Page 97 of Their Greatest Strength

“Don’t joke about shit like this, Jamie!”

“I’m not joking. The job is pretty much yours if you want it. Clyde is just a bit of a stickler and insisted that he meet you first before making any decisions. Plus, I figured you wouldn’t want anything handed to you.”

She physically reacts to the explanation, lurching backward with a hand to her throat as her bottom lip wiggles slightly. “Do you promise that you’re being honest? That this isn’t some elaborate hazing?”

“I’ll spit shake you to prove myself, unless that’s only for you and Nate.”

She flies at me, and it’s so much better than a spit-slicked handshake. If my reflexes weren’t as sharp as they are, I’d have been too slow to catch and hold her off the ground. Her legs snap around my hips and hang on for dear life as she takes my face in her palms and kisses me smack on the mouth.

It’s only a peck, but when it’s followed by three more, I’mgrinning so fucking wide and deciding that this is by far the best way to be thanked.

“Thank you, Jamie. I wasn’t . . .” She trails off, cheeks pinkening. “I wasn’t expecting anything like this. And an interview? You got me an interview?”

“You deserve the job, Bandit. But you can prove that to Clyde the way you have me.”

“I don’t know what to say,” she whispers, gliding her thumbs over the skin beneath my eyes.

“Nothing. You don’t have to say anything. Not to me.”

“Yes, I do. Thank you just doesn’t feel like enough.”

I smirk, bumping our noses. “Well, you could always just keep kissing me. Surely that will help.”

She steals another, shutting me up. My chest expands, like it’s trying to make room for me to shove her inside of it.

When she pulls back, she wiggles in my hold and drops her legs. I immediately want her back in my arms, but it would only embarrass her in front of her potential boss when he decides to join us.

Reaching out, I tuck a chunk of wavy hair behind her ear. “You deserve this.”

“I want it,” she declares before wincing, worrying her lip. “But I dropped out of school. I’m not a trained chef. I have some line cook experience, but that was years ago and in a small café. I’m not skilled enough for this?—”

I pinch her chin between my thumb and forefinger and shake my head, leaning in close. “If anything, you’retooskilled, baby. The fridge back home is overflowing with containers of your food and recipes stuck to the door. This job is yours.”

Her doubt shakes. Some of the beaming light returns to her eyes, so I keep going.

“You’re going to get this job because of who you are and your love of cooking alone. I’ve never met someone who gets the same joy you do from cooking. It’s like you save your special smiles for when you get to watch someone take their first biteand moan at the taste. That’s why you don’t have to worry. If you need some extra confidence in yourself, take some from the overflowing cup I have with your name on it.”

She lowers her hand to my chest and keeps it there, gazing up at me. “Are you sure it’s my name on it and not yours? We all know you can be a bit too confident sometimes.”

It’s the perfect Blakely thank you.

“You’re welcome,” I murmur.

She softens, lips curling at one side. “If I get this job, does that mean I’ll come here with you every day?”

“Mmhmm. You won’t be able to hide from me for days after nights in the kitchen anymore.”

“I wasn’t hiding.”

“You weren’t not-hiding either.”

“Don’t make me take back my appreciation,” she warns.

I dip my head to tease a kiss over her mouth. “I haven’t forgotten about what happened, wife. And I’d bet you haven’t either. We don’t need to talk about it, though. It’ll happen again on its own.”

“And what makes you so sure of that, Pretty Boy?”

Throwing caution to the wind, I test how stretchy the boundaries are that she’s set between us. “Because I haven’t stopped thinking about the feeling of you coming around my fingers since. Revisited the moment several times in the shower and late at night in my bed.”

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