“Are those nuts in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?” she asked, her soft brown curls blowing wildly around her face.
I dug into my pocket, producing a handful of walnuts, which made her toss her head back and laugh in the way I loved. “Both.” I started to lean back in for another kiss.
“Roxie! I think I found a serious!” Polly pointed excitedly at the sky. “And kissing is gross, by the way.”
“I think you mean cirrus,” Roxie said with a chuckle, squeezing my hand. Then she ran into the field after my daughter, kneeling down next to her and looking up at the sky where Polly was pointing.
My heart felt like bursting as I watched my Pork Chop and my Sugar Snap study the clouds.
PHOTO BY LISA NORDMANN
ALICE CLAYTON worked in the cosmetics industry for over a decade before picking up a pen (read laptop). She enjoys gardening but not weeding, baking but not cleaning up, and finally convinced her long-time boyfriend to marry her. Now, about that Bernese Mountain dog . . .
www.aliceclayton.com
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ALSO BY ALICE CLAYTON
The Cocktail Series
Wallbanger
Rusty Nailed
Screwdrivered
Mai Tai’d Up
Last Call
The Redhead Series
The Unidentified Redhead
The Redhead Revealed
The Redhead Plays Her Hand
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Gallery Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Alice Clayton
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Gallery Books trade paperback edition October 2015
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Cover design by Sarah Hansen Okay Creations
Cover photograph by BigLike Images/Shutterstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clayton, Alice.
Nuts / Alice Clayton. — First Gallery Books trade paperback edition.
pages ; cm. — (The Hudson Valley series ; 1)
1. Women cooks—Fiction. 2. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.L3968N88 2015
813'.6—dc23
2015025020
ISBN 978-1-5011-1813-5
ISBN 978-1-5011-1814-2 (ebook)
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
About Alice Clayton