Page 11 of His Tenth Dance

Kristie met Jocelyn’s eyes, and she shrugged one shoulder. “At least it’ll be cold.”

“Do you have a mortar and pestle?” Lennie asked.

“You’ve asked me that question before,” Kristie said with a grin. “The answer is the same as last time—no.”

“Ugh, fine.” Lennie started opening cupboards, and Kristie simply watched the woman in all her whirlwind glory as she whipped through Kristie’s kitchen, looking for what she wanted to put together her trio of floats.

The ice cream maker churned away, and Kristie moved over to her fridge and opened it. She took out her passionfruit cheesecakes, the bright yellow-orange domes with the coconut macaroon crust bringing an instant smile to her face.

“Those look like summer on a plate,” Jocelyn said. She hip-bumped Kristie as she slid the tray next to her princess cake. “Did you end up using your grandmother’s cheesecake recipe?”

Kristie shook her head. “It was too wet. I had to put it all into a single pie tin, and I took it down the street to Kenneth.”

Jocelyn grinned at her. “I bet he didn’t mind.”

“Slurped it right up.” Kristie giggled with her friends while Lennie set out a two-liter bottle of orange soda, a box of hot chocolate packets, and an expensive-looking glass bottle of sparkling lime water.

She started chopping mint, and the scent of it filtered throughout the kitchen. Kristie opened her silverware drawer and took out the small dessert spoons she’d bought specifically for tonight’s tiny cheesecakes. She loved small things, and she peeled back the flap on the spoons, and then put one in each corner of the tray.

She’d made a dozen perfect cheesecakes, but she’d had to taste-test one of them, and she’d taken one to Kenneth Jorgenson down the block. That left her with two, and she hadn’t stopped thinking about presenting them to Mission for their post-first-date dessert tomorrow night.

The other eight sat on the tray for her girlfriends’ dessert night.

“What time is it?” Lennie asked, twisting to look at the clock on the microwave. “Where the devil is Harper?”

“Was she down in Littleton today?” Jocelyn asked.

“She has a lot of cases right now,” Kristie said. “But I don’t know.”

Harper worked as a children’s advocate, and she put a lot of miles on her car as she visited homes, conducted interviews with parents and children, and dealt with family issues in half the counties that made up the greater Denver metropolitan area.

Her phone chimed only half a second before Lennie’s did. Kristie picked up her device as Jocelyn’s did. “I bet this is her.”

Sure enough.

I got stuck in an after-hours meeting. I’m on the way! Don’t you dare have a bite without me!

Kristie smiled at the text, because it exuded Harper’s sunny personality. “You can put the ice cream in the freezer in the garage if you need to. I bet she’s still twenty minutes out.”

“Twenty minutes is generous.” Jocelyn turned away from the counter and headed around the end of the couch. She sank onto it with a groan, and Kristie left Lennie to finish up her dessert prep to join Jocelyn in the living room.

“So for real,” Jocelyn said. “What are you going to wear tomorrow night?”

Kristie sighed as she sat in her favorite recliner—a wide-seated dark blue chair with splashy red, yellow, and orange flowers. “I think I’m going to go with what makes me the most comfortable.”

“So blue,” Lennie said from the kitchen. “And your hair half-braided back. Right?”

Kristie met her eyes and could admit that she’d just described all the things that made Kristie feel beautiful. She reached up and pushed her hair behind her left ear, exactly the move Mission had done while they stood in the medical barn.

Her stomach swooped at the mere memory of the man’s feather-light touch. “I was thinking I’d curl my hair and leave it down, actually.”

“Leggings?” Jocelyn asked.

Kristine wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Too hot. I’m going to wear a white pair of shorts and my flower Crocs that match that blue-and-white-striped blouse I got from the Amalfi Coast.”

She smiled just thinking about that trip. She’d taken it with Jocelyn, Harper, and Lennie, and it was a miracle Harper hadn’t been left at the cruise ship port in Madrid, to be perfectly honest.

“Oh, that blouse is my favorite,” Jocelyn said. “It’s the perfect first-date outfit.”

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