I watch him disappear into the kitchen. “How is this man mine?” I mutter as I begin the evening cleanup.
It’ll be hard not to peek in the kitchen, but I can’t wait to see what he makes.
twenty-two
Rhett
Diamond’s kitchen at The Thirsty Cow is well-stocked.
No ricotta cheese, but I’ll compromise and use cream cheese just this once. He also doesn’t have a deep fryer, so I mix up a regular pastry dough and form cannoli-shaped tubes using a rolling pin and a toothpick to keep the space open.
It might not be traditional cannoli, but maybe it can be something the customers here come to love because it’s unique. My grandfather would lecture me about not using ricotta if he were here, all with a smile on his face, and that’s what makes this mean a little more. He wouldn’t even care that I’ve made the horns improperly. The filling, though…I smile just thinking about it.
After I sold his building and officially put that kitchen behind me, it left a hole in my life. I can’t replace my grandfather, but I can get back into the kitchen again.
Dumping the ingredients for the filling in the mixer, I beat it until it’s light and fluffy. When the oven timer sounds, I inspect my attempt at cannoli tubes. They look like they might breakwhen I stuff them, but I’ll let them cool while I consider how to deal with that part.
Diamond comes in with a tray of dirty cups and loads up the dishwasher while peeking at what I’ve got on the go.
“Rhett?” He leans closer to the pan of pastry tubes before turning to peer into my mixing bowl. “Is this what I think it is?”
I wiggle my hand back and forth. “Sort of. It’s what I could do with what you had in your pantry.”
Diamond gazes at me like I’m a superhero, and I’m really liking that about him. Not that I need undying adoration, but it’s nice to know I can impress him with something like this.
“I can’t wait.”
He kisses me quickly on the cheek and returns to the front.
“Now for the hard part,” I murmur as I stare at my delicate pastry horns and bowl of filling.
Twenty minutes later, when Diamond comes back to grab the mop and bucket, my creations wait on a tray. Definitely not that pretty, and while some of the pastry crushed when I filled them with a spoon, I found a piping bag and started filling them that way.
“Cowboy cannoli,” Diamond says as he inspects the tray. “Can I taste them?”
“You’re the boss, and you should probably do some quality control.”
He chooses the ugliest of the bunch, but before he bites into it, I hold up a finger. Taking it from him, I dip each end into the bowl of chocolate shavings and hand it back.
“Fancy.” He bites into it, and the pastry crumbles. He laughs and holds his hand to catch the fallout, and I have an idea.
“Why don’t you serve this like a pie? Place it on a plate, have a chocolate sauce bottle and drizzle it. Maybe sprinkle the shavings like this.” Grabbing a plate from the shelf, I place a cannoli on the plate, sprinkle the shavings and grab a saucebottle I saw in the fridge. In a burst of creativity, I make a heart and a horseshoe with the chocolate sauce along the edge of the plate and slide it to him. “What do you think?”
A slow smile slides into place as he steps closer to me. “I think I just fell more in love with you.”
“Oh?”
“You came into my kitchen and made a version of cannoli for my coffee shop, Rhett. It’s not perfect, but you worked with what you found here.”
“You don’t have any ricotta. So technically, it just looks like cannoli and isn’t.”
Diamond kisses me softly. His nose rubs alongside mine.
“I needed you, and you stepped up more than once today,” he whispers. His breath hitches as he presses his forehead to mine. “I’m…so in love with you, cowboy. This means everything to me.”
“You mean everything to me. I’ll come whenever you need me. Every time, beautiful.”
And I would. It might have taken me longer than most to come to that conclusion, but I would. The certainty of that thought, in this moment, is like an extra shot of caffeine on a lazy Monday.
