She rolled her eyes. If it delighted him to pay, fine. This wasnota date. This was him showing up at her pie shop. And her hanging out with him during a work break.
Sam flipped her slider patties on the grill. Tall and strapping, with olive skin and brown hair, he was the embodiment of what every American woman imagined the ideal Aussie man should look like. Yet Sam didn’t come with the classic happy-go-lucky, easy-to-laugh, quick-to-throw-back-a-beer Aussie personality. He was closed-off somehow. Wounded, maybe.
Sam represented the trifecta of dating eligibility to the women in this town. He was 1) Respectable, 2) Handsome, and 3) Foreign. Several of her friends had crushes on Sam, yet he hadn’t asked any of them out, which had led to collective confusion and misery.
“Eli told me that Theo’s wife’s been in the hospital,” Sam said to Penelope. “How is she?”
“Much better,” Penelope answered. “She’s been steadily improving. So much so, the doctors are going to release her from the hospital today.”
“Beaut,” Sam said in his charming accent.
“She’ll need to continue taking medications and she’ll need to go in for appointments pretty often.” She pushed her sunglasses up her nose. “But they’re confident that she’ll regain full health.”
“Who’s keeping Madeline today?” Eli asked.
“A few of Aubrey’s friends.”
“Are they still going to need help with Madeline after they’re home?” Eli asked.
“Yes. Aubrey’s not strong enough to take care of Madeline by herself yet and Theo really needs to catch up on work. Several of us are going to take turns at the house when Theo’s not there, so Aubrey can rest.”
“I can help weeknights and weekends,” Eli said.
“I’ll bring food by for them,” Sam offered.
“That’s fabulously kind. Thank you.”
Sam moved Penelope’s sliders onto buns and went to work adding garnishes.
“Sam and I ate at Pablo’s last night,” Eli told her.
“We had the most ridiculous conversation I’ve ever had,” Sam said.
“Then we went out to Sam’s farm and I tried to talk him into watching the Rockies game.”
“Eli’s interest in watching baseball on TV is one of his flaws,” Sam said.
“Baseball’s cool,” she said.
“Baseball’s awful,” Sam stated.
“Don’t waste your breath trying to convince him that it’s not,” Eli said to her. “We ended up watching Aussie Rules Football.”
“Best sport in the world,” Sam said.
“He calls it footy.” Eli lifted his brows.
“Is it like American football?” she asked.
“Better,” Sam answered. “There’s not so much starting and stopping.”
“It’s what would happen if soccer and rugby had a baby,” Eli said, then headed toward the trash can a few storefronts down, doubtless so he could throw away his empty pie plate.
“Eli’s a good guy,” Sam said to her when Eli was out of earshot.
“Yeah. He is.”
He glanced up from her sliders, meeting her eyes. “Are you going to go out with him?”
