Part 8 (2/2)
”I've eaten in some nice places. Dora's cookin' is right up there with the best, though. 'Course it was always just Gil and me cooking for each other, so I'd probably think anything was good if we didn't fix it.”
”Your uncle doesn't have a wife?” Annie asked.
”Guess he had one once, but she ran off. He never talked about her. I never knew her-that was before I came here.”
Annie's gray-green eyes studied him as he spoke, her sincere interest obvious. ”You weren't born here, were you? In Colorado?”
”No. I was born in Illinois. My father worked in a newspaper office. My mother died when I was about six or seven, and my father was killed when I was fourteen. That's when I came to live with my Uncle Gil.”
”It must have been awful for you, losing your parents like that,” Charmaine said.
”My mother and my younger sister died of whooping cough. After that I sort of took care of myself when I wasn't in school. I was fortunate that Gil asked me to come out here. I'd been workin' at the paper, just doing the clean-up jobs, but when I got to Colorado I discovered how much I loved horses.”
”You didn't get Wrangler until you moved here then?” Annie asked.
”Actually we found him on the way from Illinois,” he replied. ”We stopped over at a stage station near Wichita and Gil bought him from a trader for me.”
”A Swedish Warmblood,” she said.
Luke raised his brows. ”You remembered that?”
She nodded and changed the subject. ”Your Uncle Gil sounds nice.”
”He is. You'll have to meet him.”
”I'd like that.”
Charmaine glanced from Luke to Annie curiously.
Annie's face turned pink and she looked down at her hands. What had been said that had embarra.s.sed her?
She glanced up again, and the cousins exchanged a look.
Annie's gaze turned to other patrons in the room, and Luke followed her glance. Five or six other tables were filled, mostly town people he knew because he did business with them.
She was obviously wondering who would notice them together and take the news back to her family.
The door opened and closed.
”Annie,” Charmaine whispered, ”it's Mary Lou with her parents and that awful brother of hers.” Charmaine almost squirmed in delight. She sat up straighter, and Luke wondered what was so exciting about the arrival of the people she'd mentioned.
A glance told him it was Daniel Holister with his wife and children. The girl, Charmaine's age, stared wide-eyed at their trio. Luke smiled politely and her cheeks turned crimson.
Dora brought their meals, and the attention moved to the savory roast beef and new potatoes.
”Annie's mother has someone to help with the cooking, but my mother only has me,” Charmaine said. ”You don't know how nice it is to eat away from home.”
”Sure I do,” Luke replied. ”I get tired of food out of tins, so I eat over here a lot.”
”What's your favorite dessert?” Charmaine asked, glancing at the chalkboard on a wall.
”Apple pie.” It had become his favorite when Annie had baked one just for him. And since she'd said his kisses tasted like cinnamon. He couldn't repress a smile at the memory.
Annie wouldn't meet his eyes. She dabbed her mouth with her napkin and folded it into a neat square.
”Annie, you're positively scarlet!” Charmaine said, and touched her cousin's cheek with the back of her fingers. ”Are you feeling well?”
Annie caught Charmaine's wrist and lowered their hands to the tabletop. ”I'm fine. Can we change the subject?”
”From apple pie?” Her voice held puzzlement.
A laugh worked its way up from Luke's chest and he tried to hold it back by taking a sip of coffee. But Annie's red face and Charmaine's quizzical look struck him so funny that the laugh rumbled out, and he choked.
He coughed to cover his amus.e.m.e.nt, making the situation worse, and covered his mouth with his napkin.
Annie leaned sideways in her chair and slapped her palm against the center of his back a few times. ”Are you all right?”
He glanced down at the warm touch of her other hand on his forearm, able to think of nothing but her hand on him.
She caught herself and s.n.a.t.c.hed it back.
”Yes, thanks,” he managed to reply finally.
She met his eyes then, and leaning close this way, he could see the tiny green flecks that circled her gray irises like sunbursts. Her brows were delicately shaped and tinged with red like her hair, her lashes a spiky fringe.
His focus lowered to her mouth, a lovely smooth pink bow with a full lower lip. He'd kissed those lips.
The corners twitched. She was fighting laughter now, too.
She chuckled and straightened, pulling away from him. One glance at her cousin and laughter spilled out.
Luke joined her, and they laughed until his side hurt.
Charmaine glanced around the room with a halfhearted smile.
Finally, the mirth subsided and Dora came to remove their dinner plates. ”Will you be having dessert?”
”I guess apple pie is out of the question,” Charmaine said owlishly.
Luke didn't look up. ”I'll have the bread pudding, please.”
His dinner companions agreed with his decision, and Dora cleared the table. She returned with their desserts, filled Luke's coffee cup and set a fresh pot of tea on the table.
”This is delicious,” Charmaine said. ”I wonder how you make it.”
”Eggs and bread and...cinnamon,” Annie replied. ”I-I saw a recipe in a cookbook.”
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