Page 49 of Dreaming About Forever

She shrugged and took the mug of coffee from his hand.

Shrugged. As if that was all she had to say about it.

Thank the Lord.

“I’m a little hungry,” she said, looking around the kitchen.

Jordan took his coffee and walked toward the refrigerator. “What do you want for breakfast?”

She followed him and peeked inside when he opened it. “What do you have?”

“Bacon, eggs, biscuits. The biscuits will have to come from a can unless you want to wait for Mom to wake up.”

“That sounds great. I’ll skip the biscuits, though. Can you teach me how to cook those things?”

Jordan leaned to the side, giving her a full assessment. “You want to learn how to cook?”

She propped her hands on her hips. “Yes. Is that a problem?”

Jordan raised his hands in surrender. “Not at all. We can start now.” He grabbed the bacon and eggs and stepped back.

“Thanks. I’ve watched your mom make a few things, and it’s really interesting.”

Jordan scoffed. “I wouldn’t call it interesting, but Mom made us know how to cook the basics when we were young. Even back then, I knew I wanted to join the Marine Corps, and she assumed I’d need to take care of myself.”

“Are you saying she didn’t have much hope for you finding a wife and settling down in Redemption Ridge?”

Jordan made a show of wincing. “Ouch. That hurts.”

Alicia giggled, and the joyful noise skated over his skin. “The truth hurts. I bet you didn’t expect to be teaching me how to cook either, did you?”

That was an understatement. He put the pack of bacon and carton of eggs on the counter. “I didn’t.”

It took longer than Jordan had expected to cook breakfast. He stopped to tell her exactly what he was doing, and then she’d asked to have the bacon cooked two ways–crispy and “floppy.” Next followed the eggs, which she wanted to cook scrambled first, then fried.

When the food was all cooked and the kitchen cleaned, he turned around and looked at the remaining breakfast on the table. “So, are you hungry?” he asked.

Alicia covered her mouth as she chewed a piece of bacon. “Not really.”

“Because you ate the entire time we cooked?”

Her olive cheeks took on a rosy color as she nodded.

She looked amazing when she was happy. Smiling from ear-to-ear and staring at him like she was three seconds away from catapulting into his arms.

“What is this?”

Jordan turned to find his mom standing in the kitchen doorway.

He hadn’t heard her coming, and that realization dampened his joy from the moment before. His first priority was to protect Alicia. Not that she was in any danger from his mom, but anyone could have walked in, and Jordan wouldn’t have had time to react.

Because Alicia claimed his thoughts. Morning till night, all he thought about was her. He’d been a model professional his entire life. Why did Alicia take all of his skills and crumble them?

“Jordan taught me how to cook bacon and eggs!” Alicia shouted before covering her mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that so loudly.”

“You made this?” Vicci asked, peeking over the remaining food on the plates. “It looks good.”

“It tastes good too.” Alicia’s hand rested over her flat stomach. “I ate too much.”

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