Playing With You (4 page)

“Just fine, Paige,” Garrett said. “How’s your mother?”

Paige picked up two menus from the hostess station as her smile brightened. “Much better, thank you. She’s back home from the hospital.”

“Glad to hear it,” Garrett said.

Paige nodded toward the back corner. “We have a special table set up just for you.”

As they walked through the restaurant, Ricki saw a few people she recognized. She gave smiles and nods to those she knew and Garrett did the same. She felt inordinately pleased that Garrett was her date and knowing that several women in the restaurant were watching with envy in their gazes.

Garrett helped her take off the shawl then pulled out her chair and seated her. He took his own seat across from her before the hostess handed each of them menus.

“Sasha will take care of you tonight.” Paige gave them each a smile. “Enjoy your dinner.”

Garrett’s eyes met Ricki’s. “How do crab cakes sound as an appetizer?” he asked as Paige retreated.

“Love them.” Ricki’s skin tingled as she tried not to look down and away from Garrett’s gaze out of sheer nervousness.

Ricki was relieved that Sasha arrived almost at once. She was a regular at Sweet Things and Ricki smiled at the woman.

“Hi, Ricki.” Sasha returned Ricki’s smile then turned to Garrett. “Haven’t seen you in a while. Is the PI business keeping you busy?”

“Sure is.” He asked her how she was doing before he looked at Ricki. “What would you like to drink?”

“Chardonnay.” She might as well stick with what she’d started with earlier.

Garrett ordered a Rock Bottom and gave Sasha their appetizer order. When their server left, he studied Ricki and she felt herself grow warm under his gaze.

“I’ve always liked this place.” Garrett’s voice had a low, sexy quality to it.

She felt more heat travel through her body. “It is nice and I like the menu.” The way he was looking at her made her feel like he approved of what he saw.

“I take it you’ve eaten here before,” he said as another server arrived and set their drinks in front of them.

Ricki nodded. “A couple of times. Their filet mignon with béarnaise sauce is to die for.”

Garrett moved his gaze back to the menu. “Hasn’t been anything on the menu I haven’t liked.”

Sasha returned to take their orders. Ricki chose the almond crusted walleye pike and Garrett ordered the pork tenderloin. Sasha took their menus and left to put their order in.

Garrett set down his beer bottle after taking a swallow. “I noticed your bakery is ready for Easter.”

“Easter is a very sweets-laden holiday with lots of people sharing big family meals. My Easter cakes and cookies sell incredibly well this time of year, as well as my homemade chocolates in Easter designs. Lettie and I will be busy baking this week straight through the Saturday before the holiday for all of the parties we have pre-orders for.”

“What are your plans for Easter Sunday?” he asked.

She smiled and gave a little laugh. “It’s come along so fast I haven’t had time to even think that far.”

He leaned forward. “You should come to our softball game.”

She looked at him with surprise. “Softball game?”

“The first McBride softball game of the season is always on Easter Sunday after church and a big lunch.” He settled back in his chair. “Cousins against cousins.”

“There are certainly enough McBrides around here to make a couple of softball teams.” She crossed her legs at her ankles beneath the table as she adjusted herself in her seat. “I take it that Gage, Tate, Creed, Ryan, and Blake will all be there with their wives as well as their mom and dad?”

“Yep.” Garrett nodded. “My brother and stepbrothers will also be there along with a few other cousins.”

“It must be great to have such a large family,” she said. “It sounds like a fun time.”

He held her gaze. “So come with me.”

She looked at him with surprise, but she hesitated only a moment before she said, “I’d love to go.”

He took another drink of his beer. “Just warning you, things can get a little rowdy. Some of us are a bit competitive.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What’s your definition of rowdy and competitive?”

“You’ll see.” He set down his beer bottle and she thought she detected a smile and maybe a little mischief in his gaze. She didn’t really know how to take him. He appeared rather matter of fact in his approach most of the time.

“So you all get along?” she asked.

He gave a casual shrug. “We have our differences, but we tolerate each other pretty well.”

