Page 81 of Frosting and Flames

“He’s taken you on more dates?”

I already told her about the disaster at the bistro and how nice dinner at his house was to make up for it. Well, to be honest, the food wasn’t the best, but the company and conversation made it worth it.

“We went to the bar they just renovated Friday night and I made us dinner at my place on Monday.”

“And how is… you know.” She sets down her coffee cup and widens her hands.

It takes me a moment to catch on, realizing she’s referencing when she asked on my porch how big his dick is for the camera. “Jae.” The blush comes all too easily to my face.

Her laugh this time is wicked. “That good, huh?”

I concentrate on the cake rather than look at her. “We haven’t done anything.”

The furthest we’ve gone is that day I straddled him on the couch before telling him I couldn’t do any more.

She huffs a sound of disbelief. “Why not?”

I press my lips tightly together so I don’t laugh. She acts like she’s been wronged by me and Nick keeping things chaste.

“Seriously,” she insists. “What’s the hold up? You two have been dancing around each other for, what?” She tallies something up on her fingers. “It’s been over six weeks.”

Okay, when she puts it like that, it sounds different. “Five of those weeks we were friends. Not even friends. Acquaintances.”

She rolls her eyes, lips quirked. “That man has never been your acquaintance. Not with the way he was looking at you since day one.”

My blush returns, but I don’t comment on it. “Well, he hasn’t tried anything this week. Only kisses hello and goodbye.” I shift on my stool, getting antsy. “I told him I wanted to take things slow.”

And Nick has respected that. Maybe a little too much, if I’m being honest with myself. I wouldn’t mind progressing things further.

“Oh, okay.” She appears perplexed, as if the idea of going slow is unfathomable to her. “As long as you’re happy.”

“I am.”

She grins. “Do you think there’s a market in this town for a matchmaking business? You’ll be my first testimonial.”

I tap my lip, as if I’m thinking. “Jae Choi consistently ignores personal boundaries to achieve the results you didn’t ask for.”

She points a finger at me. “Okay, but you liked the end results. So no complaining about how we got there.”

I shake my head. I swear she’ll never learn.

“Oh, I saw that article about Nick in the paper,” she says, sipping her coffee again. “Scary stuff.”

I push away from the cake. I’m never going to get it finished while Jae keeps distracting me. “What article?”

“About the fire last week out at the dairy farm.”

My brow furrows. Was that the night he had to leave our date? “What was in it? I don’t normally read the paper.”

She pulls out her phone, thumbs tapping away. “They have a good crossword I like to do. Way easier than theNew York Times. Here.”

She hands me her phone, the bolded headline on the screen making me grip the phone harder.

Firefighters battle late night blaze at Mill Brook Dairy. Multiple structures lost. No serious injuries reported.

My stomach tightens at the image below of a charred barn, smoke curling into the sky.

“How bad was it?” I ask, scanning the article. He was called in on his day off, so it must have been serious, but he’d never mentioned it again.

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