Charlotte Maclay - Only Bachelors Need Apply

“Always hungry for a home-cooked meal.”

“Of course. And Joanna is a wonderful cook, too. Have I told you that?” Agnes shook her head as though she couldn’t remember how much touting of her daughter she’d done. “She’ll make someone a fine wife, you know. So talented.”

He suppressed a smile. “I’m sure you were a very good teacher, Agnes.”

“Grandma makes great cookies, don’t you?” Tyler interjected. “Especially when you forget and put two bags of chocolate chips in ’em.”

“Go on with your flattery, young man.” As she took Kris’s arm, she giggled, a high-pitched, girlish sound. “Of course, my dear departed Alexander never once complained about my cooking. Did you know, he and I once served more than a hundred needy families Thanksgiving dinner, almost all on our own? I must have cooked twenty turkeys myself. We kept those big ovens over at the school cafeteria going for days. Mercy, what a time we had.”

Agnes rambled on about the event as though it had been yesterday, while Kris suspected it had been many years ago. But he liked knowing Joanna’s parents had tried to help others. In contrast, his family had mailed in substantial checks to ease their social conscience, keeping themselves safely ensconced behind the ivory towers of academia.

Maybe this year for Thanksgiving, instead of going home, he’d find someplace where they were feeding the homeless and see if he could help. He wondered if Joanna would be willing to join him.

Joanna’s appearance at the kitchen doorway didn’t slow the tale Agnes was telling. The older woman simply kept on talking. It didn’t seem to matter that no one was listening.

Mentally clicking off Agnes’s chatter, Kris took in the sight of her daughter. Joanna’s hair was pulled back, and there was a light sheen of perspiration on her perfectly oval face, as though the kitchen was overheated. Her cheeks glistened. She radiated good health and something else Kris couldn’t quite identify. He simply knew she was a lovely, intriguing creature worth a great deal of study.

“You’re early,” she said, searching his face as though questioning his apparent social faux pas.

He met her gaze steadily. “I was hoping you might need some help with taste tests.”

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