Gift of Gold

of pasta boiled over onto the stovetop.
    * * *
    The day went surprisingly smoothly after that. The No Bull Cafe got busy around eleven-thirty, which took Verity’s mind off the problems she was having dealing with the men in her life. She ran the kitchen with a firm, competent hand, giving orders to Emerson and Jonas, greeting her guests, organizing the cooking. She was in her element.
    By the time the No Bull closed for the afternoon, she felt much better. There was nothing like taking charge of a situation to restore a woman’s self-confidence. As she totaled up the noon profits and prepared to make a trip to the bank, she told herself she could even deal with the shaky beginning to her first love affair.
    “Going into town with the loot?” Jonas asked, wiping his hands on a towel as he finished the dishes.
    “That’s right.”
    “I’ll ride shotgun with you. I want to pick up some more beer.”
    Verity tried to keep her pleasure from showing. This would be the first time she would be alone with Jonas all day. “All right, you can come as long as you don’t buy any junk food to go with the beer.”
    Jonas tossed aside the towel. “Honey, you know you can’t drink beer without junk food. The two go together in a very delicate chemical process. It would be foolish to interfere. No telling what harm might be done. Let’s go.”
    The day was sunny and warm, the kind of fall day that would help ensure a good harvest for the nearby wineries. The road from the lake front into the town of Sequence Springs passed through a stand of trees and then through a wide meadow. Jonas reached out and took Verity’s hand as they walked along the roadside. His fingers tightened around hers.
    “Okay. Verity,” he said calmly, “let’s have it.”
    She glanced up in surprise. “Have what?”
    “The morning-after postmortem.”
    “Oh.” She thought about it. “is a postmortem necessary?”
    He raised one brow. “Not as far as I’m concerned, but I thought it was de rigueur from the female point of view.”
    “You’ve had to endure a lot of postmortems?” she demanded.
    “Ouch. Don’t get snappish on me. The answer to your question is no, I haven’t had to endure a lot of them. Not for quite a while. You want to know the truth? It’s been one hell of a long time since I’ve been with a woman. Contrary to popular female opinion, a man does get to a stage in his life when he realizes he can abstain for extended periods of time without committing hara-kiri. Or maybe he just gets to the point where he finds it’s easier to do without than go through the postmortems.” He paused and then said a little roughly, “I’m sorry I was clumsy with you last night”
    “You weren’t clumsy,” Verity snapped. “I’ve already told you that. I doubt if you could be clumsy if you tried. Things got a bit rushed, that’s all. Everything was going beautifully until I found that earring.”
    “Finding it scared you, didn’t it?” He stopped and pulled her into his arms beside the deserted road. The warm sun beat down on both of them as he caught her questioning face between his palms. “I’m sorry about that, too, Verity. The last thing I want to do is frighten you. Let’s just give ourselves some time, okay?”
    “Time?”
    “Isn’t that what you were asking for last night? Time to get to know each other? We’ve got lots of time, sweetheart. I made up my mind this morning to back off. You don’t have to be afraid I’m going to show up on your doorstep every night trying to talk you back into bed. I won’t rush you again.”
    Verity smiled tremulously. “Dad said he saw you reading Machiavelli this morning. Is this new strategy a result of a refresher course in the sneaky uses of power and politics?”
    “Are you admitting I’ve got some power over you, sneaky or otherwise?”
    “Not for a minute.”
    He smiled but his eyes were serious and intent. “You’re important to me, Verity. I don’t want to screw things up between us by pushing you too hard. Just give me a chance. I give you my word I’ll take it easy for a while. I want you to trust me.”
    She thought about the earring that had fallen out of his pocket last night. Then she thought about all the things she had learned about men from watching her father over the years.
    There were very few males in the world who would take a romantic gesture as far as Jonas had taken it when he traced her out of Mexico.
    A man who followed his own whims,