Page 33 of Fire and Icing

“Well, that makes the competition light work for me, doesn’t it?” He chuckles. Then all teasing leaves his expression. His eyes are warm, his tone careful. “I’m taking it seriously. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

I’ve got you. Those words. Full of promises.

“Okay,” I say. “First of all, touching.”

Dustin starts to wag his brows again and visibly stops himself. He takes a bite of his food. “Man, this is good. I mean, really good.”

I smile. His appraisal feels like a win. Like Waterford has something that makes a California boy smile and boast about local finds.

“You were saying, ‘touching,’” he reminds me.

“Yes. Let’s go with none.” I take a bite of salad.

“None? Like, I never touch you and you never touch me?”

I nod, chewing more of the fettucini.

“That’s not a good plan,” he says. “No offense, but if we were dating, I’d be touching you.”

I fight the blush threatening to climb up my neck and fill my cheeks.

“I mean …” I clear my throat. “No touching extra. No extra touching. No unnecessary touching. Mostly not touching unless needed.”

“Got it,” he says. “No unnecessary touching.”

“Okay. And that goes for kisses, especially.”

“No kisses.”

“Right. It’s a baking contest. People aren’t kissing. They’re baking.”

“Okay. Got it. Anything else?”

“No feelings. Not that we would catch feelings or feel anything or … you know. It’s probably just safer to say this up front. We are faking. We aren’t dating. And we won’t ever, so we need to just put that out there and move on.”

“Okay. Moving on.”

He concedes so easily I’m almost offended. Is it such a far-fetched idea that one of us could catch feelings? We’ll be working together a lot—spending a pretty decent chunk of time together. We have to stay in a residence on the property the whole time the show is filming. It could happen. We could have feelings. He could, at least. Doesn’t he think he could? Well, that doesn’t matter. It can’t happen. So, I guess it’s good that he agrees.

“Um. Also, we aren’t allowed to bring recipes or phones onto the set. Will that be okay with your job?”

“I already talked to David—you know, our captain—about it. He’s going to adjust the schedule to give me time off once you and I know all the details of the contest. I didn’t tell him about you needing an actual partner … like the romance side of what we’re doing. I just told him you were entering a really big baking contest and you needed my help to enter. He said we’d make it work.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“Those guys at the station love you, all of them, and it’s not just because you have the best donuts in town.”

The compliments seem to flow from him as easily as butter melting on a warm biscuit.

“Okay. Well … good. I’m glad you have David’s support. Speaking of which, the camera crew from the show may want to set up a mock visit at the station. They love doing behind the scenes footage of contestants. They’ll be monitoring us during times we’re not on set to make sure I’m not giving you baking lessons or breaking any other rules. That’s why we’ll be staying in designated housing until we’ve finished filming all the episodes except the live finale.”

I set my fork on my plate and look across the table into Dustin’s eyes. He seems unfazed.

“Are you sure about this?” I double check. “I’m asking a lot of you.”

“Areyousure?” he asks.

“No. Yes … I don’t know.”

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