Cooking with Kandy
Page 30
“That’s quite a chunk of change,” Josh said, “to level all at once.”
“I can understand how he rigged the light,” Gemma said, “and left the disgusting present at the Hamptons house. But I still think Alyssa was responsible for all those calls.”
“She wasn’t,” he said.
“How do you know?” Hannah asked, finishing her second cup of coffee.
“The uniforms who came to see me told me they found several disposable phones in Mark’s car. They backlogged the calls and traced three of them made to Kandy in the past few days.”
“Why did he do it?” Gemma asked, tossing an arm around her sister’s shoulders.
“My guess is he wanted it to look like Alyssa,” Josh said. “He made sure to casually mention Alyssa called Cort numerous times every day, and pegged her as a jealous bitch.”
“He did,” Stacy said. “One night when we were out to dinner, I don’t know how it came up, but he said he thought she was insanely jealous of Cort.”
“He said something about it to me in the Hamptons, too,” Josh said. “He planted that seed of doubt in many minds.”
Kandy shook her head and then looked back over at him.
“One other thing you need to know,” he told her. “Mark was in LA when you were. I had my partner check. He arrived the day before you did, left the day after the crash.”
Kandy swallowed. “Then he did do something to our car.”
Josh nodded.
“We could have been killed,” Kandy cried.
“Could have, sweetheart,” Hannah said. “But you’re all here, safe and sound.”
“He sure had me fooled,” Gemma said. “I thought he was a nice guy.”
“Me, too,” Stacy said, her lower lip trembling. “I feel like a jerk, Kandy. And I feel responsible. He probably got your private numbers from me somehow, just like Josh suspected.”
Kandy broke free of her sister’s arms, and went to hug her cousin. “Don’t say that, Stacy. Don’t even think it. He fooled all of us.”
“Still,” Stacy said.
“Was he behind my wallet going missing?” Kandy asked.
“Yup,” Josh answered. “The cops think it’s how he got some info he needed about you, not the least of which is a spare key you keep in it to this place. Something you neglected to tell me.”
Kandy’s cheeks turned red. “I forgot it was in there.”
Josh nodded and sipped from the mug. “He made a copy of it. It’s how he was able to get in and riffle through your clothes.”
“Why would he do that?” Stacy asked, her brows scrunched together under the top rim of her glasses. “It’s…weird.”
“A campaign of annoyance is the best bet. He wanted to rattle you, make you nervous, make you doubt yourself.”
“It worked,” Kandy said.
The kitchen grew silent for a moment.
“Obviously,” Stacy said, taking off her glasses and rubbing the tears from her cheeks, “we’re not filming today.”
Kandy smiled for the first time in hours. “Really? Who made you boss?”
“Me. It was a bloodless coup,” she replied, hugging her cousin again. “I’ve already let everyone know. Even Cort.”
Kandy’s smile died at the mention of the director’s name.
“He wanted to talk to you but I told him he couldn’t,” Stacy continued. “I said you needed to rest and relax for a day or two.”
“How’d he take it?” Gemma asked, glancing at her older sister.
“He said to take all the time you needed. He’d be ready to go again as soon as you gave the word.”
“Really?” Kandy said. “I’m sure Alyssa loved that.”
“Don’t worry about it, Kandy. After all this, I don’t think Cort is going anywhere anytime soon,” Stacy told her.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Stacy shook her head and stared straight into her cousin’s eyes. “Nothing. Don’t worry.”
Kandy stared back. Finally, her shoulders dropped and she let out a sigh. “I’ll deal with him tomorrow,” she said. “Maybe.”
Stacy grinned and put her glasses back in place.
When Kandy’s cell rang a moment later, she answered it and the room quieted while she listened.
“From the gist of what I heard,” Josh said when she disconnected, “that was the police.”
She nodded. “They found my jewelry.”
“Already?” Hannah asked.
Kandy snaked a glance at Josh. “It seems they knew where to look.”
Gemma’s gaze Ping-Ponged from her sister to Josh. “Well? Are you going to tell us, or make us guess?”
Kandy took a bottled water from the refrigerator, opened it, and before taking a pull, said, “Evan Chandler’s apartment.”
Gemma made a sound remarkably like a snort. “Asshole.”
“That’s one word for him,” Kandy said. She turned her gaze to Josh. “You told them where to look.”
He shook his head. “I just mentioned to the uniforms who were here last night that Chandler had been showing up places, bothering you. From the security recording, the guy who we saw could have been him. Same general description. I mentioned they might want to speak to him. Rule him in or out.”
“Well, he’s ruled in and, right now, he’s in custody for theft. When the police got to his place, they noticed my jewelry sitting on his coffee table from the front doorway. Because it was in plain sight, they were legally able to enter his apartment.”
