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And his eyes. I never forgot the way those eyes looked. But their power over me is something I will still never understand, will never get quite used to.
An endless, heavenly, sapphire blue.
"…Brett?"
CHAPTER27
Brett
Denise stares at me for a long moment, her brows furrowed in confusion.
She looks like she's trying to decide between running away and slapping me. I hold my breath as if moving too quickly will spook her away again. This is my last chance.
And I'm not going to blow it this time.
"Brett," she says finally after a long minute, her voice soft. "What is all of this?"
"This is the new Sugar Breeze bakery," I say warmly.
Denise's eyes grow wide with shock. "The new Sugar Breeze Bakery?"
I take a step closer to her. "Yep. We decided that Sugar Breeze was too important for Barton Beach to let it go. So we got a new location. Today is the very first friends and family event."
Her eyes flash between me and the three others in the room with us. Lisa makes a subtle squeaking sound as Denise takes everything in. Sheila grins from ear to ear while Bash munches on the cookie I made for him, filling the tense silence with his crunching.
Finally, her eyes land on her sister. "Sheila, did you help plan this too?"
Sheila grins and nods in my direction.
"Sort of. Brett called me and asked to get you over here. And when I heard Lisa was coming back into town, I knew it would sound much more innocent coming from her."
Lisa giggles again, scrunching her shoulders together. "I'm sorry, Denise."
"Why?" Denise suddenly asks. She whips her head to look at me again. "Why are you doing all of this for me?"
I swallow, disappointment sticking to my insides like molasses. This isn't the reaction I wanted at all.
I glance around at the others, the two women still smirking and my brother still loudly crunching and now eyeing the fresh batch of cookies I've pulled from the ovens.
"Denise?" I reach out and touch her cheek. "How about you and I talk in the other room?"
I expect her to pull away from my touch, but to my surprise, she doesn't.
"Talk?" she repeats, as if she's never heard the word before. She's still in shock.
"Yes, baby. There are some things I want to explain."
And though she seems so out of it, she finally lowers her hands from her face and nods. I open the little swinging door so she can join me behind the counter and then take her back into the kitchen.
As she sees all the state-of-the-art appliances in perfect mint condition, her eyes sparkle. She runs her hands across the clean oven handles, the large bowl of the new industrial mixer, and the stainless steel counters.
I'm entranced by the way her hands take in the shapes and textures of things. Remembering how those hands used to feel when studying me.
I take a deep breath, trying to keep myself focused.
"Brett," Denise finally says, still looking around the room and not meeting my eyes. "Why would you do this?"
Quietly, I swallow, giving myself a moment to think of the right words.
