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1
PIPER
Iwas standing on the front porch of a stranger’s log cabin, wearing next to nothing. Yes, this was what my life had come to.
What had I been thinking, going along with this plan? Well, it was good money, for one thing. And if I did this right, Reese, who managed Blackbear Bluff’s only bakery, might give me the job I really wanted.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward and rang the doorbell. Then I stepped back again, clutching the basket of muffins just below my chest. The guys on the logging crew had been adamant about that suggestion. If I really wanted to pull off this prank, I had to show this Grayson guy the goods.
Footsteps on the other side of the door had me bracing myself. I pasted a smile on my face and lowered the basket even more.
Showing cleavage wasn’t a big deal. One of my friends back home worked as a cocktail waitress, and she had dudes groping her all the time. This was just dropping off some baked goods and hauling ass out of here.
The door flew open, and I jumped. My smile turned to open-mouthed surprise. It wasn’t just the guy’s hostile expression. It was his face and arms and chest.
That chest was bare. So was most of him, actually. His midsection was covered by a towel and his hair was wet. Had the guy jumped out mid-shower to answer the door?
Suddenly, his gaze lowered to my cleavage as though what he was showing wasn’t even more scandalous. Like his coworkers who’d paid me to play this prank, this guy was built. He worked outdoors with his hands all day, so yeah, of course he was built.
“Special delivery,” I said. “For Grayson.”
I lifted up the muffins slightly, then remembered to lower them back down again. Show cleavage. That would get him to take a bite out of one of these.
His gaze rose back to my face as a smile slowly spread. He found a cleavage-bearing delivery person amusing.
“They sent you, didn’t they?” he asked.
He looked past me as though someone might be waiting in the driveway. Nope. Just my beat-up old SUV.
“Who?” I tilted my head slightly. “I was just told to deliver these muffins.”
And that was the God’s-honest truth. I’d been filling in for my best friend at the town bakery bright and early that morning. A couple of the guys had come in and offered me a hundred dollars to show up here with some of these sweetheart muffins that were guaranteed to make a man fall in love. Once my friend showed up for work, I’d gone home, grabbed my skimpiest outfit, and headed straight here.
Grayson laughed. “Good one. Come on in.”
He turned and walked into the cabin, leaving me standing there, looking around. What was I supposed to do here? He hadn’t taken the muffins. Could I still get my hundred dollars if I left the basket on the porch and ran?
That would have been the easy way out, but I didn’t take it. And there was one reason for that: This guy was hot.
The cabin smelled like wood and soap. Not detergent, but actual soap. Maybe it was the logger I was smelling. But no, he was all the way across the room, seated on an ottoman.
“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got,” he said.
What I’ve got? My eyebrows arched. I closed the door behind me and stepped inside, putting both hands on the basket again. This time I held it up higher like it was a shield, but I didn’t feel safe, just unsure.
“They’re sweetheart muffins,” I said. “Legend has it that a man takes one bite and falls in love.”
Was it possible his smile was getting wider? He might start laughing at me soon.
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard the story,” he said. “A bunch of bullshit if you ask me.”
Two men on his logging crew had fallen in love after trying the muffins. Or maybe it was the women who’d fallen in love first. I wasn’t clear on the rules. My good friend and roommate Tinley was one of the women, and her sister Hannah was the other. The muffins were their family recipe, so maybe the love potion part was specific to them.
Not that I believed in any of it myself. But I could pretend to believe almost anything for a hundred dollars.
“You can just set the muffins down,” he said. “Unless they’re part of the act.”
He gestured toward his kitchen table. The cabin was basically one big room, with a kitchen, living room, and dining area. I figured the bedroom was through one of the two closed doors I saw in the back-left corner. I took the few steps necessary to set the basket on the table, then turned to face him, crossing my arms over my chest.
