She felt tears in her eyes. “Please don’t hate me.”

Luke lifted one of her hands and placed it to his lips. “Hating you isn’t possible.”

She looked at him now. “Can’t we just enjoy what we have for now?”

“For the summer. But after Wyatt and Mel’s wedding, we’re revisiting this subject.”

The summer. A little less than three months. “Okay.” A lot could change in three months.

Once Mel picked out the colors she wanted, it was only a matter of dress style for Zoe and Jo’s bridesmaid gowns. Even though Zoe had a fair amount of education in fashion, she never missed an opportunity to take Felix with her when it came to expanding her wardrobe.

“Tell me about this wedding.” Felix flipped through a rack of semiformal gowns with a salesperson standing by.

“It’s at the inn.”

“Miss Gina’s, right. You told me that. She sounds like a gem, this Miss Gina.”

Zoe picked up an off the shoulder three-quarter length silk and held it to her waist.

Felix titled his head in consideration. “Might work for you, but your friend Jo doesn’t have your rack.”

Zoe turned to the side. “She does, she just hides it.”

“Why on earth would she do that?”

“It’s the cop in her.”

Felix took the gown from her and handed it to the saleslady. “We’ll try this one.”

They kept looking.

“This inn, does it have a big kitchen?”

“State-of-the-art. Miss Gina updated it the year before I graduated. I encouraged her to take out an old butler pantry to make room for the bigger stove and second prep sink.”

Felix found a strapless gown with a beaded bodice and placed it over his arm.

“Will all the cooking for this wedding happen at the inn?”

“Last-minute stuff. Sam’s kitchen is commercial. My guess is he’ll close the restaurant for the day.”

Felix looked like he didn’t believe her. “That still happens in this world?”

“It does in River Bend. Main Street closes down for the Fourth of July, and the town pulls together to decorate the town square for every holiday.”

“Everyone knows everybody?”

“Almost. The outskirts of town have grown a little, which is probably for the best or River Bend would have emptied out years ago.”

“What about an industry . . . jobs?”

“Mom-and-pop stuff. There’s a farmers’ market that brings out the crafters in town, and there is always someone trying to lure in small retail shops to keep the town going year-round.” Zoe found a cap-sleeved dress that stopped at her knee.

Felix shook his head. “Too young.”

She thought it was cute, but probably not for a wedding.

“So what keeps the town alive?”

“The schools. We have the local high school that pulls in from surrounding towns. Waterville has the county seat, so we don’t have the politics that most towns have. There’s a diner and a couple of fast food kind of places. Just enough retail to keep you from leaving town to buy a nail or a can of oil for your car.”

“And an auto shop?”

Zoe smiled. “Miller’s Auto has been there for as long as I remember.”

“It sounds charming.” Felix found another strapless dress and handed both to the woman waiting in the wings. “Why did you leave?”

She took another sleeved gown off the rack, glanced at the price tag. She turned it around and showed it to Felix. “Because I would never have been able to afford this if I had stayed.”

He couldn’t argue that.

“Tell me more about Miss Gina’s kitchen. Can we bring a film crew in?”

Zoe dropped her hands to her sides. “What are you getting at, Felix?”

“I hate this state. And I think the industry can use another hometown cooking show. If we brought the world to the kitchen you grew up in—”

“The kitchen I grew up in was a dump,” she interrupted.

“Okay, the kitchen you learned to love cooking in . . . I think we could have something there. A bed-and-breakfast is more intimate than a big urban restaurant. Plenty of charm.”

She stopped shopping and stared.

“I’ve already blown the idea past Newton.”

Newton was the producer of her current show and the man she and Suki negotiated with on an annual basis.

“You did what?”

“Don’t sound so stressed, darling. He liked the idea but made it clear he’d film you wherever you wanted to cook. He did suggest you consider a bed-and-breakfast cookbook if we filmed in River Bend.”

“A cookbook?” Was she hearing all this straight?

“Why not? You’re a chef. It’s a natural.”

The saleslady took the dress from her hands. “Are you ready to try any of these on?”

“A cookbook!” She imagined the inn on the cover, her picture on the back.

Miss Gina would have guests lining up.

The thought of the cookbook paying back the woman for all she’d done for her over the years dwarfed the idea of it doing something for her own career.

“A cookbook.”

Chapter Fourteen

It was easy to spring for a suite in Vegas when Zoe knew many of the celebrity chefs in town.

She and the girls took a room at the Venetian, while the men parked themselves at Caesars. The hotels weren’t that far apart, but with thousands of guests walking around, it would be close to impossible for them to cross paths.