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placed just behind Kayla’s chair. Then she tucked her napkin in the front of her sundress.
    It struck Naomi again how good and patient Catherine was with children. “You’re going to make a great mother.”
    Catherine’s smile slipped just for a second. She almost looked … bleak. Naomi remembered how she’d thought Richard had insulted her when he’d complimented her as a mother. Panic seized her. Catherine was her best friend, her confidante. She wouldn’t hurt her for anything. “I meant it as a compliment.”
    Catherine reached across Kayla and gently touched Naomi’s trembling shoulder. “I know. You couldn’t have given me a greater compliment.” She glanced tenderly down at Kayla. “Kayla is blessed to have you.”
    “Cath, you want chicken or beef fajitas?” Luke asked.
    “Surprise me,” Catherine said, turning her attention to her husband.
    Naomi didn’t know why, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow she’d wounded Catherine. She’d suffered too many times because of her ex-husband’s cruel words to ever want to do that to anyone else.
    Glancing around, Naomi saw Luke staring at her with the hard frown of disapproval he’d worn when they first met. Something cold settled in her stomach. Then Catherine briefly leaned into him. The harshness vanished instantly. He smiled and kissed her on the nose. When he lifted his head, the frown was gone.
    Naomi breathed a sigh of relief. She’d imagined things. Catherine had everything.
    “You’ll upset Faith’s executive chef if you don’t eat,” Richard told her. “Chicken fajitas with extra peppers and onions.”
    Naomi looked at her prepared plate, then at Richard. “You take care of me as well as you do of Kayla.”
    “She’s eating, you’re not.” Richard bit into his fajita.
    Hearing Catherine laugh, Naomi fully relaxed and rolled her flour tortilla. The taste was as good as she expected. “Fantastic.”
    “I agree,” Richard murmured around his food.
    “Yes, but—” Brandon began, but Faith held up her hand, palm out.
    “But—”
    “No,” she said emphatically, staring at him.
    He opened his mouth, then closed it when his wife continued to stare at him. “A chef should be able to take criticism.”
    There was choked laughter around the table. Brandon stared at his family. “Funny.”
    Naomi, like his family, knew that Brandon was sensitive about his cooking. He had a right to be. She had eaten some of the best meals she’d ever had at his restaurant.
    “If Henri came to the Red Cactus and tried to tell you how to cook, you’d toss him out,” Richard said, finishing off his fajitas.
    “That’s because my food is the best. Perfection can’t be improved on. Let’s ask an unbiased person.” Placing his food aside, Brandon’s settled his midnight-black gaze on Fallon. “Fallon, thank you again for the mention in Travel magazine. Now that you’ve had a chance to eat here and the Red Cactus, which food is better?”
    “Don’t answer!” several people shouted.
    Fallon looked at Sierra, one of the people who had shouted. “I see what you meant earlier.”
    Faith shook her head. “He and Henri butt heads about once a month. It’s a good thing I love them both.”
    Brandon turned to her with a confident grin. “You love me more.”
    “True, and you had better be glad or you wouldn’t like the conversation we’d have when we get home,” Faith said.
    Brandon straightened and looked worried.
    “Plead momentary insanity,” Morgan, his brother the lawyer, advised.
    Brandon grinned, then kissed Faith on the lips. “I won’t have to because she knows how much I love her right back.”
    “Yes, and that’s why you’re going with me to thank Henri before we leave,” Faith said sweetly. “Aren’t you?”
    “I guess, but you’ll owe me.” Brandon picked up her hand and kissed it.
    “Sounds fair to me,” she said, grinning up at him.
    Naomi found herself smiling as well. She’d slowly learned that