“Time to be honest. Was I right?” He gestured over his shoulder in the general direction of Paradise Fairway.
Rather than answer immediately, she took a large bite from her ice cream. “Maybe,” she admitted. “But Pirate’s Cove has much better ice cream.”
“You won’t get any disagreement from me there, but if you want some incredible ice cream, you need to go to Ludlow Farm. It’s in Pennsylvania. A Mennonite family owns it, and everything in the store is homemade. I don’t think I’ve ever had ice cream anywhere that comes even close to what they make. I stop in whenever I’m in the area.”
She popped the last of her cone in her mouth and licked off the ice cream still clinging to her thumb. “If the ice cream they make is better than Pirate’s Cove, I need to plan a trip there. What do you say? Are you up for a little weekend getaway soon?”
With the exception of his once-a-year weekend trip to Maine, he didn’t go on weekend gateways. Last Saturday and Sunday aside, when he traveled overnight, it was for one of two reasons: work or to see his daughter. But if Leah wanted to spend a weekend sampling every ice cream stand in and around Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, he’d sample right along with her.
Chapter Seven
“Make yourself comfortable while I get started on the rest of my surprise,” Gavin said, following her inside the condo.
Up to now, the day had proceeded with only a single interruption when he received a call from his mom. Although she lived in Rhode Island with her husband, Clark, they didn’t get together as often as either would like. Instead they spoke about once a week or so. Today he kept his conversation as short as possible without being rude and then invited her and Clark to visit when Erin was with him at the end of the month.
He hoped the call was the first and only interruption. He intended to prepare them a meal to rival anything they’d get at their country club, and he didn’t need work or family bothering him while he cooked.
; “Rest? You’ve got me intrigued.”
Stepping up behind her, Gavin wrapped his arms around her waist. “Good,” he whispered against her neck before kissing her. “Make yourself at home while I start dinner.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him. Her expression echoed both curiosity and surprise. “As in cook a meal?” Leah turned in his arms.
“Yep.” Her lips called out to him, but if he gave in to his desire now, he’d never want to stop, and his well-thought-out meal would never happen. After kissing her on the forehead instead, he took a step back. “If we want to eat at a decent time, I need to get started.”
Leah followed him into the kitchen, and he could feel her eyes on him as he moved to the refrigerator and started taking out ingredients.
“I can handle the basics—pasta, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches—but not much else. And it’s not that I haven’t tried. I even had Gray’s wife give me a few lessons, but I can’t seem to master it.”
Cooking was one skill he’d mastered at a fairly young age thanks to his grandmother. “Some people have a knack for it.”
She made herself comfortable on a barstool near the counter and asked, “You really know how to cook?”
Gavin left the steak tips and portobello mushrooms on the counter before returning to the refrigerator. “I don’t do it as much as I’d like because I’m not home for meals. But my grandmother, Dad’s mom, and I used to spend hours cooking together.”
“I used to spend hours shopping with my grandmother. Even now we’ll go when she comes to the city. I usually get tired and call it a day before she does,” Leah admitted with a slight shake of her head. “I don’t know how she does it, but I hope I’m half as energetic when I’m her age.”
He added the butter, cream, and shallots he needed for the sauce to the ingredients already out. “Sounds like she’d get along well with my grandmother. Gigi’s still a whirlwind in the kitchen.”
“Anything I can help with?”
When he cooked, he preferred to work alone, especially if the person didn’t have much of a clue in the kitchen, which Leah had already admitted she didn’t. The only exception was Erin, but when they cooked together, the meals were far less elaborate.
Leaning over the counter between them, he kissed her. The awkward position kept him from lingering too long. Considering he wanted to enjoy dinner sometime this century, it was for the best. “All set, but I’d love your company.”
“It’s probably a better idea if I stay on this side of the kitchen anyway. You’ve got a lot of ingredients out; what are you making?”
Since she often ordered beef when they ate out, he assumed it ranked among her favorite type of meal. With this in mind, he’d focused mainly on beef dishes he excelled at before settling on the beef tips. “Steak tips with grilled portobello mushrooms in a brandy peppercorn cream sauce, along with au gratin potatoes and a salad.”
She blinked several times. “Wow, you weren’t joking when you said you knew how to cook.” She sounded impressed. “That sounds like something Gray’s wife would make.”
Gavin would accept such a compliment any day, because he knew the woman Leah referred to was a professional chef at one of Rhode Island’s best French restaurants—a restaurant he frequently visited when he was in Providence.
“Wait until you taste what I’ve got planned for dessert.” Ice cream or no ice cream at the park, he planned to make his grandmother’s signature dessert for Leah tonight.
In an effort to save time, he’d done some prep work this morning before eking out some time in his office. And before hitting the sack last night, he’d toasted the oats for the dessert and left them soaking in whiskey so they’d be ready. Unfortunately, some parts of the meal he couldn’t start early. So while he prepared the cream sauce and then moved on from there, Leah filled him in on her visit with her cousin the previous evening.