“Well, it’s really just a chicken and wine stew. But it takes a lot of patience. Once everything’s browned and in the pot, it needs to simmer low and slow—about an hour, give or take. That’s where the magic happens.”
She snorted into her wine glass. “You make it sound so … Food Network.” Her nose crinkled. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I take that as a compliment.” His eyebrows lifted. “But it’s clear we’re going to have to find something to occupy you while I cook. How about Word Trap?”
“No idea what that is,” Cali confessed.
Ethan wiped his hands on his apron—another of the many things he brought along with him—and grabbed the bottle of pinot noir to top off her glass. “We agree on a word, and if you or I say that word at any point for the rest of the night, we have to drink.”
Cali’s eyes grew wide. “The whole glass?!”
Ethan frowned and shook his head. “Hell no. I don’t want to be remembered as the guy who came to cook youcoq au vinonly to make you vomit before you even tried it. No,” he insisted. “Asip. You must take a nice, healthy sip if you say the word. That’s all.”
She eyed him skeptically. “What’s with you and games? Just like when we were at the fall festival. Now you want to see me beat you at a drinking game, too.”
He scoffed. “Okay. Then beat me.”
She took a sip of her wine, confident she’d win even though she was already in the lead on drinking tonight. Words were her specialty. Ethan didn’t stand a chance.
“Okay, what word?” she asked. “Make it a good one.”
Ethan glanced over at Max, curled up on a rocking chair several feet away from them. “How about ‘cat’? Neither of us can say the word ‘cat’ without drinking for it. Deal?”
This … would be tough. Sometimes cats were all Cali could talk about. Especially now that Max was in her life, she could see herself slipping up on this one easily. “It’s a challenge,” she said. “But deal. I’m still suspicious this is your way of making sure we end up talking about football or something.”
He laughed but didn’t deny anything. They shook on it, then Ethan meandered to the counter to pour himself a full glass of wine, too. “Okay, Jacobs. Since I picked the word, you get to start. Ask me anything.”
Cali bit her lip as she thought. So many places to start. “Tell me about Catsby,” she landed on.
Ethan froze mid-stir. “Ah-ha!”
“Nope. Doesn’t count,” she shot back. “That’s a name. Like Max. I can ask about your—” She stopped herself just in time. “—pet.”
“Mm hmm.” He smirked. “You werethis closeto losing already.”
She scoffed. “Fine. Tell me about when you first got … her.”
“You meanthe cat?” he said deliberately. He lifted his glass to his lips and sipped.
“That’s cheating.”
“It’s hydration,” he said, deadpan. “Okay, okay. I promise I’ll behave.” He cleared his throat. “Well, let’s see. She just … showed up. I wasn’t looking for a pet. She was stuck in the rafters of a half-built community home outside of Chicago. Took me, an apprentice, and one very annoyed foreman an hour and a can of tuna to get her down. Foreman said if I was that determined, she was my responsibility. So I took her home, bought her a sparkly collar. And she repaid me with Gatsby-level partying at 3 a.m., curtain-climbing and chaos included.”
Cali laughed. “Hence the name. Well, at least the foreman approved. I mean, I’ve always believed that your cat finds you, not the other way …” Her voice trailed off. “Shit.”
Ethan’s mouth twitched, betraying his amusement. Cali took a swig of her wine.
“Anyway, she’s the best. She adapts really quickly each time we move. What about you?” Ethan asked. “Any other … uh …felinesbefore Max?”
“Clever,” Cali commended him. “I’ll have to remember that one. No, he’s not the first.” Her stomach dropped a little at the thought of her Charley girl. “My other … feline had been with me since high school. Her name was Charley. Tabby, with the most beautiful green eyes I’d ever seen. She lived to 16. Actually, my grandma found her here, in Autumn Ridge, at this house! But she had too many pets of her own. So I drove down, and the minute our eyes met, I knew Charley was going to be mine. My grandma thought so, too.” Cali’s eyes got a little misty then. “She’d curl up on my arm each night, nose to nose as we fell asleep. My best friend. I still miss her.” She walked over to Max and gave him a squeeze, trying to calm the wave of grief before it drowned her.
Ethan’s expression softened, the teasing gone from his face. “She found you here, huh? Guess that makes this place evenmore special. And it sounds like she was lucky,” he said quietly, “to find someone who saw her like that.”
Cali was on the edge of something. Maybe it was the wine. She didn’t plan on getting to know him like this tonight. How was this supposed to be light and fun and flirtatious if she started crying? She was ruining the whole plan. She sat at the high top again and wiped at the edge of her eye.
Ethan was already making his way over to her with a speared, browned mushroom. He blew on it before offering it to her. “Chef needs a second opinion.”
She leaned forward, lips brushing the tines as she took it in, some of her red lipstick lingering on the silver. “Perfect,” she said. She licked a drop of butter from her lip.
