Can't Stand the Heat - Louisa Edwards [98]
Blowing a stray curl out of her face, Miranda gathered up the bacon pieces and stood ready to place them as soon as Adam ladled out the batter.
His little rectangular waffle iron was so ancient, it didn’t beep to signal it had reached the correct temperature. You had to watch for the tiny light on the front to glow orange. As soon as it did, Adam opened the iron and spooned out enough batter to fill all the shallow holes. A happy hissing noise filled the air as cool batter hit hot cast iron.
“It’s not a Belgian-waffle maker,” Miranda noticed.
“Yeah, I like the old-fashioned kind more. Better ratio of syrup to waffle, if you ask me. Also, because less surface area is exposed to the hot iron, the waffle turns out more tender than crunchy. Okay, lay on the bacon. Doesn’t have to be pretty.”
Miranda obeyed, and watched with great interest as Adam closed the iron. Batter visibly oozed out to the edges but didn’t overflow.
“Want coffee?” he asked, picking up the pot.
“Sure.” Miranda settled back down in her chair. “How long until the waffles are ready?”
“A couple minutes. Long enough to warm up some maple syrup. Keep an eye on the orange light for me, will you? Once it goes out, the waffles are done.”
Miranda accepted the mug of coffee he handed her with quiet thanks. Adam banged through his cabinets looking for a gravy boat or something to serve the syrup in. If he’d been alone, he probably would’ve poured it straight from the jug, but that didn’t seem nice enough for Miranda.
She still looked a little fragile to him. Her slender fingers were white with strain where they wrapped around the coffee mug.
He kept a weather eye on her, so he knew the moment she started thinking about her brother. Her brows lowered and her lips trembled before she firmed them and took a sip of coffee.
Adam considered jumping in with a conversational ploy to distract her, but decided that she needed to think this through. Better now, with him, than later on with Jess looking to her for support and understanding. Adam kept quiet and let her thoughts play out, hoping that eventually she’d open up.
“How could I let him go like that?” Miranda finally said. She set the mug on the table, drew her knees up under the sleep shirt and rested her chin on them, hugging herself as if needing to stay warm.
“You didn’t.” Adam kept his voice gentle. “It was just for the night, to give you both time to think. You haven’t lost him.”
You will, though, if you’re not careful.
Adam shook his head. He wouldn’t say it, couldn’t add to her obvious misery. But Christ Almighty, he couldn’t fathom what was stopping her from being the loving, caring older sister he’d seen her be to Jess before last night. Something deep was happening here, something under the surface. Something more than a knee-jerk antipathy to Frankie’s brash personality or disapproval of the age difference. And he didn’t believe it was as simple as bigotry.
Adam’s desperate hope was that she’d stop and think long enough to figure it out for herself; God knew what would happen if it were up to him to ferret out the answer.
He could freely admit that action was his forte. Contemplation, discussion, emotional delving—not so much.
But he truly wanted to help Miranda, so he manned up and said, “Look, I know you hate him but Frankie’s really not such a bad guy.”
She shot him an incredulous glare and he spread his hands in an earnest, what-can-I-say gesture.
“Hey, it’s not what you want to hear. I get that. But I’ve known him a long time, and I’ve never seen him act like he does around Jess. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a game to Frankie. He may not know what it is, himself, but it’s serious. And Miranda—” Adam steeled himself for another dose of Miranda’s evil eye.
“He’s what Jess wants.”
Miranda did scowl at that, but didn’t issue the instantaneous denial Adam had prepared for. Instead, she paused as if struck by a sudden realization.
Adam did a mental victory lap. Hey, if she was thinking, she was one step closer to reacting like the logical, rational woman she was at heart, instead