Page 68 of A Taste of Trouble

“You're doing me a huge favor by not making me go to that book launch alone. It's the least I could do in return.”

She smiled. He could have found a date in less than thirty seconds if he really tried. She didn't doubt that.

“Let me do this for you.” He walked closer and rested his hands on the island.

“Don't you have to work?” He talked about his job, but Liv hadn't actually seen him do a job.

“I can go in late.” He checked his phone. “I'm already late.”

With the bag now full, Liv lifted it out of the cup and twisted the plastic tightly.

All he was doing was printing things. If he could even deliver on his promise. She couldn't leave here, and letting Jake help meant she would have business cards by the end of the day.

What harm would it do? Too much had gone wrong today already. Letting Jake do her a favor wouldn't be her worst decision of the day.

“Okay, yes.”

Jake rushed to the office and picked up her computer.

“They're in the folder marked PR Material.”

“Got it.” He walked out, but before he reached the doorway he turned. “Just so you know, this wasn't a free favor. You've just agreed to go out with me on Wednesday, too.” He wiggled his eyebrows and left the kitchen.

The jingle of the front door signaled he'd left the bakery and she let out a huge breath. She hadn't even realized she'd been holding it. She'd managed to put off having to answer his proposal for a date because of the call of the oven, but now…

Liv brought the piping bag to the flat surface of one of the cooled cupcakes she had sitting off to the side, and squeezed. Just like that, Jake had made everything better. He'd saved the day. He made it all seem so easy. She hoped that it would be, because his voice and his presence alone made the idea of taking the next step a little less daunting. Maybe she could do this—run a business and have a boyfriend.

Then why was it the scariest feeling in the world?

Chapter Eighteen

Liv answered the knock at her door in a flurry, her hair half dry, dressed in nothing but her bra and a pair of daisy duke spandex shorts.

“Now that would definitely make an impression.” Austin stood in her doorway, shopping bags in hand. She could see he was trying to hold back a laugh. “Honey, you look like you're going to combust. Calm down. Otherwise, Jake is going to have a date with one big hive.”

“Ozzie! I'm freaking out!” She clasped onto his arms. “I have a date!”

“That's good news, not the apocalypse.”

The two days since she'd seen Jake had dragged by. Despite no drama at the bakery and a surprising amount of business, their date was always in the front of her mind. But now, it was finally Wednesday. And she was going on a real date with Jake Miller.

Austin entered and closed the front door. “You just had an entire weekend together…alone. What's the big deal?”

“Because last weekend was like a fantasy. We were in our own little world. Now we have a date. Totally different expectations.”

“I know you can't be talking about sex, because I think that it goes without saying that you gave in to that expectation a long time ago.”

“Not sex! Me!” She pointed to her chest. “We're in the real world now. He's going to want to know things, important things, personal things, intimate things. I've never done this before. What if he figures out he doesn't like me?”

“First of all, you're fantastic.” Austin shifted the bags in his hands. “You're a loyal friend, you have a big heart, and look at you.” His last few words were louder than the rest. “You have a hot body and a beautiful face. Any man would be lucky to have you. Secondly”—he toed off his shoes—“if he does end up not liking you, then he's an ass and he doesn't deserve you.”

“That's my point. Why bother if it's just going to end badly?” How could it not end badly? It's what she had believed for so long.

“You don't know that it will.”

“But it could.”

“But it might not.”

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