Page 10 of One More Yule Log
“We have ranch. Thousand, too, since Liv likes it. Dale was a blue cheese guy, so we used to always have it, but Liv thinks that’s icky.”
“So where are you from?” Gray asked, curious as hell. Every so often there was the barest hint of a drawl hiding in Ben’s voice. “Are you from the Roaring Fork?”
“Originally, I’m from Dallas, but I went to college in Fort Collins and never left. Just one of those Texans who came to Colorado and fell in love.” Texas, that was it.
“Neat. I’m from Delta. It’s this little town over on the other side of Grand Mesa. I came to Glenwood for spring break when I was at Mesa State and man, it was so cool.”
“It’s Mesa University now, right?” Ben teased.
“I know!” Gray hooted. “Look at Grand Junction, putting on airs.”
“So did you study culinary arts there?”
“I did. The restaurant program there. Then I bummed around a lot. Went to California for a few years.” Gray laid out the radishes on his salad once he got it assembled. Ta-da. “Jumped on a plane to Asia and spent some time, uh, enjoying adult libations on beaches. Then I got to France and fell in love with bread and pastry.”
“Wow! I went to college, met Dale the summer before my senior year, and we flew to California and I married him the day after I graduated.”
“Wow. Whirlwind, huh?” This Dale must have been quite a guy. Ben was warm, smart, and hot as a two-dollar pistol.
“I was there! I don’t remember it, but I’m in the pictures!” Liv looked so pleased with herself. “Want to see, Gray?”
“If we have time before supper, then sure.” He would love to see Liv as a tiny sprog. Okay, he was curious about the husband too.
“All right. It’s in my room.” She hurried off, and Ben shot him a bittersweet smile.
“She loves that story. About how she was at the wedding.”
“That’s really cool.” Curiosity burned through him, but Gray tried to tamp it down. “So she was planned ahead of time?” Was that too invasive?
“Yes, but I wasn’t involved in that. Dale and his partner had a surrogate, but when the lady—Elizabeth—came up pregnant, the guy left. I met Dale about two months after Liv was born, and she was a year old when we got married.”
“Oh, wow. That’s rough, about his partner, I mean.” Gray guessed it had been good for Ben, but definitely wow and eek.
“It happens a lot more than I would have thought,” Ben said. “Someone gets cold feet over the commitment of a baby, and whoosh.”
“Well, Liv is amazing. You’ve done a great job.”
“She’s the light of my life. I adopted her on our first anniversary and I’ve never been happier than I was that day.”
Gray had to touch Ben’s arm. “That’s so cool. I mean, I have the bakery and people call it my baby, but to be a part of something as wonderful as Olivia? That’s wild.”
“Yes. Yes, exactly. She’s amazing. My baby.”
“I’m not a baby anymore, Daddy. I’m nine.” Liv brought a beautifully framed picture. There they were—a terribly young, wide-eyed Ben with long hair and a beard, standing with a silver-haired gentleman who was easily twenty years older and a dark-haired toddler in a lavender sundress.
“Look how pretty you were!” Gray reached out but didn’t quite touch the frame. “All that hair.”
“Daddy was a mountain man!” Liv giggled softly. “He majored in skiing and rafting, right?”
“Well, English officially, but yeah. Basically. I majored in going outside a lot and having fun.”
“Hey, I was a hiking guide one whole summer over at Gunnison. I had a buddy who went to Western State and did their outdoor rec major.” That had been one amazing summer, with a lot of late nights, some crazy rafting on the blue, and a really good friends-with-benefits named Gage.
“Oh, man. I thought Western State sounded so cool. Like you could really minor in skiing at CMC.”
“Right?”
“What do you want to do when you grow up, Miss Liv?” Gray asked, carrying the salad to the table.
