Katie giggled and Ruth's smile broadened.
"We were just about to sit down and go through the details of what I have to do to help."
"Oh," he felt like he'd walked into a glass door, stunning himself, "you said you'd help?"
"Sure." She looked away for a moment and gestured at the stools. "Maybe you'd like to sit down with us while we talk and come up with a plan?"
He didn't know why, but he balked at that. "I don't know what help I'd be. I'm just one of the dads."
"Just?" Ruth shook her head at him. "I doubt you've ever been 'just' anything, Nick."
God, he loved the sound of his name in her voice.
Ruth opened a cabinet and took out two plates and set them on the counter. "Have you been to one of these teas?"
Katie drew him over to the kitchen island and pointed at a seat. "Oh, my dad's always there at the tea parties. He helps set up the tables and he sets up chairs for the older guests."
She clambered up onto a stool, and he sat down beside her.
"They asked him to be Mother Ginger last year and this year," Katie looked up at him with an adoring smile, but he really didn't want her to say anymore, "but he said no."
"Mother Ginger?" Ruth opened another drawer and picked out a towel decorated with little dancing mice and wiped off the plates that she's set out.
Beside him, Katie leaned forward and plucked a couple of napkins from a holder on the countertop.
She placed one in front of him, but he didn't know what was going on.
"Mother Ginger is in the second act of the Nutcracker," Katie eagerly explained, "she comes onto the stage in this huuuuge skirt and a whole bunch of little kids come out and dance. They're the gumdrops."
Ruth moved from that cabinet to the far side of the island in the center of the kitchen, it was that moment that he realized there were baked goods covering every counter in the room.
"I'm sorry," he began, "did we interrupt you?"
"Interrupt?" She grinned at him and his heart skipped a beat. "No. I've just been baking to fill some orders for people at work."
As she moved from counter to counter, she placed baked goods from every tray on to the two plates she had in her hand.
Nick could only watch her in rapt attention as she moved. He'd had chances to watch her before.
He'd seen her move from her car to her front door.
He'd seen her walk out to visit with their neighbors.
And he'd seen her moving around her backyard.
She was music in motion.
When she came to a stop between Katie and himself, she put a plate in front of each of them. "Here. You two can try these and tell me if you think that these would work for the tea."
Nick wanted to reach out and wrap his arm around her. He wanted to feel her curvy body fitting against his side, but he kept his hands on his thighs.
"What smells like cinnamon?"
The question burst from his mouth before his mind could stop it and Katie stared at him in shock.
"What?" He shook his head, trying to salvage his pride as he gestured at the plate in front of him. "It all smells great.Mouthwatering," he chanced a glance at Ruth, "really, but that cinnamon," he closed his eyes and drew in a deep, lung filling breath, "is the most incredible scent."
He opened his eyes again and looked at Ruth, hoping to get an answer.
