Contractor's Cookies (Culpepper Cowboys Book 9) Read online

  Rikki blinked a few times. “Why did you want to touch his shoulder?”

  “Did you see his shoulders?” Felicity countered.

  Patience and Grace laughed hysterically.

  “Hush, you two. And don’t watch next time. I want to be able to touch him if the mood strikes me.”

  Patience shook her head at Felicity. “And what are the chances the mood will strike you?”

  “Oh, about 100%.” She walked over to her cookbook and flipped through for another cookie. “Oh, my caramel brownie cookies! He’ll like those.”

  Grace frowned at Felicity. “You know you need to actually do your job and make cookies for the bakery too, right?”

  “Oh, I am! I don’t have any special orders today, and I’m making batches of six dozen. He only gets three from each!”

  Patience sighed. “Our customers are going to always expect a huge assortment of cookies, and we’ll have to explain it was Felicity’s way of showing a man she was interested.”

  Grace shook her head. “I’m explaining nothing. Felicity can explain.”

  Felicity looked at Rikki. “Low man on the totem pole.”

  Rikki just kept washing the display case. “I’m not even going to listen to you anymore.”

  “You have to! I’m your boss!”

  “My crazy boss.” Rikki mumbled something else under her breath as she kept cleaning.

  Felicity decided not to ask. She didn’t want to have to get onto the sweet girl for saying what everyone else was thinking.

  An hour later, she was back outside with a couple bottles of water and the caramel brownie cookies. “You know, if we had chairs inside, you could sit and eat your snacks.”

  He turned to her, grinning. He was starting to look forward to his cookie breaks. “True. But then I would not only be working for you, I’d have to put on a shirt.” He reached out and took one of the cookies, sighing happily as he bit into it. “What do you call these?”

  “Caramel brownie cookies.”

  “You should change their name to caramel heaven.”

  “My father would say that’s sacrilegious.”

  “And you care?”

  “Oh, probably not. Now it would be sacrilegious for you to put your shirt back on.” Her eyes stared at his shoulders and bare chest as if she wanted to eat him up.

  “Oh?”

  She nodded. “You were created in God’s image. And what an image He must have had.” She licked her lip. “Can I touch your shoulder?”

  “Why are you obsessed with my shoulders?”

  “Have you looked in a mirror lately?” Felicity sighed. “I’ve got to see what it feels like.”

  “You’re losing your mind.” He glanced over at the bakery, and found there was no one with their nose stuck to the glass. She must have told them to stop that when she went in. “Go for it.”

  “Really?” she practically squealed and was trying not to bounce up and down.

  He nodded, bracing himself for her touch. “Yeah, you’re just going to keep bugging me about it ‘til I agree.”

  She shrugged. “Probably. That’s what I do.” She reached out one hand and touched the smooth skin of his shoulder, surprised at the strength under it. “Wow. It’s really hard, but smooth at the same time.”

  “And zingy?” He knew he was opening a can of worms by asking, but he was certainly feeling the zing. It would be nice if she was as well.

  She nodded, looking up into his eyes. “Oh-so-zingy. You should bottle that up and sell it. You’d make a fortune.”

  “Bottle what up?”

  “The zingy quotient.”

  He grinned. “Do you want to have dinner tonight?”

  “I desperately want to have dinner tonight, but I’m going to help Rikki move some of her things to the big house. She’s alone at the ranch Valerie and Jesse bought, and she’s not ready to be alone after what happened in March.”

  “You know, I’ve heard a lot of people vaguely mention what happened to Rikki in March. What happened to her?”

  “I feel like I’m gossiping talking about it, but it was on the news.” Felicity sighed, knowing he should understand because he and Rikki would be around each other. “Valerie’s ex-boyfriend kidnapped her. Held her hostage in exchange for Valerie, who took her place and shot the creep.”

  “I had no idea!” He felt bad for even asking.

