She leaned in with a conspiratorial smile. “You can’t go wrong with anything. Nix and Torey are baking goddesses, but this week, you have to try the brown sugar butternut squash croissant and the pumpkin cheesecake strudel.” Her blue eyes were pale at the center and darker around the edges, which nearly drowned me.
“How about we share them?”
“Oh, you are bad, Brock.” She turned to the counter with a wide smile and ordered the strudel and a tall black coffee. “Haveyou met Brock yet, Torey? He’s a friend of Lee’s.” She turned to me. “Torey is dating Nix’s brother.”
“Engaged, actually.” She lifted her hand to show off a sparkler on her left ring finger.
“No way! Congratulations, Torey!” Sela bounced on her toes and rushed around the counter to hug the woman. “I’m so happy for you guys.” They squealed together and talked in hushed tones for a few minutes before Sela joined me on the other side of the counter, still smiling but with a sadness in her eyes.
I had so many questions about this intriguing woman, which was damned foolish considering I’d already been burned once by my ex-wife and then time and time again by gold diggers and ladder climbers. Maybe it was just that she wasn’t interested, or maybe I was no different than any other red-blooded man and had my head turned by a pretty face and a hot body.
With my own order paid for, I joined Sela at a booth. “You started without me.”
She froze mid-bite and looked up at me, her cheeks turning an alarming shade of pink. “I did. Sorry. But I saved you half,” she pointed to the strudel cut neatly down the middle. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I love a woman who isn’t afraid to love her food.”
She laughed. “The universe hates me,” she mumbled under her breath.
I bit back a smile and tasted the strudel with a loud moan. “Damn, that’s incredible.”
“Right?” Her eyes sparkled as she studied me, not in that calculated way women often did when they spotted a rich bachelor. Her look was more curious, more assessing. “So why are you moving to Holiday Grove?”
“I’ve known Lee for a long time. I invested in his company, and somehow, he roped me into being CFO.”
“Wow, that means you’re good with numbers and finance stuff?”
I nodded. “You could say that.”
She nodded with a look of longing in her eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
I paused but nodded cautiously. “Do you like what you do?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I’m good at it, and I like the results.”
Sela nodded thoughtfully. “Did you choose it for yourself, or is it a family business?” Her brows knitted into a frown. “Feel free to tell me I’m being too nosy if I am.”
I waved off her warning. It was refreshing to have a real conversation with a woman that wasn’t about my money. “It’s not a family business, but in college, I was good at math, accounting, and economics. I had a knack for it, and the more I understood it and how it worked, the more I liked it.”
She leaned in close, eyes wide and curious. “Can I ask you a stupid question?”
“There are no stupid questions, Sela.”
She swallowed and then nodded. “Okay. How do you know what to invest in? I mean, did you learn that in school, or do you just know?”
I laughed, not at her but at her tone. “Sometimes, I think Ijustknow, and I’m wrong. Other times, I’m unsure, and I’m right. Mostly, there’s a list of criteria I use that boils down to the good outweighing the bad. Are you thinking of investing?”
She threw her head back and laughed. “No, I was just curious how you found your passion.”
“Brock, you’re here!” Nix’s voice sounded about two seconds before she appeared at the table. “Lee said you were thinking about it, and now here you are!”
I stood and let the overly affectionate woman wrap me in a tight hug. “Hey, Nix. This place is great.”
She pulled back and studied me and then Sela. “Thanks. You should’ve said you were here. How are you settling in?”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “The woman at the B&B tried to set me up with her granddaughter, so I went for a walk and met Sela.”
Nix laughed. “There is a shortage of eligible bachelors in town, and gorgeous bachelors are worth their weight in gold.”
