All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,62

to find Edwin standing near the table, reaching down to collect their plates, a satisfied smile on his face at their very clean plates. “Oh, yes.” She slipped her hand out from under Reuben’s to allow Edwin to grab their side plates. “It was perfect.”

“I thought huckleberries might be an interesting choice for your stirrers.”

Reuben chuckled. “She’s already ahead of you, man.”

“I was thinking broader than that even,” Viv confirmed. “I might suggest we trial a whole range of it at a national level.”

“Ah…” Edwin grinned and nodded, clearly impressed. “You dream big. I like it.”

In a detached kind of way, Viv could see how good-looking and charming the chef was in that very French way of his and yet…he didn’t tick any of her boxes. The only man who did that was the one sitting opposite.

“I’ll send the waiter over for your coffee order,” Edwin said before departing.

“He likes you,” Reuben said as he slid his bent elbow onto the table and propped his chin on his palm.

Viv blinked. It was a simple statement of fact—there was no jealousy in his tone. “Well…” She smiled. “What’s not to like?”

He chuckled. “That’s true.”

“Besides, it seems what he really likes are big dreamers.”

“Oh yeah. And what other big dreams do you have? Apart from causing a run on huckleberry stocks.”

She laughed this time. “I’ve always wanted to live in every state in the US.”

“Every state?”

“Sure.” She shrugged. “Why not?” The guests at her parents’ motel had come from all over and Viv had spent many hours daydreaming about the place names on the registration forms, making a vow that one day she’d see them all. And she’d already lived in a dozen. But, even as Viv said it, part of her thought hell, that’s a lot of moving around and it made her feel tired. But then, it had been a long day. “What about you?”

He shook his head. “Nothing that grand, I’m afraid. I’ve traveled around a bit. I’ve lived in a variety of places and done a variety of things within the sheriff’s department but I came back to Montana because after a decade of that I just wanted to come home. I missed the mountains and the wide-open spaces. Guess I’m just a country boy at heart.” He gave a self-deprecating smile. “I’m happy to live out my time here being part of this community. I don’t suppose it’s big to want something so small but towns need cops too and who knows…maybe I’ll make sheriff one day?”

Vivian had always been a go-getter. She’d never understand women who wanted to get married and have babies without having lived a little first or guys who wanted to settle down with their childhood sweethearts, clocking in at the same job every day of their lives. She’d never understood her parents’ commitment to their small motel in the middle of Nebraska where nothing ever happened.

Basically, she’d found lack of ambition in anyone unattractive.

But, listening to Reuben now and thinking about the experiences she’d had in Marietta, the people she’d met, she realized that ambition didn’t have to be big to be worthy. It could be small, too, and that was all right.

Maybe not all right for her, but all right for others—like her parents and her siblings. And Reuben. Perfectly all right for those who preferred their big dreams to play out on the small stage instead of the silver screen.

“You’d like to be sheriff?”

“Yeah. One day.”

Viv had little doubt it would happen if Reuben wanted it enough. She could just imagine him in ten or so years from now with his sheriff’s badge affixed to his pocket, his body still lean, streaks of gray in his hair. That air of being in charge obvious in every line of his body.

Yeah. He’d wear it well. Very freaking well. She was suddenly sorry she wasn’t sticking around to witness that.

“You’re picturing doing me with my sheriff’s badge on, aren’t you?” he asked, a smile in his voice and on his face.

Viv laughed. “I’m picturing you out of your sheriff’s uniform actually.”

He raised his hand to get the attention of the waiter. “Can we get the check, please?”

*

It was just past ten and a cold clear night when they stepped outside the warmth of the Graff. They’d had some bad weather last week, with a lot of snow being dumped and the usual traffic chaos that accompanied such an event, but the stars were out tonight, a garland of celestial twinkle lights as