fine.”
“I prefer medium.” I pour on some of the vinaigrette and toss the salad. “Smells great. What are we having?”
“Linguine frutti di mare,” he says. “I thought you might be missing seafood.”
And oh my God, I love him even more.
“I hope you don’t mind seafood with a red sauce,” he says.
“Not at all.”
“Sometimes I make it with a garlic and white wine sauce, but I prefer my basil marinara.”
I inhale. “It smells amazing.”
“The secret is the tiniest pinch of caraway along with basil, thyme, and garlic.”
“No oregano?”
“Not in this version. Oregano is too harsh. It overwhelms the seafood.” He pauses a moment. “Did I just divulge my secret ingredient to you?”
I chuckle. “The caraway?”
“Shit.” He shakes his head. “I’m not sure I’ve even let Aunt Marj in on that secret.”
“How did you discover it?”
“What the hell?” he says. “In for a penny, in for a pound. Aunt Marj uses a pinch of anise in one of her red sauces, which I like, but I always felt it was just a bit too much. I did some research and tried caraway, and it gives it the same tang, only without the touch of licorice.”
“Interesting.”
“Do you cook?”
“A little. I’m pretty good with most seafood. I’ve perfected cooking cod without drying it out.”
“That’s a tough one. As you can imagine, I don’t cook a lot of fish. So maybe you’ll prepare your cod for me sometime.”
Happiness explodes inside me. He means it. He really means it. We’re going to try this for the rest of my internship.
And maybe…just maybe…he’ll want to keep going.
But I can’t push. Jade’s warning is forever engraved in my mind. If I push him too hard, he may shrink back from me forever.
“I’d love to cook for you sometime,” I say. “But I don’t have a kitchen at my disposal.”
“You’ll cook here, of course.” He stirs the sauce.
I smile. “All right. That will be fun. Though I’m wondering if I can get fresh cod here in Snow Creek.”
“Hmm,” he says. “Probably not. So we’ll go to Aspen. Fresh fish is flown in daily.”
“Aspen?”
“Yeah, you’ve heard of it, right?”
“Of course. But it’s so—” I stop myself. Affluent was the word that came to mind. Aspen, where all the Hollywood celebs go when they want to get out of LA. So of course they go to mini LA in the Rockies.
“So what?”
“Nothing. I was thinking it’s expensive.”
“Ah… My privilege again. The Steel family has several properties in Aspen, each with a full kitchen. I thought you could cook for me there. Unless it’s too privileged for you.”
“No,” I say.
“You don’t want to go to Aspen?”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean, no, it’s not too privileged for me.” I shake my head. “This isn’t going the way I want it to at all.”
“Face it, Ashley. We come from two different worlds. I don’t think that’s a problem, but you seem to.”
I shake my head again. “I don’t. I don’t at all. But Dale, this is so different from what I’m used to. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I love that you want to share your place in Aspen with me. I love that you want me to cook for you. I just… This is all so new to me, and I guess I’m having a hard time processing it.”
To my utter surprise, he turns away from his cooktop and touches my arm. Sparks shoot through me.
“It’s okay,” he says. “I understand.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Dale
Even I’m surprised at my reaction.
But I do understand.
I was only ten when I came to the ranch, and it was difficult to comprehend its magnitude at first. Difficult to comprehend just how rich my new family was.
“Thank you,” she says softly.
“I said I’d try this, Ashley. I’m bound to stumble a few times. More than a few times, to be honest. I’ve never…”
“Never what?”
“Done this before.”
She wrinkles her forehead. “But you said you were in love once.”
I frown and look back at my sauce. Yes, I said that. I was talking about her.
She presses, “If you were in love, didn’t you have a relationship? Go on dates? All that stuff?”
I clear my throat. “Maybe my love was unrequited.”
She huffs. “I can’t believe that.”
I turn the heat down to low on the sauce and go to the refrigerator. “You were right. Fresh seafood isn’t readily available in this small town, but I managed to find some frozen sea scallops and large prawns. That will be our frutti di mare.”
“Sounds delicious. Most frutti di mare includes squid, which I personally