“I bet that was the easiest job interview ever. ‘How well do you ski?’ ‘Ever heard of the Himalayas?’”
He chuckled. “Yeah, that was pretty much it.”
She drew back, looked up at him. “When do you start?”
“I’ll be taking an EMT refresher course next week. There’s a ton of paperwork to fill out. Training starts in early November.”
The oven timer began to beep.
He walked over to the oven. “I hope you’re hungry.”
“Starving. I need to run upstairs and clean up. I was just wiping up dog pee.”
“I’ll handle this. You do what you need to do.”
She hurried upstairs, washed her face and hands, put on moisturizer and a little mascara, and then looked in her closet. She was about to put on a clean pair of jeans and a sweater when she saw the red beaded dress she’d worn to Rain and Joe’s wedding.
No. No, she couldn’t wear that for dinner in her own house.
Why not?
She stripped to her skin, put on the red silk bra and panties she’d worn with it, then took the dress from her hanger, unzipped it, and pulled it over her head. She tugged up the hidden side zipper, fixed her hair into a quick messy bun, put on a pair of pearl earrings, then looked in the mirror, smiling at her reflection.
“Just try to resist this, Harrison.”
She bent down to fluff her boobs, tucked a condom inside her bra, and then made her way downstairs.
Harrison was pouring wine. He looked up, saw her, and stared, his eyes going dark. “Oh,hell, yes. I’ve been fantasizing about seeing you in this dress since I saw you in that photo.”
She pointed at the wine glass, trying not to laugh. “It’s overflowing.”
“Shit.” He stopped pouring. “See what you do to me?”
It thrilled her to know she turned him on. “It’s no more than what you do to me.”
When the spilled wine was cleaned up, they sat at the table. Harrison helped with her chair as if they were at a fancy restaurant and then served the meal he’d made—salmon fillets, jasmine rice, and green beans with almonds.
“It smells wonderful.”
“It’s a recipe my mom used to make—salmon fillets with sundried tomatoes, feta cheese, and kalamata olives.” He lifted a fillet onto her plate and followed that with a scoop of rice and another of the green beans.
Kenzie took her first bite of the salmon, the bright taste of tomato combining with the saltiness of the cheese and olives and the fattiness of the fish. “Delicious.”
“You like it?” There was a hint of vulnerability in his eyes.
He truly wanted to please her.
Her heart gave a little sigh. “I love it.”
While they ate, she asked him about his job interview and the rest of his day and laughed when he told her about his conversation with his neighbor.
“The next thing I knew, she was standing on her front porch yelling at them to leave and threatening to call the sheriff.”
“Good for her! Did it work?”
He took a sip of his wine. “Not really.”
That reminded Kenzie. “Wendy Hall from the Scarlet Gazette stopped by and said she wanted to interview me about my SAR and HRD work in the wake of yesterday’s search. I agreed when she promised to include a fund-raising pitch for the Team. Afterward, she told me what was going on at your place and then asked me to pass a business card on to you.”
