Page 9 of Passion and Deception

So when Ramit lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers, Maggie eagerly lifted her face to accept the kiss. It was so sweet and wonderful, she couldn’t hold back the sigh.

Unfortunately, he pulled back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “This isn’t over, Maggie,” he told her with a husky, gruff voice. “I want to see you again.”

“I’d like that very much as well.”

“I have meetings tomorrow. But, will you have dinner with me again, soon?”

“Absolutely!” she replied with a laugh.

“Good. I’ll call you.” He opened the driver’s side door and waited until she was settled in the car. After closing the door, Ramit stepped back, watching as she drove away, his body aching to call her back. But there was something…wounded about Maggie. He had to take things slowly with her. She was beautiful, but someone had hurt her. Badly. He could see the truth in the wariness of her gaze and the cautious way she allowed him to touch her.

Soon, he vowed. Soon, he would gain her trust.

Chapter 3

“How do people make this?” Maggie groaned. “Ouch!” The fat pasta strips were hot! “Duh. They’d just came out of boiling water!”

When Ramit had called earlier, asking if she’d have dinner with him, Maggie had been thrilled! Then she’d stupidly asked if he wanted to come to her place for dinner. When he’d agreed, Maggie had ambitiously thought to impress him with her culinary skills.

However, her plan wasn’t working as well as she’d hoped.

Unconsciously, she stuck her tongue out as she carefully laid each piece of pasta out on the casserole dish. “Gotcha!” Smiling, she lifted the bowl of cheese, pausing to taste the ricotta, parmesan, and garlic mixture. “You’re good!” There was a bit of a struggle to get the thick cheese layer to spread out over the now-sticky pasta, but eventually, she managed it. If the cheese looked a bit…lumpy and uneven, well, it was going to be covered by more layers.

The spaghetti sauce was easy and she used the sauce to hide the cheese lumps, then repeated the process again.

Once all of the layers were completed and the mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top, Maggie beamed with triumph. “Done!” She spun around and… “No!”

She hadn’t pre-heated the oven. Glancing at the lasagna, then at the oven, she shrugged. “It’s cooked already. What’s the harm?” So she stuck the casserole into the cold oven, then turned on the heat. “Now, we make the bread.”

Maggie wasn’t ambitious enough to make fresh bread. Instead, she’d bought a loaf of crusty bread at the grocery store along with extra garlic and butter. “This is the easy part.” She melted the butter, crushed the garlic, then mixed the two together. Then, she added some parmesan cheese to the mixture and poured it over the bread, smoothing it out with a knife. “You’re fabulous.” Maggie laughed at how silly she felt at the moment, but she like it. She realized that she hadn’t been this excited for a date in years. Maybe ever!

Looking around, she noted her kitchen was a disaster. “Now, we clean.” It took her over an hour to wash the dishes. Lasagna wasn’t a simple meal to prepare. There were pots from cooking the pasta and browning the meat, then two mixing bowls for the cheese and red sauces. Plus, she’d messed up on several pieces of the pasta and it took her a while to scrape them off the countertop.

Maggie’s kitchen didn't boast the luxurious granite countertops that had become a common upgrade for most people. No, she had deliberately opted for simplicity when outfitting her kitchen in this modest house. Her choice reflected a strategic decision to allocate more of her tip money towards investments. Her co-workers and best friends, Emily and Ann shared the same mindset, and now the trio had cultivated a substantial nest egg which they’d all invested. Their money was now poised to grow steadily for emergencies and retirement.

And kids? Maggie hadn’t ever thought she’d want to have children. But at the prospect of a gorgeous, sweet, kind man like Ramit in her life, a family wasn’t a horrible prospect. In fact, the idea held a great deal of appeal. It would be nice to come home to a husband and a baby. Maybe two?

And a dog!

Goodness, she’d always wanted a dog. A big, fluffy dog that loved to play catch with a tennis ball.

“You’re losing it, woman,” she told herself as she wiped down the countertops and gave the now-immaculate kitchen one last glance. Everything looked clean and orderly. “Now, time to shower.”

She glanced at the clock on the microwave and nodded. “Plenty of time to shower, then relax.”

Maggie took an extra-long shower, reveling in the freedom she had. Normally, she’d be running around doing errands on her days off. But she’d left her house earlier than normal to get groceries for tonight and had picked up other ingredients for the week’s meals. Plus, there would be leftover lasagna that she could heat up over the week.

She’d just pulled on her favorite pair of jeans when she smelled something. Sniffing the air, she looked around. “What’s that horrible smell?”

That’s when it hit her. “The lasagna!” she gasped, then rushed out of her bedroom. Sure enough, the kitchen was filled with smoke. As soon as she realized what was happening, the smoke alarm started blaring. Quickly, Maggie whipped open the back door as well as the window over the sink to let the smoke out. Then she rushed to the stove and turned off the heat. When she opened the oven door, more smoke billowed from inside. Maggie was nearly in tears when she reached in with potholders to retrieve a black mess that used to be lasagna.

“No!” she whispered, taking it outside to her back stoop. She set the smoking “dinner” on the cement stairs and hurried back, waving one of the potholders in front of her face to help disburse the smoke.

The smoke detector was still going off, so Maggie walked to stand directly underneath the blasted thing. Jumping up and down, she finally got the smoke alarm dislodged. Yanking out the batteries, the blaring continued for another moment, then stopped.

Blessed silence.

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief, then looked around. “Now what am I going to do?”

---