Page 2 of Bake You Mine
As much as she tried to cover her fears with a jab at Liam, she worried about her business and future in Port Fortune. Commercial space in the growing city was minimal. Petit Chou had outgrown its small space, but without a potential expansion, they were stuck. She had time before her lease ran out, butif she wanted to move, she’d have to start considering her options.
She took a step back from him.
He was quick to follow. “Hey, I wasn’t done.”
“You don’t know anything about what I do or don’t need. It’s becoming challenging to keep up with demand. Especially since we just signed a new delivery contract to supply baked goods for both locations of Port Fortune Roastery, and we’re taking on more commercial and custom orders in general.”
“But I run a full-service restaurant?—”
Text message alerts pinged on their phones.
“Who the hell would be texting both of us?” Liam asked.
As if it were that obvious that they ran in entirely different social circles.
He groaned. “Gary.”
Good afternoon, you two! Let’s meet at the vacant space this afternoon to discuss an exciting project idea!
“It’s never good when Gary gets an idea,” Aubrey said.
Their landlord was a dictionary definition (somewhat) loveable eccentric weirdo.
Liam grunted. “Why would he want both of us there if he’s giving me the space?”
God, he could be so smug. She whipped off her sunglasses and jabbed them at him. “I guess we’ll have to see what Gary says.”
Their eyes locked, and her breath caught. He’d never stared at her with such intensity, homed in on her as though fully aware of her. No, that couldn’t be right.
Her body descended into flight or fight mode. She was no better than a middle schooler with a crush on the most popular boy in school.
“I guess we’ll find out this afternoon,” Liam said.
She slid her sunglasses on. “See you later, I guess.”
Once this issue was settled, she could return to ignoring Liam and her unfortunate crush on him.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you like watching her walk away.” Liam’s best friend and Elevation’s head chef, Damon, sidled beside him.
“Oh, shut up. I’m thinking about something.” Something like Aubrey Dennison was kind of hot. How was that possible? Their little back-and-forth over the eggplant display had stirred him up something stupid. For whatever reason, her pert little nose usually turned up whenever he was around.
“I don’t know about you, but I was focused on how all men owe a debt to whoever invented yoga pants.” Damon gestured toward Aubrey.
Screw Damon for putting the idea in his mind, because those yoga pants clung to some places he’d never considered before today.
Liam delivered a smack to his best friend’s side. “She’s an annoying pain in the ass.”
Damon snorted. “See, you were thinking about it.”
“Oh, shut up. You’re married. You shouldn’t be looking, anyway.”
He raised an eyebrow. “My wife is like the air in my lungs, but my eyes still work.”
Liam watched as Aubrey spoke to the jam lady. Her face lit up when she talked to just about anyone else. Hell, today was probably the first day in months she’d said more than five words to him. She’d never given him the time of day, and for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why.
Liam turned to Damon. “Any-fucking-way, eggplant parmigiana is off. She stole all the eggplants.”
Damon snickered. “C’mon, man. These jokes write themselves.”
