A disturbing tilt to his lips made her think he could see right inside her thoughts. “My cooking. How about I make us some dinner, since you’re stuck here for a fewhours.”
“Dinner!” Right, the talent he referred to wascooking.“Yes, thank you. I’d love tostay.”
He put water on to boil, started pulling vegetables out of the crisper and took a small brown-paper-wrapped package out of the meat keeper. “You’re lucky, I spent a couple of hours at Pike Place Market this morning. You likescallops?”
“Mmm-hmm. When I cook them they always gorubbery.”
“You’re cooking them toolong.”
She blinked bemused eyes and rose. “What can I do tohelp?”
“Chop thecilantro.”
“Fresh herbs,” she saidweakly.
“Like I said, you’re lucky I went marketing today.” He donned a striped denim apron that made him look like a very sexy head chef in some trendybistro.
“Where did you learn tocook?”
“My mom went back to work full-time when we started school. She taught us all how to cook, and we had to take turns cooking for the family. Best thing she could havedone.”
They continued to chat while Cynthia cut, chopped or peeled what he put in front of her, according to his instructions. “What did your motherdo?”
“She’s a lawyer. Well, she’s semiretirednow.”
“And yourfather?”
“He’s a lawyer, too. In private practice. Mom worked for the DA’s office. Conversation around our dinner table could get prettyinteresting.”
“I can imagine.” Cynthia smiled, picturing noisy, argumentative meals in the Wheeler household. She bet they were a lot more stimulating than those in her house, where the no-controversy rule stifled dinner-table conversation. “How about your siblings? You said ‘we.’”
“There are four of us. Molly’s an environmental lawyer, Clay’s a trial lawyer and Pete’s undecided. He’s still in lawschool.”
Cynthia’s knife stilled in the middle of slicing a lemon. “Your entire family arelawyers?”
He grinned at her across a sizzling skillet. “All but me. I’m the blacksheep.”
“Did you ever want to be alawyer?”
He tossed onion and garlic into the skillet and began to stir. The aroma made her mouth water. “For the first two years of law school I thought so, but it wasn’t my thing. I hate all that sitting around arguing. I likeaction.”
That sounded like an understatement. “Were your parentsdisappointed?”
“They got overit.”
JAKE SMILED TO HIMSELFas he opened a bottle of Washington Sauvignon Blanc he’d bought today on impulse. Cynthia was seated at the table gazing at the steaming plate in front of her while he opened the wine. Had his family ever got over his defection. There wasn’t one who hadn’t picked his brains shamelessly on some point of investigative procedure. Of course, he drew just as shamelessly on the combined legal expertise of his family, especially when he was skating close to the edge of thelaw.
The cork emerged with a quiet sigh. It wasn’t an oversight that he hadn’t asked his siblings or his parents for an opinion on his latest stunt. They’d all yell at once if they found out he was on his own. He doubted he could make them understand. But then, no one in his family had ever caused a friend’sdeath.
“This is fantastic,” Cynthia told him, licking herlips.
He gazed across the table at her. What was he thinking? He wasn’t completely on his own. He had an untrained volunteer, a kinky wannabe sexpot, as a sidekick. That would help his family sleep atnight.
“Tell me about your first day,” he said to Cyn. Although the dumb-assed way she’d wandered down his front path in daylight still rankled, he was interested in what she had to say. He’d had every intention of getting her first impressions, but he’d planned on visiting her afterdark.
Her eyes lit up at his question. “Guess what came in a new shipment lastnight?”
“I couldn’t begin toguess.”
