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She pulled back, giving him a cute grin. “We need to stop before I take you to the bedroom, and this delicious food gets cold.”
“You have a microwave,” he said before palming her ass.
“Tempting, but you shouldn’t have made my favourite food. My growling stomach demands satisfaction.”
He laughed and gave her a gentle push back toward the table. “Fair enough.”
He went to work dishing out the food onto the plates as Savina disappeared into the dining room. She came back a few minutes later. “Hal, you cleaned the puppy pen?”
“I did,” he said. “I needed something to do while the food was cooking.”
“Oh my God, you might be the perfect man.” She sat down and took another sip of wine.
“Not even close,” he said as he set the bowls of coleslaw on the table before bringing over the plates. He set them down and sat in the chair next to hers. Savina stared at the food, and he could almost see her mouth watering.
“This looks and smells delicious.”
“Dig in,” he said.
They ate silently, Savina making cute little sounds of happiness as she sampled everything. “This is perfection. Seriously, Hal.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. How was your day?” He ate a bite of chicken before swallowing some wine.
“It was nice. I had a few people stop by for egg pickups this morning, and then I had coffee with Wanda and stopped at Warren’s new place after that. I helped him do more unpacking and hang some pictures. It’s why I’m a bit late. How was your day?”
“Good. Busy at the clinic, but not insane.” He ate a forkful of coleslaw and then a potato wedge, raising his eyebrows when he realized that Savina had stopped eating and was staring at him. “You okay?”
“I am,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Okay,” he said.
She hesitated, studying him and the food on the table before she shook her head. “You know what? Never mind. We can talk about it another time.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Positive.” She gave him another bright and beaming smile. “Are you staying the night?”
“Yes, if you’re okay with that?”
“Of course,” she said. “There’s a new HBO show I want to watch. I thought we could start it tonight.”
“Sure.” They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they ate. The nagging worry that she might not want him to stay the night was gone, and he dug into the food with a renewed relish. He’d spent every night this week with her and while he knew it was too much, knew that his actions came across as more than a friends with benefits relationship, he couldn’t help himself. Being with Savina felt as necessary as breathing to him.
You should slow down. Spending every night with her, making her favourite dinner… you’re sending all the wrong signals, buddy.
He ignored his inner voice. He and Savina were friends, and friends did nice things for each other.
“You okay?” Savina touched his hand, and he turned it over so he could link their fingers together.
He pushed away the lingering doubt. “I’m good.”
* * *
“Esther,stop that! Louanne, don’t be so pushy. There’s plenty for everyone.” Savina added the last of the greens to the pans she’d set up as the chickens jostled for a place at each pan.
She moved Louanne away from Esther, the two hens were always quick to fight, and added more feed to the long feeder tray while the girls gobbled up the greens. She collected the eggs and added them to the basket before stepping out of the coop and into the large covered mesh run attached to the coop. Her worry that foxes or coyotes would break into the mesh run and attack her girls had never come to fruition, thanks to the combined efforts of Alan, Hal, and Solomon. They’d spent a weekend building the secure and sturdy mesh run when she’d first decided to start her egg business.
Ruth and Bonnie had followed her out into the run, and she spent a few moments petting each hen and giving them some love before picking up her basket of eggs and heading toward the house.
