Page 77 of First Bride to Fall
As he headed for the door, he said, “I got marshmallows, too. And graham crackers.”
“Sweet. For s’mores?”
“You don’t have to eat the chocolate.” He stopped walking and hung his head. “Oh man.”
“Grant? What is it?”
He gestured toward the pastry bag on the table. “I bought us a few treats this morning at Bearberry Brews, but I got so hungry running errands I wound up eating some of them myself.”
“That’s no big deal. It’s fine.”
“Yeah, except.” He shrugged. “The only one left is chocolate.”
She hopped back to the table and peeked into the bag. “Ooh, it’s a croissant! I love those.” She pulled it out and took a big bite to demonstrate. Her lips scrunched up a little funny when she chewed, but he gave her full credit for making the effort. It actually made her look really cute. Grant stopped himself, reeling back those positive thoughts.
Focus. Focus.
“Didn’t you say you hated chocolate?”
“Not all of it.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I like it fine when it’s combined with other things like yellow cake and, uh…croissants.”
“Whew.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And here I was sure I’d messed up again.”
“Grant,” she said, her expression softening. “You could never ‘mess up.’” Her golden-brown eyes shone, and he wished she wouldn’t do that: look completely adorable. That didn’t help his resolve at all.
“Thanks, Nell.”
Now let’s just see how long your sweetness can last.
She opened the refrigerator door and picked up the hot dogs. “Oh. These are tofu.”
“Yeah. Is that a problem?”Please let it be a problem.
“No. No problem.” She examined the bacon next, and it may have been a trick of the refrigerator lighting, but he swore she went a little pale. “Wait. Is this vegetarian bacon?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” His eyebrows rose. “I’m a pescatarian.”
She leaned into the refrigerator door. “A pesca—what?”
He chortled to himself. “A pescatarian. It’s like a vegetarian, only I eat fish.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “But didn’t you say you’d had the lamb stew at Mariner’s?”
Argh. He forgot about that, but he found his way around it. “I’ve just heard the stew is delicious. From loads of people. Figured they couldn’t all be wrong.” He tacked on a laugh for good measure.
She looked like she was trying to recall their conversation. “Same with the corned beef and cabbage?”
“Yep.” Sweat threatened to pop on his brow. How many things had he mentioned in that one conversation?
“So then.” She processed this. “You don’t eat meat?”
“No meat. Only fish.”
“But…what about the grilling?”
“What grilling?”
“You said you liked to grill out?”
