Page 10 of Sweet Somethings

"And I was gone a year later." She cocked her head to the right, giving him a thoughtful look. "Donavan said you came to live with your grandfather. What happened to your parents?"

His lips tightened. "My father died and my mother wasn't around."

"I'm sorry about your dad."

"I didn't even know him. He died when I was a toddler."

"Still…" She frowned. "You don't like to talk about yourself, do you?"

"No."

"That's unusual. Most of the men I've met lately love to talk about themselves, and none of them have led very interesting lives. While you, on the other hand, don't want to say much, but I suspect you have all kinds of stories you could tell."

He dismissed her hopeful smile by waving her toward the door. "I doubt that, and I have work to do, Ms. Adams."

"Oh, please, it's Juliette. No one is formal in this town, least of all me. I'll let you get back to work. But please come by the bakery sometime and collect your free dessert. You can pick whatever you want."

"I'm not much on sweets."

She laughed in disbelief. "No way that's true. I saw the look in your eyes this morning when you gazed at my display case. It's not a crime to eat a little sugar once in a while." She gave him a dimpled smile that made his heart twist. "It might even sweeten you up a bit."

"I'm never going to be sweet," he said, quite certain of that fact.

"You've already been very sweet to me. But I won't tell anyone. I wouldn't want to ruin your tough-guy, doesn't-talk-much image."

With that parting shot, she finally made it through the front door. He quickly closed it behind her. He couldn't tell her that he hadn't been looking at her display case when he'd stopped outside her bakery; he'd been looking at her. And that hunger churning in his gut hadn't had much to do with cookies and pies.

As for some dessert sweetening him up, it was going to take a lot more than cake to smooth his rough edges.

Not that he intended to try. He liked the calluses and scars over his heart. They were important and constant reminders not to believe in anything or anyone that was too good to be true, and Juliette Adams had all the signs of being in the too-good-to-be-true category.

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