“So a stupid asshole, to boot,” Gemma said.
“They want me to come down later and identify everything, but the cop assured me it’s my stuff.”
“I can’t believe all that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours,” Gemma said, through a yawn. “It feels like a lifetime ago we were in the Hamptons.”
Hannah put her coffee mug into the sink and said, “Come on, girls. Let’s let these two get some rest. They’ve had a pretty horrible few days.”
Each woman, in turn, bent and kissed Josh’s cheek or gave him a hug, thanking him for saving Kandy.
Gemma’s hug was the longest. “You’re okay. For a hunk,” she told him, kissing him full on the lips. With a brilliant smile, she hugged him again.
“Walk us out,” she told her sister, grabbing her arm.
Hannah bent down to Josh, took his face between her well-manicured hands and, after kissing his forehead, said, “All this madness is over now.” She slanted her head to one side, smiled, and added, “Time to face the music.”
With that, she left him alone in the kitchen.
When Kandy returned a few moments later, he could feel her nerves palpitating from across the room. She didn’t look at him as she asked, “Want more coffee?”
“No. I’ve had my fill, thanks.”
She nodded and began loading the dishwasher.
Her silence was killing him.
Since coming back from the hospital, she’d kept her distance, playing hostess and catering to everyone present.
And she looked ready to keel over from the strain.
“Kandy.”
She didn’t turn or stop her actions, just said, “Yes?” as she put another mug into the machine.
“Stop.”
She closed the dishwasher door, grabbed a paper towel, and began drying the sink.
“I need to get this done. The porcelain tends to stain if you don’t wipe it down right away. I don’t want to have to use any harsh chemicals on it if that happens, because it degrades the stone—”
Josh gently yanked on her upper arm, turned her, pulled her into his arms, and silenced her with a kiss.
A sob choked against his mouth.
“Oh, God, Josh!” She threw her arms around his neck. “I was so scared you were going to die. When I heard the gun go off, I knew it was you who’d been shot. I don’t know what I would have done if—”
“Shhh,” he cooed, rubbi
ng her back. “It’s okay. I’m okay. It’s all over now. Mark’s been arrested. Chandler’s out of circulation. Nothing else is going to happen. I promise.”
She hugged him tighter and then pulled back when he winced.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes trailing to the spot under his shirt that was bandaged. “Does it hurt?”
“It’s tolerable,” he said with a half wince. “The first time I got shot was worse. Believe me, this is nothing.”
She continued staring up at him. Her eyes were wet, her nose was running, and she had purple blotches forming under her lids from lack of sleep and stress.
She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
And he wanted her to know it.
“Since this is now over,” he said, keeping his hands folded behind her back, forcing her to stay close, “we need to talk.”
Apprehension shook through her gaze and she tried to pull away.
He tightened his grip.
“Josh, I know what you’re going to say. It’s okay. I understand.”
His eyes became slits. “What, exactly, is it you understand?”
Her shaking started up again and he knew she was having difficulty keeping her nerves at bay.
She swallowed. Twice.
“About…well…about last night. What happened. Between us,” she said, clarifying. “You know,” she added when he didn’t answer.
“You mean when we made love?”
The crimson blush that galloped up her neck to her face almost did him in.
“Well, yes. When we…when we had sex,” she said, trying to avert her eyes.
Josh wouldn’t let her. “Look at me.”
When she finally did he said, “We didn’t just have sex, Kandy, and you know it. It was more than that. Much more.”
Her eyes widened. When she wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, Josh clamped down on the little control he had left.
“Much more,” he repeated.
“I don’t…I mean…”
“I love you, Kandy,” he said, rubbing her back, trying to soothe all the nerves and fears away. “I know it sounds crazy since we’ve only known each other a short time. But believe me when I tell you, I love you.”
“What? You…you can’t. I mean…what?”
He grinned at her, loving the confused Kandy almost as much as the in-control Kandy.
“I said I love you. I’m in love with you. However you want me to say it, the truth is the same. It’s like a lightning bolt struck me, right in the heart, and it had your name on it.”
Her eyes widened more, her beautiful mouth parting as her jaw, quite literally, dropped open.
“What did you say?”
“I said, Kandace Sophia Laine, I love you.”
“No.” She began shaking her head. “No, I mean, what was that about lightning?”
His lips pulled up at the corners. “Something my mother used to tell me and my brothers about falling in love. We’d know it was the real thing because we’d feel like we were hit by a bolt from the sky. Like a—”
“Thunderbolt! Oh my God! I can’t believe this. Grandpa used to tell us the same thing. He said the first time he saw Grandma he knew he was destined to spend the rest of his life with her because he felt like a bolt of lightning shot right through him.”
