She smiled and leaned back far enough to look into those eyes of his surrounded by thick, dark lashes. She placed her free hand on the side of his smooth face and planted a loud kiss on his mouth. His soul patch scratched her chin, and she pulled back and smiled. "Is it me you're glad to see or my granola bars?"
He laughed and set her back on her heels. "Both." One of his hands slid down her spine and rested on the curve of her behind. She gave him a hard look, and he gave her a heart-stopping grin in return. "I'm sure you've met Dixie," he said and turned to face the other woman. He did not, however, remove his hand.
"Yes," Kate answered. "Dixie comes into the M &S. How are you?"
"I'm good." Dixie looked Kate over and shrugged, as if she didn't see the attraction. "Well, I'm going to head out, Rob. If you change your mind, you let me know."
"See ya."
"Change your mind about what?" Kate asked in a hushed voice as soon as the front doors shut behind Dixie.
He glanced at the man and his son looking at bikes, then slid his hand from her behind to her waist. Once again he pulled her close. His Fu Manchu tickled her temple when he spoke close to her ear. "Her version of the sexual pretzel."
"And you're not interested?"
"No. She's… too available to everyone in town."
"And she has those scary fake boobs."
There was a long, silent pause before he said, "Yeah, that, too." He dropped his hand and took the grocery bag from her. "Passion fruit. I thought I told Stanley kiwi." He shrugged. "Want some?"
"No. It's too sweet. I have to be in the right mood for passion fruit."
"That's the difference between men and women. Women have to be in the right mood. Men are always in the mood for a little passion fruit."
"Women need a reason. Men just need a place?"
He popped the top. "You know it, babe."
"Dixie's gone. You can stop calling me babe." He just gave her another grin and turned toward the man and his son. "That Heckler is a nice bike," he said and moved toward them. He took a drink of his passion fruit. "Lightweight and can take a lot of punishment."
"A thousand dollars is a little steep," the father said with a shake of his head.
"How much do you want to spend?"
" I can't afford anything more than three hundred."
"I just got in a Mongoose for two-fifty-nine." Rob pointed toward the back with his bottle. "I'll show it to you." The three of them moved past the helmets, and he looked at Kate across his shoulder. "Can you stick around? I need to talk to you."
Since she was curious and wanted to know what he thought of his mother's impending wedding, she decided she could "stick around" for a few minutes. "Sure." While she waited, she cruised the store, looking at everything from one-man tents to fly-tying equipment. In one aisle, she pulled on some fingerless gloves and looked at Road Dog headbands and bandanas. She took off the gloves and moved to the checkout counter, where she tried on Oakley sunglasses.
As she tried on her third pair, Rob walked from the back room beside the little boy and his dad. "I can have that ready for you tomorrow," he said. By the front door, the two men shook hands, and Kate turned her attention to a small mirror on the sunglasses case. She turned her head from one side to the other and couldn't determine if she looked good or like a bug.
"Do you want to learn to fly-fish?" Rob asked as he moved across the wooden floor toward her.
She glanced over at him through a pair of blue-and-red iridium lenses, and the hundred-and-fifty-dollar price tag hung from the bridge of the sunglasses and jabbed her nose. His mother was marrying her grandfather, and that's what he wanted to talk about? "Today?" She took off the Oakleys and put them back in the case. Surely he'd heard the news by now. If he hadn't, it wasn't her place to tell him. It was his mother's.
"Sunday." He set his empty bottle next to her. "Both stores will be closed on Sunday. I'll bet you look hot in hip waders."
She lifted a brow. "Hot?"
He chose a pair of tortoise-framed Brinkos from the case, and the tips of his fingers brushed the sides of her face as he slowly placed them on the bridge of her nose. "Sexy."
Kate looked at him through gold lenses, and her voice took on that embarrassing breathy quality that his nearness sometimes brought on. "I'd look ridiculous."
"Will you go with me?"
She shook her head. "If I want fish, I'll just walk to the meat cooler at the M &S."