I don’t think so, Anna thought with a wisely controlled chuckle as she cheerily waved him off. The second his truck was out of sight, she dusted her palms together. Mission accomplished.

‘‘Just what the hell was that?’’ Cam demanded, making her jolt with surprise.

‘‘I don’t know what you mean.’’ She would have sailed past him and into the house, but he stepped out, blocked her path.

‘‘Oh, yeah, you know what I mean.’’ Intrigued, he angled his head. She was trying to look innocent, he decided, but couldn’t pull it off. Too much pure glee in her eyes. ‘‘Exchanging recipes, Anna?’’

‘‘So what?’’ She lifted a shoulder. ‘‘I’m a very good cook.’’

‘‘No argument there, but you’re not the recipe-emergency type, and if you’d been so hell-bent on giving one to Grace, you’d have picked up the phone. Which is something you didn’t give Ethan a chance to point out, since you were so busy batting your lashes at him and cooing like some empty-headed twit.’’

‘‘Twit?’’

‘‘Which you’re not,’’ he continued, slowly backing her up until she was trapped against the porch rail. ‘‘At all. Shrewd, savvy, sharp.’’ He laid his hands on either side of her hips to cage her. ‘‘That’s what you are.’’

It was, she supposed, a fine compliment. ‘‘Thank you, Cameron. Now I really should get to that report.’’

‘‘Uh-uh. Why’d you con Ethan into going over to Grace’s?’’

She shook back her hair, aimed a bland look dead into his eyes. ‘‘I’d think a shrewd, savvy, sharp guy like you ought to be able to figure that out.’’

His brows drew together. ‘‘You’re trying to get something going between them.’’

‘‘Something is going between them, but your brother is slower than a lame turtle.’’

‘‘He’s slower than a lame turtle with bifocals, but that’s Ethan. Don’t you think they should muddle through this on their own?’’

‘‘All they need is five minutes alone, and that’s all I did—work it out so they’d have a few minutes alone. Besides’’—she slipped her arms up and around his neck— ‘‘we deliriously happy women want everyone else to be deliriously happy, too.’’

He cocked a brow. ‘‘Do you think I’m going to fall for that?’’

She smiled, then leaned over to nip his bottom lip. ‘‘Yeah.’’

‘‘You’re right,’’ he murmured and let her convince him.

• • •

ETHAN SAT IN HIS TRUCK for a full five minutes. Recipes? That was the dumbest damn thing he’d ever heard of. He’d always thought Anna was a sensible woman, but here she was, sending him off to deliver recipes, for Christ’s sake.

And he wasn’t ready to see Grace just yet. Not that his mind wasn’t made up about her, but . . . even a rational man had certain weaknesses.