Page 51 of Rebel Heart
It was crazy to me that Jules knew precisely what needed to be done without having to look at a recipe book. She knew the steps right off the top of her head. And considering how difficult and tedious I found this to be with her walking me through it, I couldn’t say I didn’t have a newfound respect and admiration for her.
As I worked to get all the dough scooped out and onto a plate that’d easily fit in my refrigerator, I glanced up at the phone. Jules was watching me, and a smile broke out on her face. The sight of it had my heart pounding.
“What’s that look about?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about perception and how we can get things so wrong sometimes,” she replied.
My brows pulled together. “I’m not sure I understand.”
Jules shook her head, her smile still playing at her lips in a way that told me she was teasing or being playful. A thrill of excitement skittered down my spine at the sight of it. I was so captivated, I stopped scooping the cookie dough and waited for clarification. “This has caught me off guard,” she started. “I honestly never would’ve imagined that you had a stand mixer. You didn’t strike me as the type.”
I placed my hand on top of the mixer. “This thing?”
“Yes. One look at you doesn’t exactly scream stand mixer or baker.”
I laughed. “Your assessment of me isn’t wrong. I went out and bought it after you sent me that recipe.”
Her lips parted in surprise. “You bought it just to make the cookies?”
Inclining my head, I returned to scooping the dough and explained, “I figured if I was going to do this, I should have all the tools to do it properly.”
“I see. So, do you intend to do more baking after these cookies?”
The thought of baking another thing made me want to rip my hair out. “I guess that depends on you.”
“Me?”
Jules was looking at me curiously, and for a moment, I was lost in those beautiful blue eyes. An overwhelming sense of longing took hold as the memory of her looking at me with those eyes when I was buried inside her barreled to the forefront of my mind.
I had to look away just to regain my composure. “I don’t suspect I’ll be trying out any recipes on my own. I just don’t have that level of confidence yet. But if you’ve got some free time in the future and don’t mind being my teacher, I might be willing to pull this thing out again. Of course, I don’t expect you to commit to something like that, especially when there’s no telling how this is going to go. I might just be a lost cause.”
“I don’t think that’s true about you at all, Beau.” Her features softened, and I got the distinct feeling that there was something else lingering beneath the surface of those words. “I’m sure your cookies are going to be delicious.”
“Do you really believe that?” I decided not to specify whether I was referring to the cookies or me being a lost cause.
She smiled. “Absolutely.”
More and more, Jules was showing me just how wonderful a woman she was. She didn’t hesitate to be kind and encouraging when she had every reason never to have done this in the first place.
No matter how big my sweet tooth, this wasn’t about the cookies for me. Sure, it would’ve been utterly frustrating for another batch to turn out horribly, but I could just go out and buy cookies if I really wanted them. That’s what I’d been doing my whole life. This was about me wanting to build a friendship with Jules again, desperately hoping to get her back in my life in some capacity.
“Well, I’m not going to make any assumptions. I’ve done that before, and it didn’t exactly work out the way I hoped.”
Jules looked away from me and blinked her eyes. Evidently, there was still a touch of hurt lingering there over what I’d done.
“Jules, I’m sorry. I didn’t?—”
“It’s fine. Honest. Um, so I don’t have a ton of time left before I have to head out of here, but I want to make sure you know what’s left to be done on those cookies.”
Suddenly, I didn’t give a crap about the cookies. “You have plans tonight?”
She nodded. “Yeah. And I still need to get myself ready. So, anyway, you need to make sure those cookies go in the fridge for about an hour. I’d recommend setting a timer for forty-five minutes. When that timer goes off, pre-heat your oven. And as soon as it’s up to temp, pop the cookies on a couple of baking sheets and put them in for eleven to fifteen minutes. All ovens are different, so I can’t give you an exact number there. But if you set another timer on the low end, you can just watch them for the remaining few minutes if they need additional time. Then you let them cool a bit before putting them in an airtight container.”
I heard almost nothing that she’d said after she confirmed she had plans for tonight that she needed to get ready for. That was likely the reason she’d been distracted before when she was in her closet. The effort it took for me not to ask about those plans was tremendous. Was she going out with another guy? Was it someone who would give her what I couldn’t? Would she be wearing something like she had the night I’d taken her out?
“I think I can remember all that,” I said, my voice strained.
“It’s pretty easy. You’ll do great. And I can’t wait to hear how they turned out. Something tells me you’re going to be pleasantly surprised by the results.”
