Read Tart Online

Authors: Lauren Dane

Tags: #Romance, #General Fiction Romance, #Erotica, #Fiction

Tart (7 page)

BOOK: Tart
4.68Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“So she travels around the world now?”

Jules nodded. “Pretty much, yes. I guess she’s finding herself.” Her shrug was supposed to be casual, but Gideon noted the strain around her eyes. “She comes back here once a year or so. Spends a few weeks here and some time with my brother and his family. Pretty much the rest of the year she travels. My aunt sold her house and retired from her job and joined her. They’ve spent time in South America and Europe and now it’s Bali. I admire her—my mom, I mean. Her entire life was turned upside down. She married my dad on her eighteenth birthday. They ran the diner for my entire life and then you know, it all fell apart and she remade herself.”

“And your dad?”

She sighed and he watched her body language tighten up. “He lives in San Diego with his wife and their two kids. One is a preschooler and the other is in kindergarten.”

Once again he was reminded of why he was so relieved he’d never had kids with Alana. At least he hadn’t had to deal with that kind of pain. “Ah. So you don’t have any sort of relationship with him?”

She dipped her bread in the olive oil and chewed slowly. He could tell she was thinking of how to put the words. He liked that.

“He’s my father. I love him if for no other reason than that. But he’s not the same man who raised me. Or hell, maybe he is and I’m just old enough to see it. It’s easier not to be around him. He’s got a new life anyway. A new family. So you know, I get presents that only underline just how little he knows me, but he remembers so that’s a plus. He doesn’t come up here. I run a business and can’t just jet down there, even if I wanted to or felt welcome. We have the equivalent of a Facebook friendship. Like we went to high school together or something.” She shrugged again and looked lost as she sipped her wine.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m a big girl. I don’t want him to be unhappy. He seems to be in love with his wife. My brothers, and that’s odd to say, but they’re my brothers, just the same, are sweet. She’s pretty—his wife—so they made pretty kids. I wanted to hate her. I’m not crazy about her still, but she’s all right. She loves him. I hope he doesn’t do to her what he did to my mother. I hope he’s learned his lesson. I’m not holding my breath over it, but it’s really not my problem anyway. And wow, I’m sorry I’ve totally turned this conversation into a downer.”

He reached across the table and took her hand. “No, you didn’t. I asked, you answered. So how did you end up with Tart and why did you decide to change the diner into a bakery?”

“On Ethan’s birthday—you remember him right? My brother?” He nodded and she continued. “Anyway, at his birthday dinner, right after the cake had been sliced, my dad got up and told us all he’d filed for divorce that day. He was getting married to his girlfriend, who by the way is my age. Oh and she was knocked up.”

He sat back, wide-eyed.

“I know, right? It’s like a plotline from a television drama. Anyway, my mom just sort of lost it. She made us go and when I turned up again the next day she’d broken every last piece of their china. That china of hers was so special. I remember growing up how she’d buy little pieces of it here and there when they could afford it. She asked me to take out the trash and when I got back inside she handed me the paperwork signing the building over to me. They gave my brother the house. She told me that at least my father had been good for something and she wanted us to have the business and the house.

“We tried to talk her out of it, but she was adamant. So. I wanted to make the space my own. I didn’t want to run a diner. So I talked to Gillian, that’s my best friend, and she suggested a bakery because she knew how much I loved to bake. It really just sort of went from there.”

“Looks like you’ve been really successful there. Granddad told me Tart was even in the Northwest guidebooks as a place to go when in town.”

She grinned. “I know! Crazy, isn’t it? It’s good for business, but it’s also great for my ego.” She looked him over. “So now it’s your turn.”

He figured he was up next and in the face of her honesty could he really not give her the same?

“I was in college but restless. It wasn’t the right place for me. I met this girl.”

She laughed then. “Oh, how many times has that sentence been part of a story?”

He grinned. “Yeah. Well, that girl lived in Wyoming and when she took me home to meet her family I fell in love with the area. I got some work on a ranch, learning the ropes so to speak, and when I’d socked enough money away, I bought a cattle ranch with my brother-in-law. We ran it together for over a decade. It was good. I loved the work, loved being outside so much. Loved the animals and the land.” He’d loved the feeling of looking out their bedroom window and knowing he owned all he could see around them. It had meant something to build it with her. Then.