She smiled at his use of the word tolerate. “Between the McBrides and the Johnsons, I think you all have a monopoly on the valley. The Johnsons own half of the businesses in Prescott. The McBrides own a lot of the ranchlands.”

“That’s true,” he said.

“And a good number of you are in law enforcement,” Ricki said. “Let’s see…you’re a PI, your brother, Reese, is a detective, and your stepbrother, Mike, is the sheriff.”

Garrett nodded. “And my other stepbrother, John, is a police officer.”

“That’s right.” Ricki tilted her head to the side. “What’s it like being a private investigator?”

“Mostly it’s boring as hell.” He shook his head. “A lot of planning, sitting, and waiting on a stakeout or spending too damn much time on the Internet and on the phone doing research.”

She hesitated. “I heard you helped save Jo Burke’s—I mean McBride’s—life before she married Tate.”

Garrett went quiet for a moment. “Thank God Tate hired me for that case. Things could have gone real bad.”

“From what I understand, they sure could have.” Ricki wondered if she should have brought the subject up. It wasn’t exactly great dinner conversation.

A server arrived with the crab cakes and Garrett served each of them one on their appetizer plates.

Garrett took a bite of crab cake, chewed and swallowed before he spoke. “What Easter traditions do you and your family have?”

Ricki pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear that had escaped the clip. “There’s an Easter egg hunt for all the nieces and nephews and then church and a family picnic. But my family is all in Phoenix. I haven’t been down there for that holiday in a couple of years. Since I’ve owned the bakery, I’ve been too exhausted after spending the week baking like mad.”

His eyes seemed to be taking in every move she made, and she felt like the private investigator in him was analyzing every response she made. It made her feel both insecure and flattered all in one. “How’d you end up opening a bakery in this town?”

She set her fork down on her plate and looked away for a moment before returning her gaze to his. “My divorce was pretty nasty. I wanted to get out of Phoenix, but I didn’t want to go too far so that I could see my family whenever I want. I always liked Prescott and had a friend from college who lived here before she recently moved. Buying the bakery seemed like a great way to integrate myself into the community and do something I love.”

He had a way of listening to her that made her feel like he cared about everything she had to say. “Did you own a bakery in Phoenix?”

She gave a wry smile. “I was a paralegal.”

He studied her with interest. “Being a baker is a long way from working as a paralegal.”

“I got tired of all the ugliness that goes along with being in court. There’s so little that can be construed as positive.” She picked up her fork again. “Baking is so different. I get to make people happy, to give them pleasure instead of watching them go through pain.”

“I understand the ugliness,” he said and held her gaze. In his eyes she could read the fact that he dealt with it, too, just in another way… Only she’d been able to escape it while he still lived with it on a daily basis.

Two servers arrived with their dinner, breaking the moment that had been suspended between them.

Ricki stayed on the edge of nervous excitement. She’d been crushing on him for ages and here they were.

She wondered what Garrett thought of her as he looked at her with his deep blue eyes. She felt a strong chemistry between them yet at the same time she felt as if he was holding himself back. He’d asked her to join his family on Easter Sunday. That had to be a good sign, right?

Garrett liked watching Ricki as they spoke. She had an almost innocent quality about her despite the ugliness she had no doubt seen in her former career, not to mention her divorce. When she’d mentioned her divorce he’d seen a darkness in her eyes that he wanted to erase, that he never wanted to see there again.

His attraction to Ricki was strong, something he was already having to fight. He’d always liked her, had always thought she was cute and sexy. But he’d decided long ago he wouldn’t be good for any woman. He had too much darkness in his own past and in his current life to drag someone as innocent as Ricki into it.

So why the hell had he asked her to the family softball game?

He clenched his jaw then forced himself to relax. Ricki was a soft, beautiful woman and she deserved a nice night out. She also deserved more than the likes of him.

Regardless of the fact he knew he should keep his distance from her, he liked watching her as she ate and the way she took small bites and clearly savored the meal rather than simply eating it. He thought about what it would be like to take the clip out of her honey-blonde hair and let it fall to her shoulders in waves. He imagined combing his fingers through it before pulling her head back as he gripped her hair and kissed her full lips.

