“I wonder when your date will get here,” Greg said to Nick.

  “I’m told your parents invited dates for all of you?” Lily said.

  “Yep, all four of us,” Nick confirmed. “Though I suspect my sister’s date will be heading off any minute.”

  Just then, there was some yelling from another room.

  “I never want to see you again!” shouted a woman.

  “How did things get so bad so fast?” Lily asked.

  “They already know each other,” Nick said. “In fact, they used to date, and apparently it did not end well.”

  He left and came back with his hand grasped around a smaller man’s upper arm.

  “I don’t care that my parents invited you,” Nick said. “My sister never wants to see you again, so you’re not staying for dinner.”

  “But...”

  Greg opened the door and Nick shoved the man out. He slapped his hands together afterward.

  Lily had to admit, the whole thing turned her on a little.

  “Ah, who is here?” said a female voice.

  Suddenly, there was a whole crowd of people in the front hall, just as Lily was in the process of taking off her shoes.

  “You are Lily!” said the elderly woman, presumably Nick’s grandmother. “Yes, your mother is right, you are very pretty.”

  “Uh, thank you.”

  “Welcome to our home. I’ll take those for you.” A middle-aged white woman held out her hands, and Lily passed her the Nanaimo bars. “I’m Rosemary, Greg’s mother.”

  “Uh, hi. Nice to meet you.”

  “This is my husband, Stuart.” She gestured toward an Asian man with long, graying hair. He bore a slight resemblance to Nick.

  “You can call me Ah Ma,” said the elderly lady. “You will be part of the family soon, so you might as well.”

  “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Rosemary said. “This is just a setup since Greg here isn’t very good at meeting women. Like our other sons.”

  A moment later, the doorbell rang, and Nick opened the door to reveal a petite white woman with wavy blond hair. She wore jeans and an off-the-shoulder floral top.

  “You must be Nick!” She grinned, then gave him a hug. “I’m Janice.”

  Janice had a rather squeaky voice.

  Or maybe she didn’t, and Lily was just jealous because Janice was touching Nick and she wasn’t.

  She tried to push those feelings aside. She had no claim on him, and if Nick was genuinely interested in this woman, what was Lily going to do? He was welcome to be interested in any woman he liked. He’d done nothing wrong.

  Then he looked at Lily. Was it her imagination, or was that a lustful look in his eyes?

  Nah, must be her imagination.

  She took a deep breath. This was going to be a long dinner.

  * * *

  Nick surveyed the table. There was turkey and stuffing, as well as roasted potatoes, butternut squash, sautéed snow peas, and a large dish of noodles they simply called “Ah Yeh’s noodles.” Nick had no idea what was in them, but they’d always been his and Amber’s favorite, and one year when he was about eight, he’d begged his grandfather to make them for Thanksgiving, and Ah Yeh had done it every year since. There was also lots of cranberry sauce and gravy and warm rolls, plus the char siu he’d brought from Toronto.

  It might not be strictly traditional, but in Nick’s family, this was tradition, like Pictionary at Chinese New Year.

  And this year, they might actually eat most of the enormous quantity of food, since there were three more people than usual.

  Lily was sitting next to Greg. He said something to her quietly, and she laughed.

  Nick tightened his hand on his fork. Dammit.

  Why did his brother get set up with Lily? Why couldn’t Nick have been set up with Lily instead? His brother was all wrong for her, that much was obvious. Lily needed someone to add a little excitement to her day-to-day life. To introduce her to one-night stands and having soup dumplings as a late-night snack.

  She and Greg together? It would be dull.

  Not that he thought Lily was dull by herself, oh no, but...

  Nick gave his head a shake. He was acting like he knew Lily well after they’d spent a grand total of one night together; in truth, he hardly knew her at all.

  Except he felt like he did.

  He turned his attention back to the woman sitting beside him. Janice was a pig farmer. He had not expected the pint-sized blonde to be a pig farmer, of all things, but she’d taken over the family farm—about twenty minutes from Mosquito Bay—from her father.

