AllFreeNovel
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“Her fridge? I’m the owner of the bakery. If anything, it’s my fridge.”
“But she’s been there for the past seven years. You’ve been there for what, a month?”
“A month and a half.”
She narrows her eyes at me.
“Good point. But I can’t just buy a new fridge...”
She pulls out her phone from her back pocket and types away on the screen. A moment later she’s setting it down, screen side up, and sliding it toward me. “Call this guy. Tell him about your broken fridge and mention Rylee told you to call him. He’ll get you situated.”
“This guy’s legit? He won’t murder me and bury me in his backyard.”
“If you keep asking all these damn questions,I’mgoing to murder you and bury you in my backyard.”
“Noted. Thank you, Rylee.” I add the name and number into the contacts on my phone. Rylee goes back to cutting up lime wedges. “One more question.” Rylee holds up her knife and tilts her head to the side. Oddly enough, I think she could gut someone like a fish with the paring knife, but I cross my fingers and take my chances anyway. “How much does the bakery mean to Hollyn?”
Rylee drops the knife to the cutting board and leans toward me. “After her ex-fiancé left her, it was the bakery that brought her back to life. She lives and breathes that bakery. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had frosting running through her veins.”
“It’s probably more along the lines of icing. It’s thinner and runnier. Would flow better than frosting.” I smile to myself, knowing that little tidbit of information Hollyn told me stuck.
“Whatever. Not the point. The bakery means a lot to her, and she prides herself in the work she does there. And whoever you want to blame it on, that work is in jeopardy. So, make it right.” She goes back to the lime wedges. “Ugh. It wasn’t this hard with Bennett,” she mumbles under her breath.
“Thanks for all your help.” I rise to my feet.
Rylee stops what she’s doing. “One more thing since I’m doling out free advice like candy at a parade. If a girl says it’s fine. It’s not fine. It’s far from fine.” She points her paring knife at me, and I nod in understanding.
While she slightly terrifies me, gut instinct tells me she knows what she’s talking about. I toss some bills onto the bar top to pay for my drinks and I’m out the door, loaded with some new information and the need to make everything right with my girl. My girl? I like the sound of that.
A short while later, I’m back at the bakery. When I step into the kitchen, Hollyn’s rearranging the other smaller fridge to make room for the new frosting we’ll have to make. I clear my throat and she glances up at me.
“I’m sorry. I was a little bit of an asshole earlier.”
She quirks an eyebrow at me.
“Okay. A lot of an asshole. I’m sorry. I have a call into a repair shop, and he’ll be out to look at the fridge tomorrow and figure out what we need to fix it.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for calling you irresponsible. You’ve gone through a lot in your life to prove otherwise. My emotions got the best of me. I’m at a loss on what to do, with everything, and I took it out on you.” Her gaze casts downward.
Cautiously, I inch closer to her. When she doesn’t move away, I take another step until I’m standing in front of her. “Did we have our first fight?”
She peers up and nods. “We did.”
I hold out my open arms. When she doesn’t move, I give her a head nod to coax her into my arms. She breaks eye contact and nibbles on her bottom lip. A second later, her arms wrap around my waist and her cheek rests against the cotton of my shirt.
“Huh. And we’ve managed to come out the other end stronger.” I rest my chin on top of her head and rub my hands up and down her back.
“That’s what they call being in a relationship. You make mistakes and you work through them.”
“Is that what this is? A relationship?” I squeeze her tighter.
“I don’t know. But whatever it is, I like it.”
“Me too.” I bend down and place a chaste kiss to her lips.
Still in my arms, she peers up at me. “There’s one thing I’m wondering about. After your girlfriend told you the baby wasn’t yours, why didn’t you move back to Harbor Highlands?”
Exhaling a sigh, I glance up at the ceiling, unsure how I want to answer. This is the first time I’ve really talked about it. “Pride, I guess. No one knew me down there. If I came back to Harbor Highlands, I would have to deal with all the hushed whispers and pity glances. Plus, she and my best friend moved back here. Less of a chance of seeing them if I wasn’t around.”
