About That Kiss. Cindy Miles

to join him. She did. “Know how to make hush puppies?”

      Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan watched Sean peer over Jep’s ingredients. Then she looked at his grandfather with those enormous hazel eyes.

      “Teach me?” she said.

      Was it the way she said it? Or the sincerity in her quiet voice that caught Nathan so completely off guard? Whatever it was, it had affected poor Jep, as well. The old man’s cheeks turned red and splotchy and he sputtered, cleared his throat, then gave Sean an affectionate pat on the shoulder.

      “Of course, gal,” he said, and she stepped closer to him, and so began Jep’s lesson in the art of making hush puppies.

      Nathan watched the interaction further, and found it more than curious. He was astounded to find himself almost mesmerized by the way Sean’s innocent acceptance of Jep had not only made the old man stammer, but slip into his Irish accent. Jep Malone did that only when he was absolutely furious, or completely enamored.

      The way Sean responded to Jep touched Nathan’s heart in a way he wasn’t expecting. It made him sit up, take notice. Not just the fact that she was beautiful. She was and, despite Nathan’s determination not to notice, he had. He’d been unable to help it. No, his attention went beyond the recognition of the beauty that resided beneath her bewitching eyes or the love he saw in those very same eyes whenever she looked at her daughter. It was something about those two small words, teach me, that Nathan found so humbling. So damned enchanting. It made his earlier determination not to get close to her just that much more difficult.

      He watched her now, seemingly at ease with his grandfather, allowing the old man to show her how to combine the ingredients for his secret hush puppy recipe. Whatever clever thing Jep was saying to her was rewarded with a smile—one that was entirely different from any Nathan had seen on her yet. It was intriguing. It was baffling.

      He suddenly realized it wouldn’t be quite so bad being the one who coaxed such a smile from Sean Jacobs.

      When Nathan looked away, it was his father’s eye he caught.

      And Owen simply smiled.