  Which meant she was totally wrong for Nick.

  Despite having grown up in this small town on the shores of Lake Huron, he was very much a city guy, and Janice was committed to her pig farm. She also grew soybeans and corn and was telling him unnecessary details about the crops. Details he was sure someone else would be delighted to listen to.

  But he wasn’t that guy.

  She also seemed to think his family would be particularly interested in soybeans, perhaps because they were Asian? It was a little weird.

  “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the char siu.

  “Barbecued pork. I brought it from Toronto. Here.” He picked up a piece with his fork and placed it on her plate. “What do you think?”

  She put it in her mouth and cocked her head to one side. “Not bad.”

  Not bad? It was the best char siu in Toronto. He’d tried dozens of places over the years he’d lived in the city. This one was the best.

  Though the char siu in the slider at Lychee had been pretty good, too. Or maybe that was just the company.

  He shot a look across the table. Lily was already looking at him, and her gaze suffused him with warmth.

  Jesus, he was losing it.

  He’d already slept with her, for God’s sake. He shouldn’t be this affected by her.

  Nick enjoyed a variety of women, had never felt the need to commit to just one. He was young and rich and good-looking, and he enjoyed flirting with new women in bars, dancing with them in clubs. He was always honest about what he was looking for and never led anyone on.

  But now, what he wanted more than anything was to sit next to Lily at Thanksgiving dinner. Then he could put his hand on her leg, like he’d done at Lychee, and admire her from up close. Whisper in her ear and hear her laugh just for him.

  His parents had done a piss-poor job of matchmaking. Lily made no sense for Greg, and Janice made no sense for Nick. His parents had also done a bad job with Zach and Diana, who seemed to grate on each other’s nerves.

  Amber, lucky her, was seated next to an empty chair, where Darren should have been, but Amber had gotten so angry at the sight of him that Nick had thrown the bastard out. Why did Mom and Dad think setting her up with an ex was the way to go?

  Yes, once this dinner was over, he would make his feelings clear to his parents.

  There would be no more matchmaking. End of story.

  “So, Lily,” Ah Ma said. “What do you do for Thanksgiving in your family? You have turkey?”

  Lily shook her head. “One year when I was in elementary school, I begged my parents to have a normal Thanksgiving dinner, like all the other kids. So they bought a turkey, and I’m not sure what went wrong.” She chuckled. “But there was lots of yelling, and by nine o’clock that night, the turkey still wasn’t done, so we ordered Kentucky Fried Chicken. And that’s what we have for Thanksgiving every year now. KFC and an apple pie my mom buys at the grocery store.”

  “Where did you grow up?” Nick asked.

  “Ingleford.”

  Ah. It was a small town south of London, Ontario if he remembered correctly; Mosquito Bay was to the northwest.

  He wanted to ask her more questions. He wanted to know more about her than what kind of bubble tea she liked and how she ate her soup dumplings.

  But she was Greg’s date.

  God, he could barely stand it.

  “What about you?” he asked Janice. “You do the whole turkey thing?”

  “Yeah. All my extended family. There’s twenty-six of us. Or is it twenty-seven now? I keep forgetting.”

  Nobody said anything for a few minutes, all busy eating their turkey and stuffing and veggies and noodles. Amber, as usual, had loaded up almost entirely on noodles and stuffing. Zach had mostly meat. Greg’s plate was perfectly balanced, as always.

  Conversation was not flowing naturally.

  This, Nick supposed, was what happened when your parents unexpectedly invited dates for all their children. It probably didn’t help that he was thinking about how he wanted to rip off his brother’s date’s pink sweater and feed her Nanaimo bars.

  He hadn’t eaten a Nanaimo bar in a long time, and he was craving one now.

  Did Greg actually like Lily...like that? Or was he just being nice?

  Nick and his older brother had never fought over a woman before, perhaps because Greg only occasionally showed interest in anyone and rarely bothered with anything as pedestrian as socializing.

