide if it was worth the effort to heat up a can of soup. She couldn’t even ask her mom for a little TLC because her parents had gone to Vancouver to visit friends.
When a knock came at the door, she grabbed her robe and answered it, unsure of who might be stopping by. Knox stood in her doorway, clad in jeans and a red flannel shirt, carrying a grocery bag. She cringed, wishing she’d taken the time to shower. Truly, he was seeing her at her worst—messy hair, no makeup, wearing her oldest, rattiest pajamas.
“Knox? What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need sustenance, so I brought you dinner. I can leave the bag on the counter, unless you’d like some company.”
The thought perked her up, but she didn’t want him to get sick. “Thanks, but I’m probably contagious.”
He gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Don’t worry about that. I’m immune to everything.”
“Then a visit would be nice.”
“Have you eaten tonight?” When she shook her head, he pointed to the couch. “Go lie down. I’ll heat up some soup.”
His bossy tone was comforting. Like he’d decided to put himself in charge of her care and wouldn’t listen to any arguments. She shuffled back to the couch and wrapped herself in a fleece blanket. “I have a can in my pantry.”
“Forget the canned stuff. I brought a quart from Chuck’s Deli. They make the best chicken noodle soup I’ve ever had.” He walked over to her kitchen counter and set the bag on it. “I also picked up a few essentials from the grocery store.”
She watched in wonder as he pulled out a box of saltines, a bottle of ginger ale, a container of instant oatmeal packets, and a four-pack of Jell-O cups. “How did you know what to buy?”
“Everyone likes this stuff when they’re sick. I grew up in a house with five siblings, and these were my mom’s go-to’s whenever any of us got a cold.” He rummaged in her cupboards until he found a pan, then set it on the stove top and dumped half the container of soup into it.
“You had five siblings?” She didn’t know much about his childhood, except that he’d grown up in Summerland, a small town located in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.
“Yep. Two matched sets. My mom had the first three kids when she was barely out of university. Then my brother Greg showed up ten years later—an oops baby. So, my folks doubled down. A year after that, they had me, and then my sister followed. They called us the second wave.”
A sharp pang of longing gripped her. She’d grown up an only child but had always wanted a sister or a brother. “Were you close to them?”
“The older ones, not so much. Not when I was little. But Greg and I were tight. He was always getting up to shit, and I usually went along with him.” He took a couple of bowls out of the cupboard. “Do you want ginger ale, or should I make tea?”
How had Knox morphed into such a nurturing soul? “Um…ginger ale. Please.” Now that he was opening up about his past, she wanted him to keep going. “Do any of your siblings live in Victoria?”