The server came and took the appetizers away and brought their entrees. He liked the way Jules dug into her steak and sighed happily at the first bite. Liked that she wasn’t afraid to eat or enjoy the process. Made him wonder again what she’d be like in bed.

“But then we got divorced. I tried to stay on but it became pretty clear after a while that it wasn’t possible. So I sold my half to my ex-brother-in-law. And like your mom, I headed out to do some traveling. I didn’t go to Bali though.”

“Where did you go?”

“Let’s see . . . I started out by going to New York to visit some friends. Hung out for a few months.” He’d had a lot of firsts in New York, including his first experience with a man. “Then I went to Spain a while. England. Italy. I was in Japan for a time. I’d been consulting with an old friend who ranches beef and he invited me to stay with him. Learned a hell of a lot. The quakes happened when I was there. I gotta tell you, I’ve never been quite so freaked out to be on an island. When I left I visited my parents in Oakland for a while. My sister lives in Eugene so I visited her and all my nephews. She’s got five kids, all boys. I don’t know how she makes it through each day.” But he’d loved every minute of the total and utter chaos of his sister’s home. Loved his rough-and-tumble nephews.

“Wow, I’m envious of all that great stuff.”

He clinked his wineglass to hers. “It was great stuff, yes. I met so many wonderful people. Experienced things I’d never imagined before. Hell, before my divorce I’d never been out of the country. I like travel. But I like roots too. So my grandmother passed and my parents and my aunt were trying to get my granddad to move in with one of them and give up the farm. But that’s his home, you know? I came out for the funeral and the wake and he and I had a long talk about his future and the future of the farm. He asked me if I’d be willing to come out and stay on, help him run the place, take over when the time came. I’ve got a lot of ideas, things I’d like to try. The land means a lot to me. Working the farm with my granddad means a lot to me. And then you.” He nodded. “Yes, this is all good too.” He was a blunt man. He didn’t like games or pretending he wasn’t interested when he was. He wanted her to know up front what his expectations were.

She blushed and against the candlelight she looked even more beautiful.

•   •   •

Though she was dying to know more about the divorce and his ex, she restrained herself from asking. Though they’d known each other as kids, they had a lot of getting to know each other to do. He’d tell her at some point, she figured, and as long as he wasn’t still into his ex, it would be fine.

“Why aren’t you married, Juliet?”

She loved it that he used her full name. It sounded so sexy from his lips.

She shrugged. “No one’s asked. I’ve been busy running a business. I haven’t had a lot of time to do much more than get up early, bake all day and go to sleep. I’m in no hurry.”

“Can’t imagine why any man would let himself be sidetracked by your schedule if he really wanted you. And I can’t imagine any man not wanting you.”

She gulped and resisted the urge to fan herself.

There was an intensity about Gideon. Even with the aw-shucks manners and his laid-back demeanor, he looked at her like he meant it. He spoke to her like he listened to her, with all his attention. It rendered her slightly breathless and giddy. It felt pretty awesome.

“Does this mean
you’re
not going to get sidetracked by my schedule?” Flirting with him also came very easily. Oh, he was a man, a good-looking one so he would be well versed in bullshit as they tended to be. But he wasn’t phoning it in with her. He meant what he said, which made it all even more delicious.

“Oh no. I don’t let myself get sidetracked by much. Most especially when I want something. I don’t get spooked by getting up at four thirty. Or by successful, intelligent women who are independent. Especially when they’re as beautiful as the one I’m looking at right now.”

“You’re really good at this stuff.”

He grinned and it melted her insides. Cripes.

“I’m good at a lot of things. I can fix broken toilets. I know how to run a cattle ranch. I can ride horses and repair screen doors and bad carburetors. I’m handy. You should remember that.”

“I’m not sure I could ever forget it.” She laughed and he did too. And then he took her hand, turned it over and pressed a kiss to her inner wrist and then her palm and she forgot her next words.

“I guess I’ll have to keep on being good at the things you like most, then.”

He had such an easy way about him. Just being around him was relaxing even as she found him exciting and sexy. “First you’ll need to figure out what it is I like most.”

He laughed and she loved the way it made him look. “I suppose knowing you as a kid isn’t the same. You’ve grown up pretty damned well.”