  Though he seemed to be doing a good enough job with Lily now.

  “Nick, how are things in Toronto?” Ah Ma asked. “You do good business? You trick lots of people into buying things?”

  “Thank you for that wonderful description of my job.”

  “What do you do?” Janice asked. “My parents didn’t tell me, just said you were some fancy Toronto businessman.”

  “I work in advertising.”

  “Like Mad Men?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Just like Mad Men.”

  “You like living in the city?” She made a face.

  “Yeah, I love it.”

  “Don’t you find it noisy?”

  “I live on the fifty-third floor. It’s not too noisy up there.”

  “Fifty-third floor?” Janice sputtered. “I’m afraid of heights. What happens if there’s a fire? Or a wind storm? What possible advantage could there be to living in downtown Toronto? There’s so much traffic. And crime.”

  “There really isn’t. Though the traffic is bad, I’ll give you that.”

  “Hmph.”

  Nick couldn’t stand it anymore. He finished his noodles in a hurry and didn’t help himself to seconds—even though he always had seconds of Ah Yeh’s noodles—and headed to the kitchen.

  He needed a break.

  Chapter 5

  Lily excused herself to go to the washroom, and on the way back, she went looking for Nick. He wasn’t hard to find.

  He was in the kitchen, eating her Nanaimo bars.

  Nanaimo bars were her favorite dessert to make. The bottom was a mix of graham cracker crumbs, coconut, cocoa powder, nuts, butter, egg, and sugar. Next came the creamy filling: butter, cream, sugar, and custard powder. Lastly, the top layer of chocolate.

  They were delicious and extremely unhealthy.

  But it was Thanksgiving, and she was being forced to sit through a dinner with a family she didn’t know. Perfectly nice people, but she felt like she was intruding.

  Worse, she had to sit across the table from Nick and his date.

  Not that Nick seemed interested in Janice, and it was clear they had nothing in common, but it was hard to watch all the same.

  She just...dammit.

  Maybe Lily sucked at one-night stands after all and couldn’t help getting attached to a man she’d slept with. She was trying to be less boring, but she couldn’t truly change the kind of person she was.

  Nick turned as she approached. “Do you like him?”

  “What?”

  “Greg. Do you like him?”

  They were whispering, so nobody could hear from the dining room, but something crackled between them. Like a fire on a cold winter’s day. There was an unexpected edge to Nick’s words.

  “He’s nice,” Lily said, not giving Nick what he wanted.

  “Nice,” Nick repeated faintly. “He’s a little stern and grumpy. Is that the kind of guy you usually go for?”

  She shrugged. Greg was perfectly fine, and maybe if she hadn’t met Nick first, she would have been interested enough to see him again.

  Or perhaps not.

  The thing was, she and Greg had no chemistry. Sometimes that developed with time, but it was impossible not to compare him to Nick.

  There had been lots of chemistry from the start.

  Now he was looking at her with an expression she couldn’t decipher. It wasn’t an expression she’d seen on him last weekend, when he’d been charming and kind, and then very purposeful when he’d started to touch and undress her.

  She couldn’t help releasing a little squeak at the memory.

  Nick plucked a Nanaimo bar out of the container and lifted it to his mouth. She couldn’t help staring as he ate.

  “These are amazing,” he said. “I have no idea what’s in Nanaimo bars, but they’ve always been my favorite.”

  “Mine, too.”

  “Yours are especially good.”

  “I know.”

  His lips twitched.

  “What if I tried to feed one to you?” He took a tiny step toward her.

  She breathed in sharply. “You’re jealous.”

  “Very jealous.”

  “Are you jealous of every woman your brother shows a slight interest in?”

  “It’s never happened before. I’m not the jealous type. But I still really want you, Lily.”

  She hadn’t expected this.

  “How do you want me?” she asked.

  “Preferably over the counter.”

  They were both quiet for a moment, and she could hear laughter and the clink of cutlery from the dining room. She wished they were completely alone.

