All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,40

was hard to classify what they were doing without being crass about it.

Lovers? Friends with benefits? Fuck buddies?

He figured they’d part as friends when all this was over but what exactly were they doing now? It felt way more than friends who had sex. It was way more than what he and Clem had been doing for three years and he knew that after only one month.

It was intense. It felt…deeper. And man, was he pleased she was wearing a blindfold as that realization hit.

“Friends?” Her eyebrows rose above the blindfold, which was kinda funny but the conversation had turned too serious to laugh. “Who sleep together.”

“Well…the whole town knows that,” he teased trying to lighten the mood because he wasn’t going to spoil whatever it was they had going on right now by worrying about how to define their relationship and any feelings he might be having. Why borrow trouble? There was a frozen lake to skate on and a beautiful woman to share it with and on this morning in particular he was very thankful for his good fortune.

“It’s okay really, Vivian. They know it’s temporary. That I’m going back to Bozeman at the end of January.”

But the truth was, Bozeman wasn’t that far away…he and Clem had, after all, had a three-year long-term relationship with him living in Bozeman and her in Marietta. So maybe they didn’t have to call it off after he left? Maybe they could keep things going for the duration of her stay…

“Good. As long as everyone’s on the same page.” She nodded emphatically. “So, tell me about them. Your parents. I want them to like me so I need to know everything.”

The fact that Vivian wanted his parents to like her was heartening—not that Reuben thought, for a moment, they wouldn’t. People liked Vivian. She was friendly and chatty and that knack of complimenting people over the tiniest little detail, which made them feel a little bit special. He only had to look at how town opinion had turned around. Sure, Clem might have shamed them into taking the first step, but Vivian’s charm and grace, and her refusal to hold a grudge against those who had been less than kind, had won her many fans in Marietta.

“Okay, well…Mom works at St. James Church, in the office. And my dad is a sonographer at the hospital. They were both born and bred in Marietta and were high school sweethearts.”

“And you said you’re an only child?”

“Yes. They had trouble conceiving. In fact, they’d given up after several rounds of IVF and then Mom fell pregnant with me when she was thirty-four.”

“They must have been over the moon.”

“They were. I was their—” He grinned as he injected some breathy awe into his voice and clutched at his chest. “Their miracle child.”

He couldn’t see her roll her eyes but he could hear it in her voice as she said, “And spoiled you rotten I bet.”

Reuben laughed. “They didn’t, no. But I had a heap of aunts and uncles and grannies and adopted grannies and older cousins who did and lucky you, they’re all going to be there today.”

She turned toward him. “What? All of them?”

“Pretty much.”

“Because of me?”

“No.” Reuben chuckled. “Because it’s Thanksgiving. You’re just the cherry on top.”

She chewed at her bottom lip. “Right, well, there’s only one thing for it, then. I’m going to have to bribe them with chocolate.”

Reuben burst out laughing. “You won’t need to—trust me, they’ll like you just as much as I do.” Hell, with her gift for engaging with people, they’d love her.

“Sure.” She tapped her lips with her index finger. “But chocolate never hurts.”

Well…he couldn’t argue with that. “You may have a point,” he said as he spotted the sign to his usual parking place up ahead and eased back on the accelerator.

Immediately the engine throttled down, Viv turned toward the window despite not being able to see out of it. “Are we there?”

“Just about. Pulling in to park now.”

She raised her hand to her blindfold. “Can I take this thing off yet?”

“Soon.”

Reuben wanted the silence to be sinking in around them when she saw the vista before them. A minute later, he pulled into what was essentially an elevated scenic lookout with a prime view of the lake and Copper Mountain looming behind so close it seemed touchable.

Ruben switched off the engine. “Now you can take it off.”

The mask was removed in one second flat and her soft gasp did funny things to Ruben’s equilibrium. The