Page 6 of Finding Forever

“Do you make everything from scratch?” he asked, and I looked up in time to catch him eyeing the spread of ingredients on every surface.

“No, actually. It’s something I started recently. I was a terrible cook before I became a mom.”

“Really?” He looked shocked, with his eyebrows raised to the sky and his mouth twisted in disbelief.

“Really,” I giggled. “I could barely boil water because my mom did all the cooking. Even when I became an adult.”

“I find that hard to believe,” he said, watching me transfer more ingredients to the pot.

“My mom has been a chef at a hotel in town my whole life. There was never really a reason for me to learn when she kept me well-fed.”

Maverick nodded, like he suddenly understood the gap in my skills.

“Besides, she barely had time to teach me back then. She worked… a lot,” I trailed.

As a single mom, Malina Carter had played the role of supermom for far too much of my life. I’d watched her do it all from a very young age. While it was admirable, I always knew she shouldn’t havehadto work so much. While my divorce from Chris had been less than ideal, now that I lived with mom again, both she and I were able to work agreeable hours to make a living. I spent less now living with my mom than I did while I was married and living with Chris. My mom got to spend more time with her grandson, and I got to save way more money than I ever did before. I was extremely lucky.

“I can tell from that smile on your face that your mom must be pretty special,” Maverick said, somewhere to my right.

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at him. He was standing at the cutting board, watching me with a peculiar look etched across his face.

“Do I have something on my face?” I asked as I began to lightly brush my fingers over my cheeks.

“You’re fine. I was just thinking about how beautiful you are.”

With my fingers still on my cheeks, I could feel the heat that radiated after his unexpected admission.

“Thanks,” I responded and turned away to check on the turkey. I didn’t want to think too much of what he’d said. He probably said that because I was cooking him dinner. I changed the topic. “Are you almost done with those carrots?”

“Just about.”

“Perfect. It’s almost time to add it in.”

“I still can’t believe we’re both from Winter Bay and never ran into each other,” Maverick said.

I almost agreed with him. But then again, it wasn’t so hard to believe we had never crossed paths because even though we lived about ten to fifteen minutes from each other, I’d learned earlier that he owned a home in the more prestigious part of town. In addition to that, he was a patient with the only other dentist in town. Our kids were a year apart, but went to separate daycare facilities. It was no wonder that we had never crossed paths.

Needing to wash the stench of garlic off my fingers, I turned on the kitchen faucet only to be met with a deluge of water. My natural instinct to turn it off was overpowered by the spray of water going directly into my face.

Alarmed, I let out a yelp and turned my head so that it was hitting my cheek instead. In a flurry of movement, Maverick rushed over to me and turned it off. Only seconds had passed, but it felt like much more from seeing how soaked I was. With that done, he grabbed a kitchen towel near the stove and began dabbing at my chest.

I knew it was in an effort to dry me off after that faucet fiasco, but the action made my breath ragged. My system was shocked by his proximity, overcome by his minty sandalwood scent and the weight of his hands against my body. The thin material of my white blouse did nothing to hide my now swollen, heaving breasts.

Maverick’s hands stopped moving abruptly, as if he had just come to the realization of exactly where his hands were. Our eyes locked and time inched by as I tried to get my breathing under control. I’d been able to maintain my cool after being with him nonstop all day, yet the second he put his hands on me, I turned to mush.

Maverick’s intense stare didn’t leave mine as we stood there, locked in the moment.

Finally, I found my voice. “I’m going to change into a different shirt.”

He nodded once, then twice, before backing up.

Only an inch of space had been created, but I took my leave and darted down the hallway to my room.

∞∞∞

Sometime later, after I’d changed and finally managed to get my heart rate to decrease, I returned to the kitchen. I could handle a simple touch. I touched people who come into the dentist all the time. It wasn’t that big of a deal. His touch was no different from the touch of one of the clients at work, I reminded myself. Who was I kidding? Maverick’s touch did things to me. It sent heated awareness throughout my body. And I liked it.

Play it cool,Gina, I thought one last time as I rounded the corner to enter the kitchen.

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