Page 89 of Love You
“By ten, the clouds should burn off and it’ll get warmer. You hungry?”
“A little bit but I definitely need coffee.” She turned in her seat and put her hand on his knee. “How are you? Did you get a good night’s sleep?”
Her innuendo was clear. But his lack of sleep had nothing to do with Madison. Nope, he’d tossed and turned because of a certain small blonde with cornflower blue eyes.
“I did.” He took off down the mountain and found a parking space in front of the bakery.
When they got inside Darcy had already reserved a table and ordered a large bread and pastry basket with jams and butters, a fruit bowl, homemade granola, and a carafe of coffee. The woman got shit done. She gave him a tight smile and got up to welcome Madison. Like the rest of them, Darcy had on shorts and he took a moment to surreptitiously stare at her legs.
“How was dinner last night?” Darcy asked, and Win gave her points for professionalism. No one would’ve guessed that they’d had it out after he’d left Madison at the hotel.
“Fantastic,” Madison said, and brushed Win’s shoulder way too familiarly. No question today was heading toward a suckfest. “I’m sorry you weren’t able to join us.”
Win nearly laughed. The hell she was.
Darcy gave another one of her tight smiles. “Your company—if you choose us—will primarily be working with Win. I thought it was a good idea for you two to get to know each other better.”
Win nudged Darcy’s knee under the table.Stop it. The little witch.
“Win’s been great.” Madison grabbed two turnovers from the basket and put one of them on his plate.
The gesture was far too intimate and Win saw Darcy observe it with a frown.
“Win doesn’t eat sweets,” she told Madison, and Win had to bite a grin. Witch, indeed. “But I’ll take it.” Darcy snatched the pastry off his plate and licked some cherry filling off the side. He watched her with fascination and something moved in his chest.
Delaney was wrong.
“With all due respect, your track record at serious hasn’t been that good. And I would hate to see Darcy get hurt.”
He was the one hurting.
Rachel came to the table with some warm-out-of-the-oven buns and introduced herself. Since Darcy had taken his turnover, he grabbed one of the buns, tore off a piece, and chewed. Boden didn’t know what he was talking about. Rachel’s buns were out of this world.
“These are fantastic,” he said around a mouthful, and buttered the rest of the roll.
“Thanks. I just wanted to come over and say hello.”
“Everything is wonderful, Rachel.” Darcy got up and gave her a hug.
A few months ago, Little Bo Peep could barely string two words together without turning the color of a tomato. Now she was GA’s freaking ambassador of goodwill. That was his job.
“Oprah’s crazy about Tart Me Up,” Win announced.
“Oprah Winfrey?” Madison suddenly appeared interested.
Was there any other Oprah? “Yeah. She mentioned Rachel and her bakery in one of her . . .” He looked from Darcy to Rachel because he honestly didn’t know how the whole “Oprah loves Tart Me Up” rumor had started. But everyone in town said it like it was fact.
“Her list of favorite things,” Darcy said.
“Wow.” Madison seemed duly impressed.
As they finished breakfast Win said, “Ready to do some zip-lining and white-water rafting.” If they had time he wanted to get in some paddleboarding, too.
Darcy shot him a look and when Madison went to the bathroom she said, “Zip-lining is not on the agenda. I suppose you read your tea leaves this morning and they said sliding down a rope would win you the account.” She all but rolled her eyes.
She could make fun of his unorthodox methods all she wanted but they worked. “Nope. I’m kicking shit up a notch. Deal with it.”
“I’m not dressed for zip-lining.”