Images kept rolling over him as he thought of just how much he’d like to let his mouth travel from hers, kissing the line of her neck down to the hollow of her throat. He swallowed hard as he imagined stripping her of the hot little dress she wore and kissing her everywhere. The sexy red heels could stay on.

The more they talked the more he found himself drawn to her. She touched something inside him that he hadn’t remembered ever experiencing before.

She was too damned good for him.

He nearly growled in frustration at the places his thoughts kept turning. One moment he wanted to protect her from himself and the next moment he wanted her soft body beneath him.

“I’ll bring cookies to the game next Sunday,” Ricki said, interrupting his thoughts. “How many people will be there?”

Garrett thought about it a moment. “With all of the new family members and any friends or dates, at least twenty-five,” he said. “That’s a hell of a lot of cookies.”

“It sure is.” She smiled. “I’ll plan for thirty just in case. Two for each. My cookies you can’t eat just one.”

“That’s the truth.” Garrett liked her easy confidence in her baking abilities but sensed she didn’t have the same confidence in other ways, and he wondered why.

“They have a great banana cream pie here if you’d like dessert,” he said after the dishes were cleared away. He leaned forward. “They can’t beat your red velvet cake or the Hummingbird’s peach pie, but don’t tell anyone here I said that.”

Ricki laughed. “I don’t think I could eat an entire dessert myself.”

“Why don’t we share one?” He set his menu down. “Banana cream pie?”

“That’s something I don’t make in my bakery, so I’m game for trying it,” she said before taking the last sip of her second glass of Chardonnay.

“Another glass of wine?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Two is my limit and I had a glass before you picked me up.” Her cheeks turned a little pink. “I was so nervous I thought I’d have something to calm my nerves.”

“Nothing to be nervous about,” he said.

“I don’t know about that.” In the dim lighting of the restaurant he saw that her cheeks turned a deeper pink. “To be honest I was even more nervous when I found you on my doorstep.”

He studied her. “Why’s that?”

She bit her lower lip in a way that he found adorable. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know.”

He could tell that wasn’t the entire truth and he wondered why she’d be nervous with him.

Sasha took their order for the pie and two cups of coffee. Ricki put cream and sugar in hers.

“I don’t know how you drink your coffee black.” She stirred her own coffee.

“You like yours sweet ’cause you’re sweet,” he said in a teasing tone and she smiled.

Once the pie was served, they talked as they shared it and he couldn’t help watching her. He liked the sparkle in her eyes and how easy it was to talk with her. He couldn’t help but dwell on her attributes and his thoughts strayed again to just how good she’d look with nothing on at all.

Hell, McBride. Get your mind back where it belongs. You’re not going there. Ever.

Ricki ate about a third of the pie then told him she couldn’t fit in another bite. “You finish it,” she said, and he easily obliged.

“So tell me,” she said as he ate more pie. “How did Aunt Madge rope you into a blind date?”

He swallowed his bite. “She’s been trying to get me to go on a blind date for some time. I owed her a favor and she called it in—you might say she had me over a barrel.”

Ricki looked intrigued. “What kind of debt would get you suckered into going out with an unknown?”

He looked almost boyish as he responded. “I promised to mow Madge’s lawn and couldn’t get to it when I promised and was a couple of days later than I’d planned. You know how ornery she is when she wants something. She’ll call you out on any misdeed.” He held his fork as he met her gaze. “How did you get dragged into tonight?”

“Kicking and screaming.” She smiled. “Seriously, who can say no to Aunt Madge when she sets her mind to something?”

“Not many people,” he admitted. “Is Madge your aunt by blood?”

“She sort of adopted me.” Ricki shook her head. “She’s been coming to the bakery since the day it opened and she puts in a lot of orders for gifts as well as arranges to have us cater charity events.”

“Madge collects people,” Garrett said.

Ricki laughed. “That’s a good way to put it.”

“You know about my huge family,” he said. “We haven’t really talked about yours.”

Ricki shrugged. “My mom and dad, and two sisters all live in Phoenix. My sisters are married and have two daughters each.” Ricki smiled. “I love my nieces.”