Page 28 of Flake It Til You Make It

“Yeah,” Rocco agreed. “How about you?”

Ugh. No. Let’s not talk about my family.

“Uh, not much to say. Just my dad and me.” Taylor changed the subject, because he really, really did not want to discuss why that was. Maybe the hurt had long since scabbed over and eventually healed, at least on the surface, but that didn’t mean he liked talking about it, either. “So why didn’t you settle down in Indigo Bay, it was, right?”

Rocco nodded. “You ever knowthatcouple? The one that’s absolutely fucking adorable and you know you should love them, and youdo, but you also kind of want to scream in their face that their happiness is theworst? That it’s a daily fucking reminder of everything youdon’thave?”

Taylor chuckled. “My old college friend, Joey, and his wife, Libby.”

“Yep, you know. I just . . .I couldn’t stay there. I love them, but I couldn’t. And I wanted my own corner of the Moretti pie, you know? Myowncorner.”

“I get that,” Taylor said.

“I could’ve stayed. They’d have made room for me, because that’s how Luca and Oliver are, and that’s what Morettis do. Or I could have settled in LA, with my cousins, Gabe and Ren.”

“But then it wouldn’t have beenyourcorner,” Taylor guessed.

“Exactly.” Rocco looked relieved that he understood, but it wasn’t like this was arealdate and it actually mattered if Taylor approved of the way he was choosing to live his life.

“When you brought up that we should do this, I thought you were insane,” Taylor confessed.

“I know,” Rocco said.

“But actually . . .I think it’s a good idea.”I’m probably going to go out of my mind doing it, but that’s okay. ’Cause it’ll be worth it. The job’ll be worth it.“This has been fun.”

Rocco elbowed him, grinning. “Don’t sound so surprised. I’m a great time.”

“I’m not sureIam, so maybe I should apologize for that,” Taylor said. He didn’t add that his reserve was so much a habit now it was hard for him to let it down, even on purpose.

“You’refine,” Rocco said. Waggled his eyebrows ridiculously. Somehow even then he was hot, defying logic. “Andfine. I don’t mind the company or the visuals.”

Didhemind the visuals?

No. No, he did not.

Taylor was even afraid that tonight when he returned home alone and lay in bed, as he stared unblinking at the ceiling, that it was going to bethisvisual he remembered—Rocco tucked up close next to him, his beautiful face tilted up towards his own.

“Good,” Taylor said, nodding. “So we’ll do this again?”

Rocco finished his wine.

Taylor nearly suggested he try finagling another glass out of Elaine, but then Rocco shot him a disappointed look. “I should really be getting home. The alarm goes off early.”

“How early?”

“Four AM,” Rocco admitted.

“Jesus, and I thoughtIgot up early.”

“Don’t mistake me for a morning person. I just own a coffee shop and like to do the baking early in the morning,” Rocco said. “Anddothe baking. I could still get my stuff from Joel, I suppose, but I . . .well . . .”

They slid out of the booth and headed to grab their coats.

“You wanted your own corner.” Taylor did understand. Rocco wanted Jolly Java to behis, to put his own mark on it. Which was probably why he’d taken pumpkin spice off the menu and tried to convince Christmas Falls to give goat cheese a chance.

Rocco nodded. “You get it.”

“We’ll make it thrive, I promise,” Taylor said, even though he could not possibly promise that. But he would, and hewouldmake it happen. He knew that now, as surely as he knew he would work his hardest to convince the city council that he was the right city manager for Christmas Falls, not Steve Mills.

---