Page 112 of Getting Wrapped Up

“It will be okay,” Kate said, smiling up at Levi, completely in love. Relieved, happy,content.This was what she’d been hoping for. “We’ll have a whole big kitchen all to ourselves every day. I bet we can find something better than cobbler.”

Levi gave her a wicked grin as his hands drifted to her butt. “Well if you think I’m good with broccoli, wait until I introduce you to fried green tomatoes.”

She went up on tiptoe and kissed him, then leaned back and said, “Levi Spencer, I love you. With all of my heart.”

He grinned and kissed her back—long and sweet.

When he lifted his head, she smiled up at him. “And if you bring any more vegetables, fried or otherwise, into our sex life,you’llbe sleeping on Phoebe and Joe’s couch.”

He seemed to think seriously about that for a moment. Then he nodded. “I can live with that.” Then he bent to whisper in her ear. “Think you’d try making a cobbler just for me?”

Her heart full, in the arms of the man she loved, in the midst of her new hometown, Kate laughed and hugged him tightly. “I’m strangely more in the mood for kitchen activities than I ever have been before.”

They stepped apart and all of their friends began talking at once—about Kate’s big move and the St. Patrick’s Day party and cobbler recipes and fried green tomatoes.

Mason Riley couldn’t wait to pull her aside to talk about job opportunities with his company. Phoebe couldn’t wait to pull her aside to talk about how Kate had to join her book club and her scrapbooking group and the margarita nights with the girls.

Adrianne Riley couldn’t wait to pull Levi aside to tell him that she would have two dozen muffins ready for him in the morning and that he was paying double for slandering her baked goods. Joe couldn’t wait to pull Levi aside and ask just what had happened in his kitchen with his broccoli.

Finally Kate found herself face-to-face with Tucker again.

“So, I guess the love-in-six-weeks thingcanhappen,” he said with a smile.

“It can happen faster than that,” she admitted. It had for her.

He laughed. “Maybe for some people.” He looked around. “Though in this town, it does seem to be a theme.”

There was a wistful look on his face and Kate said, “It will happen for you too, Tucker. When the right girl comes along.”

“Well, I’m about through all the girls in this town. I guess I better hope she ends up here for some other reason like you did.”

“That highway leads a long way in both directions,” Kate said. “You never know.”

“Nope,” Tucker agreed. “You never know.”

“And,” Kate went on, “there’s always the option of learning to make your own cobbler, so that’s not such a big deal.”

“Are you saying there might still be a chance for us, Katie?” Tucker asked, in his typical teasing fashion.

She shook her head. “Okay, I’ll let it go this time,” she said. “But I’m here for good now and Tucker—we’re definitely friends.”

He groaned. “See? If I’d just met you and slept with you that first night you were in town, I wouldn’t be dealing with all this ‘friend’ stuff.”

She laughed and swatted his arm. “Hey. How do you know I would have slept with you that first night?”

He raised an eyebrow. “About fifteen years of experience.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How old are you now?”

“Thirty.”

“You’ve been seducing women since the age of fifteen?”

“Some of them were girls.”

“Yeah, you need me as a friend,” she decided. “All guys need a good friend who’s a girl.”

“Meaning, lots of ‘advice’ and ‘encouragement’ from you on the dating front?”

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