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“No, no,” a deep voice said from behind me. “Do go on. I heard something about being meant for each other. I like the sound of that.”
I was surprised I hadn’t heard him come in. He was the type who commanded a room, filling the space with his energy, his mischievous personality. There wasn’t a time I could remember that I hadn’t been aware of him walking into a room.
Until today.
I blamed the headache.
He stepped up to the sideboard carrying double-stacked white boxes, each printed with the Beach Mouse Bakery logo. He glanced at me, a twinkle in his teal eyes. “Hi, honey. Sorry I’m late. These are for you.”
Honey?
I might have to kill him with my bare hands.
But, oh lord. Why had my knees gone weak?
Tongues were going to be wagging all over the town. And once they started, they wouldn’t stop until they had us married off. We weren’t going to have a moment’s peace. He had to know that. Hehadto. Why was he stirring the pot?
“A big, strapping, handsome man who brings me pastries?” Delaney pressed her hands to her heart. “You’re a lucky woman, Maggie.”
“The luckiest,” I murmured as I set chocolate muffins on the stand.
“Where are y’all going for dinner?” Mary Carole asked. “The Outrigger? Honeysuckle?”
They were two of the area’s most popular upscale restaurants, and the thought of dining with the eyes of many neighbors upon us filled me with dread. We’d be like bugs under a microscope, every move examined, analyzed, and then reported to the rest of the town.
I just wanted to be alone with him. I wanted to get to know him again. I wanted to see if we had a fighting chance.
“I’m thinking along the lines of something moreintimate,” Donovan said. “I’d share, but I’d like it to be a surprise for Maggie.”
Both women faux fainted.
I gaped at him, and he shot me an innocent smile.
He was only forty, but I suddenly questioned if it was possiblehewas having some sort of midlife crisis, only early.
Or maybe he’d simply lost his mind.
The same way I was going to lose mine if he kept yammering on about anything intimate.
As I set the last of the pastries on the stand, my headache hammered my temples so fiercely I thought my head might explode.
I needed some fresh air, and fast. “That completes setup on my end. Please remind Bettina that the airpots need to be returned by closing time this afternoon. I’ll see y’all later.” I gathered up my things and headed for the door.
“That’s my cue to leave, too,” Donovan said. “Have a nice day, ladies.”
“You too,” Mary Carole cooed. “Especially have a nice night.”
I groaned as I pulled open the front door, trying to ignore Donovan, who was suddenly so close that I could feel his body heat.
Outside, more Clams were coming up the front step as I rushed down them. Bettina and Carmella and Mrs. Pollard. As much as I wanted to talk to Carmella, to pick up our conversation from yesterday, I hurried past, intent on making my escape. “Have a good meeting, ladies.”
The quicker I could get out of here without more questions from the women or more innuendos from Donovan the better. I was woefully unprepared for his banter. I didn’t know what to say or how to respond to his romantic insinuations. Just yesterday morning I’d had no idea he even wanted to date me.
Only, when I stepped off the last stair and looked toward my golf cart, I saw that the Beach Mouse delivery van had been parked diagonally across the end of the gravel driveway. I was blocked in.
I felt Donovan—and his blasted heat—step up directly behind me. I pasted on a smile, spun around, and looked up at him. “Would you like me to murder you now or later,honey?”
His eyes danced with amusement, glinting like sunlight on water. “I didn’t know you had such a violent side, Maggie.”