Josh’s smile grew. “That about describes it.”
She continued looking up at him. After a moment she said, “I thought you regretted what happened.”
He shook his head. “Not what happened, Kandy. Never that. The timing. You needed protection and someone to find out who was terrorizing you. You didn’t need everything you were going through clouded. I wanted to wait until I found out who it was. Then I was going to tell you how I felt.” He sighed and rubbed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Things have a way of getting complicated, though.”
“I thought all I was to you was a job.”
Through a caustic and melancholy laugh, he pulled her head back to nestle it against his chest. “You stopped being a job the first day. Hell, the first five minutes into it.”
They stood, holding each other for a few moments.
A sudden thought sparked through him. Pushing back from her, he raised one eyebrow and said, “I seem to be the only one confessing here.”
It took her a second. The wicked grin that erupted across her face was pure childish glee. “The male ego has always been such a mystery to me.”
“You told me that once before.”
Her grin widened.
“Come on, Kandy. I’m hanging by a thread here.”
She lowered her lashes coquettishly, and he was suddenly reminded of her mother.
“Kandace Sophia Laine.”
Her laugh was free and wild and filled with joy. She threw her arms around his neck, planting kiss after kiss on his face, as she said, “I love you, Josh. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
“Okay, I get the picture,” he said, yanking her back and grinning. He gazed down at her lovely face, and said, “I know this is a lot. Maybe it’s too fast. I know you have plans for your future. Big plans. But do you think those plans could include me?”
Her blue eyes widened again and she cocked her head to one side. “What do you have in mind?” she asked in all sincerity.
He knew she was playing with him. She wouldn’t be her mother’s daughter if she didn’t have some delightful devilry in her. She knew damn well what he was asking, but he said it anyway, wanting and needing to hear her reply.
“Marry me?”
Brows drawn, she appeared to be giving it serious thought.
Playing was one thing. Killing him was quite another.
“Kandy?”
“Tell me one thing first,” she said.
“Anything.” Her pulled her close, inhaled the sweet scent of her hair, and planned on never letting her go.
“You’re not just asking me to marry you because I can cook, right?”
He pulled back and gaped at her. After a moment’s thought, he said, “No, but it sure is a great perk now that you mention it.”
With that, he laid claim to her mouth and her very soul.
About the Author
Credit: Stephanie Krist
Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance author who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can't live without them.
Peggy holds a master’s degree in nursing administration and geriatric psychology and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer’s disease during her time running an Alzheimer’s in-patient care unit during the 1990s.
A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter, where she is the 2016 Chapter Secretary. Visit her at peggyjaeger.com.
Click here to get all the latest news from Peggy Jaeger
Keep reading for recipes from Kandy’s Kitchen.
Grandma Sophie’s Cran-Apple Muffins
Makes 12 cupcake-size muffins or 6 jumbo muffins
Muffins
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup Craisins
1 cup peeled, diced apples
1 large egg
1 cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons cold water
For the Muffins
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Coat a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, including the Craisins.
In another bowl combine the wet ingredients, including the diced apples.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just until a batter forms.
Fill each muffi
n cup three-quarters full.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. The tops of the muffins will appear dry—this is okay.
Remove from oven and let cool for approximately 1 hour before glazing.
For the Glaze
Slowly mix the confectioners’ sugar with the cold water until a watery paste forms.
Drizzle the glaze evenly over the muffins using a fork or a pastry bag with a #2 tip, to coat the muffin tops in swirls and streaks.
Place in refrigerator to cool, or serve slightly warm—the glaze will be gooey!
Kandy’s Lobster Mac and Cheese
The ultimate comfort food!
Makes 6 servings (4 if you’re really hungry!)
Ingredients
2 slices whole wheat bread
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 pound elbow pasta
6 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1 small onion, chopped
½ cup all-purpose flour
5 cups milk (whole is best)
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese
¾ cup shredded mozzarella
¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
½ cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 teaspoon regular iodized salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces cooked lobster meat, cubed
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a food processor, tear the bread and pulse until coarse bread crumbs form. Mix in the Italian seasoning and set aside.
Bring a 6-quart stockpot of salted water to a boil. Cook the elbow macaroni according to package directions until al dente. Drain and set aside.
In another 6-quart stockpot, melt the butter over medium-low to medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Whisk in the flour, stirring to coat the onion.
Add the milk slowly, whisking continually so that no lumps form and the flour doesn’t cook.
Whisk for 7 to 9 minutes, until the mixture is thick and bubbly.
Add the cheeses and stir until the mixture is thickened and the cheeses have melted fully.