"You sure know how to wrap a present."
"If you're going to give somebody a gift, you should take the time to make it nice."
He took out the tri-colored candle in a squat, clear jar. "It's great." He sniffed. "Smells terrific. You made this?"
"We like to make stuff, right, Mom? See you have to melt the wax and then add the smelly stuff and junk. I picked out the smells."
"For the holidays," Zoe explained. "The top layer's apple pie and the middle's cranberry, with Christmas tree at the bottom. There's a tile in there to set it on. The bottom of the jar gets hot."
He took out the white tile with cranberries painted on each corner.
"Mom painted the berries, and I put the glaze stuff on."
"It's terrific." He set the tile on the counter and the candle on top. Then bent down to hug Simon. When he straightened, he grinned at the boy. "You may want to look away."
"How come?"
"I'm going to kiss your mother."
"Gack." Though Simon covered his face with his hands, there was a warmth in his belly.
"Thank you." Brad laid a light kiss on Zoe's lips. "All clear, kid."
"Are you going to light the present?" Simon demanded.
"I am." Brad took a long, slim tool out of a drawer and lit the wick. "Looks great. Where did you learn to make candles?"
"Just something I picked up. I've been experimenting. I'm hoping to get good enough to carry a line of candles and potpourri and that kind of thing in the salon."
"I would carry something like that at HomeMakers."
Zoe stared at her candle. "You would?"
"We'll be stocking a lot more items like decorative candles after the expansion. You'll have to show me some of the others you've done, and we'll talk."
"Is it okay if I go in the game room?" Simon asked. "I brought back Smackdown, so we can have our rematch."
"Sure. There's another game loaded. You can switch it."
"Are you going to come play now?"
"I've got to start putting dinner together, but you can go work up an appetite. I want you hungry. I had the frog legs flown in special."
"Uh-uh."
"Giant frog legs. From Africa."
"No way."
"Or we can just have steak."
"Frog steak!"
"Naturally." On a mock scream, Simon tore out of the room.
"You're awfully good with him," Zoe said.
"He makes it easy. Why don't you sit down and—" He broke off when Simon's shouted "Holy cow!" burst out of the game room. "He found the new game."
"Bradley."
"Hmm?"
"I have to ask you for a promise. Don't say all right yet," she cautioned, turning her glass round and round by the stem as she studied his face. "It's important, and if you take the time to think about it first, I'll believe you'll keep your word."
"What do you want me to promise, Zoe?"
"Simon—he's so attached to you. He's never had… somebody like you pay attention to him, not this way. It's getting so he's depending on you paying that attention. I need you to promise that whatever happens with us, whatever way it turns out, you won't forget him. I'm not talking about riding in limos. I'm asking you to promise that you won't stop being a friend to him."
"He's not the only one who's attached, Zoe. I can make you that promise." He offered his hand. "You've got my word."
She took his hand, squeezed it as the tension that had built inside her while she made her request dissolved again. "All right. Well." She looked around the kitchen. "What can I do?"
"You can sit down and drink your champagne."
"I ought to be able to help with those African frog legs."
He cupped the back of her neck with his hand, kissed her, not quite so lightly, not quite so casually as he had when Simon had been in the room. "Sit down, and drink your champagne," he said again, flicking a finger at her earlobe. "Nice earrings."
She gave a quick, baffled laugh. "Thanks." Though she still felt as if she should be helping, she perched on a stool at the bar. "Are you really going to cook?"
"I'm going to grill, which is entirely different. All the Vane men grill. If they didn't they'd be drummed out of the family."
"You're going to grill? In November?"
"We Vanes grill year-round, even if we have to chip through the ice, brave blizzards, risk frostbite. However, it happens I have this very handy deal right here on the range."
"I've seen those in magazines." She watched him fire up the built-in grill on the stovetop. "And on TV, on some of the cooking shows."
He tucked potatoes already wrapped in foil around the flame. "Just don't tell my father I used this instead of standing outside like a man."
"Lips are sealed." She sipped champagne while he went to the refrigerator and pulled out a tray of hors d'oeuvres. "You made these?"
He considered for a moment as he set the platter on the counter in front of her. "I could lie and really impress you, but instead I'll dazzle you with my honesty. They're from Luciano's, and so's the chocolate bomb for dessert, and the lobster tails."
"Lobster tails? Luciano's?" She selected one of the canapйs, slipped it between her lips, and moaned as the flavors melted on her tongue.
"Good?"
"Amazing. It's all amazing. I'm trying to figure out how Zoe McCourt came to be sitting here drinking champagne and eating canapйs from Luciano's. It doesn't seem real. You are trying to dazzle me, Bradley. And it's working."
"I like seeing you smile. Do you know the first time you really smiled at me? When I gave you a stepladder."
"I smiled at you before that."
"Nope. Not really. God knows I wanted you to, but you seemed set on misunderstanding and taking offense at every second word out of my mouth."
"That's—" She cut herself off, then let out a laugh. "Probably true."
"But I cagily won you over, or started to, with a fiberglass stepladder."
"I didn't know it was a ploy. I thought it was considerate."
"It was a considerate ploy. You need more champagne."
She debated with herself while he went to get the bottle. "You intimidated me."
"Excuse me?"
"You intimidated me, still do, a little. And the house intimidated me. The first time I came here, to meet Malory, and saw you. I walked into this big, beautiful house, and there was the painting you'd bought." "After the Spell"
"Yes. It was such a shock to see that, and to be here. My head was spinning. I said something about having to get back home for Simon, for my son, and you looked down at my hand, saw I wasn't wearing a wedding ring."
"Zoe—"
She shook her head. "And you got this look on your face. It set me off."
"Apparently you started misunderstanding me right from the get-go." As an afterthought, he topped off his own glass. "I'm going to tell you about the painting, and that's going to give you a very big advantage in this relationship we're starting."
Dating. Relationship. Her head was going to start spinning again. "I don't know what you mean."
"You will. When I saw that painting for the first time, well, that was a stunner. There's Dana, my best friend's kid sister. Someone I cared about a great deal."
He leaned against the bar, casually elegant in his black sweater, with her homemade candle flickering between them. "Then there was Malory. Of course, I didn't know her yet, but there was something that made me stop and think, made me look a little closer."
He paused, and tucked two fingers under Zoe's chin. "Then there was this face. This incredible face. I could hardly breathe for looking at it. I was undone by that face. I had to have that painting. I'd have paid anything for it."