Page 39 of Her Maine Distraction

“Hi, I’m Meghan,” a young girl, maybe 18, says, shaking my hand. She’s really pretty, with pin-straight, dark blonde hair to her collar bone, and dark blue eyes that remind me of a sky at twilight.

“I’m Elizabeth, but you can call me Ellie. Everyone does,” I tell her.

“Good to meet you.”

“She’ll be working a few days during the week while also attending college.”

“What’re you studying?”

“Marine Sciences at the University of New England.”

“Oh, wow, that’s amazing.”

“Thanks.” She smiles shyly. “I love it.”

Courtney and Meghan head back out to the front area, and Courtney spends some time training her with Ally as I get to making the next round of cupcakes. Chocolate and salted caramel.

I put the batter cups in the oven and start in on melting the caramel that will be drizzled on top, but the stove won’t light.

Uhh, shit…

“Courtney?” I call out, and she pops her head in.

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah, the stove won’t light,” I tell her ruefully.

“Shit, really?” Coming over, she tries a few times herself, and sighs. “Alright, I’ll call Ty.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he’s the town’s unofficial handyman. He can fix almost anything.”

“Oh, when he said he worked with the local contractor, I thought he meant just construction stuff.”

“Nope. He’s a man of many talents.”

“Yes, he is,” I mutter under my breath.

“What was that?” She smiles.

I shake my head and fix the tie on my apron. “Nothing.”

Taking her phone out, Courtney dials Tyler straight away. “Hey, Ty…What? No, she’s fine,” she says, smiling at me. “I’m calling because I need you to stop by later if you can. My stove won’t light. I’m sure it just needs a little tweaking or something.” She pauses to listen to him. “Thanks, Ty. See you later.”

“He’ll be here after his shift. Do you mind staying late?”

“Oh, uh, sure. No problem.”

She rolls her eyes and pats my shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Ellie. You two can talk. Just don’t do anything gross on my beautiful counters. Got it?” She pins me with a look over her shoulder and then winks before disappearing through the swinging doors.

Did she just give me the go ahead?

Laughing to myself, I shake my head and put the caramel aside to melt tomorrow morning when the stove is working again.

The rest of my afternoon is spent tryingnotto think about Tyler. It doesn’t really work, though, and I end up adding salt instead of sugar to my icing when I thought about him pushing me up against the prep table and kissing me senseless while I got flour all over my back.

Luckily, I caught my mistake before I actually iced the cupcakes. I don’t want to have to explain to Courtney why I ruined an entire batch of cupcakes because I was thinking about Tyler fucking me on our kitchen work table…

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