by Vivian Arend
Nothing wrong with that. There was nothing wrong with liking Josiah, and as Lisa stepped up the stairs from her temporary room and her sister’s basement, which was the truth she focused on.
Because Josiah’s little script asking what she was going to tell Caleb and Tamara was also buzzing in her brain. Did she admit where her destination was tonight?
The question became a nonissue when she stepped into the kitchen and found a note waiting for her on the counter.
Lisa,
* * *
I’m feeling an eight out of ten for the first time in days, so we’re headed over to Brad and Hanna’s for dinner. The girls are over the moon at getting to see little Crissy and the kittens. We won’t be late, but Caleb says you’re off duty until the morning, no matter what.
* * *
I won’t even pretend to know what is in the fridge for supper because you’ve been taking care of all of that. (I love you. I don’t say it enough!) Here’s some cash if you feel like going into town, though, our treat.
* * *
Enjoy your peace and quiet.
Tamara
Lisa tucked the note away then slipped most of the money back into Tamara’s purse. She kept just enough to stop at the grocery store to pick up her contribution to the comfort-food smorgasbord Josiah had promised.
At precisely four o’clock she stood on the front steps of Josiah’s house, shopping bag in hand and a flutter of excitement in her belly.
4
He’d rushed through most of his day, eager for this moment to arrive. Josiah opened the door to the most tempting sight he’d seen in forever.
Lisa’s dark gaze met his, amusement and happiness shining on her pretty face. There was a brush of pale red on her lips and a brighter colour on her cheeks from the cooling temperatures outside. Her dark hair swung over her shoulders, every inch in order, sleek and beautiful.
She held forward a fabric grocery bag. “I brought dessert.”
Josiah stepped aside far enough to let her in then closed the door behind her. He caught her by the hand, removing the bag from her grasp then moving in closer to press a kiss to her knuckles. Staring into her face as his lips made contact.
She outright snickered. He gave her fingers a squeeze before straightening and motioning her farther into the house. “Come in and make yourself at home.”
Lisa paused to take off her shoes. “You want to put that bag in the freezer,” she warned.
Josiah glanced into the sack. “Ice cream. Three containers?”
“I didn’t know your favourite, so I made a few guesses. Don’t peek.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He headed to the kitchen and shoved the entire bag into the freezer compartment without unpacking it. He turned to watch Lisa explore.
It was interesting to watch someone else experience a place that was familiar to him for the first time. The open inquisitiveness in her expression and the clear delight at the comfortable home he’d created made him happy.
His house was built on an open-room concept. The corner of the great room held an airtight fireplace framed by floor-to-ceiling windows that faced south and west. The hallway to the bedrooms was at the north end of the building, and between them was the kitchen and dining room.
Leaning back against the counter, Josiah watched her stroll past his sofa and easy chairs, trailing her fingers over the soft leather as she looked around.
Her gaze landed on his favourite painting and her eyes widened. It was a ranching scene painted from a snapshot of him at work. The sun had been scorching hot that day, and simply looking at the image was enough to bring back memories. The sweat on his brow and the ache in his muscles from a full day inoculating calves. A solid wood fence around an arena held the animals still needing attention, but in the picture, they had just opened the gate to let out the animals that were done.
The little creatures had immediately run to their mamas, bleating the entire time. The cows had filled the air with worried noises as well, but somehow in the midst of all that confusion, the animals reconnected. A crazy miracle every time it happened.
There’d been dust in the air, a mass of sound, and the heady scent of life.
“Very sweet.” She glanced over at him. “I’m impressed.”
“The artist is a friend of the family,” he admitted. “As payment for being a model, she gave me one of the limited-edition prints.”
Lisa crooked her finger at him and he willingly stepped to her side. She glanced between him and the painting a couple of times. “I like it.”
“Me too.”
“You look very competent and very happy.”
“That’s good, because I’m both,” he teased with a wink. “I enjoy being a vet. It’s hard work, but the animals like me, and at the end of the day, being able to help keep them comfortable and healthy—I figure it’s a worthwhile endeavor.”
“I have a cousin-in-law who’s a veterinarian. She says pretty much the same thing.” Lisa took a deep breath, and her eyes closed for a moment, smile widening. “The house smells fabulous, by the way.”
“Comfort foods always smell good.” Thank goodness his abilities in the kitchen were enough to meet her requests. “It’s my brother’s meatloaf recipe. Or more accurately, his wife’s recipe, and considering she runs a Michelin-ranked restaurant in New York, it should meet with your approval.”
“Am I allowed to slather it with ketchup?” Lisa asked. “That might be wrong, you know. A bad thing to do to New York meatloaf.”
“Then we can be wrong together. I have the industrial-sized bottle,” he confessed.
She smiled, leaning casually against his side as she looked around the room again. The warmth of her body set off pinpricks of excitement all over his skin. Heck, he was having a hard time keeping his breathing under control with her so close. The scent of her shampoo, something fruity, twisted around him as tightly as a rope, encouraging him to get closer.
“Where’s—?” She interrupted herself, twisting on the spot and tilting her head to smile up at him. “Oh, you’re tricky.”
