Miracle Pie (19 page)

“What do you believe in?” Katie asked.

Rosa squeezed Katie’s shoulder. “I believe
that you’re my good friend, and I want to see you stretch beyond
your safety zone, even if it’s just for a couple days.” She pitched
her voice low, so only the two of them could hear her. “You don’t
want to be my age and have regrets. You don’t want to be
any
age with regrets. I see the need in your eyes—” She glanced at Gabe
and back to Katie. “In both your eyes. If you don’t take advantage
of this small pleasure, I have the feeling you’ll be sorry.”

Katie’s gaze shifted to him. In her eyes he
saw confusion and darkness. She blinked then looked back to
Rosa.

“There’s more to life than what goes on in
your kitchen,” Rosa said in the same low tone. Then she
straightened and turned to Gabe. “You like Italian?”

Right now, Gabe loved Italian. He put his
right thumb and first two fingers to his mouth and kissed them.
Rosa laughed. “I’ll make your dinner choice. You’ll love it.” She
snapped around and hurried away.

“So this was a set-up,” he said.

Katie nodded, not saying anything, just
staring at him, as if she were considering everything Rosa
said.

“I don’t know about you, but Rosa nailed
me.” He didn’t take his stare from Katie’s face. Her eyes blinked
and her mouth parted, as if for a kiss. “When you left today, it
felt like a piece of me went with you.”

Her eyebrows went up, her eyes widened.

He frowned. Until he said the words, he
hadn’t realized how badly he wanted her. “I’m probably scaring the
hell out of you. You can leave. Don’t worry, I won’t stalk
you.”

“I have a question first.”

“What?”

“Your motel room or my house?”

Chapter Thirty-three

Gabe smiled so widely he thought anyone
looking at him would know how he felt. “Anywhere you say. I feel
combustible.”

“And I’m melting.” Katie smiled back at him,
a come-to-bed smile.

“Melting like the Wicked Witch of the West?”
he asked.

“Idiot. I’m melting like the richest, most
revered, most expensive chocolate. Slowly and delectably.”

He stifled a groan. She was killing him. “If
you were a pie right now, what would you be called?”

“That’s easy. Sex.” She looked up at the
waitress stopping by their table. “But here’s our food first.”

He nodded. First fill the hunger in their
bellies. Then they’d fill the big one that started in their senses,
in their brains. That made everything sharper, more exciting, with
promises in the air and in their eyes while their skin prickled and
their heart thundered. And then that excitement and promise sizzled
downward.

He grabbed his fork to dig into his food.
When you were offered something wonderful, you wanted to grab it,
taste it, touch it and enjoy every second before it ended.

Maybe they couldn’t make a beautiful life
together, but they would damn well make beautiful memories.

***

Inside Katie’s back hall, she knelt and
hugged the Beagle greeting her and Gabe. Her heart was so full of
expectations, it was amazing she hadn’t danced around Mo’s entire
restaurant and bar area, hugging and kissing everyone. She’d only
refrained because then they would know.

Some things she didn’t want the whole
village to know. From the gazes she’d felt as she left, she knew
they guessed. But at least she hadn’t jumped on the bar and
shouted, “I love this man!”

After she let Happy out, Gabe said, “She
must hear something.”

“Because she was waiting?” Katie hung up
their jackets, thinking it wouldn’t be long before their clothes
followed. “I’ve read studies about dogs who knew their special
person was coming home even though it wasn’t their normal time.
Even when their people were miles away. Dogs must have a sixth
sense.”

“They’re connected the way we’re
connected.”

“I know.” Her voice was breathy as she led
the way into the kitchen. That’s why she’d made the Happy Pie this
morning. The pies talked to her first. The man second.

That was one thing she was keeping to
herself. No man liked being second to a pie.

Before she finished the thought, he scooped
her up and put her on the end of the cooking island. “This is where
the magic happens, isn’t it?”

Her breath caught in her lungs, stopping her
words. She nodded and gave a long exhale. She was melting again.
Melting with desire.

A howl came. Then another. “Don’t move,” he
said. “I’ll get it.”

