A Maverick Reborn by Melissa Senate

Author:Melissa Senate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-04-24T20:18:11+00:00

* * *

Bobby stood at the stove in Tori’s tiny kitchen, stirring milk into the pot of macaroni and cheese, his attention more on Tori, who seemed lost in thought. She sat at the breakfast bar, facing him yet staring down at the piece of sourdough bread she was dragging back and forth in a small bowl of infused olive oil.

“I think that piece of bread soaked up all the oil,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “You okay?” Something was definitely on her mind. Him? Their...whatever this was?

“Just thinking about my times at practice today,” she said, hopping up and grabbing the bottle of olive oil he’d brought over. She poured more in the bowl, dipped a new piece of bread into it and quickly gobbled it up. “I’m off by a few seconds.”

“What do you make of that?”

“My sisters think I’m distracted by the new man in my life,” she said, pouring two glasses of iced tea from the pitcher she’d set on the bar.

“Well, if it’s any help to know, twice today I lost count of the herd I was tracking. And I was in the hundreds when I had to start over.”

She smiled at that. “Stop making me think about you when you’re not around.”

“I just told you I’m bad at that when it comes to you, so...” He grinned and spooned the creamy, fragrant orange pasta into two bowls and brought them over to the bar. But his smile faded. “I definitely don’t want you to be distracted over us when you’re in the ring, Tori. That could be dangerous.”

“I know. I promised my sisters I’d be fully focused tomorrow morning and I intend to be.” She sniffed the air. “Okay, enough about me. Let’s talk about how good dinner smells and looks.”

“Ladies first,” he said, gesturing at her bowl as he sat beside her. “Tell me how it is.”

She dug in. “Yum. Really good.” When he took a bite, she added, “Is it the same as you remember as a kid?”

What was interesting was that while he was making it, pouring the macaroni into the pot, adding the milk and butter, stirring in the orange cheese powder goodness, he hadn’t really been thinking about his childhood. Maybe because Tori had been close by. He’d been thinking about her. “Every bit as delicious,” he said.

She grinned. “My dad loves mac and cheese and made a huge potful with like five different cheeses every Sunday when my sisters and I were growing up. But when I lived with my aunt Gertie when I was very little, I remember she made this kind. Honestly, that blue and yellow box is one of my earliest memories.”

He tilted his head. “Aunt Gertie?”

“My biological parents died when I was a baby,” she said. “A car accident. My aunt Gertie—my birth dad’s older sister—was babysitting me at the time and she was my only family. But she died of cancer when I was four. I don’t remember her well, but I have a few memories—her sweet blue eyes, the mac and cheese box, the yellow walls of the kitchen.

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