  Felicity nodded. “So she’s kind of afraid of men, and she’s not quick to open up with women. We just got her to the point where she doesn’t jump at every loud noise in the bakery.”

  “That’s really sad. It makes you want to protect her from all harm.”

  “I know. I hate it. She’s really a sweet girl. I’m glad she has Valerie and Jesse.”

  “She’s Valerie’s kid sister, right? And I know Valerie is some kind of big star, but I don’t know what she’s been in.”

  Her eyes widened, and she stared at him in shock. “You’ve never seen Lazy Love?”

  “No. What’s Lazy Love?”

  “It’s only the best show on TV right now! All of us watch it. It’s about a debutante who inherits a ranch. She falls almost immediately for the veterinarian, and they finally just let them get married on the show. Jesse plays the vet.”

  “Valerie plays the debutante?”

  “Yes. They are amazing together. The chemistry on-screen makes me tingle almost as much as touching you.”

  “Wow.” He shook his head. “I need to get back to work. If you want help moving Rikki tonight, just let me know.”

  “I’ll ask her. I think she’ll probably say no, but I'll ask.”

  “I’m a non-scary man.”

  Felicity shrugged. “I don’t know about that. You make my knees awfully weak.”

  Felicity was back outside again an hour later. It was getting to the point where Allen could set his watch by her. He considered telling her that he only took breaks every two hours, but why ruin the fun?

  He put down his hammer when he saw her approaching. Taking one of the bottles of water from her, he drank down half a bottle in one gulp. “What did you bring me this time?”

  “Cinnamon roll cookies. I didn’t make this recipe up, but I did tweak the one I got from the internet a little. It needed a bit more cinnamon and a bit less salt.”

  He reached for a cookie and bit into it, smiling. “You are an absolute genius, Cookies. Where did you learn to bake this way? And don’t tell me that story about building a solar oven on your windowsill again, because I’m not buying it.”

  “My father felt very strongly that women should only learn the domestic arts, so my mom taught us to bake. Patience gravitated toward pies, but I liked cookies better. Our father approved, because that meant we were always ready to donate something tasty to the church bake sale.”

  “Did your mother bake well?”

  Felicity shrugged. “You know she never really did. She was more of a cook than a baker. She’d let us make dessert every single night, knowing it would bring us praise from our father, and that’s the only way we were going to get him to say anything kind.”

  Allen frowned. “He doesn’t sound like a man I’d want to meet.”

  “He is awful, but Mama loves him a great deal, so she stays with him. She just made sure she homeschooled so she could give us some freedom.”

  “I’m still not following that. How does homeschooling give freedom?”

  “It gave us the days while he was at work to read what we wanted to read. To learn subjects he’d never have approved of. We had to learn our curriculum, but then Mama would let us read books that we wanted to read. Do you have any idea how many romance novels I’ve read? Mama made sure they were sweet until I was about sixteen, but then she figured I was old enough to read about people having sex, and it wouldn’t kill me. She let us watch TV shows Dad never would have approved of.”

  “Like Lazy Love?”

  “Exactly like Lazy Love! There were scenes in that show that Dad would have thrown a fit
over. There was never sex before marriage in the show, but there was some kissing. And there were some scenes that led up to their engagement that had my knickers in a wad.”

  “Oh really?”

  She nodded slowly. “I could show you how to act one of them out.”

  “No kissing before marriage remember? You’re too susceptible to the tinglies.”

  “Tinglies... I like that word.” She noticed he’d finished his snack and handed him the unopened bottle of water, taking the empty one from him. “See you soon.”

  He watched her go, a smile on his face. Felicity Quinlan was something else.

  4

  When Felicity approached Rikki about Allen helping her with the move, the younger girl shook her head emphatically. “No way. There’s not enough stuff that needs to be moved to bother. It’s really mostly clothes.”

  Felicity nodded, patting Rikki’s arm and smiling when the girl didn’t flinch. “Sounds good. I’ll let him know. I thought that’s what you’d say, but I wanted you to know he offered.”