  She squeezed her thighs together.

  “It was only supposed to be one night,” she said. “I thought you were great at one-night stands. You told me they were your specialty.”

  “So I did.”

  “And?”

  “You’ve thrown me off my game.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, you.”

  He reached out and touched her arm; it felt like he was branding her. Then he pulled back and picked up another Nanaimo bar. She’d cut them into small pieces so they could be eaten in a couple bites. He removed the top layer of chocolate and held it to her lips.

  “You’re not supposed to eat Nanaimo bars like that,” she protested. “You’re supposed to eat the layers all together. It’s the perfect combination.” She gestured to his hand. “This is wrong.”

  “There’s still a bit of filling, whatever it is—”

  “Butter, cream, tons of powdered sugar, and custard powder.”

  “Don’t ruin the magic for me. I don’t need to know what’s in it.”

  “I’m not ruining the magic. I know exactly what’s in Nanaimo bars, and I still love them.” Though knowing the ingredients and quantities made her very conscious of the fact that they weren’t healthy.

  He held the square of chocolate, with a little of the creamy filling clinging to it, closer to her lips, and she took a bite and chewed slowly. After she finished the chocolate, he held up the rest of the Nanaimo bar, and she licked the filling off the base. Nice and slow.

  This wasn’t like her.

  This wasn’t like her at all.

  But when his eyes flared with desire, she couldn’t deny that it was fun to tease him.

  “Okay,” Nick said hoarsely. “You’ve answered the question of what you’d do if I fed you a Nanaimo bar. Now tell me, what would you do if I kissed you? Do you want me to?”

  His family was so close, just in the other room. One of those men was her blind date, but it wasn’t like he was her boyfriend.

  She felt deliciously naughty. She wasn’t used to feeling this way, but with Nick...

  “I’d like that very much,” she said. “I’d like that very fucking much.”

  He chuckled. “Just like you enjoyed those ‘fucking good’ char siu sliders last weekend.”

  “Oh, much more than that.”

  He stepped closer and rested his hand on her shoulder, and she was overwhelmed by his nearness. His handsome features were mere inches away.

  Why wasn’t he kissing her yet? Hadn’t she already sexily eaten a Nanaimo bar for him?

  She needed his lips on hers.

  She wasn’t used to needing anything this badly. She usually felt restrained, in control, but with Nick, it was different.

  Finally, he kissed her, and it was even better than a Nanaimo bar.

  His hands stayed firmly on her shoulders. He didn’t explore her body, didn’t move anything except his lips against hers, but that was enough. It made her feel like she was all that mattered.

  He pulled back. “We should head to the dining room. They might wonder where we are.”

  By the time she’d found her voice, he’d already left, and she leaned against the counter for a moment in a daze.

  * * *

  There was pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry cheesecake, and Nanaimo bars on the table, plus vanilla ice cream and whipped cream as accompaniments.

  Nick enjoyed dessert, but today, he didn’t much care.

  Sure, he helped himself to a slice of pumpkin pie with a generous dollop of whipped cream, as well as another Nanaimo bar, but all he really cared about was Lily.

  Lily, who certainly wasn’t going to think about Greg again after that kiss.

  She kept catching Nick’s gaze, then quickly looking away, as though embarrassed. But when it was just the two of them, she wasn’t shy.

  They were good together, dammit.

  “So, anyway,” Janice was saying, “the manure was...”

  This wasn’t his preferred topic of conversation, especially while eating, and it drove home the point—once again—that they were all wrong for each other.

  He could only think of Lily, who was sitting there sweetly across the table from him, focused on her plate of dessert. He wanted—needed—to be alone with her again, to feel her shudder at his touch.

  “Alright.” Zach put his fork down with a clink. “Mom and Dad, why on earth did you set me up with Diana, and Amber with her ex-boyfriend? Why do you feel the need to interfere in our dating lives?”

  “We already told you!” Ah Ma said. “Four grandchildren, all single. Clearly you need help.”

 

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