“Rusty is going to love this. I love it.” Andrew sat down on the stool right next to her. “I forgot how much I enjoy watching you work. Better than TV. I have to admit, even if we hadn’t done the glass work, that fish is an amazing topper.”

“Are you worried the splash isn’t going to work?”

“Not at all.”

“Time will tell,” she said with a smirk. Tilting her head to one side, she stole a slanted glance his way.

“It always does.” He leaned in closer.

His breath was warm on her neck. Quickly she re-coiled the airbrush hose and stepped to the other counter, putting some distance between them. This was fun, but that was all it could be.

“Umm.” Andrew jumped up from the stool. “Why don’t we work on those cattails you mentioned?” He stayed where he was and started another batch of sugar glass, this time in a goldish-green. “Here, take over.”

She stirred and watched the temperature like he’d taught her. “You’re right. This is easy once you understand the timing of it all. I think the key is how much time you have to work with it before it gets past the pliant stage. It would have taken me forever to figure that out. I love this.”

“I knew you would.” His hand grazed hers again.

She sucked in a quick breath just as the timer went off on the oven. She gave him a quick smile and zipped over to the oven to get the cakes out.

“I’ll get those.” He grabbed the oven door.

“Okay, thanks.”

“You try your hand at some sugar ribbons with what’s left there.” He set the cakes on the cooling rack.

“I’m going to make the cattails with this green we made.” She poured the liquid out onto the marble pad, then rolled it into a sausage-shaped pod. As it cooled, she stretched it a bit more, changing the color and striations a bit at the same time. “This turned out better than I’d hoped. I love it.” She slowly poured the green leaves and shaped them.

Andrew reached over her with a pair of long tweezers she usually used to place edibles on wedding cakes. “May I?”

She had no idea what he planned to do. “Why not?” Why was he being so nice? She wanted so badly to not be nice to him, but all the things she’d liked best about him hadn’t changed at all. Just like old times.

He reached around her, his chin close to her shoulder, then picked up the pointed end of the cattail leaf and folded it over, holding it at an angle for a moment to keep it from flattening into itself.

“That looks amazing.”

“Wait until we stand a few up together.”

“I see what you mean.”