Kate arrived at home before Reid, so she started dinner. When her mother was ill, she and Jill had helped out around the house, and Kate had become a proficient cook. Jill had called earlier in the week to find out why their father had been so cranky since his trip to Nashville, and Kate poured out the whole story to her stunned sister. Kate desperately wanted to fix things with her dad, but she knew that was impossible as long as she was still with Reid. She stirred the sauce she’d filled with vegetables for primavera and buttered some Italian bread.

Reid came in through the kitchen door, which meant he’d been to the stables to visit Thunder and the other horses before he came in the house. “Hey, baby.”

Determined to put things back on track with him before she left for Vermont, she greeted him with a big smile and a kiss. “Hi. Are you hungry?”

“Starving. What’re you making?”

“Pasta primavera.”

He put an arm around her and peered into the pot. “Smells fabulous.”

She reached up to kiss him again and lingered when his arms tightened around her.

“Will it keep for a little while?” he asked as he lifted her onto the counter and kissed her ear, her neck, her throat.

“It’s better if it simmers for a bit,” she said with a coy smile.

Kissing her, he eased her back on the counter.

Startled, she looked up at him. “Here?”

“Right here.”

As he hovered over her so handsome and sexy, Kate wondered how she would ever live without him—without this—when she was on the road for months on end. But as he set out to drive her crazy with kisses to her neck, she ceased to think of anything but him.

Chapter 35

Aidan tossed another log into the woodstove and joined Clare on the sofa. He’d taken off his tie and rolled up his shirtsleeves.

Clare caressed his arm as she searched for the words she needed. “The first thing I want you to know is I love you so much. Every day I wake up with you and feel so lucky that I found you—that we found each other and now we have this amazing second chance at love. I know I’ve hurt you by not opening up to you before now, and I’m sorry for that.”

He clutched her hand. “You don’t have to be sorry.”

“I’d never hurt you intentionally. I hope you know that. I wanted us to have some time together without making everything that happened to me part of it. I’m not sure if you can understand…”

“Of course, I do.”

“I don’t even know where to begin,” she said with a sigh.

He drew her into his arms and kissed her forehead. “How about the beginning?”