Page 40 of The Deal Maker

Duke gives me a lopsided grin. “It’s kind of too late now for this one, unless someone wants to decorate a half-cookie.”

He’s right, but I still feel bad.

Once I’ve crumbled it over my cookie, there’s something missing. It looks plain, which is great, but it needs something else. An umbrella would be perfect for this.

Another guy puts down a bag of red frosting and I pick it up. I try to outline one, but it just makes a weird purple blob as the red and blue mix in the middle of the cookie.

“Oooh, are you making a ball? You could use the orange and green to finish off the sides.”

I grin, staring at Duke for a long few extra seconds when he’s already gone back to working on his cookie again.

“What?” he says, giving me a side glance that shows me he’s nervous.

“You’ve got a creative mind, Duke Jacobson.”

He raises his eyebrow and says, “Thanks, I guess?”

We laugh and go back to working on our cookie scenes.

“What do you think?” Duke asks, waving to his cookie.

I do everything I can to keep a laugh inside. “Your clouds look like they’re going to saw through the sand.”

Duke takes a good look at it and then nods. “I think you’re right. They’re a bit sharp. Maybe they’ll cut through to the middle of the earth to find treasure.”

“Treasure is always a good thing.” I try to swipe away a section of hair that fell out of my ponytail but find that something sticky just tracked through the path.

“You got some frosting there,” Duke says, pointing to his own face.

I glance around the table for a napkin, but Duke is faster. He grabs a wipe and leans over, gently taking care of the frosting on my cheek. And the entire time, I can’t do anything but stare into his beautiful face, breathing in his great smelling cologne.

Why have I been so adamant about pushing him away?

He leans back and says, “I think I got it all.”

All I can do is stare up at him with starry eyes. “Uh, thanks.” I glance down, doing my best not to freak out on the outside, even though that’s exactly what’s happening inside.

Is he not feeling what I’m feeling? Maybe I don’t want to analyze right now. It’s been a while since I’ve been taken care of, even if it was for a whole five seconds.

“You have a bit there,” I say, trying to point to his forehead. But my gaze keeps getting stuck on his eyes, surprised by their clarity.

“Where?” he asks, using the wipe to go at his cheek. It takes me a whole lot of seconds to snap out of my little trance, but I finally grab the wipe and clean the spot off for him.

“Thanks,” he says, giving me a bright smile. Dang, the guy is all sorts of my type, even though I’m on a man ban. That brings up the reason for the man ban, my ex, and I’m wondering why I should trust things this time when everything went horribly wrong last time.

Shaking my head, I realize that I’ve done what I shouldn’t. I’ve started to plan for the future without any real foundations from the present. Maybe Duke is just being nice to me because he wants to win that prize money. Or he’s just a really great guy but doesn’t need to have a girlfriend any time soon. He even said that he wanted everyone to stop commenting on his relationship status.

“We should probably take our picture with the cookies and post them,” I say, glancing down at the table. Maybe a little time away from him would be beneficial. It could be anything I’ve done today that caused this sudden rush of emotions.

Duke nods and pulls out his phone. “Say pickles!”

I’m so caught off guard by his statement that I frown and turn to him right as the photo takes.

“Pickles? What happened to cheese?” I ask, trying to understand the line of thought.

“Why not pickles? I think cheese is way overused. And pickles are some of the best things ever.”

I widen my eyes and shake my head. “Pickles? You’d choose pickles over cheesecake and pasta and all the other good things in the world?”

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