Page 54 of Luna

“Not at all. Do you and Laila want—”

“We’d best be off,” Ilsa said, tugging Laila into the house. Hunter heard Laila’s fading protests, and their footsteps, then the front door opening and closing. He assumed Ilsa went inside to retrieve her hat and gloves.

“What were you about to say before Ilsa lit a shuck out of here?” he asked as he helped Luna gather the dishes to carry them inside.

Luna grinned. “That is an apt way of describing her abrupt departure. I was just going to ask if they wanted a dish of pudding for dessert. I made chocolate pudding this morning and chilled it. I’d planned to serve it with freshly whipped cream and raspberries I picked at Caterina’s place yesterday.” She gave him a coy glance as she stacked dishes in the sink. “I don’t suppose you might be interested in a bowl?”

“I might be, but I’ll help you carry in the rest of the dishes first.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Luna poured hot water off the stove into a dish pan and added soap.

“I know, but I don’t mind.” It took a few minutes for them to carry in the food, put it away, and leave all the dirty dishes soaking.

Luna dolloped whipped cream and a handful of raspberries into two bowls of chocolate pudding and handed one to Hunter. He followed her as she returned outside to eat.

“We’ve been spending more time out here, especially in the evening. The house just gets so warm, especially if Tony or I are cooking.”

“A cold lunch hit the spot today and was good. Thank you for sharing with me. I sure didn’t intend to intrude.”

“You are never an intrusion, Hunter. A welcome diversion, perhaps.”

He grinned at her and spooned a bite of the creamy pudding. “So good. Thank you.”

“You are quite welcome. Now, other than your fabulous news that Walker can save your house, was there another purpose to your visit?”

Surprised Luna knew him well enough to realize the house wasn’t the reason for his visit, he took another bite of pudding as he gathered his thoughts. “I wondered if I might convince you to come out to the ranch either Sunday afternoon or on Monday, since the restaurant is closed then.”

“Oh, Sunday would be nice. I promised Aundy I’d go out to Nash’s Folly on Monday. I’m going to help her can cherries.”

“They grow the sweetest cherries there,” Hunter said. “I should see if she’d be willing to give me a start from one or two of her trees.”

“I’m sure she would if you asked. After all, you are practically related to her.”

Hunter shrugged. “Practically. It seems we are practically related to half the town sometimes.”

Luna laughed. “Try being a Campanelli. When I was growing up, it seemed like a new relative popped up every other week.”

Hunter chuckled and ate several more bites of his pudding. “Why don’t you plan to go home with me after church on Sunday? I’ll let Dally know you’ll be there, and she can have a skirt in mind for you to borrow if you’d like to ride Breeze. Either way, I’d love to show you the ranch and my place.”

“I look forward to seeing both. I’ve been out to the ranch, as you recall, but we didn’t explore anything more than the room Dally plans to turn into a nursery that day. Speaking of which, I believe Aundy, Ilsa, and Marnie are planning to help her get the room set up right after wheat harvest.” Luna swirled her spoon through her pudding. “I heard two ranchers talking at the restaurant yesterday that several farms have already begun their harvest.”

“I heard that as well. Before you know it, it’s all anyone will talk about for a few weeks, then the topic will move on to finishing the harvest for gardens and rounding up cattle before the snow flies.”

Luna sighed and sat back in her chair, looking off in the distance before her gaze connected with his. “Life here is just so vastly different. I never once considered where the beef we ate for dinner came from. Seeing ranchers raise big herds of cattle specifically for beef puts it all in such a different perspective.”

“It certainly does, but you’ll get used to it.” He shoveled in his last few bites of pudding. Luna pushed her half-eaten dessert toward him, and he quickly cleaned it up too. “Come on. I’ll help you with the dishes, then I had better get back to the ranch before Dally thinks I’ve run off and joined the circus.”

Luna picked up the pudding bowls and walked into the house. “If you were inclined to do such a thing, you’d already be a performing member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.”

“True.” He grinned, picked up a dish towel, and started drying dishes as Luna washed them.

“What’s your favorite meal, other than Italian food?” Hunter asked as he carefully wiped the moisture from a crystal serving plate.

“Hmm. That is a good question. I never ate a lot of food that wasn’t Italian before arriving here. Cousin Anne—she’s married to Tony’s brother—is English, and when she cooks, the food is so different from our spicy offerings. Papa always calls it boring and bland, but please don’t ever tell her that was mentioned. Anne is one of the kindest people I know, and we wouldn’t hurt her feelings for the world.”

“I would never share that with anyone, Luna.”

She handed him a glass to dry. When their fingertips touched, he felt something tingle all the way up his arm. He had to focus to keep from dropping the glass.

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