“Done and done,” he said, grinning as he helped her up. They quickly donned their discarded clothing and walked hand in hand back to the house like an old married couple. It felt right. It felt like a fairy tale. It felt like more than just something to pass the time.
And her heart wouldn’t likely let her forget.
19
THE NEXT DAY Rian found CoCo in the kitchen, trying her hand at an apple pie, and he grinned at how perplexed she seemed rolling out the pie dough. She looked up, exasperated. “This is impossible. The dough keeps breaking off and crumbling. I can’t get it to roll into a nice sheet like the YouTube video!”
He couldn’t help himself and kissed her because she was damn adorable and completely out of her depth but she was giving it a whirl, anyway. That spoke to character and spunk—two things he appreciated in a woman. Well, that and the fact that she was incredibly hot in her booty shorts and pink-and-white tank. What red-blooded American male wouldn’t appreciate the sight of CoCo in the kitchen? “Just ask Adeline, she’d be happy to help you out.”
“No way. I wanted to do this on my own. I didn’t think this would be so hard, honestly.”
“A good pie crust is part of a baker’s secret weapon. Laci was the only one Cora shared her secret ingredient with. That’s how guarded her recipe was.”
CoCo’s expression crumpled into despair. “What was I thinking? This was stupid.” She rolled up the dough and started to toss it into the garbage but he rescued it in time with a “Hey, hey! Let’s not be too hasty!” and she glared, a smudge of flour on her nose. “This is dumb. I’m not cut out for domestic stuff. I don’t even know why I thought I would be.”
“It just takes practice. Lucky for you, I picked up a few skills while abroad,” he said, winking. “Okay, so the problem here is you need more moisture. A little bit of cold water, just a bit, will fix that right up.” To demonstrate, he added a teaspoon of cold water to the dough and then began to lightly work it in, careful not to overwork it. Suddenly, the dough was much more pliable and actually started to cooperate.
“I love pie,” he admitted sheepishly when CoCo just stared at him with a slightly befuddled expression. “What? A badass like myself isn’t allowed to express himself with pie? Baking relaxes me.”
“Any other hidden talents I might like to know about?” she asked with a teasing smile that made him want to kiss it right off her lips.
“That’s on a need-to-know basis,” he said with a mock stern expression. “The United States government is counting on me to keep certain skills under wraps.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, Benny Crocker. You can keep your secrets. Just help me with this pie.”
He jumped in, showing her the best way to roll out the dough and lay it into the pie dish, and then helped her finish up the filling. He was just setting the timer when he heard Dundee attempt to bay, but the sound that came out was more like the honks out of a strangled tuba than a barking dog.
CoCo cringed along with Rian. “That’s not natural,” he said and CoCo agreed. “Must mean someone pulled up in the driveway. Hold on, I’ll check it out.”
Rian pushed open the screen door and saw Kane emerge from the truck. “What are you doing back from Montana already?” he asked, perplexed and concerned that they’d cut short their trip on his account. “Everything okay?”
“Actually, we got there and after the first night, the plumbing exploded during a hard freeze and then the cabin was inhabitable. There weren’t any other cabins available to rent and since we didn’t want to spend our time holed up in a hotel, we just decided to come home.”
Internally, Rian sighed with relief because he hated the idea that they’d come home because of his case, but he was a little apprehensive about Kane knowing there was something going on between him and CoCo. “That sucks,” he said, commiserating. “Well, did you get your deposit back at least?”
“Of course,” Kane said, grabbing their luggage from the back and swinging it clear of the bed to drop it to the ground as Laci got out of the truck and stretched with a groan. “But they were so nice about the situation that they offered a free stay once the situation has been fixed. We didn’t have the heart to say no even though we were a little leery about staying in a place where pipes explode in the middle of the night.”