“Really?”
He raised his shoulders.“I mean, I haven’t run a taste test or anything, but yeah.It’s what Hayden and I do, and we lived on canned crap like kings.”
A curious smile curved on her lips.“Alicia would be impressed.”
Alicia wasn’t the woman he wanted to impress.
The stove slowly heated the water, but eventually it boiled.Callum turned down the dial so the pot wouldn’t boil over, and Grace dumped in the vegetables.He opened a can of condensed cream of chicken soup and cracked the cap on a small carton of milk, mixing them with a can of chicken.
After a minute, she strained the flash-boiled vegetables, dunked them in the ice bath, and drained them, giving the colander a couple of shakes.He took them from her, dumped them into his bowl, and scoured through the spice containers.
“What are you looking for?”
“No idea.A bit of everything.”Callum added dashes and shakes of whatever sounded good as she mixed.
Grace tapped the spatula on the bowl.“I should take pictures for Alicia.Really, she would be applauding at this point.”
They unrolled the pie crusts and pressed one into a tin.He dumped in the soupy vegetables and slapped the second crust on top.To be honest, the whole thing looked bland, but if he had to bet, Grace would like it.He stabbed the crust all over with a steak knife.“Alicia’s high opinion isn’t the one I’m after.”
The way Grace’s smile curved until it made her eyes shine was going to get him in trouble before they’d had dinner.He tossed the pie into the oven.
“How long?”she asked.
He picked up the pie-crust box.“It says forty-five minutes to an hour.”
Grace flipped the oven light on and peeked at the pot pie.“That’s a long time.Thirty-five?Forty?”
“I’ve never made a pie.”He laughed as he cleared their trash.“I have no idea.Sure.That’ll give me time to check in with my office.”
“I’ll go work on a book cover.”
“Do you need to be on the internet for that?”
She shook her head.“Nope.Just a program on my computer.My client had just approved the concept, and now I’m playing with the proportions of the image in the background before I go much further.”
She settled on the well-worn couch, pulled a crocheted blanket over her legs, and booted up her device.Years of remote work in a constantly changing setting had given her the ease to simply slide into a job.She flipped the laptop screen so that it functioned like a tablet, removed a stylus from her bag, and dove into her work, completely relaxed.
Callum lingered.Her stylus swiped over the screen over and over again like she was shading a tiny spot.The book cover had her complete attention, and the way her hair fell over her face had his.If he didn’t call Vivian right that moment, he wouldn’t be able to let Grace work.
He pivoted from the living room and dialed Viv.Surely he’d given her enough time to handle the police and hunt down the motivation behind the firebomb through Alicia’s window.
Vivian answered on the first ring and got down to business.“It wasn’t Marino.”
He shut the bedroom door behind him and agreed.The MOs were different.Marino’s note was clear, if not creepy.The Molotov cocktail was messy and pointless.“How do you know?”
“Because Dominic Marino is furious someone is messing with his woman.”
His molars ground together.“She’s not his woman.”
“I know this.You know this.But a certain billionaire does not, and he and his people are blowing up every line of communication we’ve got a read on, demanding to know who put his wife in danger.”
“Ex-wife.”
“Again, Hale, I know.You know.He doesn’t seem to care, and he’s pissed.Want the good news?”
He paced.“Yeah, Viv.I want some good news.”
“He doesn’t know about you.”
