Page 66 of Cautious Love

“Yeah, I guess it is isn’t it?” she says, as if she’s just now realizing it. She puts her hands on her hips and bounces on her toes. “You can be my guinea pig,” she says.

I huff. “I think I can manage that, hopefully they don’t kill me.” I grin, and she gasps throwing a dish towel at me.

“That’s not fair! I’ve never done it before!”

I shrug and set my thermos on the counter. “Can never be too safe.”

“Maybe Ishouldpoison them,” she says with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“That won’t be a hard case to solve.”

She purses her lips. “I’m better at committing crimes then you’re giving me credit for.”

I try not to smile, but my mouth has a mind of its own.

Shiloh’s eyes widen as she realizes what she said.

“Oh, I’m well aware of thecrimes you’ve committed,criminal.”

“Okay, I walked right into that one,” she says and gestures.

I snort and angle for my room, and then she says, “So, uh, are you going to be around tonight? You don’t have to go back to the ranch or anything?”

Turning to face her she shifts on her feet and the hopeful look on her face, gives me far too many ideas.Ledger pull it together.

“Yeah, I’m in for the night.”

She nods rapidly. “Good, cool, awesome,” she says.

“Uh, huh,” I mumble.

“I’m going to work on these cookies. I’ve read the recipe ten times, but I’m still afraid I’ll mess them up.”

“You won’t learn anything if you don’t try it,” I tell her.

She nods. “Yeah.”

Leaving her to her attempt at baking I hit the showers.

Tipping my head back, I let the water fall over my face, washing the shampoo from my hair.

Then I hear a yelp, and a second later, the fire detector starts going off. Then a scream.

Dear God please don’t let her burn down my house.

I grab a towel quickly wrapping it around my waist and run out to the kitchen to find a something on fire on a tray with the stove wide open. Calmly walking over to the oven I shut it, to contain the fire, flip off the oven and go to the sliding door to air out the smoky kitchen.

Shiloh stands there with mouth wide open, oven mitts on her hands and somehowmoreflour all over her face. Her hazel eyes glitter and I can sense the tears coming. When June made that face I learned to run the other way.

I glance at the oven and they’re still smoking, but I have to let it die down before I can pull them out. If I grabbed them and threw them outside, it’s so dry they could start a fire. So the best option is to let them burn out on their own. I guess I’ll need a new cookie sheet, and a long day scrubbing my oven.Great.

Keeping my towel together with one hand, I wait for an explanation, but I think she’s in shock.

“So do you want to tell me what happened here?” I ask her.

“I don’t know,” she squeaks. “I followed directions, how did they catch on fire? How is that possible?” she asks nearly in hysterics.

The air kicks on and I shiver because I’m still dripping and there’s probably still soap in my hair.