Lydia's Twin Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

She looked up at him and caught him watching her.
    * * * *
     

    Lydia looked ready to bolt, so Chance didn’t say anymore. He decided to wait a while to give her the gifts. She seemed to need a little time to settle in his company first, so he changed the subject.
    “I think I asked you one time how you came to be in Fort Stockton, but you never got to answer me. Your boss interrupted you, as I recall,” he added with a grin.
    “I’m originally from San Angelo.”
    He nodded and said, “That explains your ak-cint .”
    She chuckled and with a pronounced Texas twang said, “I don’t have an ak-cint . I lohst it in Austin.”
    He winced and replied in kind, “Austin only made it stronger, darlin’.”
    They laughed at each other’s accents, and she continued, “I moved from San Angelo to go to the culinary institute in Austin.”
    “Culinary institute? Really? And you were working in a café?”
    She nodded sheepishly and said, “I found myself in Fort Stockton, in need of a job and took the only one I could get.”
    Chance recalled eating at least a couple of meals at the Oasis Café that had tasted unusually good for café food and said, “You’ve cooked for me before?”
    She nodded and smiled, “A couple of times. I help LaMont when it gets busy, but I like to stay in the dining room because I make more in tips there.”
    He realized she was speaking of the café in present tense when he was already thinking of it in the past tense. The realization hit him that he was already expecting she would quit the diner, but why should she? Where would she go if jobs were that scarce? He didn’t want her to work there anymore, and a plan formed in his mind.
    If she cooked that well with the ingredients a café kept in supply, what would it be like if she had a huge kitchen and anything she wanted in the way of tools and foodstuffs at her disposal?
    “Lydia, you’re a damn fine cook.” In more ways than one, baby.
    A blush rose in her cheeks, and she thanked him as their perky waitress sped up to his window on her roller skates. He paid her for the treats and then handed Lydia her chocolate shake.
    “So how did you wind up in Fort Stockton if you were living in Austin?”
    Lydia toyed with the wrapper on her straw and said, “I don’t like the big city. I’ve always wanted to live in a small town and the constant traffic really got to me. I was contacted after graduation about an opportunity here. They had interviewed me while I was at school and evidently I’d done well. I was offered a job, and sold or gave away almost everything I owned to come here. I packed up Gunther—”
    “Gunther?” Was there somebody else in her life he didn’t know about? He hadn’t even thought to ask about that, and his heart began a free fall in his chest. Maybe that was why she’d looked a little pensive earlier.
    Lydia nodded and smiled brightly. “Yeah, Gunther. He’s my ’73 Karmann Ghia.” Chance almost broke a sweat in relief at that news. “My brothers bought him for me and rebuilt his engine.” She chuckled in embarrassment and added, “I know, it’s kind of juvenile to name my car, but I took one look at him five years ago and he’s just so cute I had to name him.”
    Chance smiled at her as she blushed again and admitted to himself that he was completely beguiled by her. “So you packed up Gunther,” he prompted, using the German pronunciation as she had.
    “Yes, and I drove from Austin to Fort Stockton. In theory, I knew how far it was, but I thought the drive would take forever. I was thankful it was still spring then because I don’t have air-conditioning in my car. I dread the thought of driving away from Fort Stockton in this heat with no AC.”
    “But what happened when you got here?”
    “The operation had folded before it even got started. They lost two of their investors. The person who should have let me know about the change in status must have thought someone else would and I somehow