Just a Taste by Shannyn Schroeder Page A

doing?”
    â€œHanding you the food so you can practice cooking.”
    He took the bag and then leaned out the window. “Aren’t you coming in?”
    She was struck dumb by the look in his eyes. She pointed over her shoulder as if that would tell him what her plans were. “I have stuff—”
    â€œStuff can wait. Keep me company.”
    â€œYou don’t need company. Besides, if you’re going to run this by yourself, you need to get used to being alone.”
    One eyebrow flicked up. “What if I can’t figure something out and I start a fire?”
    She crossed her arms. “Don’t pretend to be incompetent. We both know you can figure it out.”
    â€œJust get your ass in here. I’m cold hanging out the window like this.”
    She sighed, but did as he told her. Yanking on the back door, she felt the warm air from inside letting her know that he’d already figured out how to start everything. She pulled the door shut behind her. Liam looked over his shoulder and smiled as he unloaded the small bag of groceries.
    Carmen leaned against the closed door and let the sensations of the truck wash over her. The heat, the smells, the sounds—they all made her think of Gus. All she needed now was to hear him yelling at her to get out of the way or to hear him cursing Pete for screwing up an order. She smiled at the memory.
    â€œThat’s a nice look.”
    She jolted from her reverie. “What?”
    â€œThat smile was one of the rare ones. One that said you were in a good place. Can I ask what you were thinking about?”
    â€œMy dad.”

    Liam chopped peppers while he talked to Carmen. When she had that dreamy look on her face, he’d hoped she’d been thinking about him, and he tried not to be disappointed that she had been thinking of Gus. He’d wanted her to think of good memories of Gus.
    But he also wanted to grab her and kiss her. Before she went back to the house for the food, he almost had. If she hadn’t had a shell-shocked look, he probably would have followed through. He set the knife down as she talked about her dad, and he couldn’t help but look at her mouth and her full pink lips. He wanted to taste those lips.
    She shoved away from the door and sauntered closer. She had no idea how sexy she looked walking toward him like that. She wore another curve-hugging sweater, but no jacket to conceal it all. A cream-colored scarf was wound around her neck three or four times in loose loops and her hair flowed in waves over it.
    As she walked past him, she began to unwind the scarf, and he caught a whiff of her perfume as her hair bounced up from the movement. She tossed the scarf on the passenger seat of the truck and then leaned against the opposite wall from where she’d started.
    â€œAre you uncomfortable in here?”
    She slowly shook her head. “I thought I would be, but it’s good.”
    He returned to chopping and tossed some ground beef on the grill. He smacked at it with a spatula and tossed seasoning over it. He dug through the bag and brought out the tortillas. He felt her eyes on him and while being watched had never bothered him, something about this made him slightly uncomfortable. It was probably because he kept thinking about kissing her instead of paying attention to the food.
    Liam still wasn’t sure about the whole taco thing. It seemed too simple to make a food truck successful. They were competing with the likes of Taco Bell. He shook his head.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” Carmen asked.
    He looked over his shoulder. “I don’t see how Gus was successful selling tacos. It doesn’t seem like enough. At least not different enough to make people want to keep coming back or to follow him around.”
    She shrugged. “People like tacos. They’re good walking food. You don’t need utensils. They’re cheap and filling.”
    He flipped the nearly cooked meat