I stood to gather my things, laughing yet again. Dalton was right. Hiring Emma was going to be good for both Hadley and me. A little bit of desperately needed lightness in our lives, nothing more. My initial reaction to the woman was simply a one-time thing. She was beautiful, I noticed, the end. Now I’d let that go and concentrate on what was best for Hadley. She was all that mattered in my world.
* * *
Laughter filtered out from the kitchen as I made my way into the house.
“Do it again!” Hadley cried out.
“Okay, ready?”
“Ready!”
I peeked around the corner and saw Emma with pizza dough in her hand. She threw it up in the air and barely caught it, making Hadley fall over in a fit of laughter.
Emma laughed too. “I almost dropped it that time!”
“Do it again!”
“I think we better put the ingredients on it before our pizza crust ends up on the floor.”
“I want ronis on it!”
“Ronis?” Emma asked as she laid the dough on the pizza pan.
“Pepperonis,” I said as I walked in. Hadley let out a squeal and ran toward me. I gave her a kiss and hugged her. Emma looked on with a smile on her face. “They’re her favorite,” I added.
“Good thing I sliced up a lot then. I have everything here for y’all.”
Every now and then, the Texas accent would come out when Emma spoke. I could tell she tried hard to keep it buried.
“Veggies, sauce, and cheese. And plenty of ronis,” she said with a grin. “You just need to put it in the oven for about eight minutes.”
My eyes scanned the island. Emma had cut up onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, olives…and was that zucchini? On another board was the pepperoni and two different types of cheese. The bowl on the side held pizza sauce and next to that was fresh garlic.
“Did you make the sauce?” I asked, looking at everything.
Her cheeks flushed pink. “I did. I had free time this afternoon and used a recipe I found online. It tastes pretty good. As for therest, I wasn’t sure what you guys liked on your pizza, so I tried to think of everything.”
I shook my head in amazement. “Emma, this is amazing. You even made the dough?”
She shrugged. “Yep. This smaller pie is for Hadley and yours is the big one. I’ll let y’all get to your pizza making.”
Each time she said y’all in that slight accent, it made my stomach drop like I was on a roller coaster. As I watched, Emma took off the apron she’d been wearing and started to head out of the kitchen.
“You’re not joining us?” I asked.
She glanced back at me. “I figured you’d want to eat alone with Hadley. I’ll be back to clean up.”
I wanted to tell her to stay. Instead, I nodded and replied, “Thank you for doing all of this. I’ll clean up though, you’ve done so much already. Hadley and I will have fun making our own pizzas.”
Emma smiled. “That was the plan.”
She winked at me. Again. She’d done it this morning and here she was, doing it again. One friendly wink that went through me like a bolt of lightning.
As Emma headed out of the kitchen, Hadley pulled me over to the island to make our pizzas. While we decided what toppings to use, I took in the sound of my daughter’s laughter. My heart felt like it would explode with happiness for the first time in months…and it was all due to one woman taking the time to cut up toppings so my daughter and I could bond over pizza.
Emma was indeed going to be a good thing. And that worried me more than I wanted to admit.
CHAPTER EIGHT
