Page 12 of The Bride and the Baker

Chapter Three

Daisy was glad she had sympathetic clients. She had cleared her schedule so she didn’t have to take any lessons while she was on her honeymoon, but now she had all this spare time, and she was sure she was going to get bored sitting around Lee’s apartment doing nothing. It was one thing to accept his generosity, but it was something else to take advantage of it by being lazy.

Daisy didn’t like being lazy.

She also didn’t want to be in the building longer than she had to. It had only been two days, and she hadn’t wanted to be anywhere near the apartment. The housing market was quite tough right now, so she was having to wait. Daisy didn’t like doing that, but she wasn’t about to stay in the apartment she had shared with Nick longer than she had to.

Especially when she knew they would be coming back rather rapidly once they found out Daisy had canceled their reservation at the resort. How they had managed to get in when the resort staff needed ID and a signature from her, as the one who booked it, Daisy had no idea. They must have bluffed it. So canceling it had been very easy; the staff had been most obliging.

It was the least she could do after they took more than a wedding day from her. Daisy was feeling positively petty when she wasn’t feeling depressed over what she had lost.

Lee had done his best to cheer her up, and, to his credit, he was doing well enough. Daisy felt lighter when he was around making jokes and distracting her with various stories about his family. His sense of humor was different to Nick’s, but that was good. She needed different right now.

But it didn’t help that she was also sharing a small space with a gorgeous specimen of a human being. Especially when Daisy had woken up that morning to find Lee making breakfast wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts, leaving his chest on display. She had had no idea that a baker could be that ripped, and Daisy had had to stop herself from staring. There had been a sudden urge to lick him all over.

That had never happened before, not even with Nick. It had to be a rebound reaction. That was it. Daisy had been dumped, and not she was finding every guy around her attractive.

Not everyone. Just Lee. And that was no different than normal.

The sooner she found her own place, the better. Then Daisy could put some space between her and Lee before they did something stupid. Like tear each other’s clothes off and fuck each other. The thought left heating tingling in Daisy’s belly.

She needed to stop with that. Lee was much younger than her. He could have any woman he wanted. Why would he want her?

Daisy kept herself busy for most of the morning, heading out to give some of her clients lessons. They were happy to see her, and being away from the apartment was helpful to Daisy’s mental health. Being a music teacher was therapeutic at a time like this. She could let the music wash over her and focus on that. Far better than sitting around waiting for her ex and the bitch she once called a friend to come back.

They were not going to be happy at all. And Daisy didn’t really care. Just as long as they left her alone.

Her cell phone was switched off during lessons, so when Daisy checked it getting into her car, she saw the multiple messages from Nick and Elena. It looked like they had unblocked her. Daisy could only hope they weren’t at the apartment yet; she wanted to get inside Lee’s place before they came after her.

Driving back as quickly as she could without getting into trouble, Daisy hurried up to Lee’s place and let herself in, putting the chain on and double-locking the door. It was only then that she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t have any other lessons for the rest of the day, so all Daisy had to do was wait for Lee to get back. She would feel better knowing he was there; Nick was scared of him.

When it came down to it, her ex was a coward.

Daisy was opening up her laptop and starting to look for new places to rent when her phone started going off again. It was Nick. Bracing herself, Daisy answered it.

“What do you want, Nick?”

“What the hell have you done, Daisy?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t try and play innocent. We got thrown out of the resort. You called them and canceled our reservation. When we couldn’t prove that Elena was you, they forced us to leave! We could get into trouble!”

Daisy sighed.

“Of course you could. I was the one who made the reservation. I paid for it all, and I have to be there to confirm it. I don’t know how you got onto the resort in the first place, so I’m surprised it took this long for them to do something about it.”

“They threw us out yesterday. Apparently, we had someone new on the desk who took our word that Elena was you. We had to find a way to get back to Seattle last minute. Do you know how much money you made us waste?”

“It can’t be as much as the amount I wasted on our wedding,” Daisy shot back.

Nick groaned.

“You’re going to be a bitter bitch about this, aren’t you? Like with my apartment?”

“You mean our apartment, don’t you?”

“It was under my name, so that makes it mine!” Nick bellowed. Daisy could almost hear him across the hall. “Where is the furniture? The place has been completely cleaned out except for my gaming stuff and the TV. We have nothing. Where’s my furniture, Daisy?”

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