"I think you're incredibly talented, and that is by far the best tasting whatever I ever had."
She flashed him a pleased smile. "Quite a compliment."
"May I have another?" He sounded so much like his son that she had to laugh.
Picking up a napkin, she put three of them on it and handed it to him. "For the road."
"Thanks." He rose. "Will you be here when I get back?"
Ignoring the racing of her heart and the heat he was generating, she nodded. "I still have lots to do. Now go away."
She jumped slightly when he leaned over and rubbed his thumb over one high cheekbone. "Flour, I think." Belatedly realizing that his touch was lingering, he dropped his hand and cleared his throat before continuing. "I'll see you when I get back."
Waiting until he had cleared the room, Althea sank down to give her unsteady knees a break. Just that slight touch from him was making her weak and needy. She did not want to think about when he had his hands all over her. She was going to dissolve into nothing. Taking a shaky breath, she continued her task.
*****
"If you eat one more of those cookies, I'm taking the bag away," Vincent said firmly, glancing at his son through the rearview mirror.
David tugged his hand out of the bag and met his eyes in the mirror guiltily. "How did you know?" he asked curiously. His dad seemed to have superpowers, able to find out if he was being sneaky. It left David wondering how he did it.
"It's really good."
"You're supposed to be leaving some for Charley. And besides, you're not going to have room for pizza. I have a feeling it's pepperoni."
His eyes lit up. "I love pepperoni."
"I know you do."
"Thea is pretty," he said suddenly, causing Vincent to give him a startled glance in the rearview mirror.
"What?"
"She's pretty and she smells nice, like cookies and flowers."
His son's summation of the woman's essence had him biting his lip to stop from laughing.
"Is that right?"
He nodded solemnly. "And she bakes good. I want to be a baker when I growed up."
Vincent did not bother to correct him as he normally would. "I thought you wanted to be like me."
"Can I change my mind?"
"It seems you already have. Why do you want to be a baker?" Vincent changed lanes.
"Because Thea makes delicious cookies and I love to eat them."
Vincent nodded, his lips quirked in amusement. "Good points."
"Do you think she would teach me how to make them?"
"I don't think-"
"Please, Daddy, I really want to learn."
He never could deny the boy anything, he thought with a pang as he turned into the graceful sweeping driveway of the Willoughbys.
