The Bite Before Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

at her with surprise. It was just tinned soup, nothing to write home about, he thought, but then smiled wryly, knowing that—like himself—she probably hadn’t eaten since yesterday. Truth to tell, tinned soup or not, he was hungry enough that it was smelling good to him, too, he acknowledged as he lifted both pots away from the fire.
    Katricia followed when he carried them carefully over to the kitchen area, but stayed to hover over the soup pan when he set it on the stove to cool. Leaving her there, he moved over to slowly pour the water into the filter cone he’d removed from the coffee machine and set on top of the coffee pot.
    A little sigh of anticipation slid from his lips as steam rose to mist his face with the aroma of brewing coffee. Teddy had to restrain himself from simply dumping the liquid impatiently into the cone, but anything worth doing was worth doing right. Besides, he wanted good coffee, not muck. He glanced at Katricia. She was leaning over the soup, eyes closed and inhaling the steam rising from it, and it made him smile slightly.
    â€œWhy don’t you fetch a couple bowls and a ladle and serve it up,” he suggested.
    Katricia didn’t have to be prompted twice; she was immediately slipping around him to get to the items he’d suggested. By the time he poured the last of the water into the cone, she’d divided the soup between two bowls, found soup spoons for both of them, and then picked them up, but paused to ask, “Do you want to eat at the table or by the fire?”
    â€œBy the fire,” Teddy decided as he fetched coffee cups for both of them. While it was warmer in the cottage than it had been, and it had seemed pleasant when he’d first come in from the cold, now that he’d been inside a few minutes, he was aware that it was chillier the farther you got away from the fire.
    Leaving Katricia to carry the soup into the living room, Teddy quickly poured them each a coffee, then grabbed spoons, the sugar bowl, and some powdered creamer from the cupboard and followed her. When she pushed the coffee table a little closer to the fire and sat on the carpet on one side of it, he moved around to the other side and set down their coffees and fixings.
    â€œMmmm.”
    Teddy glanced up from fixing his coffee to see that Katricia had neglected the chore to dive right into her soup. He smiled with amusement as she sighed with pleasure at the simple fare. “I’m guessing your mother isn’t much of a cook.”
    She looked surprised at the suggestion. “Why would you say that?”
    â€œBecause if you think a heated-up tin of salty soup with limp noodles in it is moan-worthy, you haven’t had good cooking, little girl,” he assured her.
    â€œHmm.” She tilted her head and then said, “Well, first of all, I’m not a little girl, and second, no one cooks for me. I don’t live with my mother and haven’t done so for a very, very long time.”
    â€œHell, two weeks is a very very long time to kids your age,” he said with a laugh and then asked, “So where do you live?”
    â€œNew York.”
    Teddy blinked at the answer. He’d expected her to say at university or some such thing. New York was an entirely different kettle of fish: the big city, crime central. He wouldn’t have let his daughter live there, had he had one. Sitting back, he eyed her more closely. She was athletic in build, with shoulders a little wider than her hips, and a smaller bosom. Teddy generally preferred curvy women. At least, Elvi, the woman he’d loved most of his life, was curvy. Elvi was also a redhead whereas this girl was a fresh-faced blonde, and yet he found her strangely appealing.
    Reining in his thoughts, Teddy frowned and turned his gaze down to his soup as he asked, “What do you do there?”
    â€œI’m presently in law enforcement, but I’m considering alternate career choices at the