Chapter Seven
If the woman stared any harder Colton was going to embarrass himself. He was to blame really. He had intentionally forgone clothing once he finished his shower. Coming into the kitchen with nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips was supposed to get a reaction from Maggie.
Boy had it.
There was definitely something there. Her gaze ate him up with barely contained greed, heat, and lust. Oh yeah, the sexy little cupcake maker felt more for him than friendship. He was sure of it.
He took a step forward, and the spell was broken. Face turning bright red, she turned back around to the counter and slammed the cookie tray down with more force than necessary.
Okay, so she might have thoughts other than friendship for him, but she didn’t want to admit it. He could deal with that. When dealing with a skittish mare you had to be calm, gentle, and patient. He could be patient with this woman.
“I better go get dressed. Don’t want cookie crumbs in unmentionable places.”
His joke had the intended effect as she chuckled and some of the tension left her shoulders.
“Be right back.”
He left and headed down the hall to the bedroom. Dressing quickly in a pair of well-worn jeans and a black, long sleeve shirt, he tugged on socks before making his way back into the kitchen. The cookies were already cooling on the rack.
Maggie stood at the window, her back to him, watching the snow. “It never snowed in LA.”
He stayed silent, letting her continue her thoughts out loud.
“Lizzy and I went to Big Bear once to try skiing. It was a disaster. We both fell about a hundred times. I swear I bruised my tailbone, and Lizzy almost broke her ankle, but the snow was so pretty and fluffy. It was really fun.”
“Who’s Lizzy?” he asked, pulling out a chair at the small table and sitting.
“My best friend.”
She turned then, and he was blown away by how beautiful she was. The heart shaped face gave her such a youthful appearance. That adorable button nose and those full, pouty lips just begged to be kissed. Colton had to remind himself he was trying to take it slow with her. Not jump over the table and drag her down onto it so he could rip her clothes off and make love to her right there. That was not slow.
“We met sophomore year of high school.”
The year after she stopped coming to Peak Town.
Did that have something to do with it? He could imagine a teenage girl not wanting to leave her best friend for months at a time.
“We clicked right away. Her parents are in ‘the Biz,’ but she saw how Hollywood could destroy families, and never wanted that for herself.”
“Did it destroy her family?”
That cute little nose scrunched up as she crossed her arms over her middle. “Her parents are still together, but I don’t think either one of them has ever been faithful. They also weren’t around much for her. She spent a lot of time at my place. Mom worked, but she always came home at night.” Maggie smiled with a faraway look. “Lizzy and I used to make dinner, and then Mom would come home and we’d play card games until bed. We used to play poker with M&Ms. Lizzy would always beat us. Mom used to laugh and say she lost on purpose so she wouldn’t ruin her diet by eating all that chocolate.”
Sadness crept into those emerald green eyes.
“You must miss her. Your mother,” he clarified when she looked at him.
A few years ago, the news had spread around town that Maggie’s mother lost her battle with cancer. Mrs. B had rushed out to California to spend time with her grieving granddaughter. Maggie’s mother had never been married to Mrs. B’s son, but Maggie was still Betty’s flesh and blood. The old woman loved her and therefore felt her granddaughter’s pain at the loss of her last living parent.
“Yes, I miss her. Everyday. I miss Lizzy, too, but at least I still get to talk to her.”
Mossy hued eyes blinked back tears. Colton cursed himself, feeling like an ass for bringing up such a painful subject. He hadn’t intended to make her cry.
“So, what does Lizzy do, since she’s not in, what did you call it…?” he asked, trying to move the conversation in a different direction.
“‘The Biz.’ Hollywood lingo.” Maggie grabbed the plate of cooled cookies from the counter and brought them to the table, taking the seat across from him. “Lizzy went to UCLA to study business management. I studied culinary arts at California Culinary School. We rented an apartment together instead of living in student housing. Then Lizzy got a job as an assistant shift manager at Le Central, a little French restaurant just off Hollywood and Vine. She worked her way up to manager and turned the place into a four star restaurant in under five years. She hired me on as pastry chef about three years ago.”
Grabbing a cookie from the plate, he bit into it. Sugary, lemon flavor exploded in his mouth as the sweet treat melted over his tongue. Leaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes and moaned. “I can see why. God, Magpie, these cookies are almost better than sex.”
