She gazed up at him with her beautiful, trusting eyes, stirring something deep inside him. He always wanted to devour her, but right now he just wanted to love her. The realization didn’t hit with the force of a hurricane; it hit as swift as the wind, touching every iota of his being, lifting and filling him up in ways that made him feel whole. Oh yeah, he was definitely falling in love with her, and nothing had ever felt so right in all his life.

“Tapioca, extra sugar, and cinnamon,” she said softly, drawing him from his thoughts. “Those are Gram’s secret ingredients.”

“And love,” he said. “You said she made her pies with love.”

“Always,” she said just above a whisper.

Their eyes held so long, he wondered if she felt it, too.

“Oh gosh. The pies.” She laughed.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. “What?”

“The pies. We have to finish them and put in the secret ingredients. You put me under some kind of spell, and my head goes right up to the clouds.” She gave him a chaste kiss and turned back to the bowl.

“This Girl Is on Fire” came on, and she began dancing again, humming along as they put the apples into the mixture, and she stirred them. He loved watching her dance. He’d arrived early to pick up Kennedy from her class yesterday just so he could watch Roni in action. Roni was great with the kids, and she’d finally gotten Dottie to dance with the other girls. He wasn’t surprised. He didn’t know how anyone could resist her charms. Elisa had seen him standing in the doorway and had stopped to chat. She’d raved about Roni, telling him how driven she had been from the time she was a little girl, and how quickly and immensely she’d stood out among her classmates. She said Roni had a rare gift when it came to dancing, and she went on to describe how hard Roni had worked to get into Juilliard, practicing night and day for hours on end, year after year. Elisa had said she’d pushed herself to painful limits after the accident so she could dance again, and that she’d hoped Roni would dance in the showcase. Angela had made comments about that at the bonfire, too. He knew Roni loved teaching, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she shouldn’t let go of her dream completely. There had to be another angle where she could get on that stage and feel good about it.

Roni turned and tilted her head, looking quizzically at him, and he realized he was staring at her. “Like what you see?”

“Hell yes.”

She dragged her gaze down his bare chest and licked her lips, stirring the heat that was always simmering inside him for her, and said, “So do I, except something is missing.”

“Your hands on my body?”

“That, too,” she said with a giggle. “I guess you were so busy staring at me, you didn’t hear me ask you to please get the dough for the crust I made last night out of the fridge. We need to roll it out and get it ready.”