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He takes each step slowly and methodically, dust billowing beneath his boots as gravel crunches. I swear I only blink once and he’s next to me, rapping on my window with thick knuckles.
I try to roll down the window but it doesn’t work. Rather than do the normal thing and open the car door to get out, I start the car and then roll down the window.
Slowly…
Bzzzzz…
“Good morning,” Wyatt says, smiling at me as he leans against my car.
“Good morning,” I croak, not recognizing my voice. My mouth is dry, and I think I have a few shredded carrots from Lizzy’s muffins stuck in my teeth.
“Would you like to come inside?”
I swallow. Why is my mind going there? It’s a perfectly normal question but my mind can’t help but go there. Stop.
“I’d love for you to come—I’d love to come—I?—”
I roll up the window as my face burns hotter than the core of a star during a supernova. Everything is fine. This is great. I’m not awkward at all. Isn’t it crazy how I’m still a virgin?
I turn off my car and Wyatt steps aside as I open the door and pretend that nothing happened.
“Where’s Luke?” I ask, smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles in my dress, rubbing my arms, swinging them… Why can’t I stop fidgeting?
Wyatt smiles at me as the silence extends and extends and extends. Thankfully, Luke answers my question, squealing my name as he pushes through the front door.
“Just finishing up breakfast,” Wyatt says.
Luke gives me a big hug and for a brief moment, I forget everything about this encounter with Wyatt. For now. My brain will have no problem reminding me the moment my head hits my pillow tonight. And then again at 3 AM.
“How about I show you around?” Wyatt asks. “Give you the lay of the land and talk about everything that we might’ve missed in that contract you sent over.”
“It wasn’t a—” I clear my throat. “Okay, maybe it kind of was a contract.”
“It’s fine.” Wyatt says, closing the gap between us as Luke chases Oink around. He slides his hand onto the small of my back as he leans in. I breathe in his heady scent as he rasps, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t sign to keep you with me.”
I try to turn, but it feels like I’m frozen in place. When he finally pulls back, my body screams for him to touch me again. For his lips to graze my ear and skim against my neck.
“You mean Luke, right?” I say, my voice thin as I force it out.
He shakes his head as his dimpled smile makes my stomach flip. “Come on. I’ll show you around.”
“I like where your head’s at,” Lizzy says as I grab a few supplies from the Inn’s kitchen. “The best way to a man’s heart is through his belly. One of them, at least,” she adds before clearing her throat.
I sigh, retrieving a few piping bags and tips from the supply shelf to go with the scale and sifter. After dropping Luke off at school, I went back to Wyatt’s house to check the state of his baking supplies. Surprisingly, they weren’t too shabby. It’s not as fully stocked as I like, but it’s enough to work with.
Lizzy’s not wrong, but she’s got the wrong man. I’m trying to win over Luke with my baking. Well, that’s what I’m going to tell myself. And Lizzy…
I’m not going to tell her about the five minutes to an hour I spent watching Wyatt from the kitchen window. The living room when he moved toward the enclosures at the other end of the house. Or how I scurried upstairs to sneak into his closet and wrap myself up in his shirts for a brief moment or six.
I’m not going to tell her how unhinged I’m becoming being so close to the man I’ve crushed on for years because I think she already knows.
The contract I drew up for us is a lie—wishful thinking at its finest. I’ll never be able to keep my feelings hidden.
“I’m making these macarons for Luke.”
Lizzy looks at me, not saying a word because she knows the truth.
“I’m going to ply him with baked goods until I win him over.”