  Rikki smiled, her face white at the very idea. “I’ll be able to be around men again someday.”

  “Did you date before that happened?”

  Rikki shook her head. “No, I’ve had a crush on Jesse Savoy since I was seventeen or so. I figured I had a chance since my sister actually knew him. And then she married him, ruining all my life plans!”

  Felicity laughed. “Half the world had a crush on Jesse Savoy. Does he scare you?”

  “Oddly enough, he doesn’t. But then again, he was instrumental in getting me away from Curtis.”

  When Felicity took her next batch of cookies out to Allen, she told him Rikki would feel uncomfortable if he helped as she held out the cookie plate.

  “I feel bad for her, but I understand why she doesn’t want me there, I guess.” He looked at her carefully. “Maybe you could move her after dinner in town?”

  “I really want to go to dinner with you, Allen, but I can’t leave Rikki alone with Linda until she gets to know her a little better. I feel like we’re kind of responsible for her.”

  “I can understand that. I just wanted to see you tonight.”

  “Because you like the zingies too?”

  He laughed. “Of course, I like the zingies. And you’re like a puzzle to me. Getting to know you has become something of a challenge.”

  She trailed a finger down the center of his chest. “And you like challenges?”

  Allen shivered at the feeling of her touch, and caught her hand in his. “You’re killing me, Cookies.” He looked down at her plate. “Tell me about these cookies.”

  Her eyes stayed locked on his as she answered. “These are caramel stuffed apple cider cookies. I hope you like caramel as much as I do.”

  “I do. It’s a favorite of mine.” He looked at the hand he still gripped tightly. “If I let go of your hand, do you promise to be good?”

  She nodded emphatically. “We have a customer pulling up, so I have to be.”

  He let go of her hand and reached for one of the cookies. “These are amazing! Why isn’t there a line around the building for your cookies?”

  “There has been a few times. Not all the time, though. I don’t think any of us could deal with the pressure of that. A lot of our baking is done to order.”

  “If I wanted to go into the bakery and mix and match a cookie order, could I buy a couple of dozen cookies that way?”

  “Oh, sure. We do that all the time. I like to keep a variety out there for people.” She didn’t add that she didn’t usually bake as many types of different cookies as she did that day, because it was so much more work than making two or three different kinds for people to choose from. She didn’t want him to know she was trying to impress him with her cookies.

  “I’ll have to do that for my son when he gets home on Saturday.”

  “I can’t wait to meet him.”

  “Do you like kids?” Allen asked. He hadn’t dated at all since his wife had run off, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to start. Looking at Felicity was sure motivation, though.

  Felicity nodded. “I’ve always loved kids. I spent a lot of time taking care of the ones I knew.”

  “You were allowed to babysit?” he asked in mock-horror.

  “In my own home, with my mother supervising. I never would have been allowed to be unsupervised myself. You never know what kind of trouble I might get into!”

  She took his empty water bottle before heading back into the bakery.

  A few hours later, Felicity stepped into the Savoy house, surprised at how down-to-earth everything looked. She’d expected a mansion, but really it was just a large house, very similar to the one she lived in with Linda Culpepper.

  She followed Rikki up the stairs and took the armload of clothes she was handed, carrying it down to Rikki’s car, which they’d come over in together.

  It took less than thirty minutes to load up everything Rikki felt the need to take with her into the car. “Linda called to say she was going out with Roy tonight, so it’s just going to be us.”

  “Who’s Roy?” Rikki asked.

  “Roy is a local electrician that Linda has feelings for. She’s been a widow since Chris was little, so we’re all thrilled to see her dating someone who can make her happy.”

  “Oh, that’s great! I like her. She seems so nice!”

  Felicity grinned. “Oh, she really is! How would you feel about going to the diner in town for dinner? I don’t feel like cooking. I think I broke my own record for the most amount of different kinds of cookies baked in one day.”