“Really?”
He opened his eyes, taking in her shocked expression. “I said almost.” He winked, and she blushed again. Damn, it was fun making her blush. “Must have been great living and working with your best friend.”
“It was. People always say don’t live with friends, but with Lizzy and I…we’re more like sisters, so it was never a problem. She really helped me get through Mom’s death and Gran’s. And then that whole thing with Miles—” She cut herself off, but not soon enough.
“Who’s Miles?”
“No one.”
She said that far too quickly. Must be an ex. Thinking of Maggie with another man set his teeth on edge. Which was ridiculous. She was a twenty-eight year old woman, of course she’d have had a few relationships. Hell, Colton was thirty-two and there had been women in his life. A few relationships, a few just for fun. So, why did it rub him the wrong way to think of another man touching her?
“So, tell me what you’ve been up to the last few years?” she said, obviously switching the conversation.
Fair was fair. She’d shared with him. Not a problem. His life was pretty mundane. Satisfying, but mundane.
“My parents retired to Florida a few years back, so me and Dade took over at the ranch. When the economy took a nosedive, we needed to do something to bring in more money. Riding lessons and boarding alone wasn’t paying the bills, so I took a couple of online classes in equine studies and breeding management.”
“Wow.”
“It’s not that big a deal.” It really wasn’t, but he liked that it impressed her. Suddenly, he was finding he wanted her to think of him as more than just a hound dog cowboy. “I took a couple trips out to Kentucky and bought Thunder.”
“Is he that brown Quarter Horse you guys have out in the pasture?”
He was surprised she noticed considering Maggie had only been out to the ranch a time or two since she got back, mostly to deliver cupcakes. That girl never had any fun. He would have to change that.
“Yeah. He’s a retired racing stallion. I got him for a great price because he had behavioral issues. No one could get him to breed. I took one look at him and knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That he just needed someone to be gentle with him. Be patient.” He held her gaze with his. “I’m a very patient man, Magpie.”
She swallowed, her hands twisting together on top of the table.
Sensing her discomfort, he let his gaze drop, breaking the contact. “I brought him back home and worked with him. He was traumatized by all the years of racing. Crowds, noise, loud bells, and screaming.” He shook his head. “People don’t realize how much that can spook a horse. They need calm and space. Animals aren’t meant to be raced around a track like cars.” Grabbing another cookie, he shoved it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed before continuing. “Anyway, it took about a year, but I finally got Thunder to trust me. Once he realized he could have his pick of pretty lady horses, well, he cheered right up. Now, in addition to lessons and boarding, the colts we sell from Thunder help. The ranch is doing great, that’s why we had to hire a couple of hands to help out.”
“I guess people will pay a lot for the pedigree of a racing horse’s offspring.”
“They sure do.” He raised a cookie in a toast.
“You’re going to ruin your lunch if you keep eating those.”
“Oh come on, Magpie. Live dangerously.” He waved a cookie in front of her nose.
She swatted at the treat, laughing.
“I think I’ll stick to a nice, healthy salad thank you. I make cupcakes for a living. If I ‘lived dangerously’ with everything I bake, I’d be four hundred pounds.”
“Just more of you to love.”
Her green eyes narrowed, and she grabbed the plate just as he reached for another cookie.
“Hey!”
“No more until you’ve had a proper lunch, Romeo.”
He placed a hand to his chest. “You wound me, sweetheart.”
She rolled her eyes. “You made breakfast so I’ll make lunch.”
“As long as it’s more than salad.” Colton shuddered. He was a big man with a physically taxing job. Salad was not going to cut it.
“How about Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and a spinach side salad?” she asked, peering into the fridge.
“Do I have the ingredients for that?”
The pantry was always stocked with various canned food for emergencies, but he always made sure to do a grocery run before heading up to the cabin. You could only eat so many cans of beans before your stomach turned on you.
“I can improvise with what you have.” Maggie started pulling things off shelves.
“Then it sounds awesome. I think I’ve got a deck of cards around here somewhere. Want to show me how good your poker skills are after lunch?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder. Her hair was down, free of that braid thing she usually wore. The dark strands fell like waves over her shoulder. He sucked in a breath, feeling like someone had just sucker punched him. Damn, the woman was beautiful.
