All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,46

at the most embarrassing time and Reuben had just become resigned.

“And how was that?” Viv asked as she looked at him, still trying to suppress her smile.

“Best ten seconds of his life,” Stephen joked.

“Bite me. It was at least twenty.” Which caused both Stephen and Jess to crack up.

Viv laughed, too, as she glanced at Reuben for an answer to her question. “It was scratchy.”

“Scratchy?”

“Hay loft. Country kid hazard.”

“Ah…”

Yeah, she wouldn’t know about that. But hell if she didn’t want to find out. Hell if she didn’t want to grab him by the hand and find the nearest hay loft and have her wicked way with him in her Louboutins.

For damn sure she’d make it last more than twenty seconds.

His gray-green eyes went all dark and intense as if he was reading her mind, his nostrils flared and his hand on her ass tightened. Viv’s nipples went hard as nickels. But then Jess changed the subject, asking Reuben how he was settling into the new office and he pulled his eyes off her.

Viv’s nipples, however, were going to need a longer recovery period.

As she listened absently to the cousin chatter her gaze wandered around the room. Spying Gaylene heading into the kitchen, Viv excused herself. She wanted to get the milk put on for the hot chocolates anyway and, if Gaylene was ducking in to start the cleanup, then Viv could give a hand with that as well.

When she finally reached the kitchen after being stopped twice by assorted relatives of Reuben’s, keen to tell her some childhood story about him, Gaylene’s hands were immersed in sudsy water in the sink.

“Hey,” Viv said, hovering in the doorway.

Gaylene looked over her shoulder clearly startled and there was a split second of something that looked like…anxiety?…before the smile slipped in place. “Oh hey. I’ve just put a huge pot of milk on for the hot chocolate stirrers you brought. Thank you so much for them—it was very kind of you.”

Viv shrugged. “My momma taught me never to go to anyone’s house empty-handed.”

The other woman laughed and it was nice to hear. “They’re popular in Marietta. Everyone is raving about them even if they don’t want to admit it too loudly.”

Viv smiled to herself as Gaylene’s face contorted into a mask of oops-shouldn’t-have-said-that. Like she’d revealed a state secret. “It’s fine, I know they’re popular because we can barely keep up with the demand. Can I—” She tipped her chin at the pile of dishes at her elbow. “Give you a hand with that?”

“Absolutely not.” Gaylene shook her head. “You’re our guest. Go back to Reuben and relax.”

But Viv was determined not to be fobbed off as she crossed the space and grabbed a dish towel from the clean stack on the bench beside the sink. “It’s no problem.” She smiled. “Many hands make light work and all that.”

Gaylene graciously acquiesced and the two women stood side by side at the sink making small talk about the weather and the lunch and the cousins and Viv was beginning to wonder if she’d got the whole thing wrong when she mentioned something about going to Missouri in the new year and Gaylene went all quiet.

“So…you’ll be moving on?”

Ah…so, here was the crux of it. Viv nodded slowly. “Yes. End of April.”

“I see. And, what about Reuben?”

There was no malice or bitterness in her voice but there was a whole lot of what sounded like mama bear protectiveness. “Reuben knows. He’s fine with it.”

Gaylene gave a soft snort, leaving Viv in little doubt what she thought about her son’s attitude to Viv’s departure as she attacked the turkey-roasting pan with gusto, scratching at all the baked-on bits with the tines of a fork.

“He’s moving on also,” Viv pointed out. Technically it was Reuben who was leaving first—not her.

“Reuben’s going to Bozeman. It’s a thirty-minute drive.” Gaylene looked at her reproachfully for a beat or two before returning her attention to her chore. “You’re going three states away.”

Viv reached for the big serving platter draining in the rack and slowly dried it as she stared out the window at the backyard, choosing her words carefully. She could see a love seat on the porch and, through the bare, gnarled branches of a tree, she could see the white peak of Copper Mountain in the distance.

She opened her mouth to tell his mother that everything would be okay, that Reuben would be fine but Gaylene got in first blurting out, “I don’t want him to get hurt.