AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We’d both grown up on this island, but I was sure he didn’t live here anymore. The last I’d heard, he lived on Florida’s mainland and opened a sporting goods business. I was glad that he didn’t live on the island anymore. Because that meant the odds of us running into each other were low.
Why was he here? Was he visiting because he heard from one of our old mutual friends that I was opening a store? Or was this purely a coincidence? Regardless, this was no meet-cute.
I loved Liam. More than I have ever loved anyone in this life. I’d dated before him and multiple times after, chasing the feeling that he’d given to me. But no one was even close to Liam. He was kind, caring, and funny and looked like a mixture between a Disney prince and young Sam Heughan.
Though it had been eight years since we’d seen each other, I couldn’t see much that had changed. His auburn hair was the same length, not too long, but not short. It was perfectly styled with volume that would make women jealous. His tall frame was just as muscular—if not more—than it had been before and was perfectly shown in the white t-shirt and jeans he was wearing. Really, what was up with incredibly hot men wearing tight, white v-necks? This wasn’t a freaking movie!
His crystal blue eyes stayed on mine, and I couldn’t look away. I was mesmerized.
I diverted my eyes only for a fraction of a second to see if there was anyone else in the store with me. I was desperate for a pretext to avoid conversing with him, to the point where I would have instantly hired someone to manage the counter if it meant I could evade him.
Neither one of us had wanted to break up. As far as I was concerned, we would have gotten married a long time ago. We started dating late in high school after knowing each other for a few years because of our fathers’ friendship, and after high school, we continued dating as we went to college. We’d gone to different colleges on the mainland, but were never more than an hour apart, so it didn’t hinder our relationship at all. But something happened between our fathers, who had been best friends, and they’d forced us to part. It was the most painful thing to ever happen to me.
And until right now, I had gotten over it and moved on with my life. I’d kept my thoughts away from him almost perfectly for the last three years, knowing it did no good for me to think about him and wonder what could have been.
But with him standing in my bakery, I knew I would be back to square one. He would be consuming my thoughts tonight.
“Wh…what are you doing here?” I asked, unable to bring my voice above a whisper.
Liam took slow, almost predatory steps closer until he was at the counter, which was almost empty. Only a few stray cookies and cupcakes remained. The closer he got, the more I considered running away. It wouldn’t be that weird, would it?
He shoved his hands into his front pockets in a way that couldn’t be categorized as anything but sexy, then shrugged. He had a smirk on his face that I knew meant he was up to something. “Just checking out my competition. Didn’t realize the lessors were allowing another bakery right next to mine.”
There was a foreign hollowness in my chest as I failed to realize what he was talking about. I let his words replay in my head over and over, trying to calculate how his words could be true.
But no matter how I cracked the egg, I still got the same result. And my brain felt scrambled.
I closed my mouth, which had fallen open in shock at my realization. That was when the rage set in.
“You.” Was all that I said at first. I couldn’t think of anything more accusatory or angry to say. Thousands of thoughts were running through my mind, but I couldn’t formulate an actual sentence with them.
“Me,” he countered, giving me a straight face. It wasn’t normal for me to see him with such a void of emotion.
“You’re the one opening acookieshopnext to my bakery?” My voice was definitely an octave higher, but I didn’t care if I sounded like a chipmunk. I was just doing everything I could to keep my anger at bay while also fighting off the urge to cry.
“It would seem so,” he deadpanned, looking at the remaining items in the case. “I’ll take a chocolate chip cookie.”
He gave me a small smile with his request, and I gasped at the audacity he had. Howdarehe come in here and ask for a cookie from my bakery! He was just going to see how it compared to his recipe. I felt something inside me shatter as memories of baking together floated to the surface of my mind.
“Get out.” I gritted my teeth to keep from saying anything else.
“I just wanted a cookie.”
I pushed the sliding glass of the case opened and pulled a cupcake that had tipped over out and intentionally scraped more of the icing off of the top so that it looked awful. I shoved it into his waiting hands, not caring that I essentially crushed the cupcake. The jolt that ran up my arm as our hands barely brushed also had to be ignored.
“That’s all you’re getting. Now leave.” I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for him to listen.
There was still no sign of emotion on Liam’s face, and it was only further breaking what was already torn open inside of me.
I held my breath until the door closed behind him. Then, I ran to the door and locked it so he couldn’t return.
How was I supposed to bake everything for tomorrow when I was caught up thinking about my ex-boyfriend, who apparently lived on the island again and was opening a competing business right next to mine? This was betrayal in the highest, and I wondered if he’d known. If this was something the family rivalry produced.
With no one else present in the store, I permitted myself to release a loud scream, and a solitary tear rolled down my cheek. Afterward, I collected myself, rolled up my sleeves, and proceeded to prepare tomorrow's confections.
6
Liam