“I don’t have any M&Ms,” he added. “But I think there’s a bag of chocolate chips in the back of the pantry.”
She smiled “Oh, you are so going to lose.”
“Don’t count on it, sweetheart.” He winked. When it came to Maggie, he didn’t plan to lose a damn thing.
****
Lunch had been delicious. Even the salad had been good. After they cleaned the dishes, Colton found that deck of playing cards, and Maggie searched through the pantry until she came up with a half-full bag of chocolate chips. They kept it simple. Five-card stud.
The sneaky baker was up five games to two.
“I swear you’re cheating.”
“You’re just mad ’cause I’m kicking your butt.” Maggie gave him a deceptively innocent smile. “Two cards please.”
She said the words a little too sweetly. He’d been trying like hell to figure out her tell. Everyone had a tell. His brother would always rub his fingers together when he was bluffing. Maggie twisted her hands when she was nervous, but he had no idea what she did when she was lying.
He drew two cards from the deck and handed them face down to her. She plucked them from his fingers and added them to her hand. He watched her very closely. Nothing.
Wait, there!
A slight move, but the thumb on her right hand ever so slightly touched the ring on her pointer finger. Her grandmother’s ring. Colton knew that because he remembered seeing Mrs. B wear it every day when he was growing up, and then had given it to her granddaughter the first summer she came to visit. He’d never known Maggie to take it off since.
So, she touched her ring. Was that a good sign or bad? Great hand or lousy? Guess he’d find out soon enough. He looked at his own cards. A pair of jacks. Not great. Time to play a little chicken.
“I bet ten.” He tossed a handful of chocolate chips in the center.
Dark brown eyebrows rose. “Good hand, huh?”
“Maybe. Why don’t you find out?”
She narrowed her gaze, staring at him, trying to call his bluff.
Good luck sweetheart. Everyone had a tell…everyone except him.
“I see your ten, and raise you fifteen.” She slowly dropped each chip onto the pile.
Chocolate scent filled the air, reminding him of all the sweet things in the room he’d like to get his mouth on.
“So confident, Magpie. I call.” He dropped another handful onto the table. “What cha’ got?”
“You first, darling,” she said with a curl of her lips.
“Oooo I like it, but maybe next time try not to make it sound like an insult.”
“Stop calling me silly nicknames and maybe I will. Now, stop stalling and show me what you have.”
There was no way he could let a set up like that get away. “I’d love to show you what I have, but maybe the kitchen isn’t the best place for our first time.”
Those pretty green eyes rolled upwards. “Your cards, Colton. Get your mind out of the gutter and on the game.”
He laughed, flipping his cards face up on the table. “Pair of jacks.”
Beaming, Maggie turned hers over. Three tens and two fives. “Full house! I win. Again.” Scooping the chocolate chip pile into her hands, she dragged her winnings over to her already huge pile.
“Unbelievable.” Guess the ring thing was a “good” tell.
“Not really. You are a lousy poker player, Colt.”
Affronted, he sat back in his chair. “Am not.”
“You have a very overt tell.” She grabbed the fallen cards.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “No way.”
Her shoulders lifted in a shrug as she shuffled.
No way. No way did he have a tell. He’d been clearing the table with his brother for years. He was a great poker player. Unless…Dade was lousy at poker.
“Okay fine. Then I won’t tell you what it is, and I’ll get all the chocolate chips to myself.”
They sat in silence as she finished shuffling, then dealt five cards out to each of them. Colton picked up his cards, glancing at them. A two, pair of eights, a ten and a king. Awful. He glanced across the table. No expression, no ring touching.
“Three cards please.” He passed the king, two and ten to her.
She put them in the discard pile and gave him three new cards from the top of the deck. Then she put down two of her own cards, replacing them with new ones. He waited, watched. She touched her ring.
“Okay, I give. What’s my tell?”
Maggie glanced up from her cards and smiled. “You tilt your head slightly to the right when you bluff.”
Really? A head tilt? How had she noticed that? No one had ever mentioned that before, and he played poker every week with his brother and their ranch hands. He won a lot, too. Never had anyone noticed his tell. Hell, he hadn’t even noticed it.
