Page 64 of A Taste of Trouble

“Maybe next time you can sleep over at my house?”

She let out a hard exhale as she thought of how to respond. “This week is going to be really hectic with the opening.”

“I can help.” God, he was pathetic. He heard the desperation in his own voice. She agreed to go to the book launch. That was mission number one. That's all he needed. So why did he want more? “I am a master of PR.”

“I can't focus with you around.” She grinned and patted her wet shoulders with her towel. “But I'll see you for the book party.” She clasped her bra around her torso, then spun it around to push her arms under the straps.

He took that as an invitation and stalked closer, enveloping her against his naked body. “I'm more excited for the after party.” He wiggled his eyebrows, hoping she'd get the point, maybe even lighten up a bit.

She tensed and fisted her hands against his chest. “Jake, I don't have time for this. Put on your clothes.” She waved her hand to his clothes that sat on her bed. “I'm already late.”

He released his grip, backed away with caution, and followed her direction. After dressing, he hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “I'm sorry.”

Liv was busy running a brush through her long, dark hair, but she acknowledged him when their eyes met.

He shrugged. “I just can't keep my hands off you.”

A quiet chuckle filled the room, and just like that all was right with the world.

When the brush had been pulled through every strand of her hair, she tied it up. “This is really important. This is my livelihood.”

He nodded. She was right. Today was a big day for her, and the last thing she needed right now, no matter how much fun they had, was his paws all over her.

He stepped forward with his palms out. His version of waving the white flag.

She smiled and lowered her arms. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Good luck today. Call me if you need anything, or…if you just want to say hi.”

Jake headed for the doorway, but paused before he stepped over the threshold and looked back. “I will see you later.”

Despite knowing that he risked losing her once she found out about Shelton, he just couldn't give up on her. He would give her the time and space she needed. But she was right. They both had other things going on in their lives, and making an appearance at his own job was probably a good idea.

But Liv would never be far from his mind.

Chapter Seventeen

This was supposed to be a great day. An exciting day. Instead, Liv spent the morning wiping tears from her cheeks. She'd showed up to a dark bakery. Not one watt of power, and a whole hell of a lot of water on the floor.

She immediately called Mr. Luko, who didn't appreciate the early morning wake-up call. But after flicking around with the breakers, she had no choice. Building maintenance wasn't on her list of skills.

It took Mr. Luko two minutes to figure out the problem. All he did was flick a switch. He mumbled something under his breath that she couldn't understand, but when he asked her if she had been playing around with the breakers, she got nervous. He said someone would've had to come into the bakery and turn the breaker off on purpose.

On top of that, the hand-washing station had leaked, and water seeped from the pipe under the sink across the floor. Luckily, the water had contained itself and didn't travel to the kitchen or the front door. Unfortunately, it did enough damage to ruin the boxes of advertising material she had forgotten to pick up from the floor on her way out of the bakery yesterday morning. Jake had been just too damn distracting.

It was only three hours into her opening day and already Liv was hundreds of dollars in the hole. And not one business card to give out to make up for it. The events of this morning had initiated the conspiracy-theory wheel. She might have been a little stern working at the bar, but she didn't have any enemies. She had supportive family and friends who bent over backwards to help her. Like Nancy, who…

Suddenly the pieces began to fit. She had been around quite a bit. Showing up out of the blue. Liv shook off the thought. No, Nancy would never resort to sabotage. That thought scared her. Could it be sabotage? It was a possibility she should consider, because something deep in her gut told her this was more than just bad luck.

With the pipe fixed and the floors dry, Liv set out for the twenty-four hour grocery store. Who knew how long the power had been out? She didn't want to risk getting anyone sick, so she replaced the eggs, butter, and milk in her fridge.

When she had finally settled down to start baking it was after eight, which didn't give her as much time as she would have liked. She even had to put the plain cupcakes in the fridge to cool them down enough to frost them. Her cupcakes were by no means perfect when she finished, but at least she had cupcakes.

By ten, things had settled down and she had a couple of batches ready for the showcase just in time to open the door to the public. It was also exactly the same time Mr. Cross decided to grace her with his presence.

“Hello, Mr. Cross.” Liv greeted him with a

smile, despite the sour taste rising in her throat. “I think you'll find all of the changes made to your liking.”

“Not my liking Ms. Crawford, the City of Toronto's liking.”

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