Page 100 of After All

His grin was quick and full and a little naughty. “Well, since you won’t be dressing up like a nurse, I might insist on you wearing an apron…and nothing else…around the house once in a while.”

Relief and happiness and lust and a huge shot of bone-deep affection shot through her. Man, she liked this guy. And loved him. He got her. Well, he mostly got her. And even when he didn’t, he still wanted her. She gave him a grin. “I think that can be arranged.”

“Let’s go home. With that apron. Right now,” he said, grabbing her hand.

But she dug in her heels. “Hang on.”

“There’s more?”

She nodded. “Kind of a lot more.” She took a breath. “I love you, Scott. More than I even knew it was possible to love someone. And I’m still kind of learning about loving someone like this. But it occurs to me that I have actually been loving people for a long time. I’m just more the baseball-bat-to-the-headlights-of-people-who-hurt-you kind of girl than a verballysaying-it kind of girl. So, I’m going to keep working on it, but, in the meantime, if anyone upsets you, just let me know. I know what everyone in town drives.”

But he didn’t smile. His eyes darkened and his voice was gruff when he said simply, “I love you too, Peyton. So damned much.”

She blew out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I’ve never said that to a guy before.”

“I’ve only said it to one girl before you,” he said. “And it was when we were seven. And it involved a construction-paper heart, a melted chocolate bar, and some embarrassing hemming and hawing.”

Peyton felt her heart expand. This man was…everything. He really was. Yes, she had the bakery and the cakes and the party planning. And she had her friends and maybe even an occasional lunch with her dad. All of that would keep her balanced. But at the end of the day,Scottwas what mattered. And she was really, completely okay with that. “Well, you did a good job this time,” she told him.

He tugged on her hand and drew her up against him. “So, Peyton Wells, will you be my girlfriend? And go out to movies with me? And hold my hand in the square?”

She looped her arms around his neck. “I will.”

“And will you bring this apron home, to my house, and wear it, and only it, for the rest of the night?” he asked, skimming his hands down to her ass and pressing her forward.

Peyton wondered if her stomach would ever stop flipping when she felt how much he wanted her. “I will,” she said. “But,” she added as he started to turn toward the door again, “not until you come into the back with me. I…made you cookies.”

“You did?” He lifted a brow.

“I did. And you can go ahead and read all kinds of things into that. As Adrianne said, I can come up with the perfect party for anybody in this town. And I came up with something special for you.” She moved around him to shut and lock the bakery door, then she led him into the bakery’s kitchen and swept her hand over the tray of cookies she’d just finished decorating.

Scott stopped and stared. Then he moved closer to the countertop. And stared some more.

They were decorated sugar cookies, cut into a variety of shapes.

“A nurse’s costume,” he said, picking one up. “And a green high-heeled shoe.” He looked up with a grin, then went back to studying the tray. “A jar of Booze. A pair of handcuffs. A pink pickup truck. A cookie that’s shaped like pancakes?” he asked, glancing up again.

“All of the things that make me think of us,” she said.

“There’s even a pad of sticky notes,” he said, almost like he was in awe.

She laughed. “That one was pretty easy. It’s just a square.” But she had used the icing to make it look like there were multiple sheets of paper. She was happy he could tell what it was.

He picked up a rectangular cookie. “Nice.”

She’d decorated it to look like the front of theGrey’s AnatomyDVD boxed set. She smiled.

There was also a cop car, a Band-Aid, a crutch, and a bottle of coffee creamer represented.

Finally, he got to the end of the tray. “Is this a vibrator?” he asked, picking up the hot-pink frosted cookie.

She grinned. “Things that make me think of you…and us.”

Then he put that one down and picked up the last two.

“And is this supposed to be your breast?” he asked.

“Yep.”

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