Page 59 of You'll Be the Death of Me

Inside, the air was lively but dulled. Every table was taken, with servers weaving in between them like a choreographed dance, trays balanced on fingertips. Dell could hear the kitchen buzzing with activity, but even that sounded muted. Jason wasn’t at the host podium at the moment, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t around.

“What do you expect to find here?” Cole asked as he followedher across the dining room toward the swinging door leading to the kitchen.

“I have no idea. If the murder conspiracy wasn’t enough of a lesson to bring me back, I can’t imagine finding out someone is swiping bottles of booze or swapping to nonorganic ingredients is going to do it either, not that my staff would ever do either of those things.”

“Well, you also didn’t expect your fiancé to be so devious either,” he muttered.

Dell shot him a look, not wanting to admit he made a great point. What else had she missed right under her nose?

They passed through into the kitchen, and the smell of prep hit Dell’s dulled senses: fresh herbs, mirepoix, a dash of citrus. Her staff manned their stations, all chopping and slicing and stewing, but with somber faces and low murmurs, rather than the usual lively chaos. Surely, they’d heard the news. Oscar must have told them to come in and keep the show running anyway.

Good, Dell thought. People still needed to eat, even if she wasn’t there.

“Well, at least they aren’t celebrating my death,” she said flatly.

“I wouldn’t expect anyone to celebrate your death,” Cole said. “Well, other than the obvious, but we’ve already cleared that up.”

“I’m not entirely sure that made me feel better, but thank you.”

Cole made an exasperated sound. “Sorry. I just meant you are a wonderful person, as far as I can tell. No one would be happy to lose you from their life.”

Dell looked up at him in time to see a tender warmth filling his eyes. Again, a vision swam through her mind. This time, they were outside, and something was blurring her sight. It cleared when Cole pinched a snowflake off her eyelash andsmiled warmly at her. He wore a beanie and a scarf. The tip of his nose was pink from the cold. More snow was falling around them. Dell swatted at it on reflex.

“What are you doing?” Cole said, pulling her back to the present where they stood in her kitchen. He leaned back from her swat.

Dell didn’t know what to make of the things she kept seeing, so she reached for a lie. “Oh, there was a, um, fly.”

Cole looked around at her spotless kitchen void of any flying pests and frowned.

“Let’s check my office,” she said, and pivoted in that direction before he could ask more.

They entered the tidy square room lined with shelves of cookbooks and notes. It was much like Dell’s office at home, minus the view, and permanently baked-in with kitchen smells.

“Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts,” Dell muttered to herself, trying to summon the energy needed to shuffle papers and open drawers. She thought of opening night at Pergo, the first time she’d cooked in her new kitchen, the glowing review Pierrick Moreau had just given her for what she didn’t even know was the last meal she’d ever cook. That final thought dipped her mood, so she searched for another, and, once more, was hit with a vision of Cole. This time, he was mid-laugh, head thrown back and wide smile. The joy emanating from vision-him somehow fused into her, filling her with a floating feeling and the sudden strength to open her desk’s top drawer.

“Found a good one?” Cole asked.

“What?”

He nodded at her hand on the desk drawer handle. “You must have found a happy thought if you can pull that open.”

Dell looked down at her fingers curled beneath the handle.“Um... yes. I did. Come help me look.” She couldn’t bring herself to tell him she’d been thinking ofhimwhen she found the strength to move an object. An embarrassed heat raced up her back as he rounded her desk to stand beside her.

“What exactly are we looking for?” he asked, and leaned in. His clean, minty smell came with him.

“Um... I don’t know. Anything lesson-like.”

“Like...?” He drew out the word and leaned closer, having no idea he was making her dizzy with his scent and the heat of his body. Not to mention the image of him laughing still floating like a hazy dream in her mind.

Dell turned to look up at him, feeling tiny in her bare feet and unable to stop her eyes from tracing the outline of his lips. “Do you by chance like the snow?” she asked.

His full lips bent into a curious half smile. “What?”

She was still caught in his gaze, swimming in his dark eyes and looking for an answer to a question she hadn’t fully formed. “The snow. Do you like being in it?”

Cole’s brow flattened. He pushed his lips out into a thoughtful pout, which only made them look more appealing. “I can’t say, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t. Why do you ask?”

Because I keep having visions of you in it, with me, and I think we’re moments away from kissing, and I would like to kiss you right now.The thought sped through her mind like a freight train. Luckily, she kept any words from coming out of her mouth.