One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(25)

Her calm presence, and the fact that she wasn’t a Briscoe, with that same loaded history, was comforting. He was glad Granny June had insisted she join them on their stroll, but there was no logical reason that his personal chef should take a boat ride with him and his grandmother. The trouble was, he found himself very much wishing she would, and yet he had no earthly idea how to ask her to stay without making it weird.

“Wait just a second, there,” Granny June said, looping her arm with Emily’s. “I insist you come along. Besides, you’re my ride home. Make an old woman happy and take a rowboat ride with us.”

“I thought Knox was going to drive you home.” Emily blinked, then a thought dawned on her and she looked at Knox. “Oh. Your truck. I forgot, you can’t. Yeah, I’ll have to be the one to drive her.”

Knox could have corrected her—he should have corrected her—and told her about him borrowing Shayla’s car to get Granny June home. But he didn’t.

Emily looked at him pointedly and nodded at the rowboat, as though checking in with him for permission to join them. He faked a nonchalant nod and shrug, as though to say, Why not. There’s no harm in it.

“All right, then. A boat ride it is,” Emily said.

But if there was truly no harm in Emily joining them, then why did it feel dangerous for her to take his hand and step onto the boat with him. Why did it feel as though they were crossing over into uncharted territory?

After helping Emily get seated, he reached a hand back to aid Granny June, but headlights distracted him. A red, compact car bounded up Knox’s driveway.

“Whoops,” Granny June said. “That’s Paco. I’ve got to go.”

What? “I thought Emily was taking you home.”

Granny June tapped her temple. “This daffy old mind. I can’t keep anything straight these days.”

“But…” Emily spluttered.

Knox couldn’t decide if he should call bullshit or agree with Granny June because her mind did seem to tip onto the daffy side. Before he could speak, Granny June had crouched down with a litheness that belied her age and untied the boat from the dock.

“You two go on ahead and have fun. Don’t forget to take pictures of the resort from the lake. They’d look great on my Facebook page. Speaking of which—” She brought forth a smart phone and before either Emily or Knox could do more than open their mouths in protest, she snapped a shot, blinding them with the flash.

Knox was blinking away the bright spots from his vision when the boat rocked. Granny June had shoved them off.

“I’d better not keep Paco waiting. You kids have fun, now.”

“But…” Emily said again.

But Granny June was already walking at a brisk clip toward the sedan. It might have been Knox’s imagination, but she seemed to have a bit of a skip in her step.





Chapter Six

No. No. No. Granny June was not trying to play matchmaker for Emily. And especially not with Knox, of all the men in the world. Granny June knew Emily didn’t date. She knew how critical this month was for Emily’s career. What the heck was she thinking?

Over the years, Emily had been a gleeful spectator of Granny June’s matchmaking antics around the resort and the town of Dulcet. The woman had practically strong-armed Carina and Decker into falling in love, as well as a lot of other Briscoe Ranch employees. Emily had even played assistant matchmaker on occasion, delivering covert gifts and acting as wingman for Granny June’s plots, but Granny June had never tried to set Emily up with a man before, so Emily had figured she was in the clear.

And yet, here Emily was, duped into a boat ride with her hunky boss. In the moonlight.

Granny June really was a master of subterfuge.

“You don’t see it coming when it happens to you,” she muttered.

“What?”

Emily shook her head. “Nothing. Never mind.” Boy, would Granny June be in for a disappointment with this misguided attempt. It was totally going to ruin her matchmaking success rate.

An awkward silence settled over the boat, with both Knox and Emily sitting, frozen as though stunned, as the boat drifted farther from shore.

“We don’t have to…” Knox’s voice trailed off.

“No, definitely not.”

With stiff, robot-like movement, Knox took up the oars. Fog swirled over the water and reflected the moonlight, shining bright silver over the fathomless onyx depths of the lake.

Nearby, a fish jumped, landing with a tremendous splash and rocking the boat. Knox seemed to come to life again. His eyes glittered as he scanned the water. “I think that was it.”

“A fish?”

He scooted to the edge and looked directly down into the water, frowning. “Not a fish. The fish.”

“A friend of yours?”

“More like a mortal enemy. The son of a bitch that knocked me over when my truck rolled into the lake. It’s like some crazy, huge attack fish. And now it’s taunting me, jumping out of the water every time I’m near it.”

She grinned. That might have been the most preposterous thing she’d ever heard, except that she had also seen a huge fish performing acrobatic feats out of the water that week. “An attack fish?”

“Laugh if you want, but it’s no joke. That thing was insane. It definitely wanted a piece of me.”