She climbed out of the car into a blanket of freshy fallen snow, bumped the car door closed with her hip, and started up the walk.
The door opened before she was halfway there, and a smiling Knox stepped out.“Hey, there.”
“Hi.”Topping the steps, she beamed at him.“I have something for you.”
He took the insulated carryout bag with a curious smile.“What’s this?”
“Dinner.”
A frown appeared immediately.“Dinner?I thought we were ordering pizza.”
“Nope.Jesse and I made a deal.”Shifting her overnight bag to her other hand, she rose on her toes to kiss his cheek.“I would stay overnight tonight if you guys let me bring dinner.”
The frown deepened.“I didn’t know about this.”
“Because he thought he tricked me,” Chloe said and aimed a smile at Jesse when he appeared in the doorway.“Didn’t you?”
“Didn’t I what?”he asked, stepping around Knox to greet Chloe with a kiss.“What’s all this?”
“Dinner,” Chloe said cheerfully at the same time Knox said it with considerably less joy.
Jesse looked the bag in Knox’s hands, then at Chloe.“I thought we were ordering pizza.”
“Only because you thought you tricked me,” she told him and slipped between them into the warmth of the house.Stomping the snow from her boots on the tile of the entry way, she walked through the open door into the living space.“But I am not so easily tricked.”
They followed her in, Knox a step behind Jesse, and shut the outer and inner door behind him.Still holding the bag, he pointed a finger at his husband.“What’d you do?”
“She said she’d stay over if she could bring dinner,” Jesse said.“I knew you wouldn’t agree to that—”
“Damn right.”
“—so I told her to bring your favorite meal.Fajitas.”
“There are no Tex-Mex restaurants in Braxton.”
“This is true,” Chloe said, peeling off her coat and toeing off her boots.“But there is an Aunt Carrie.”
Both men turned to stare at her, and, enjoying their looks of confusion, she smiled.
“Carrie?”Knox said.
“Uh-huh.You know, my aunt?The chef?”
“I’m familiar.”
“Well, when I told her I needed steak fajitas for three”—she looked at Jesse—“you didn’t specify steak or chicken, so I made an executive decision.”
Jesse blinked.“Ah…okay.”
“When I told her that, and asked her where I could get such a thing in or around Braxton, Ohio, she offered to make them.”
Knox stared at the bag in his hands.“She made them?”
“With all the fixins’.”Pleased with herself, Chloe rocked back on her heels.
Knox looked at her, awe in his wide hazel eyes.“Shemadethem?”
“She kept them on the rare side, so we can warm them up without overcooking them.Oh, and there’s guac, queso, and homemade tortilla chips.”
