Melissa Senate - Rust Creek Falls Cinderella

Sarah had said men often didn’t know how they felt and figured it out as they went along or sometimes in one fell swoop. If she liked Xander that way , Sarah had texted, then she should go for it.

But it wasn’t Sarah in the hallway. It was Xander.

What on earth was he doing here?

And looking so incredibly gorgeous. She’d never seen him in his cowboy clothes. Dark jeans. Brown boots. A navy T-shirt. And a brown Stetson held against his stomach. Be still, my idiot heart , she thought. His slightly long hair curled a bit at the nape of his neck, and his dark brown eyes were on her. The man was too good-looking.

Dobby and Harry were sitting on either side of him, staring up at him. Dobby was sniffing his cowboy boot. Harry was giving him the once-over.

Xander knelt down and gave each dog a pat, earning wagging cinnamon-colored tails. “Well, you must be the famous Dobby and Harry I’ve heard so much about. And even though you look identical, I bet you’re Dobby and you’re Harry.”

“Name tags give it away every time,” Lily said with a grin. “They can never get away with switching places like most twins.”

He gave them both another pat and stood up. “I stopped by Maverick Manor to pay compliments to the chef from six other appreciative ranchers, and your friend AnnaBeth said you’d finished your shift, so I thought I’d stop by here and tell you.”

Okay, granted, Lily’s house was pretty close to Maverick Manor. She could walk there if her very old car broke down. But still, he went out of his way to go see her at the restaurant. Then out of his way again to “stop by” her house?

He liked her. Whether he knew it or not. Her stomach flipped—in a good way—and she had to stop herself from smiling like a lunatic.

Thank God for friends like Sarah who understood men! Crawford men, in particular.

“Something smells amazing,” he said, sniffing the air.

Okay, she loved when he complimented her cooking skills. “I’m working on a tofu dish for a vegan option at the Manor.”

“In cattle country? Well, if you can make tofu smell that good, I imagine it’ll be a hit. I’d pay a million bucks for a Lily Hunt hamburger.”

She laughed. “You’re going to give me a big head.”

“Hey, maybe you could give me a cooking lesson sometime. I’d pay you well for your time.” He named a crazy figure.

“Seriously? That much for one lesson?”

“Seriously. But I want to learn to make all my favorites. Teach me how to make that French dip. Teach me how to make fettuccini carbonara, which I crave every other day. Teach me how to make a pizza from scratch without burning the crust.”

Teach me how not to fall in love with you , she thought. She was practically a goner.

“Lily, any more of that par-something thingie left?” a male voice shouted from upstairs. Ryan, the brother closest in age to her.

Lily smiled and shook her head. “Parfait!” she called back, even though she’d never stop her brothers from yelling from room to room if she did it, too. “And no, you four attacked it and there was none left for me.”

“Sorry!” Ryan shouted back. “If you make more, make like five extra!”

“I see I’m not the only one who can’t resist your cooking,” Xander said. “Maybe I could observe as you make the tofu dish. Get a handle on the inner workings of a kitchen before we set up a formal lesson.”

Xander Crawford wanted to watch her make tofu? “Who cooks for you guys now?” she asked.

“We take turns burning food. Logan’s all right on the grill, but he moved out. We order in, pick up and go out a lot .”

She laughed. “Well, follow me, then.” She turned to the dogs. “Dobby and Harry, feel free to go back to snoozing in your sun patch.” The dogs waited a beat to see if the newcomer had a treat or rawhide chew for them, and since he didn’t pull anything out of his pocket, they lost interest and walked back to their big cushy bed by the window and curled up.

“That’s the life,” Xander said, smiling as he followed Lily through the living room, past the dining room and into the kitchen.

She’d never been so aware of someone following her into another room before. He was so tall, so built, so male that she almost melted into a puddle on the floor. She was very used to being surrounded by testosterone. But this was something entirely different.

Especially so close up. Because the kitchen wasn’t all that big and Xander was right beside her at the stove, his thigh almost touching hers.

Could she handle the heat? That was the question.

* * *

Xander was standing so close to Lily he could smell her shampoo—the scent a combination of flowers and suntan lotion. She wore green cargo pants, a white T-shirt covered by a red apron that read Try It, You’ll Like It, and weird orange rubber shoes. Her long red hair was in a messy bun on top of her head with what looked like a chopstick securing it.

His awareness of her clobbered him over the head. He used to argue with his brothers over whether a man could be friends with a woman he found sexually attractive, and some said yes and some said no way because the sexual element would always be there and that meant there was more than friendship at work. Xander believed a man could absolutely be friends with a woman.

Since when was he sexually attracted to Lily, anyway? Just because he was noticing every little thing about her? The orange rubber shoes were hard to miss. Right? He was here to learn about tofu, something he knew absolutely nothing about.

And something he had absolutely no interest in, too.

You didn’t even know she was making tofu until you were inside the house. You came here on pretense.

This was getting confusing. But an undeniable fact was that he was in this kitchen because he wanted to be around Lily. Listening to her. Talking to her. Looking at her.

He suddenly pictured her naked, coming out of the shower, all that lush red hair wet around her shoulders, water still beaded on her breasts and trailing down her stomach and into her navel. Every nerve ending went haywire and he shivered.

“Caught a chill?” she asked, glancing at him as she browned the little pieces of tofu in a fry pan. “I hate that. This morning I was making pancakes, fifty of them for the bottomless pits I call my brothers and father, and I suddenly got a chill even though I was standing right in front of a gas flame in August. Crazy.”

He was hardly chilled. Nope, not at all.

Now she was talking about sesame oil and how to make the tofu crispy for the stir-fry. She was saying something about cornstarch and pepper, but he’d stopped hearing her words and focused instead on her face and body.

Granted, she wasn’t curvy. Or big-breasted. Or remotely his usual type. But there was just something about her. He must be losing his mind because he thought it was the freckles. Or the green eyes. Or the wide smile. Or the way she talked so animatedly about the difference between a wok and a sauté pan.

“Going to make tofu stir-fry for your family tonight?” she asked him, holding out a piece of the brown crispy not-meat on a wooden spoon. She brought it up to his mouth, and he looked at her, then slid his lips around it.

She flushed.

He flushed.

He leaned closer.

She...backed away. As if she’d been there, done that, and had lived to tell the tale.

“I, uh, you...have sesame oil on your cheek,” he rushed to say, leaning a bit closer to dab it away. He forced himself not to lick it off his finger.

Saved. He hadn’t been about to kiss her. No sir.

He had to get out of this kitchen, this enclosed space, with this woman. She was his buddy, that was all. Even if he were attracted to her, she was too young and had big dreams that she should focus on. He was a grumbly, stomped-on, love-sucks guy who wasn’t getting over it anytime soon. She needed the male version of herself. A guy as great as she was.