Nash nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen, returning with water and pills. “So much for our Mount Olympus expedition.”
“I’m sorry,” Sadie said, genuinely frustrated. “I seem to be slowing us down at every turn.”
“Or maybe you’re preventing us from rushing headlong into danger without proper preparation,” Nash countered with a small smile. “Everything happens for a reason, right?”
The comment reminded her of her mother’s constant refrain after they’d entered witness protection.Everything happens for a reason. God has a plan for your life.Easy words when you weren’t the one whose life had been completely derailed.
Nash moved back to the kitchen and began pulling items from the refrigerator—the chicken they’d bought during their grocery shopping trip earlier, along with vegetables and olive oil.
“What are you doing?” Sadie asked.
“Making dinner. We have to eat, and since we’re stuck here for now …” He shrugged. “Might as well make it good.”
Sadie watched as he washed and chopped vegetables with practiced ease, assembling an organic salad with the ingredients she’d insisted on buying. He seasoned chicken breasts with herbs, his movements confident and precise.
“I didn’t know you could cook,” she said.
“One of the many things you don’t know about me,” he replied with a wink.
As he worked and hummed along with the music, Sadie found herself studying him. The way his dark hair fell across his forehead when he leaned forward. The concentrated set of his jaw as he sliced vegetables. The flex of his forearms as he worked. It was undeniable how attracted she was to him—and had been, even all those years ago.
Nash glanced up and caught her staring. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“What?” he persisted, a half smile playing at his lips.
She shrugged, feeling embarrassed at being caught. “Hey, I’ve already told you that you’re handsome. What more do you want from a girl?”
To her surprise, Nash actually blushed, the color rising along his cheekbones. He cleared his throat and quoted, “‘Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.’ Shakespeare knew a thing or two about flattery.”
“Oh, you’re quoting Shakespeare now.”
He quickly turned away, picking up the plate of seasoned chicken. “I’m going to put these on the grill,” he said, heading for the back door.
Sadie laughed, not believing that she was thinking this way, that they were falling into such easy banter after everything that had happened. But there was something comfortable about being with Nash—something that felt like coming home, even though she hadn’t had a real home in years.
When he returned a few minutes later, he finished setting the table and putting the final touches on the salad, adding sliced strawberries and almonds.
“You sure are good at cooking for having no food in your house,” she observed.
Nash moved to sit beside her on the couch, checking the timer for the chicken on his phone. “Well, I don’t get to put my skills to use very often because I stay rather busy.”
She nodded. “With law and with this … whole gold hunt of your own. The conquistador gold.” She studied him, wanting to ask so many questions that had been building since she’d recognized his family name in the newspaper article months ago.
He tilted his head to the side. “Are you trying to get me to admit to something?”
“No.” But she was.
He studied her face, and she knew he could see right through her.
She pushed anyway. “What leads do you have with the conquistador gold?” It wasn’t something she’d thought much about when they’d first encountered each other by the cave, too distracted by the shock of seeing him and then by her own concerns about protecting him from whatever had happened to Bill.
Nash shook his head. “Not going to tell you, but—” He stood up. “I might tell you after we eat and you answer some ofmyquestions.” He moved toward the back door to check on the chicken.
“Always the attorney, right?” she called after him.
Nash flashed her a huge grin. “It is my profession.” He disappeared through the door.
