Giving her another moment, I took the wine bucket and prawns outside and flipped on the grill. While the grill heated, I slid the prawns onto skewers, paying attention as she hauled out the rest of the food.
Instead of sitting at the table and waiting until I was done, she stepped up next to me. “I’ve never used a grill before.”
“What?” I asked, a bark of laughter escaping me. “Seriously?” Hell, I’d started grilling with my dad every summer by the time I was twelve.
“Yeah. I had a chef that made all my meals.” Her voice went soft and her eyes looked to the horizon. I could tell she’d grown up with money. Something about the way she carried herself, the way while she was impressed and complimentary about my house, she wasn’t overly blown away either by the size of it or the private plane I’d chartered. This girl grew up in a life not that different to my current one. I settled in, continuing to fill the skewers and waited for her to keep talking about her life when she stilled me with a hand on mine.
“What?”
She grinned, lips twitched and for the first time since I’d seen her, uncertainty flared in her eyes. “Will you teach me?”
“To grill?”
“Yeah. And whatever you’re doing with the shrimp.”
“Prawns,” I corrected. “They’re larger and different.”
“And more delicious, I know.”
Her soft, warm hand was still on mine. The urge to wrap her hand in mine, entwine our fingers together and yank her against my chest hit me hard and fast like a right hook to the jaw. I focused.
End goal. Long game.
“All right then.” Turning off the grill, I started everything over so she could see how I lit the gas flames and then stopped and allowed her to do it.
As it re-warmed, we worked together, filling the remaining skewers. Claudia laughed and giggled as the seafood slipped through her fingers more than once. Turning to me, brown eyes wide and lit up like the fourth of July, she wiggled her fingers in front of my face. “My hands are messy.”
“You sound like it’s never happened before.”
She shrugged and wiped them on a towel. “I don’t think I was ever allowed to get dirty when I was younger.” A frown yanked her brows together and whatever was bothering her, she shook it off. “I’m not sure, despite how much money I had growing up, I really had all that much of a life, to be honest.”
Her gaze roamed the landscaping along the side of the patio and pool. I nudged her with my hip. “Here. Lay them on the grill like this. Seafood grills fast, only a few minutes on each side so you have to watch it.”
The thankful grin she gave me that I wasn’t pushing her or asking her more than she was willing to share, sent heat straight to my chest.
“You can finish up. I’ll refill our wine and bring out the plates and silverware.”
She walked away from me, doing what she said and when the dinner was done, I joined her at the table.
I gave her silence while we ate, accepted her compliments like a puppy wanted treats, and basically, acted like a lovesick moron.
But I was quickly learning. Beneath the girl hiding or running, there was another one…desperately dying to break free.
And I was going to be the man to bring it out in her.
––––––––––
Dinner was done and our wine was refilled. I’d given her time to gather her thoughts but I was done waiting. Whatever she needed to tell me, she needed to get on with it. The sun was starting to set and after a long day of travel, not to mention cooking, I needed some damn sleep. I also needed to get working on the songs I’d started on the plane ride down.
“So. You going to keep me in suspense much longer?”
Setting down her glass of wine, Claudia reached for the iPad I had on the table. It’d been used to play music but with a few clicks and swipes, the music was gone and she was looking something up. “It’s easier for me if you read it.”
Interest piqued, I leaned forward and set down my glass of wine.
“You’re constantly on covers of People Magazine and on TMZ and other shows and gossip rags,” she said while tapping and swiping, “but I don’t think you’ve been on Newsweek or The New York Journal.”
“No. Can’t say I have, sweetheart.”
