Cassidy Harte and the Comeback Kid by RaeAnne Thayne Read Free Book Online

through drawers and rummaged blindly in the huge refrigerator.
    Under ordinary circumstances she probably knew this kitchen like she knew her own name, but you’d never be able to tell by her movements this morning.
    He found it very enlightening to see her composure slip. Enlightening and entertaining.
    Somewhat ashamed of himself for finding secret pleasure in the knowledge that he could fluster her so much just by invading her space, he straightened from the counter. “Can I help you do something?”
    She peered around the chrome door of the refrigerator to stare at him. “You mean like cook?”
    He shrugged. “I have been known to rattle a few pots from time to time.”
    Her gaze narrowed. “Why would the CEO of Maverick Enterprises volunteer to cook breakfast for ten hungry families?”
    Because the CEO of Maverick Enterprises has spent ten years mooning over the chef. “Maybe I’m bored.”
    â€œDon’t you have some kind of leveraged buyout or hostile takeover to mastermind somewhere?”
    â€œI’m all leveraged out this morning. And I’ve found takeovers to be generally much less hostile once I’ve had my morning coffee.”
    She didn’t return his smile, just watched him with that suspicion brimming out of her blue eyes. Finally he decided not to argue with her. Instead, he picked up a knife and went to work cutting up the green peppers she’d pulled from the refrigerator.
    â€œAm I doing this right?”
    She watched him for a moment, a baffled look on her features, then she shrugged. “You’re the boss. If you want to play souschef, don’t let me stop you. Dice the pieces a little smaller, though.”
    She returned to rifling through the refrigerator, and they worked in silence for a few moments, the only sounds in the kitchen the thud of the knife on the wooden cutting board and the delicate shattering of eggshells from across the room.
    He had a quick memory of other meals they had cooked together, when he had been free to sneak up behind her if the mood struck him. When he could wrap his arms around her and lift her long, thick hair to plant kisses on the spot right at the base of her neck that drove her crazy, until she would turn breathlessly into his arms, the meal forgotten.
    They had ruined more than one meal at the Diamond Harte together. He smiled at the mental picture, and of the slit-eyed look her older brother would give him when he would come in and find something burning on the stove and the two of them flushed and out of breath.
    Not caring for the direction of his thoughts or theawkward silence between them, he looked for a distraction, finally settling on what he thought would be a benign topic of conversation.
    â€œSo how’s your family these days?” he asked.
    The egg she had just picked up slid out of her fingers and landed on the floor. She made no move to clean it up, just stood across the kitchen staring at him with her eyes murky and dark.
    He only meant to make a casual inquiry. What had he said? “Was that the wrong question?”
    â€œComing from you, yeah, I’d say it’s the wrong question.” With color again high on her cheekbones, she snapped a handful of paper towels off a roll and bent to clean up the egg mess.
    He set the knife down carefully on the cutting board and frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not allowed to ask how your brothers are doing these days?”
    She rose, her eyes hard, angry. “I will not let you do this to me, Slater. I can’t believe you have the gall to show up here after all these years and act like nothing happened.”
    While he was still trying to figure out how to answer that fierce statement, she shoved the paper towel in the garbage, then returned to cracking eggs with far more force than necessary.
    â€œMy brothers are fine.” Her voice was as clipped as her movements. “Great. Jess