Page 53 of Bake You Mine
She looked up at him. “I’m happy you and Aubrey are together, bro.”
He didn’t need Sasha to get ideas, especially when he and Aubrey hadn’t decided what was happening between them yet. “It’s new, so don’t make it a huge thing, okay?”
“Aubrey’s worth taking your time for. I’ve always known she was special. I’m glad you finally realized it, too.”
Aubrey’s life had become a three-ring circus, with Gary as ringmaster. She’d almost canceled when a calendar alertreminded her she had a morning booked at the Black Pearl Spa for a facial, massage, and waxing.
They’d had two dessert orders to get out and the daily order from the Port Fortune Roastery to stock their baked goods case. But she needed to take care of herself and could carve out an hour or two, even if it meant coming in early and staying late.
After a (mostly) relaxing early morning appointment, she followed her waxer to the front desk to pay. When she caught Liam at the front desk, she worried she’d hallucinated him. His deep voice carried through the marble reception room, so he had to be real.
That anxious, no-good side of her brain tried to tell her he was buying a spa package for another chick.
Before her anxiety could rise to DEFCON eleven, Liam turned around. His face lit up. “Aubs! What are you doing here?”
“Maintenance,” came her quick reply.
His brow arched, and damned her sensitive lady bits for betraying her. Once Liam and Aubrey had wrapped up their transactions, they stepped onto Garden Street under a sky that threatened rain.
“I was buying a spa day for Sasha. She’s torn up about the fuckboy situation.”
Aubrey exhaled. “What a great older brother you are.”
“Extortion was involved, so don’t thinktoohighly of me. She saw your text and threatened to tell my mother. Only half seriously, though.”
Aubrey shoved her hands into her pockets. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”
He inclined his head toward Tulip Turn, one long shopping street that connected Garden Street, at the rear of the town, closest to the Rappahannock River, and Sweet Briar. At thisearly hour, most of the shops were closed. Even fewer people were out and about, given that the sky was overcast and gray.
They passed by the only available restaurant space in the city, a too-small Thai carryout that had recently closed.
Liam paused to peer into the empty storefront. “Damn shame they went out of business. Their Tom Yum soup was out of this world.”
“It’s kind of a shitty location.” Aubrey pressed her thumbnail across the tape holding down the FOR RENT sign.
Liam looked over and pressed a quick kiss against the side of her head.
She let out a laugh and stepped away from him. “Port Fortune is a city, but a small one. People will talk.”
He stepped away from the window. “At least in public, they’re more polite than online.”
They both laughed. She followed him onto the Turn, and he stepped closer to her.
“So perhaps we can firm up our plans?”
“Firm up, heh heh,” Aubrey said.
Liam elbowed her. “Hey, I’m younger. I should be making the dumb jokes.”
She elbowed him back. “You don’t mind I’m older?”
“Of course not. Age is nothing but a number, anyway.” He regarded her with those chocolate-drop eyes. She turned away and sighed in a fashion that reminded her of the British period dramas her father watched when he wasn’t binge-watching war documentaries.
This was the perfect time for her to confess the truth about the depth of her feelings for him. It would be better to do it now than later, when he may be annoyed with her for not being upfront.
“You okay?”
She looked up, finding his gaze full of concern. “I’m fine, but there’s something I need to confess first.”