As she listened to him let Happy in, the
expectant feeling inside her grew. As if it were Christmas, and she
was going to get the best gift ever.

A few seconds later, he stalked toward
Katie. Like a tiger stalking its mate, she thought, and stifled a
giggle.

“Where were we?” he asked, in front of her
now.

“You tell me.” Her voice sounded odd.
Thickened. Her body felt odd, too. Like molten gold.

He put his hands on the counter, one on each
side of her thighs, and leaned forward. As his face neared hers,
she kept her eyes open, gazing into his eyes and thinking they were
the color of heaven.

Then his lips met hers, and her eyes closed
slowly, as slowly as the kiss. A soft kiss. A sigh of a kiss. After
a moment, she raised her hands to each of his cheeks, a slight
stubble tickling the heels of her palms.

Slanting her face, she kissed him harder,
taking control. A sound came from deep in his throat. A primal
call. She wrapped her legs around his hips, crossing her ankles
behind him, her body answering the need in his voice.

He growled again, and a softer imitation of
it came from her.

He pulled away. His face was flushed with
color. His eyes glittered. “I wanted to do this slowly.”

“We can go slow next time.”

“On the counter?”

“We can. I’d have to bleach it
afterward.”

With a laugh, he released her and stepped
back. She smiled, though it hadn’t been a joke. She would have
bleached the counter.

She pushed off to stand on the floor, then
took his hand and led him out of the kitchen and up the stairs to
her bedroom. He was quiet behind her, a hush loud with rising
desires.

When they reached the bedroom they started
pulling off their clothes, both at the same time. Wordless. The
passion taking over her. A tiny corner of her brain marveled and
celebrated. It seemed with their clothes they were stripping off
all that was extraneous. Nothing mattered more than the two of them
joining together.

“I’m glad you brought protection.” She
slipped out of her panties, losing the race to get rid of her
clothes and be the first one naked.

He looked up at her, his expression serious.
“I don’t know if I am.”

Her breath sucked in. Then he was ready for
her, and God knew she was ready for him. She’d been ready since she
walked into Mo’s office this morning. If she’d had to wait one more
second, she probably would have jumped him, saying,
“Now! Do it
now.”

They tumbled onto the bed, and he was doing
it
to her. Doing it wonderfully. Kissing, touching,
squeezing. And she was kissing, touching, squeezing right back.

He pushed inside her, and she was wet, so
wet. A noise came out of him, another primal sound shuddering
through her.

“You’re so damn good,” he said, his voice
hoarse.

She hadn’t done anything except respond to
the sexiest man she’d known. Before she could tell him, he was
moving inside her, rubbing against
that
spot, that wonderful
spot that sent tremors through her. Strangled screams came from her
mouth and she gazed up at him. His head was back, a look of agony
on his face as if he were in pain.

Or in ecstasy.

Again. And again. And again.

Then it came. A big one. Rapture shattering
through her. She felt as if she stood on the top of the world and
could see its wonders all around her and none of the ugliness.

But only the two of them were in this world,
holding onto each other, shuddering in each other’s arms. As if an
earthquake had taken place, the world splitting, for a second time
the most beautiful thing she’d experienced.

He shuddered on top of her, and it took a
moment for her to relax, feeling boneless, her breathing slowed. He
rolled off her, and the air was cool against her chest.

“Thank you,” he said.

“My pleasure.”

He laughed, and so did she. They sounded so
polite, as if she were a clerk at a store who had helped him with a
transaction. She told him to use the bathroom first. As soon as he
left the bedroom, she closed her eyes, a happy sleepiness hovering
above her.

He returned to the room and it was her turn.
The tiles in the bathroom were cold on her soles as she looked at
her face in the mirror and saw she’d been walking around with a
smile. When she padded back to the bedroom, her whole body felt
like one big smile. She paused just inside the doorway. Gabe was
half dressed, sitting on the foot of the bed, his left leg crossed
over his right knee, his shoe in his hand, ready to put it on.

He glanced up at her. Unlike him she wasn’t
wearing a stitch of clothes. His hands holding the shoe froze; his
eyes moved up and down, taking in the sight of her naked body.
Every curve there for him to see. Every flaw.