She grabbed the control from beside his chair, glancing at the buttons briefly before aiming at the ceiling above the painting. The hidden screen rolled down, and Lisa grinned happily at having unearthed one of his secrets.
“Family rule of no TV in the living room is kind of silly for a single guy who lives alone. This was a compromise my mind could accept. Plus, when my mom comes over, I can hide the evidence that I’m a heathen and eat dinner while watching a show.”
Lisa made herself at home, settling on the couch and curling her legs underneath her. “I like it. I like that you’ve still got the view outside. You don’t have to twist the chairs when you want to use them or have your furniture aimed in a weird direction.”
Josiah ignored his chair and sat next to her. Just far enough away to leave some space between them, but when he stretched his arm along the back of the couch, he could tangle his fingers in her hair if he wanted.
He resisted. For now.
“Have you lived here long?” Lisa asked.
“Been in Heart Falls for over five years. I bought the house a year after I arrived from a couple who were retiring to Calgary. Made a few changes like that projection screen, but it’s pretty much their design.”
“It’s beautiful. And comfortable.” She leaned back on the high armrest which slid her farther from him. He was disappointed about that until she shocked the hell out of him and planted her wool-socked feet in his lap. “Tell me about your family. You’ve mentioned a brother, and your mom. I take it they’re around, somewhere.”
“Around here, only occasionally. They still manage to be up in my business often, though, some of them from five hundred miles away.” He picked up her foot and started massaging it, digging his fingers into her arches, because that’s what any smart man did when a woman was clearly looking for a foot rub. He pointed briefly at a picture on the side table. “That is the mess of people I call fam
ily. Mom and Dad live in Rosebud, Alberta, where I grew up. I have an older brother and two older sisters. They’re in New York, Hollywood, and, temporarily, the UK. Specifically, London.”
He wasn’t sure if that expression on her face was from the pressure on her feet or if she was impressed with the list of his siblings’ hometowns.
“That’s a lot of distance between you,” she said, wiggling her foot closer. “Oh. Right there. Yes.”
Josiah swallowed hard and ordered his cock to behave. Because that last phrase had sounded far too sexual. Everything in him had gone hard, so he focused down at where he was rubbing the ball of her foot.
He had to concentrate to remember what the last sensible comment was that she’d made.
Right. Distance.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but Rosebud is the hotspot for dramatic development in rural Alberta. My parents run the boarding house and theatre school, and all three of my siblings are very successful graduates of the program.”
“Ha.” She pulled her foot away from him and offered the other one, demanding the same treatment. “That’s where your cue-card setup came from. You’re a graduate of the theatre school too.”
“More like a dropout,” he confessed. “It’s a bit of a stretch from the stage to pulling calves. When I hit my teens I realized, while I don’t mind being in the spotlight, I didn’t love it the way the rest of them did. I wanted to work with animals, so I went in a different direction.”
She folded her arms over her chest and looked at him thoughtfully. “That must’ve been tough to do in a family full of performers.”
“It wasn’t too bad.”
He focused down on her foot, applying extra pressure in the hopes of possibly changing the topic.
Everyone in his family had known that he didn’t have the talent. They’d made that clear. Not necessarily in a cruel way, but there wasn’t much beating around the bush when everyone had roles to play except him.
Lisa was eyeing the photo again. “You get along with your Mom and Dad? I mean, other than having to hide the sin of keeping your wicked bachelor television in the living room?”
“We get along fine. They’re good people. Don’t always understand what makes me tick, but I don’t understand why they do some of the things they do. It works.”
The buzzer went off on the stove, and they got to their feet and headed to the kitchen. Josiah paused to wash his hands before they worked together, dancing around each other a bit as he piled everything from the oven onto the island.
Lisa followed his orders and grabbed supplies from the fridge before filling glasses with cold water.
“We can sit on the couch,” Josiah offered. “This is your comfort-food meal. Put your feet up if you want.”
Lisa considered, her nose wrinkling adorably. “I don’t want to have to juggle anything. That would be more work.”
They settled at the solid oak table, sitting kitty-corner to each other with plates full of steaming hot food. Lisa took a deep inhale and made another one of those noises that set his body on fire.
“You are a prince among men,” she proclaimed boldly. “Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. It’s the trifecta of perfection.”
Josiah brought forward one more dish, pulling off the lid and scooping up a large serving. “Two of your comfort foods are also mine, but you forgot the veggie. Witness true perfection—creamed corn.”
He dropped a hearty serving into the narrow space he’d left between his meatloaf and mashed potatoes, wiggling the spoon to get the proportions just right.
His fork was already in the air, aimed at the meatloaf when he paused and glanced up.
Lisa’s grin was enormous. Without a word she scooped up a hearty portion of corn as well and deposited it directly on top of her meatloaf.
When she proceeded to break the slice apart and mix it with her mashed potatoes, Josiah knew he was in big trouble. That was the right way to eat this meal, as far as he was concerned. He’d been planning on a politer approach out of consideration for those poor souls who weren’t in the know.
Lisa finished with a flourish, half of her plate a mixed combination of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn, the other half macaroni and cheese. She grabbed the ketchup and proceeded to add a spiral of red to the entire surface of her plate, and Josiah was one second away from proposing marriage.
