Free A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember by Jill Shalvis Page A

plate away. “Nick would have made chili.”
    â€œSally—”
    â€œAnd looked damn good while doing it.”
    â€œNick?” Natalia asked.
    â€œThe guy I would have hired for the job,” Sally said.
    Natalia looked down at her plate. “Chili. I hadn’t thought of that. Or that I’d taken a job from someone who needed it.”
    â€œNick has another job already,” Tim said.
    â€œOh, okay then.”
    Seth leaned forward eagerly. “You know, chili is really easy, Natalia. I bet you could do it.”
    Pete nodded hopefully.
    â€œWell, it’s not really a gourmet thing, chili.” Natalia tilted her head and considered. “But…”
    Tim poked at whatever was on his plate. “Is that what this is? Gourmet?”
    â€œOf course.” Natalia set down her fork. “What did you think it was?”
    He looked into her eyes. What did he think? That she looked very anxious, and not very tough, as she clearly wanted to be. That she was incredibly appealing looking at him like that.
    That he couldn’t tell her everything she touched was inedible. “I…”
    She pushed her plate away, looked aghast. “You didn’t know.” When he winced, she shook her head.
    â€œOh my God. You didn’t know. You thought I couldn’t cook.”
    â€œWell—”
    â€œNo.” She stood up, looking mortified. “You thought…you just chalked it up to my craziness. Right? Oh, let poor Natalia alone. She thinks she’s a princess, she thinks she can cook, she thinks…” She shook her head again, covered her mouth. “Excuse me.”
    She rose and stalked from the room in her denim and combat boots.
    At the table, the men all turned accusing gazes on him. “Now you did it,” Pete whispered. “You hurt her feelings.”
    â€œYeah. Go fix it.” Red pointed to the door. “Go tell her it’s only you. Tell her we love everything she made.”
    Sally rolled her eyes. “Oh, jeez. You guys are as pathetic as she is.”
    â€œHey, now, she never did anything to you,” Pete said. “Except maybe try hard.”
    Tim sighed, tossed aside his napkin and stood. “I’ll talk to her.”
    â€œYeah, you’d better,” Pete said. “Go make it right.”
    Everyone but Sally nodded, and Tim might have laughed if it wasn’t so damn touching. Every one of them was willing to eat the inedible, just to save Natalia’s feelings.
    â€œBunch of softies,” Sally muttered.
    Tim had to agree. And with the exception of a certain of part of his anatomy that was rarely “soft” around Natalia, he was the biggest softie of all.
    Â 
    H E FOUND HER on the back deck, watching the moon. She leaned back against one of the wood posts, her hands behind her on the wood, her face hidden by shadows. But not her body, which was illuminated by the glow of the moon, appearing all long and curved and gorgeous.
    It made no sense. In the jeans and T-shirt, covered now with an old opened flannel shirt of his, she should have looked ordinary. Plain.
    But she took his breath. “You okay?”
    â€œSure. For a crazy lady.”
    â€œNatalia—”
    She didn’t look at him. “I know what you guys think of me.”
    He moved into her line of vision, standing in front of her so that she had no choice but to take her gaze from the moon and look at him. “They care about you,” he said. “And so do I.”
    â€œLike you’d care about a blind goat.”
    â€œI don’t think you’re a blind goat, Natalia.”
    She let out a rough breath and turned away, but not before he caught the glimmer of a sheen of tears in her eyes.
    â€œI don’t,” he said softly. “I just—”
    â€œâ€”think I’m a three-legged pig who needs a stable.”
    She moved fast, and might have gotten away if he hadn’t grabbed her