You Had Me at Chocolate by Amy Andrews

Author:Amy Andrews
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781956387490
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2022-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Jude slowed the car as he approached a farm gate with a display of pumpkins and pots of vibrant mums artfully arranged on either side.

“I’ve been thinking,” Clementine said as he indicated to turn into Donnelly’s farm.

Jude glanced across at her as he waited for the line of oncoming traffic to pass. Her brow was scrunched in concentration below the band of the kitten-eared cap. He laughed, he couldn’t help himself.

“What?” she demanded.

He shook his head, his attention now on the road. “You look adorable in that hat.”

“I know,” she said batting her eyelashes.

He laughed again and wished he wanted to ruffle her hair or tweak her nose like a little sister instead of lean over and kiss the hell out of her mouth. As much as he tried to friend zone her, he couldn’t deny his physical attraction to Clementine.

“I could do some research for you, if you like?”

“What kind of research?” he asked as he turned into the property and drove slowly through the gate.

“You were saying you wanted to cook traditional food and it got me thinking. I could do a search on recipes that they used a long time ago. At inns or saloons, particularly in this area. Ones that might have fallen out of popularity. We also have such a rich indigenous history, I could search for Native American recipes. I know you won’t be thinking about menu items for ages but it might be kinda cool to feature a couple of dishes with traditional roots both European and indigenous? It could be a real selling point?”

A warm glow flared to life in the center of Jude’s chest as he followed the slow-moving car in front down the tree-lined drive, absently noting the bare branches poking toward the leaden sky. He glanced across at her. “Really?”

“Sure.” She smiled. “I’m a librarian—that’s what we do. It’s not all standing behind a desk checking out books and scolding people to be quiet.”

He chuckled trying not to think about Clementine in a twinset, her hair in a bun, peering over the glasses perched on the end of her nose as she scolded him.

Clearing his throat—and his filthy mind—he said, “That’s such a great offer, thank you. But… I don’t want to take time away from your mom.”

“I’ll have more time now that she’s in Marietta and it’ll give me something to do. Plus, I love research.”

“I remember. You used to send me those factoids about the multitude of crane species in your letters.”

She grinned. “That was fun.”

The glow in Jude’s chest intensified and he found it difficult to breathe for a moment. Being attracted to Clementine was one thing but this feeling was deeper than that. Deeper than friendship, too, and that was veering into dangerous territory. “Okay, how about this?” he suggested, desperate to get on an even footing. “I could pay you. As a research assistant.”

Jude congratulated himself on the idea. Money was a sure-fire way to kill feelings and, as she’d briefly mentioned last week that was what her job in New York involved, it was perfect.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.