Bachelor Untamed - Brenda Jackson [44]
While the cookies were baking, she sat at the kitchen table with her laptop. Although she couldn’t see him from where she sat, Ellie could hear the commotion Uriel was making as he set up the deep fryer outside. The last time she recalled it had been used was for Uriel’s eighteenth birthday party.
His birthday was in September, but his parents had decided to celebrate a month early, since he would be leaving home and going off to college at the end of August—and it would have been the ideal time for his five godbrothers to attend. That had been the last time she had seen all six of them together. As she made her way over to Uriel’s, she thought it was wonderful that the men had stayed in contact all these years.
“I was wondering when you would get here,” Uriel said, smiling at her when she appeared through the trees. He hurried over to take some of the items from her hands. He was wearing a pair of denim cutoffs and a T-shirt.
“What’s all this?” he asked. “I thought I told you that you didn’t have to bring anything.”
She returned his smile. “I know, but I couldn’t resist. There’s nothing like coleslaw to go along with fish and grits. And I couldn’t resist baking some of those peanut-butter cookies you love so much.”
His eyes lit up. “You have your aunt’s recipe?”
She laughed. “Of course. Aunt Mable left me everything.” She refrained from saying: including her unfinished manuscript. “I’ve even made a pitcher of lemonade that I need to go back to get.”
She glanced around and saw he’d already placed several pieces of fish in the fryer. She knew they had been coated with his father’s fried fish batter recipe, and the aroma of mouth-watering fried fish was circulating through the air. “It seems like you have everything under control,” she said, smiling over at him.
He grinned. “Did you doubt for one moment that I would?”
“No, not really. If it’s okay, I’ll go inside and put the slaw in the refrigerator.”
“No problem, go ahead.”
“Thanks.”
“And while you’re in there, how about grabbing me that hush puppy batter I have in the fridge.”
“Okay.”
The moment Ellie opened the back door and went inside Uriel’s home, memories assailed her and she glanced around the kitchen. Everything basically looked the same, and she was surprised he hadn’t made any changes. Maybe that had been deliberate, and he wanted to remember earlier times when his parents had been happy together, or so he’d assumed. She wondered if he knew the reason behind his parents’ failed marriage of thirty-plus years, and if it had a bearing on how he viewed relationships. She hoped not. But then, she would be the first to admit that she believed in a strong marriage for herself, because her parents had one. If she found out different, would she think otherwise? She didn’t think so, but one could never be absolutely sure how they would react in certain situations.
After placing the slaw in his refrigerator she remembered he had asked her to bring back the hush puppy batter, so she grabbed the foil-wrapped container. Moments later she was headed back outdoors, but stopped when she got to the screen door, and glanced out. She couldn’t stop the grin that touched her lips. Standing in front of the fryer with tongs in his hand, Uriel looked relaxed, as if he was actually enjoying what he was doing.
Just as he’d enjoyed what he’d been doing last night as well. At least he had given her the impression that he had enjoyed himself. She knew that she had. He was an experienced man in the bedroom, and there was so much he could teach her, so many ways to inspire her. But a part of her knew finishing the manuscript was only a small part of her wanting to be with Uriel. She would be fooling herself if she convinced herself otherwise. She truly wanted to be with him—to spend whatever time she could with him was a dream come true for her, and she intended to be satisfied with that.
He must have felt her gaze on him, because at that moment he looked over her way and smiled. “Are you standing there drooling over me or the fish?” he asked, taking