Page 74 of Flake It Til You Make It

“True.” Griff leaned back in the booth. “So you wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

Yes.

But Griff seemed to understand that he’d actually meant the opposite because he just sat there, waiting him out.

Taylor gave in, saying in a rush, “Okay, fine. I guess I didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’tintendfor this happen. Rocco and me, it was just supposed to be a means to an end.”

“And now you’re wondering how you got in this deep?” Griff chuckled. “Yep, sounds about right.”

“I don’t know if he feels the same way. We barely know each other but . . .”

“But it feels like you’ve known each other forever?”

“Ugh, you get it,” Taylor said.

So much for being afraid. He was all freaking in, now. Heartandsoul.

“You need to talk about this,” Griff said.

“I know, but . . .” Taylor grimaced. “I feel stupid and I’m worried. What if I’m wrong, what if it’s just me? What if I’ve miscalculated this whole thing? I did that once before, and that really,reallysucked. And as bad as that was, this would somehow be even worse.” He’d have to see Rocco all the time in town, a constant reminder of what he’d wanted and had never really had.

“You gonna let some dickhead in your past impact your future?”

“You suck.”

“I just tell it like it is,” Griff said reasonably. “Now, tell me what you want.”

“An invite for Rocco to be featured at the cookie exchange.”

“He gonna want to murder you for giving him all this extra work at the last minute?”

Taylor considered this. But then thought about the way Rocco’s face lit up every time the little jingle bells over the door at Jolly Java sounded. How much he craved a spot in this community. How dejected he’d been when he’d believed he was being pushed out. He remembered how upset Rocco had been when he hadn’t managed to win the festival committee over and return to providing the cookies at the tree lighting.

“Honestly, I don’t think there’s much Rocco can’t do,” Taylor said, knowing it was true.

Griff smiled. “Spoken like a man in love.”

And Taylor didn’t think he was wrong.

After lunch, his afternoon was packed with meetings, but he managed to duck out of his office just before five, when he thought he might be able to catch Rocco before he headed out to the cocktail hour he’d said he was going to attend with Rebecca and a few of the other regulars he’d met at Jolly Java, including Emerson, the writer.

Sure enough, when Taylor peered into the windows, he could see the faint light emanating from the direction of the kitchen.

Pulling out his phone, he shot Rocco a quick text, asking if he had a minute to talk.

A few moments later, Rocco appeared at the front door, wiping his hands on a flour-dusted apron. “Hey, you,” he said as he unlocked the door and ushered Taylor in.

His curls were rumpled, and there was a smear of flour on his cheek, and Taylor couldn’t do anything else but lean in and kiss him. Sweet and hard, pouring all the passion he didn’t know how to deal with, all that bright light that terrified and enchanted him, into the kiss.

“Really,hey, you,” Rocco teased as he finally pulled back. “What’s the special occasion? Thought you had meetings this afternoon.”Thought we were meeting up after the cocktail hour. Rocco didn’t say it, but Taylor didn’t need to hear it for him to know it was true. But for the first time, he felt like maybe heshouldsay it.

“I do, but I ducked out of one of them a bit early, ’cause I had some exciting news.”

“Yeah?” Rocco’s eyes sparkled.

“I got you an invite to the cookie exchange,” Taylor said.

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