Gabriel listened to them talk about wine tasting and good food, thinking maybe he could interest Serenity in taking the daylong trip with him. He’d never been to Napa and knew he would enjoy seeing it with her. A touch on his arm cut into his musings. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“Are you going to stand here staring off into space all day?” Nana asked, her hand on her hip. “Take the box on in for her.”

Out of his periphery, he saw Serenity fighting hard not to laugh. She climbed the steps and held the door open. He let Nana go in first and moved to the side to let Serenity pass.

“Better start paying attention,” Serenity whispered with a chuckle.

“Just tell me where to put this box.” He tried to keep a straight face but failed.

“Bring it on back to the kitchen.”

Gabriel left Nana in the living room and followed Serenity. After placing the box where she indicated, he dug his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Input your number and I’ll call you, so you’ll have mine.” She added her information to his contacts and handed it back. He hit the call button, let it ring once before disconnecting.

“Wow, I can’t believe Ms. Flora sent all this.”

He leaned over as Serenity dug below the bunches of greens to unearth tomatoes, strawberries, green beans, and a few other goodies. Her head came up and their faces were mere inches apart. Neither moved for several charged seconds. He leaned a fraction of an inch closer, wanting to find out if her lips tasted as sweet as the desserts she made. Then he remembered Nana was in the living room and thought better of it. “I’d better go.”

“Y-yes. You don’t want to keep Ms. Della waiting.”

“May I call you later?”

She nodded.

Unable to resist, he brushed his lips across her cheek, pivoted, and put one reluctant foot in front of the other to get away from temptation. She was slow to follow, and he could tell that she had been just as affected as he was by the moment.

“Thanks for bringing the goodie box, Ms. Della. I’ll call Ms. Flora later to thank her, too.”

“You’re welcome. Ready, Gabriel?” Nana divided a knowing glance between him and Serenity, then smiled.

Uh-oh. “Yes.”

“He’s cooking dinner for me tonight,” she told Serenity. “First time.”

“Ooh, that sounds fun. You’ll have to tell me how it turns out.”

Nana reached up and caressed his cheek. “He’ll do fine. Did I tell you the time he—”

Gabriel felt his cheeks warm. He needed to nip this conversation in the bud. “Come on, Nana. See you later, Serenity.” He hustled her out before she could finish whatever embarrassing story she planned to tell.