Page 27 of Spark
Finally, Chris said, “Now that you mention it…no. I just never thought about it, because so many clan members work at the resort, you know?”
Sophie took the plastic lid off the big metal bowl, then set it on the counter next to the strawberries. “Yeah, that’s why it took me a while to figure out that only people related to Mr. Ornelas had had something weird happen while they were working at the hotel.”
She began spooning whipped cream and sliced strawberries into the hollows of each meringue shell already on a plate. Chris scooped up a generous portion of the whipped cream and began filling a piping bag with it.
As she finished each mini-pavlova, she handed the plate to Chris for finishing, and started on the next one.
“Huh. Any idea why it’s just the Ornelas family?” Chris frowned down at the dessert in front of him as he piped a large rosette of whipped cream over the mound of sliced fruit and cream in the hollows of each small meringue shell, then used a plastic squeeze bottle filled with homemade raspberry syrup to decorate each dessert with an artistic drizzle.
“I think it has to do with that murder. When I drove to the library this afternoon, I was starting to doubt whether anyone had actually ever been killed at the hotel, because it’s one of those things that kept coming up, but no one really knew the details. I was starting to think it might be an urban legend.”
“But it wasn’t, not if you found stories in the newspaper, right?” Chris asked.
Ryan appeared at the kitchen island.
Sophie waited until Chris had handed his little brother the tray of prepared desserts, and was starting work on the next batch. The meringue shells tended to get soggy fast, so the desserts couldn’t be prepared in advance like a cake or cookies could.
“Nope, there reallywasa murder in that hotel room Ariela showed us,” she said, when Ryan had moved away and was busying himself with handing out plates. “It happened about fifty years ago.”
She filled him in on the details, including what Officer Tringstad had told her, as they continued to plate the desserts together.
When she had finished catching him up on the latest, stopping at intervals whenever Ryan reappeared to grab the next batch of desserts, Chris said thoughtfully, “So you think that murder had something do with whatever's haunting the hotel? That all kind of makes sense, if you believe in hauntings and revenge from beyond the grave.” He grinned at her. “Hey, if things pan out, maybe you could turn this story into a movie script or something.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure,” she said, sarcastically. “I’m sure I’ll haveplentyof time to write a screenplay while I’m in medical school.”
“Well, you could always stay here in Bearpaw Ridge with us,” Chris said. “I wouldn’t mind it if you decided to stick around for a while.”
He gave her another one of those killer smiles that made her feel like someone who was pretty and sexy and all the things that she knew she actually wasn’t.
Once again, Sophie wished she could tell whether this dinner invitation had been an actual date or just a strictly-friends thing. Every time she convinced herself that it was one or the other, something happened to make her change her mind.
Sure, Chris had seemed really happy when she agreed to come, and it sure seemed like he’d been flirting with her for the past couple of days.
On the other hand, this wouldn’t be the first time she had completely misread a situation like this and embarrassed herself.
A red-hot needle of remembered pain ran through her as Hunter sprang to mind, along with a whole host of humiliating memories that she had been trying to forget for the past few years.
It’s safer if I just assume that nothing’s changed, and Chris is just being Chris.
She fought the urge to sigh, and concentrated on filling the last set of pavlova shells.
Chapter Nine
Sophie loved his dessert…and unlike the other night, this time Chris actually got to see her eat it.
It made him feel satisfied—and a little horny—to see her licking whipped cream from her lips. When her wet, pink tongue darted out to swipe fragments of meringue from her finger, he couldn’t help imagining what it would feel like if she did the same thing to his bare skin.
His cock promptly—and embarrassingly—hardened at the thought. He was glad that he was seated, and that the tablecloth’s edge hung over his lap to hide the evidence.
Sophie seemed to be having a good time hanging out with his family, too.
Flirting with her had been fun, with her adorable blushing as a bonus, but he couldn’t figure out if her strong reaction earlier to being teased about being his girlfriend had annoyed her or just flustered her.
Since she’d returned from South America, he’d realized that they had genuine chemistry. Plus, his cat was intrigued by her shyness, and how surprised and flustered she seemed whenever he flirted with her. He loved it.
But it also confused him. She behaved like she was still a virgin, even after four years away at university, plus her gap year in Todos Santos. He couldn’t imagine that someone as hot and nice as she was hadn’t been beating off guys with a stick. What was going on with her?
Maybe it’s just me?They’d spent quite a bit of time together over the past couple of days, and he’d sensed that she was attracted to him on a physical level.