•   •   •

After dinner he took her back to her house where she promised tart and coffee. Decaf of course.

“I like this house.” He sat at her table, his long legs stretched out in front of him. “I knew it was yours before I saw the address.”

She slid a plate with some tart his way and then poured him a cup of coffee. “Cream and sugar if you like.” She put those nearby as well before she sat. “I like it here too. I’ve lived here five years. I’ve considered buying the place for a while, but renting suits me for now. Gillian keeps threatening to build me a little house at their new place.”

“Sounds like you’ve got some good friends.”

“I do. You know a lot of them. The Whaleys. Mary, Cal and Ryan are all close. I don’t think you know Gillian, but she’s my bestie.”

Her smile was quick and it sent his heart racing it was so pretty. He really wanted to just lean in and lick up that neck of hers, taste the salt of her skin, feel the weight of her against him.

“Do you like really good food?”

He had to chase away a particularly dirty fantasy of taking her from behind to focus on what she said.

“Who doesn’t?”

“This is true.” She forked up a bite of the tart and he followed, pausing to enjoy.

“This is so good. I don’t know how you get anything done. If I had this around my house all the time I’d be as big as one.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t always have tart here. If I have leftovers at the end of the day, I try to fob them off on friends. If I brought food home all the time I’d be in trouble. But I was hoping you’d want to come over so I made sure to bring some home.”

“I like that.” He liked that she’d thought about what might please him. “So you were about to invite me to dinner?”

She laughed. “Not me. I mean, I’ll be there but I won’t be the cook. Mary runs a supper club of sorts called Delicious. There’s no menu. She makes all the choices and presents you with whatever she’s decided to create, and I’ve never had better. This Sunday is the first time we’re using Tart. She used to have it at her place but was outgrowing it. That and the kitchen at Tart is bigger than hers at home. Anyway, I’ve got room for one more at the table if you’re up for it.”

“Yes, definitely.”

They ate and drank coffee and they talked a lot about music. It pleased him that she loved music as much as he did. Her tastes were eclectic and ran the genre gamut. He expected he’d find some new favorites now that they had connected again.

He wanted to take her to bed. Wanted to kiss her from head to toe. If she’d been a woman he’d just met and been attracted to, he’d have made his move right then. She was interested, that was clear. But she wasn’t a woman he’d just met and wanted to nail.

This woman was different.

But he wanted to know her more before he did, so he made himself wait.

But not for a kiss.

At her door he paused. “I’m going to go, but I don’t want you to think it’s because I don’t want to take you to bed right this very moment. Because I most assuredly do.”

“So why aren’t we getting naked?”

“Are you annoyed?” He paused there in her doorway, caught between amusement and agitation. “Back when I was a kid I remember thinking all your bold ways were sort of annoying.”

She grinned, her hands on her hips. “And now? Because, well, of course I can’t tell you how to express yourself to a lady and all, but if you just said that to pass along info and not as a segue into why you think it’s awesome and how much you enjoy a gal with moxie like me, I’ll be quite annoyed with you.”

He laughed. Damn, he loved her sense of humor. “Yes, it was a segue into why I think it really turns me on now. You know, a gal with moxie and all. You’re bold and brassy and you organize your music in a slightly scary but overall impressively catalogued fashion. It’s nearly religious. And your spices are color coordinated. I bet you don’t have a single junk drawer.”

He took a step and pressed her against the doorway. She’d taken her heels off when she came into the house so while she was a long, tall woman, he was a lot taller. She was nearly petite as he got in close, holding her in place.

“There’s something sort of dirty about a woman who organizes her kitchen in a ruthless fashion and can also create what is, most assuredly, art on a plate. You’re salty and sweet. All that big, blue-eyed, blond-haired stuff, goddamn, Juliet, you get me all fussed up.”

She paused and her mischievous grin slid away. But he wasn’t disappointed because the smile she replaced it with was slow and sexy. Mischievous couldn’t begin to describe what that smile promised.

BOOK: Tart
4.68Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Vampire U by Hannah Crow
Fourth Horseman by Kate Thompson
5 Onslaught by Jeremy Robinson
Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant
ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORK by Piyush Jha
The Exploits of Engelbrecht by Richardson, Maurice
Wicked Proposition by Cairns, Karolyn