Page 77 of Recipe for Rivals

Nova leaned closer, her shoulder brushing mine. “Okay, he’s distracted now, but he was—wait.” She turned her head sharply to face me. “Is that why you brought the cat over?”

I shrugged, trying not to feel like an excited teen boy over the fact that the girl I liked was sitting so close. “I figured the kids could use a distraction.”

Her eyes went all shimmery. Then her phone started ringing, so she pulled it out and looked at it. Her mouth turned down. I saw Carter’s name on the screen and a photo of a dark blond man smiling with blue eyes and perfect teeth. It was clear where Alice had gotten her blue eyes. But something about his face looked extremely punchable.

“Guys, your dad is calling,” Nova called. “Who wants to take it first?”

Neither of them responded.

“Alice?” Nova asked, rising from the couch and leaving her computer behind. “You want to go first?”

“Okay, Mommy.” Alice took the phone and swiped it to answer, then walked toward her bedroom. “Hi, Daddy,” she said, her voice disappearing when she closed the door.

Nova took her seat again. “Gigi went to Dallas to see a friend of hers who’s having health problems. Will she have to stay there, do you think?”

Okay, so she didn’t want to talk about Carter anymore. At least not while the kids were around. Her words the other night about how he was winning the divorce had weaseled their way into my mind, and it was hard not to press for more information. Why anyone would leave Nova was beyond my comprehension. The guy was clearly an idiot.

She watched me expectantly. What had she asked? Oh, yeah. Gigi.

“I don’t know. It’ll depend on the weather. She might wantto stay with her friend, just to be safe. I wouldn’t want my aunt driving in this weather.”

“You have an aunt?”

“No. But—well, Tucker’s mom, Jan, is the closest thing. If she was in Dallas, I wouldn’t want her driving home right now.”

We watched the news for a bit, the weather guy going over the location of the storm and its projected path. “When do we take cover?”

“I think you’re the one who needs a distraction now,” I said, reaching over and hitting the volume button on the computer to turn it down.

She cringed. “That’s probably true. What do you have in mind?”

Things we could not do, obviously. But I was a gentleman, so I pushed those thoughts aside and tried to think of anything but sliding her onto my lap. My mind traveled to Beeler and Grandpa. If anything was going to kill a sudden wave of attraction, it was thinking of my favorite old man. “Do you guys have any puzzles? Board games? We could play charades.”

Nova glanced at Ben lying on his stomach on the dining room floor, trying to entice Leia from her hiding place. “I don’t think the kids will want to do anything else but play with your cat.”

“Okay. You and me, then.” The thoughts came back, the images so clear in my head of what it would be like to kiss her, I couldn’t help but look at her lips. I immediately snapped back to her eyes and swallowed. It was becoming increasingly harder to ignore my attraction, but I was doing my best. I would be a gold medalist in restraint by the time summer rolled around.

“I have a few puzzles, actually. Or Clue, if you feel like solving a murder.”

“As much as I love murder, I’m a sucker for a good puzzle.”

Nova hopped up from the couch and headed toward her room. “Okay, I have the perfect one.”

I brought the laptop to the table, because I figured we could keep an eye on the storm while we were distracted. “Want me to pull her out, Ben?” I asked, crouching beside him. Leia was curled into a comfortable ball on the floor, looking at us. The legs of the chairs all formed bars around her, protecting her. I wondered if she’d gravitated here because it smelled familiar—it was our table after all.

“I want her to want to come to me,” Ben muttered, still lying on his stomach, his arm stretched beneath the chair so his fingers rested near her.

I understood him exactly.

“Ben!” Alice called, running down the short hallway to join us in the dining room. “Dad’s on the phone.”

“I’m busy,” Ben said, wiggling his fingers and not taking his eyes off Leia.

Alice turned the phone toward us. “See, Daddy? He’s trying to get the kitty out from under the table.”

The phone was pointing at me more than Ben, with Alice’s arm moving so much it wouldn’t remain steady. Carter sat up taller, his gaze narrowing. “Who is that?”

“She’s Dusty’s kitty,” Alice said, getting down on the floor beside Ben and pushing the phone under the chair so her dad could see Leia.