Not that the idea was extreme or anything.
Instead he inflicted the food on his plate to the same treatment. “My mom calls this Canadian hash. On the days rehearsals went too late, there would inevitably be three pots on the stove. We’d eat whenever we made it home. I would take a scoop of each and mix them together.”
“Food memories are amazing things,” Lisa agreed.
“Tastes like happiness.” Josiah lifted his water in the air. “To comfort foods.”
“To comfort dates,” Lisa replied, clinking her glass against his.
Comfortable, yet not, because he wanted to know more. Not the least of which was how soft her skin was. How she tasted. What other noises she made beyond the ones that were currently driving him wild as she casually licked mashed potatoes from her fork.
Time to concentrate. “Your turn. You can hear more about my family some other time. Yours— I know Tamara because she’s been the best thing that’s happened to Caleb in a long time. And I know you have another sister, Karen, because she brought those hellion goats to the Silver Stone ranch.”
“Josiah Ryder. Those goats are practically family.” She sounded suitably scandalized. “For a man who supposedly loves animals, I’m disappointed.”
“Hellion goats,” he repeated. “I do love animals, but one of those jerks ate my hat. I haven’t figured out which one to blame, so they’re all in my bad boy book.”
Lisa laughed. “And here I thought my friends and I were the only ones who kept lists of bad boys.”
The food and the company were more delightful than she’d anticipated.
“Why does that sound as if it’s a good list to be on?” He winked. “So, two sisters and a whole lot of cousins. Just your dad, right?”
Lisa poked at her macaroni and cheese a little more forcefully than necessary. “Yeah. Karen, Tamara and I are tight. Dad? Not so much.”
His expression lost all teasing and flipped to concern. “Didn’t mean to hit a hot button.”
“It’s okay—he’s not a terrible, horrible person or anything. But he’s definitely part of the reason I don’t want to go back to Rocky Mountain House. He’s not an easy man to work with. Not as a woman.”
Understanding struck, and Josiah nodded sharply. “Oh. Old-time rancher?”
“Very old school. Plus small-town, plus three daughters.” She stabbed a chunk of meatloaf viciously before offering a wry smile. “I guess you should congratulate yourself because I don’t bitch about him to many people.”
“Venting about a shitty situation makes total sense. Don’t worry about it.” He reached over and caught her fingers in his. “And knowing what you don’t want is a huge part of making your future better.”
What she wanted? She’d been doing a great job figuring out what everybody else needed. Heck, that’s all she’d done for years and years. Where she needed a lot more practice was in the what’s good for Lisa decision-making department.
She glanced at their joint hands for a moment. Josiah gave a gentle squeeze, then let go and they went back to their supper.
Lisa told him a little more about the Whiskey Creek ranch where she’d grown up and how it had recently reconnected to the rest of the Coleman family spreads. She didn’t say anything about her part in the deal because it wasn’t necessary. The important thing was change had happened.
Josiah told her a couple of stories about growing up in the theatre world, which was something completely outside of her realm of experience.
The food went down easy as the light outside began to change. Sunset mode slipped into play as six o’clock passe
d.
It was a tough choice, what to look at. The sharp, sexy lines of the man’s face beside her, or the clear lines of the Rocky Mountains as reds and golds edged the craggy peaks in the distance.
The corners of Josiah’s eyes crinkled as he spoke, lips curling in a smile as he shared another story. Sunlight reflected off his hair, a glint in his eyes as he passed her the bowl of macaroni and cheese and she helped herself to another scoop.
Eventually her stomach could hold no more. “I’m done. So very done.”
Josiah leaned back with a sigh of satisfaction. “For now.”
She groaned. “Oh God. Mercy.”
He snorted. “You’re the one who brought ice cream. Three types.”
They stacked the dishes into the machine, Josiah moving easily as he put things away. He was obviously a man comfortable in his own skin and his own place.
A place that continued to impress the heck out of her. “I know you said you bought this from someone else, but the house is gorgeous. Show me the rest?”
“Sure. Let me put on my tour director hat.”
Before she could ask any more questions, he caught her by the fingers and tugged her across the floor. He paced, pointing toward collectible knickknacks hanging on the walls or arranged on side tables.
“My oldest sister, Kelsey, grabbed that picture for me from England the last time she was there. She said it made her think of the veterinarian stories we used to read back on rainy days when we were trapped in the house. And Lenora gave me that statue for my birthday. She and Micah are taking turns giving me horses. At this rate, I’ll eventually have an entire herd around the place.”
“That’s a nice tradition to start.” She peeked her head into the next room to find an office with sleek leather upholstery and solid wood furniture everywhere. “This place is over the top for a single guy.”
“Which is why I’ve got a couple of roommates joining me. I’ve done this over the years, whenever we’ve had veterinary students doing time at the clinic. Couple of guys moving into town were looking for a place to stay, and I offered.” He cursed softly, pausing in the middle of the hallway to stand close to her. “Which is good, and bad. We’re only alone tonight until they get back, which they guessed would be around nine.”