  “That’s because you were trying to catch Allen’s eye. I’ve never seen a girl work so hard to catch a man’s attention. What’s he like?”

  “Oh, he’s wonderful, Rikki. I’m already in love, and I just met him Monday. Have you ever met a man who made you feel the way you feel when Dylan and Jo kiss on Lazy Love?”

  Rikki shook her head. “No. I expected Jesse to make me feel that way when I finally met him, but it didn’t happen. I wanted it to!”

  “By then he was already married to your sister. Did you really want to have feelings for him?”

  Rikki shrugged. “I guess not, but I still thought I would. I’d had a crush on him forever.”

  “What about Bob Bodefeld? What’s he like? I always thought he was really sexy.”

  Rikki made a face. “He’s nice enough, I guess. Kind of cynical. I only met him once, when I spent the day on set. It was a neat day, but Bob didn’t do anything for me.”

  “I’m on Team Bob.”

  Rikki laughed. “I promise not to tell Jesse.”

  “Like he’d care! He has the only woman in the world he’s ever wanted.”

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’ve never seen a couple more in love. Makes me want to puke at times. I don’t feel like I should be there.”

  “Well, you’re getting your own little garage apartment! That’ll be nice.”

  “Yeah, it will. I’m excited about that, although I’m not sure how I’ll do with being alone all the time.”

  Felicity frowned. “You’re a strong woman, Rikki. You’re going to get through this.”

  “I sure hope so. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hiding from men.”

  Rikki pulled up in front of the diner, and Felicity almost laughed when she got out and found herself face-to-face with Allen. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “I thought you were eating with Linda?” he asked in surprise.

  “She had a date, so it’s just Rikki and me.” Felicity looked over at Rikki, who looked very uncomfortable. “Rikki, this is Allen. Allen, this is Rikki Dobson, Valerie Savoy’s kid sister.”

  Allen smiled and nodded at the frightened woman. “It’s nice to meet you, Rikki. Your name is unusual. Where did it come from?”

  The question seemed to make Rikki relax. “My parents named us both V names after our dad. His name was Victor, so my name is really Veronica. I hated always following alo
ng in Valerie’s shadow, so when I was twelve and started junior high, I announced to everyone my name was Rikki, and I refused to respond to Veronica anymore. It took a month or two, but it worked, and I’ve been Rikki ever since.”

  “I like it!” Felicity hadn’t heard the story before.

  The three of them walked into the diner, where Brenda was busy seating people. “Three?” she asked.

  Felicity shook her head. “No, I’m here with Rikki. Allen’s alone.”

  Brenda made a face. “We only have one booth right now. Eat together.”

  Felicity looked at Rikki. “It’s completely up to you. Don’t feel pressured.”

  Rikki finally nodded. “Yeah, let’s all eat together. It’s not fair to make Allen wait just because I’m skittish.”

  Felicity slid into one side of the booth and waited for the others to land where they would. She was surprised when Rikki sat across from her, and Allen slid in beside her. Happy, but surprised.

  Allen smiled at the pretty little baker beside him and squeezed her hand. “Don’t go off on a tangent about zinginess now. You don’t want to scare Rikki.”

  Felicity leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder for a moment before turning her attention to the menu. She quickly decided what she wanted and looked over at Rikki. “You’ve eaten here, right?”

  Rikki nodded. “Yeah, I’ve eaten here a bunch in the evenings. I hate being home alone, so I come out here, but then I get home and I’m scared when I get there.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m a mess and a half right now.”

  Felicity grinned at her friend. “I've seen huge strides just since you came to work for us.”

  Allen looked back and forth between the two women, wondering if he should just act like he knew what happened, or pretend he knew nothing.

  Felicity leaned forward. “I want you to know that I told Allen today what happened to you in March. Just briefly, so he’d know to stay away from you for the most part.”

  Rikki nodded. “That’s fine. It’s not like there weren’t a million news stories about it anyway.”