Good Catch by Jennifer Bardsley

Author:Jennifer Bardsley [Bardsley, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 2021-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Ben kicked himself for not having the guts to kiss Marlo last night. When she’d stood there at the back door of the bakery, her hat pulled jauntily over her head and her blue eyes gazing up at him, Ben had stared back with equal wonder, like he was seeing her for the first time. Instead of the privileged, bossy princess he’d known, he saw a woman who kept a grocery list in her purse, who helped him clean up from dinner, who offered her food to Grace when his sister was in pain, and who had soft, kissable lips the color of cherries. But kissing her would have been a mistake. Their history proved that. Marlo was a Leaping Lemur, and he was a Sleepy Sloth. She was poised to take over her parents’ multimillion-dollar business—even if it was in financial turmoil—and he was contemplating biking sixteen miles in the rain to work this morning to save a few bucks on gas.

“How many pieces of bacon do you want?” Ben called to Katelyn from the kitchen. It was Saturday morning, and he was using all four burners on the stove. The kettle boiled, the nonstick skillet held pancakes, spinach was being sautéed in the stainless steel skillet, and bacon sizzled in the cast-iron pan.

“Two, thanks,” Katelyn answered from the living room. She slurred slightly since she was hopped up on pain medicine. Her wrist fracture had been severe enough that she was having surgery Tuesday morning. Until then it was in a temporary brace and had to be elevated on a pillow.

“Coming right up.” Ben used tongs to lift the bacon slices from the pan and drained the fat on a plate lined with paper towels. He loaded two pancakes onto a plate and sliced them into bite-size pieces before drowning them in homemade big-leaf maple syrup that Simon had tapped and processed from a tree in the backyard last year. Ben brewed a pot of MarketSpice tea while he transferred two strips of bacon to the pancake plate, and then he poured the tea into a commuter cup with a tight-fitting lid so that Katelyn wouldn’t spill it. He brought the plate, silverware, and mug into the living room and set it on the end table next to the ratty brown recliner where Katelyn sat.

“That smells good.” Katelyn spoke in a weak voice. “Thanks.” Her hair hung loose in greasy waves, and she wore a pullover sweatshirt and sweatpants that were easy for her to put on one-handed.

“Okay, here’s the backup remote.” Ben set the controller next to the plate. “And you’ve already got a box of tissues and a bottle of water.”

“Can you open it for me? I can’t untwist the cap.”

“Right.” Ben unscrewed the top of the insulated bottle.

Thunder clapped outside, and the lights flickered. Water pelted against the front windows. The thought of biking to work in that mess made Ben shiver, but he had no other options since his gas budget was empty. “Let me grab you the afghan.

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