Page 90 of Frosting and Flames

I cut her off. “Stop it. I’ll go find out.”

The clock turns to seven and Desiree opens the front doors. Hailey rushes to put the muffins out, and I walk outside, crossing my arms in the cool morning air.

“What are you doing here?” I ask him. It’s been nearly two weeks since our weird encounter outside the bistro.

There’s a flash of annoyance in his gaze. “Nice to see you, too.”

I’m silent, waiting for him to answer my question.

His golden boy smile returns, polished as ever. “I wanted to continue our conversation from the other week. We were interrupted.”

The one where he claimed he misses me? “It’s funny how you only want to talk now that I’m with someone else.”

He scoffs, shaking his head. “Come on, Rach. Nick?” He says his name like it’s something dirty beneath his shoe. “He set fire to your family’s bakery. He’s a criminal.”

The last time we spoke, I think I did a pretty good job of staying calm. But the second Kyle tosses out the wordcriminal,something shifts in me. Especially since my sisters were just singing Nick’s praises in there.

“Excuse me?” I say, attempting to keep my voice measured, even as my arms cross, my nails digging half-moon indentations into my arm.

Kyle shrugs like he didn’t throw a match on dry kindling. “He’s not exactly what you’d call a stable choice. How could you ever trust him?”

My gaze narrows as I take a step forward, anger boiling over in my chest. “You want to talk about trust? Youcheatedon me. Lied to me for who knows how long. And you think you get to stand here and warn me about Nick?”

His expression flickers again. It might mean something if it was contrition or shame. But it comes across as annoyance. As if reminding him of what he did is tiresome.

“I apologized for that,” he says in a way that makes it seem like the matter has been taken care of and it’s time to move on. “I was an idiot, and I know that. I shouldn’t have thrown what we had away.”

“You didn’t only throw it away. You set it on fire.”

A fire worse than anything Nick ever did.

He flinches for a moment before forcing a chuckle. “Fair. But people make mistakes. You seem to have forgiven Nick for his. Why can’t you forgive me?”

I hold my hands to my temple so my brain doesn’t explode. “Your mistakes and his aren’t anywhere near the same level.”

“We were good together,” he says, his voice softer. He moves in closer and I step back an equal distance.

“No, we weren’t.”

His lips press together tightly for a moment. “What can I do to make up for things?”

Good lord, it’s like I’m talking to a brick wall. “You can’t. There’s nothing left of us.” I motion between us. “This is over. It has been for a long time.” I move back toward the bakery door.

“Rachel—”

“Your baby’s due soon, right?” I ask, interrupting him. “Autumn is, what? Almost eight months pregnant?”

His gaze narrows, silently staring at me.

“Is that what this is? The reality of what you’ve done is finally hitting you and you want a do-over?”

He still doesn’t answer, which speaks volumes on its own.

“Don’t come here again,” I tell him. “You’re not welcome.”

I enter the bakery, finding Sydney and Hailey both out at the counter. “Shouldn’t you be in the back?”

“We were making sure you were okay,” Hailey says, worry on her face.

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