Maggie had.
She noticed something about him that no one else had. He smiled. Another good sign.
Picking up his new cards, he glanced at them. A three, a seven and another two. Crap.
“Two,” she said, tossing chips into the center of the table.
She was playing low ball, trying to get him to up the ante. Not with this hand.
“I fold.”
“On two?” Her mouth dropped in astonishment.
He tossed his cards down on the table. “I may have a tell, Magpie, but so do you. Another full house?”
Open mouth closing, she grimaced. “No, I had a straight.”
Colton laughed, drawing a smile out of her.
“Shoot. It took Lizzy years to figure out my tell.” She rubbed her ring again. “Gran was the one who taught me how to play poker. Her ring always brings me luck. Well, in the game at least.”
They played a few more hands, both trying unsuccessfully to hide their tells. After a few hands of fruitless betting and folding, they called it quits. Maggie suggested stew for dinner. They worked together chopping up the meat and vegetables and tossing everything in the small crockpot he kept at the cabin. It was strange how right it felt. How totally normal it was to stand beside this woman and make a meal. Like they had been doing it forever.
Colton shook his head. He was starting to sound like a freaking Hallmark card. He glanced out the living room window. It was still snowing outside, but it had tapered off to small, sparse flakes.
“We’ll be able to get out of here tomorrow morning,” he said. “You can ride into town with me.”
“What about my car?”
She wandered over to the living room couch. Sitting, she curled up with a blanket and grabbed a book of crosswords puzzles from the coffee table. Who had left that here? Probably his mom on her last visit; his mother loved her word games.
“There’s no way you’d get down this mountain on a spare. I’ll give Pete a call when we get back into town and have him come get it. He can tow it back and fix the tire for you.”
“I can make the call myself you know. I do know how the telephone works.”
He turned to face her; her arms were crossed, a stern set to her jaw. Too cute. Time to tease the bear.
“Hey, I’m just trying to be helpful. I take you in, save your life, feed you, offer to call a tow, and what do I get—”
“Cookies.”
He smiled. “Oh yeah. Those were great. Any left, Magpie?”
She smiled, just as he had intended her to. “No porker, you ate them all.”
“Porker?”
She shrugged. “You make a nickname. I make a nickname. You don’t like it?”
He gave her a playful wink. “I love it, sweetheart.”
They spent the afternoon chatting about various things. The ranch, the stars she met in LA, nothing too serious. After the hearty dinner, he suggested a movie. There was no cable, but there was a stack of DVDs in the cabin. Maggie picked out a B rated monster flick, one of those so bad it was good. They laughed the entire way through, making jokes as the film went along. He couldn’t remember the last time he had this much fun with a woman—with her clothes still on. By the time the movie finished, it was past ten. Maggie’s mouth opened on a jaw-cracking yawn.
“I am beat.”
“We should probably turn in so we can get an early start tomorrow.”
She stood, tossing the blanket she had been snuggled up with back onto the couch. “Yeah, I need to open the shop tomorrow. I hope no one is upset about it being closed today.”
“People here understand about weather emergencies, Magpie.”
She snorted. “I guess they would.”
Time for bed. The question was, who was going to sleep in it? The answer he wanted was both of them. But as he watched her hesitant green gaze glance back to the bedroom, the realization that there was only one bed dawning, her hands starting to twist, and he knew what he had to do.
“I’ll take the couch.”
Her mouth turned down. “That’s silly. I’m smaller. I’ll fit better. Plus, it’s your bed.”
“We can share it,” he said with an overtly suggestive tone, only half-kidding.
She blushed. “Dream on, Colt.”
“Seriously, take the bed. I’ll be fine out here. It’s where Dade always shoves me when we both come up anyway.”
“Okay.”
Then, shocking the hell out of him, she went up on her tiptoes and leaned in. Her soft, sweet lips pressed against his cheek in a barely there kiss. It took everything in him not to turn his head and claim her mouth.
“Thanks, Colt.”
With that, she turned and headed down the hall.
“Maggie.”
She paused, glancing back at him.
He gave her his best wolf grin and whispered just loud enough for her to hear, “I will dream tonight. Of you.”