“I am trying to be open to the possibility of dating Jake,” Audreysaid.
“And I’m proud of you.” Eve hugged her. “It’s hard when jobs require so much sacrifice of your outsidelife.”
Audrey sighed. “I’m going to need some of those cookies to go. And don’t you dare send any to Jake. Right now, he thinks I make very goodcookies.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Friday, NewYorkCity
DearJake,
I baked these cookies from the recipe inLove in a Cookie Bakery. These cookies are VERY GOOD. They taste best with milk, so feel free to pop by again if you’reout.
I’m looking forward to reading the book too. I gather you weren’t able to find a book calledLove in aLawFirm?
Best,
Audrey
Audrey slipped through the fence between their backyards and left the cookies with the note outside his sliding glass door. Then she rushed off to her morning meeting with Mrs. Whitaker to samplesalt-free,gluten-freefood. Please, let the first caterer be great so they could hire her and bedone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Audrey settled into her lounge chair to spend her Saturday morning escaping intoLove in the Cookie Bakeryand go into the office around 2 p.m. She hid her romantic comedy behind a law treatise in case her psychiatrist neighbors looked over the fence. She didn’t want thempsycho-analyzingher taste in literature.
She was so engaged in the book that she almost didn’t hear Jake ask, from over the fence, “Want to go for a bikeride?”
A bike ride was not in the plans. She had piles of work waiting at the office. But she’d definitely forgo reading for an hour bike ridewithJake.
“Sure. What are you going to wear?”she asked.
“Is there usually a dresscode?”
“The last person I met for a bike ride was dressed head to toe in a blackbike-racingspeedo outfit.”
“Noway.”
She just nodded as Jake eased through the hole inthe fence.
“A law treatise made you giggle?” he asked. She looked up in guilty surprise as he grabbed the treatise. “Caught youred-handed. So much for Shakespeare. Hope that book is as good as yourcookies.”
“You seem to have very good taste in romance novels. Is that based on experience?”she asked.
“Just good at reading the Amazon summaries.”He smiled.
“So, are you going to be dressed ina speedo?”
“Red speedo, but it has a cape as well. Aren’t you holding out for a superhero?”
Recognizing the title of the Bonnie Tyler song, she continued the riff: “Only if you’re faster than the speedof light.”
As did Jake: “That’s definitely asking for a heartache.”
“That’s on my heartacheplaylist!”
“You have a heartacheplaylist?”
“You don’t?”