Page 11 of Kylie’s Kakes

He shook his head and reached for a piece of bread. "Don’t be sorry. I love hearing about what excites you.”

My breath caught at his word choice, and he quickly corrected himself.

“What I mean is, I’m impressed that you’re doing what you love. This is something you clearly want, and it’s really great that you’re doing it. No regrets, right?"

I scoffed but kept a smile on my face. “Yeah, no regrets.” I actually had a ton of regrets, but that wasn’t something we needed to get into at dinner. “What about you? How'd you learn to cook? Did you go to school for it?"

"Nah, my mom didn’t cook much when I was growing up." He said it like it was just a fact and not something that bothered him. "But I’ve always loved food, so I taught myself as soon as I was old enough to start experimenting. It turned into something I love and was good at, so…I just went with it."

"That's cool." I took a sip of wine and moved my gaze to his eyes from where I’d been studying his lips. “Kinda like what I’m doing.”

"Kinda." He popped another piece of bread into his mouth and smirked. "Except I’ve set exactly one thing on fire teaching myself… and I’m guessing you have a whole highlight reel."

My jaw dropped at his audacity. "Rude! Also, accurate."

He just smiled and waited for more.

I sighed and tried to hide my face behind my hand. "Back to that chemistry thing…baking does have more, um, reactions, I guess. And sometimes, those reactions create smoke…and fire.” An image came to mind that made me chuckle. “Like one time, I set off the smoke alarm because I was trying to caramelize sugar. The kitchen got smoky, and I grabbed some towels to hold the handle so I could move it to the sink. But one of the towels fell on the burner, and I didn’t realize a little fire had started behind me because the alarm was still screeching. Anyway, my Da— um, my boyfriend walked in and grabbed an extinguisher, so it was all fine." Even the memory of how dumb I’d felt made me want to curl into a ball from embarrassment. Troy took care of the mess, but he punished me too. And I hated punishments. I blew out a breath to blow away the memory. “Anyway, that’s just the most recent time, but there have been a few close calls.”

“Your boyfriend?” He raised an eyebrow. “How recently was this?”

“My ex.” I bit my lip, kinda wishing I hadn’t used that example. “That was like two years ago.”

“So, you’re single now?” He cocked his head, watching me carefully. “I guess I should have asked you that before asking you out.”

I chuckled. “Don’t worry. If I wasn’t single, I wouldn’t be here. I’m not like that.”

“Good to know.” He stared at me for a moment and then nodded. “I’m not like that either. I’m a one-woman man.”

“Good to know.” I swallowed hard, hoping he didn’t notice how happy I was to hear that. It wasn’t that I had been cheated on in the past, but since my ex was now fully in love with one of my best friends, I was a little insecure about whether I could actually hold a man’s attention. But that wasn’t what Jordan said, so it was time to move on. “But we’re talking about you and how you became a chef.”

"I’m boring. I’d much rather hear about you." Before he could probe any further, the food came, and we spent a few minutes digging in.

“As I was saying…” My eyes stayed on my plate as I tried to get him talking again. "You’re definitely not boring."

"Fine, maybe I’m not boring." He took his time wiping his mouth and taking a drink before leaning back in his seat. “But you’re fascinating. I could spend hours just listening to you talk.”

My jaw went slack before I caught myself gawking. “You could? You’d actually want to?”

"Is that an offer?" He waited until I looked into his eyes and then held my gaze. "Because I definitely want to hear everything, if you’re willing to tell me."

“Oh. Okay.” Instead of giving him a real response, I shoved a forkful of gnocchi into my mouth and pretended my heart wasn't pounding right out of my chest because he was interested in me.

That was a new level of pathetic for me.

But Jordan didn’t make me feel pathetic. He really did seem fascinated when he was asking about my childhood and my favorite movies and my thoughts on buttercream. By the time we finished eating, the candle between us was low enough that the waiter offered to replace it. But we just waved him off because we didn’t want to look away long enough to deal with the interruption.

Jordan left a stack of cash in the little folder that held the check and then stood up with his hand out to me. "Can I interest you in some ice cream?"

I took his hand and didn’t let go even after I was standing. "I’m always up for ice cream."

"Excellent. I know a great place around the corner that does rolled ice cream."

“Rolled?” I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I needed it in my life. “Say less.”

He grinned and tugged me against his side as we stepped outside. "Come on, cupcake. You're gonna love this place."

My body melted into him at the endearment. It was sweet and thoughtful and felt so nice to hear. “I believe you.”