Page 36 of Surrender
He laughed, eyes flicking to her toned arms. “That explains the impressive upper body strength. I thought maybe you were secretly a blacksmith.”
She grinned. “Nope. Just me, a bag of flour, and the occasional small kitchen fire.”
“I can help,” he offered. “With the bread. Not the fire hazard part. You’ve probably got that under control.”
“Oh, I absolutely don’t,” she said. “It was only a few months ago, I had to get a new oven because I burned out the last one.” She paused a moment and counted on her fingers how many ovens she had owned. The tally came to four. “But help would be nice. Maybe then I’d manage to make something edible.”
Keefe looked at her in horror. So, when she’d said she couldn’t cook what she really meant was she shouldn’t be allowed to cook—ever. Well, one thing was for sure, she wouldn’t be allowed around Bess! He also made a mental note to move a second fire extinguisher into the kitchen. “You could throw in some of those fresh herbs you grow. Basil, rosemary, whatever’s in that little jungle of yours.”
“That would be nice.” But everything with him was nice. Gwen looked out the window again, suddenly aware of how close they were in the car. “I talk to them, you know. The plants. It’s silly, but…”
“I don’t think it’s silly at all,” he said. “I think it means you know how to love something. How to take care of it.”
She swallowed. His words landed softly, but something about them made her chest feel too tight.
“Or it just means that you’re dead bored and should get a boyfriend.” He reached across, laying a hand on her knee, giving it a playful squeeze.
She laughed a little. There was way too much truth in his words for comfort. “You know, I’ve never really had a proper boyfriend,” she added, voice a little quieter now. “Not one I truly loved anyway. I dated a bit, of course, but nothing ever stuck.” Now that got her thinking even further. “I went to boarding school in London,” she said after a beat. “Didn’t really belong there though. Too Irish for the English kids, too posh when I came home.” She gave a half-smile. “I never really fit anywhere.”
He didn’t say anything but gently brushed his fingers along hers where her hand rested on her knee. She didn’t pull away.
“Anyway.” She hadn’t meant to ask for sympathy. The words just slipped out, raw and unguarded, before she even realized she was saying them. He was just so easy to talk to.
“So that’s my social life in a nutshell.” She gave a small shrug. “As for work, I started a charity a few years back. Housing and therapy for abuse survivors.”
His brows rose slightly. “That’s… that’s no small thing.”
Gwen shrugged. “Sometimes I think I built it to keep myself too busy to notice I was lonely. Most nights, it’s just me, my bread, and my plants. I’ve always wanted a cat, but I keep talking myself out of it.”
A cat, huh? That made sense with her being fiercely independent, but secretly dying for affection. Keefe was falling for her more and more by the minute.
“I was thinking about getting a cat.”
She laughed then, and his hand brushed hers. A quiet little spark passed between them.
“What about you?” she asked. “What haven’t you made space for?”
Keefe glanced at the road, then back at her. “Nothing. At least, not anymore.” There was an oncoming car so Keefe drove into the small pull-off ahead, allowing them to pass comfortably. He exchanged a friendly wave with the other driver then continued talking and driving. “It’s funny actually, I haven’t had a girlfriend in a long time and was…” he nearly told her about his sister playing matchmaker but decided not to. Like Sophie said: ew.
“Was what?”
“My cousin, Simon, was teasing me that I need to find someone and then I found you.”
She raised an eyebrow. There was something more he wasn’t saying but seeing as she had yet to tell her secret she figured he was entitled to his.
“Why did you open your place here?”
“This place always felt more like home. I grew up in Massachusetts but we spent every summer here with our family. Most of my best memories are here.” He took a sharp bend in the road then another before continuing. “I worked in my parents’ pub before I was tall enough to see over the bar. Tried culinary school, hated it, and taught myself the rest. Opening a pub of our own was always a dream of mine and Sophie.”
“Your parents miss you.”
“They do. We miss them too but here is home for us.”
“So, where you go, she goes.”
“When you say it like that, it sounds like we live in each other’s pocket—we don’t. Well… sort of.”
Gwen raised an eyebrow. “Keefe, I know a woman who has a brother she sees once a year at Christmas and that’s all. What you have with Sophie is remarkable.”
