Page 50 of Purr For Me
He appeared before her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Come with me.”
“I’d love to.” Her eyes widened at her blurted innuendo. “I mean, okay. Sure.”
Kade just smiled and took her to an open, airy kitchen. They passed through it and exited through a French door onto a deck. “Have a seat here.”
With his help, Lexie sank down onto the cushioned deck chair he’d indicated and leaned back in it.
“I’ll be right back with something to settle your stomach.”
“Okay.” Lexie was perfectly content to sit there, looking up at the starry sky. Blinking lights from a plane crossed overhead, and Lexie briefly wondered who was on it. It was a game that she and her grandmother had played when she’d been little.
“Here you go.”
She startled a little at Kade’s voice. He stood holding a tall, frosty glass out to her. She took it from him and gave it a wary sniff. “Mmm. Minty.”
“It’s sweet mint water with a little ginger sprinkled in. You need to rehydrate, hence the water, and the mint and ginger are good for nausea. All natural, and it tastes good.”
“You sound like a commercial,” she quipped.
“Drink the damn drink, Lex,” Kade said, sitting down in the chair next to hers.
Lexie smiled and took an experimental sip. There was a hint of sweetness that kept the mint and ginger from being overpowering. He’d served it over ice, and the combination was incredible. She wanted to guzzle it, but she didn’t want to lose all the minty goodness, so she forced herself to sip.
She pointed at the glass. “That is amazing. Like, you could bottle and sell it. Youshouldsell it.”
He smiled at her, his dark eyes shining. “Nah. They’d just want to mass produce it and pump it full of preservatives and chemicals if I ever sold the recipe.”
“That’s probably true.” Lexie took another sip and returned her gaze to the stars.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
“My grandmother used to say that. I don’t know why, but she popped into my head when I sat down here.”
“Didn’t she live in the Midwest? I think I heard you mention her a couple of times.”
“Good memory. Idaho. Her and Gramps were typical farmers. Salt-of-the-earth people and all that.”
“What exactly brought her to mind?”
“The plane overhead. We’d lay out in the yard on warm nights, just talking. She’d tell me stories about when she was young, and when we saw a plane, we’d make up stories about the people onboard. Maybe there was a businessman heading back home to New York from another country. Or maybe a movie star who was going to LA for a premier. Things like that.”
“That sounds like fun, and your gram sounds like a cool lady.”
Lexie took a sip of her drink and smiled. “She was. I miss her a lot. She died when I was seven, and then life took a bit of a dive.”
“You must tell me about it one day, but you need sleep now.”
A huge yawn gripped Lexie and her eyelids felt like five-pound bags of sand were sitting on them. Holding up her head suddenly seemed almost impossible. “I think it’s time for me to turn in.” Her words sounded faint even to herself. She felt the glass being lifted out of her hand, and then she faded into oblivion.
