What's Cooking? Read Online Free PDF Page B

unvarnished truth. You say it's over, I'll take your word for it."
    "Thank you." She started to shut the door.
    "Not so fast," he said. "1 still want to know why it's over."
    "I doubt your ego can take it," she said, seizing on an explanation that was likely to rattle him. "Are you sure you want to hear my reason?"
    To her chagrin, he didn't back down. If anything, he actually looked amused. "Try me."
    She searched for a delicate but unmistakable way to put it that would be guaranteed to take the wind out of his sails.
    "You don't do anything for me," she said finally, managing to get the words out without tripping over the blatant lie.
    Rather than looking insulted or even angry, he actually laughed. "Really?"
    "Nothing," she insisted. "No zip, no zing, nothing."
    "And it took how many times in my bed and yours for you to figure that out?"
    "I was giving you the benefit of the doubt."
    "I see. Let me make sure I understand this. You're not attracted to me, so you took off from Boston just to get away from me? That's what you're saying?"
    She didn't trust herself to speak, so she nodded.
    Rick chuckled. "Sweetheart, I may be a totally clueless, dense male, but even I can see the contradiction in that."
    38
    WHAT'S COOKING?
    So could Maggie, but she refused to back down. She just dug the hole a little deeper. "I was hoping to spare your feelings. I was hoping to avoid an awkward, uncomfortable scene exactly like this. I figured by the time I got back, you would have moved on."
    "To what?"
    "Some other conquest."
    He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity, clearly mulling that over with more attention than he'd given her earlier claim. "That's what you're scared about, isn't it?" he said slowly, as if understanding were finally dawning. "You think I'll find someone else, so you're ending things before I can. And you're here because you didn't trust yourself to stick to your guns if you saw me long enough to tell me face-to-face."
    "Don't be absurd," she said, but without much gumption. It was hard to argue with the truth. She gave him what she hoped was a quelling look. "I'm not going to stand here and argue with you all night long. I gave you my answer. Now go."
    He leveled her a long, steady, disbelieving look at her, then finally nodded. "Okay, I'll go," he said at last.
    Just when Maggie was about to breathe a sigh of relief, though, he winked at her.
    "See you first thing in the morning," he said.
    "What?"
    "You've had your say," he explained patiently. "In the morning, I'll have mine."
    Even as Maggie was plotting how far away she could be by dawn, he added, "And don't even think about taking off again. I think it's evident that if I could find you
    39 39
    here, I can find you anywhere, unless you cut all ties with your family."
    So Ashley had blabbed, after all. Maggie had guessed as much the instant Rick appeared. "Maybe I won't tell Ashley where I've gone next time," she muttered with new resolve. "She seems to be unreliable."
    "Don't be too hard on her. She has your best interests at heart," Rick said.
    "Yours maybe. Not mine," she said sourly.
    He grinned. "I'm beginning to!think they could be the same tiling."
    He was gone before she could come up with any sort of quick rebuttal to that. Maggie stared after him as he drove away. Well, hell.
    As soon as he was out of sight, she marched inside and called her big sister.
    "You traitor!" she blurted as soon as Ashley picked up.
    "What did I do?"
    "As if you didn't know."
    "I don't know," Ashley said, sounding amazingly sincere.
    "Rick just left here," Maggie told her. "Do you get it now?"
    Ashley gasped. "How on earth did he find you?"
    "Only one way I can think of," Maggie said.
    "I swear I didn't tell him where you were," Ashley insisted.
    Maggie's irritation began to fade. Ashley would never lie so blatantly. "You didn't just happen to leave a little note on your desk where he could see it?"
    "No," her sister said flatly. "It's interesting, though."
    "What