She stood tall, letting him look his fill.
His gaze warmed her, and her body thrummed, the hunger reawakened.
The desire to have him again.

Watching the stillness of his body, the way
he looked at her as if he wanted to eat her, she wanted him so
badly that this feeling was too much, too big, too brilliant.

“Would you like...pie?”

“Later I’d like pie.”

Aware of his gaze still on her, she headed
to the closet for the silk robe an old boyfriend gave her for
Christmas long ago that she had never worn. Until now.

“Sex is a lot like eating pie.” The robe
slithered around her, and her skin was so sensitive tonight, it
heightened her sensuality. “Sometimes you have to have it right
away. Sometimes waiting for it makes you appreciate it all the
more.”

He laughed low in his throat and she heard
the bed creak as he stood. She finished tying the sash and looked
up. He had pulled on his T-shirt, and was snapping his jeans
closed.

She led the way down the stairs and into the
kitchen, smiling, feeling...happy. Like her Happy Pie.

As they stepped into her bedroom again, she
wondered what pie she would make tomorrow.

Chapter Thirty-four

When Katie returned after her morning pie
run, the sun was just coming up and Gabe’s car was still in the
driveway. A hum started in her throat.

Happy waited for her at the door as usual.
She bent to hug Happy—she wanted to hug everyone today—before
letting Happy scamper out like she was a puppy.

She headed to her bedroom and peeked inside.
Gabe was sleeping, the covers pushed below his ribcage, his legs
spread beneath the covers with one arm out to her side of the bed,
as if reaching for her. Rays of sunlight streamed through the
window and formed a nimbus around his face, shoulders and upper
body.

She was backing away when a trill came. She
hesitated and it came again. Spotting the source of the noise, she
stepped inside, grabbed his jeans and crossed to Gabe. She shook
his shoulder, his skin warm under her palm.

His eyes opened, staring up at her. A smile
stretched his lips, and she started to smile back when another
trill came from the phone.

“Your pants are ringing.” She dumped the
pants on his chest then snapped around to leave.

“’Morning to you, too,” he said, laughter in
his voice.

A howl came from outside the back door, and
she hurried to let the dog in. She petted Happy then turned to the
sink to wash her hands. As the warm water streamed over her hands,
the need started. Not for sex this time, not for Sam. For pie. To
her, this need was as primal as sex. When it called her, she
answered.

She pulled the ingredients out of the
cupboards and refrigerator. The usual suspects first: sugar, flour,
salt, eggs, vanilla. Then sour cream, cream cheese, pineapple,
walnuts...

The name of the pie hit her, and she dropped
the half-filled bag of walnuts. The clip holding the bag shut
popped off and walnuts scattered out, flying across the floor.

A snuffle came from Happy’s corner, then dog
feet tapped on the tile. Katie still stood there, unable to move as
Happy stopped, finding a walnut, then another and another. Like a
catfish on the bottom of the aquarium, gobbling up the food the
other fish missed. The bottom feeders.

Slowly, as Happy neared the bag with walnuts
still in it, Katie bent and picked it up. She felt as if she’d aged
fifty years, cold from the inside out.

She was putting the bag away when she heard
heavy footsteps from the bedroom. Gabe had put his shoes on, which
told her he wasn’t staying for another round of lovemaking.

No surprise. The pie had already told her
what to expect.

She knelt on the floor to find any walnuts
Happy might have missed. Happy didn’t eat as fast as she used to
though she gave it the old Beagle try.

“What happened?” Gabe’s black leather shoes
stopped a foot from her hand.

“I dropped the walnuts.” She kept gathering
walnuts, not looking up. When she finished, she crossed to Happy’s
food bowl and spilled the walnuts into it. Happy wouldn’t complain
about a little floor dirt.

“Does this happen often?”

“No.” She faced him. “You’re leaving?”

He backed up, not replying right away.

Suddenly breathing was hard for Katie. She
forced herself to suck air into her lungs, forced her lungs to
expand and then contract, to allow her to breathe in and then
out.

“Not until after I’m done filming today,” he
said.