The radio in the kitchen was on when Maddy knocked softly at the porch door of the cottage. She hadn’t been able to decide between the ultra-casual faded jeans and a white gathered eyelet tank top or the more flirty pink jersey sundress. She’d gone with the jeans in the end. David had seen her at her worst; self-consciousness was out the window.
“Come in,” she heard David call. Sufjan Stevens provided the background music as she opened the screen door. The little kitchen with its neat wood cabinets and long marble countertops smelled like warm chocolate. David, wearing an army green T-shirt and jeans, stood at the counter, mixing something in a bowl, a striped dishtowel flung over his shoulder. He looked incredibly sexy. He glanced up as she entered, his hair falling in his eyes a little, and grinned at her.
Maddy held out a tub of strawberries. “I thought maybe we could use these.” The little red heart-shaped berries looked gorgeous. “I picked them up at the farm stand.”
“Well, well, maybe you’re not a hopeless cook after all,” he teased. He motioned her over to stand next to him and examined the berries while she examined him. She stared at the muscles in his arms as he dumped the berries into a colander and ran water over them. “So, we’re making chocolate mousse cake,” he explained. “Strawberries will go great with that.”
“That sounds so good….” She laughed, inhaling another strong whiff of warm, rich chocolate.
“It is—the chef at Mondavi used to tell me that he would serve this when…” He stopped and smiled mischievously. “Let’s just say this was a dish to impress the ladies.”
She laughed. “I’m impressed.”
“Come here—I’ll show you how to mix this,” he offered.
“Okay.” She stood close to him at the counter, watching as he poured a stream of melted chocolate from a small saucepan into a bowl of smooth, shiny batter. His strong arm blended the chocolate in streaks.
“See, you want to sort of fold it in very gently in kind of an oval shape, instead of mixing around and around.” He glanced at her and smiled. “You want to try?”
“Sure.” She took the spatula and tried to imitate him.
“Here, try it like this,” he said after a minute, and she felt his hand close around hers. He moved so that he was standing just behind her.
“Like this?” she said, though she wasn’t paying the slightest attention to the batter.
“Mmhm,” he said. He sounded like he wasn’t paying attention to the batter either. She leaned back into him just the slightest bit, still folding the batter, though by this time the chocolate had long since disappeared. She could feel him inhale at her touch, and the muscles in his chest tensed a little.
Ping-ping-ping! The timer on the stove sounded. He exhaled and stepped away from her over to the stove. “The layers are ready.” The scent of cake filled the kitchen as he pulled a pan out of the oven. Maddy wandered over to the refrigerator and peered at some photos stuck there with magnets. She squinted at one of two tall guys with their arms around each other’s shoulders, standing in the sun at the top of some mountain.
“Is that you?” she asked.
He turned around to see what she was looking at. “Yeah. That’s my buddy Jim. We hiked to the top of Bismark Peak in Utah last summer.” Something started bubbling in a copper saucepan on the stove and David quickly bent over to reduce the flame. Maddy eyed his turned back. The temptation was just too great. She plucked a berry out of the colander, took aim, and pitched it at him. It bounced off his head and fell to the floor.
“Hey!” He whirled around to face her, already laughing. She giggled and threw another one, this time catching him on the chest.
“Okay, I see how it is,” he said. “Well then, how about this?” Before she could react, he scooped a spoonful of batter, closed one eye, and took aim, catapulting the cake across the room and catching her right in the face.
She squealed and wiped her eyes. “You jerk!” She darted across the room, scooped up her own glob of batter, and let it fly, splattering his shirt.
He dove across the kitchen table, trying to catch her, but she slipped away from his grasp and ran to the other side. They faced off, grinning, until he held up his hands. “Truce, okay? I give up.”
“Okay.” She relaxed and turned away before feeling something soft hit the back of her head. A strawberry fell at her feet. “Ooh! You’re going down!” she yelled. In one quick movement, she grabbed the colander out of the sink and, evading his hands, dumped the entire contents on his head. Strawberries fell pattering at their feet like fat red raindrops and rolled to the far corners of the room.
Maddy stood, hanging on to the counter, trying to catch her breath from laughing so hard at the sight of David with the colander still on his head. With dignity, he removed the metal helmet and placed it on the counter. “Do you know you look like a raccoon?” he asked, pointing at the mask of shiny brown batter now beginning to dry on her face.
“I know,” Maddy gasped, starting to regain control of herself. “Help.”
“Here,” he said, running a clean dishcloth under the faucet. He took hold of her shoulder with one hand and with the other wiped at her cheeks. Maddy stopped giggling like someone had turned off a switch. David looked down into her face, suddenly serious. She inhaled sharply. He’s going to kiss me, oh my God, he’s going to kiss me. She hoped he couldn’t feel the slight trembling of her shoulders under his hands. From somewhere outside, the song of a killdeer reached her ears. But David’s face filled her field of vision. He leaned down and she closed her eyes. For a brief moment, his hand tightened on her shoulder. Then she felt it drop away. Maddy opened her eyes in surprise.
David abruptly turned back to the stove. An awkward silence descended as he stirred something furiously. She was totally confused. Wasn’t he going to kiss her? What happened? Did she have something in her teeth? She stared at David’s back, trying to gauge his feelings from his posture. But his rounded shoulders told her nothing. They had been having such a good time. And he was going to kiss her. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe—she hated to think of it—he was having second thoughts about her. “Um, well, I should get back,” she heard herself saying in a small voice.
He turned around with the saucepan in one hand. She was flooded with relief when she saw his face—desperate but not angry.
“Okay,” he said in a croak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “See you later?”
“Definitely!” She tried to load all of her feelings into that one word. He nodded. They stared at each other for one long minute and then she made herself turn calmly and open the screen door, leaving him in the middle of the kitchen.