Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,69
inches shorter than him and brushed her hands over her eyes and cheeks, wiping away any dampness still there. “I guess I’m ready to go inside now.”
“You’re wrong, you know.”
“Wrong? I’m not ready to go inside?”
“You don’t cry ugly,” he said just before claiming her lips in an anything but comforting kiss.
Giving into the heady sensation, she pressed in closer to him, heat sizzling through her. She tilted her head, wanting more of the flavor of him, parting her lips to let her tongue dance with his. A soft moan escaped her.
Then he eased off, slowly lifting his lips from hers. When she opened her eyes, she saw a wicked gleam in his eyes.
“What?” she said, feeling her cheeks heat at his expression of male satisfaction.
“Now when you go inside, you’ll just look like you’ve been kissed.” He gave her a wink and released his hold on her to reach in the back of his SUV for his laptop case.
She shook her head, a half-smile on her face and headed for the garage door. Pausing to let him catch up with her, she said, “I’m not sure that’s an improvement.”
Inside the aroma of something delicious hit them hard.
“What is that?” Brianna asked as they entered the kitchen to find Katie stirring something in a big pot.
“Kirk F’s nana sent over a pot of homemade chicken and dumplings,” she said. “I’m just heating it up before I wake Paula. She’s been asleep for the past hour.”
Brianna pulled up a bar stool and saw the stethoscope lying on the countertop. She nodded toward it. “How’s she doing?”
“Pretty good. Her lungs are mostly clear, some wheezing on exertion, like walking across the floor. No fever.” Katie put a lid on the pot and turned the burner down.
“If Nana sent this food, where’s Kirk F?” Aaron set his laptop on the table then coming over to grab a beer out of the fridge. He turned to Brianna. “What do you want?”
“I’ll just have a glass of water.”
“Kirk F and Matt went for pizzas,” Katie said, slipping into another barstool beside her.
“Why?” Brianna asked.
“Because the chicken and dumplings are for Paula. Nana said, and I quote Kirk F on this, What that girl needs is some good home cooking not a pizza or fast food. And nobody better be having any but her. So no one wants to tempt fate by eating anything meant to cure Paula.”
They all laughed. They’d come to the conclusion that Nana was a force to be reckoned with.
“But I have to tell you, I tasted it a few minutes ago, and I might just fake a cough to have some,” Katie said. “At the least, I’m going to try to get her recipe.”
“If she’s anything like my grandma,” Aaron said with a grin as he leaned against the back counter, “she’ll leave out one ingredient, just so it won’t taste quite like hers.”
“Why would she do that?” Brianna asked.
Katie laughed. “Because hers will always be the best. My mother used to say her grandmother did the same thing.”
Aaron nodded. “Part of the grandma code.”
Brianna looked at the others as they chatted and realized how relaxed she was and how the ache of losing a friend had eased just a little. Paula needed this, too. She needed to hear the news from her in private and have a moment to grieve, just like Aaron had given her. Then she needed more normal talk and laughter—if only for a little while.
“I’ll go wake Paula,” she said, slipping out of the barstool, her gaze meeting Aaron’s. “I need to talk with her in private before she eats.”
20
Aaron watched Brianna enter the bedroom and softly close the door behind her. From the determined expression on her face, he knew she planned to break the news about Mia now, rather than later. If she’d asked, he’d have done the job for her, but ever since she’d come out of the hospital that first time three years ago she’d worked on handling her problems by herself, standing on her own feet and facing trouble head on. The last thing she’d want was for him to bulldoze his way in like some caveman insisting the “little woman” stand aside, even if he was itching to do so.
“What was that about?” Katie asked, returning to the stove to stir the pot once more, then reaching into the cupboard for a large soup bowl.
“The other murder victim we found this morning was someone they both knew.”