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“And?”
“And… it was great.” She gave a sad chuckle. “I hate to admit it, but it really was. The place is beautifully decorated, and every single pastry looked amazing.”
William stepped toward her, placing a hand on each of her hips.
“It does seem like it’s been doing well since it opened. That’s okay though.” He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead, and Sarah’s eyes fluttered shut for a moment. “I told you, a little friendly competition can be a good thing.”
“Competition…” Sarah repeated the word, drawing it out as an idea began to take shape in her mind. Then her eyes flew open, and she looked up at William excitedly. “That’s it! Sweetheart, you’re a genius!”
“I mean, yes.” William grinned at her. “Of course I am. But what did I do right this time?”
Sarah laughed. “A competition! We can have a baking competition at the holiday party!”
A concerned look flitted across his face. “Oh. Hmm, I don’t know if that’s a great idea.”
“How can it not be great? It was your idea.” Sarah rested a hand on his arm, standing on her tiptoes to lightly press her lips to his.
She could tell that he wanted to argue further or try to talk her out of it, but this was the most excited she had felt in days. A new energy was filling her chest, and her mind was already buzzing with thoughts about how to pull it off.
“I’ll approach Mindy about the idea tomorrow,” she said, rattling off her new to-do list. “That’ll give me tonight to iron out the details.” She clapped her hands before rubbing them together. “Oh, this is gonna be great.”
She turned away from William as the timer to the oven began beeping. She hummed to herself as she took out the new batch of muffins, smiling as she found them perfectly browned and smelling delicious. As she set them on the counter to cool, she felt a lightness growing inside her.
William might not be sure this was a good idea, but she was growing more and more certain that this was the best way forward. Once she went head-to-head with Mindy in a friendly holiday baking competition, she would be able to let go of her worries about having a new bakery in town.
Everything would work out perfectly. How could it possibly go wrong?
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Zach’s breath left him in a puff that floated through the air as he propped a piece of wood behind the gigantic canvas to hold it in place. He’d had the idea for this painting earlier in the day, and try as he might, he hadn’t been able to get it out of his head. Satisfied that it wasn’t going to fall over, he walked around to the front of the canvas and began assembling the balloons that were filled with paint.
Dark clouds stirred over the mountain in the distance, and he wondered if there would be another bout of snow later that night. Concern about the weather was part of the reason why he wanted to get this project completed quickly, since there was no way he could do it inside. It would be much too messy and would definitely break Colette’s rule about keeping the place clean, but he knew if he didn’t do it, it was just going to stick in his brain. So here he was.
Once the balloons were all in the right place, he walked back to the small table he’d set up about ten feet away. He grabbed a dart from the table and squared up to the canvas. Closing one eye, he aimed for the center balloon and let the dart fly. It hit its mark, and red paint splattered out, cascading down over the canvas in a flurry of color.
Zach watched as a glob of paint dripped down, marking a track from the center of the canvas to the bottom, and he grinned. Picking up another dart, he repeated the process and let it fly. Just as the first time, the dart was right on target, and the balloon burst in a sea of blue. Purple swirls began to make their way toward the plastic tarp on the ground as the blue mixed with the red, rolling down the canvas.
He readied himself again, grabbing a dart from the table and drawing his arm back, but just as he was about to let it fly, he heard a soft, amused chuckle from behind him. It startled him, and this time he missed. The dart imbedding itself in the center of the canvas without hitting a single balloon. Zach whirled toward the noise, blinking as his gaze landed on Colette.
Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. A few tendrils that had escaped cascaded down around her face, glinting in the soft winter sunlight, and Zach could have sworn his heart did a somersault.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” she said with a little smile.
Colette tucked her hands in the pockets of her coat as she walked forward to stand by him, eyeing the canvas with open interest.
“Wow. This is really something.” She brushed her hair back as she pondered the wet paint. “You know, I figured things would be interesting when I rented this house to an artist. But this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
Zach flushed, shooting her a sidelong glance. “I obviously couldn’t do this in the house, so I came out here to limit any stray paint spatters to just the snow. But if you want me to stop, I can.”
Colette shook her head. “I’m not worried about that at all. You can make as much of a mess out here as you want to. Go wild. The world is your oyster.”
She threw her arms wide, indicating the snow-covered lawn around them, but her eyes never moved from his. The moment drew out, both of them staring at each other as tension began to build. Zach’s mind kept darting back to their kiss in the attic, and he thought maybe she was thinking of it too, but neither of them brought it up.
“So,” he finally said, raising his eyebrows expectantly at her. “Did you come out here to see my creative process? Or…?”
“No.” She paused for a moment, chewing the inside of her lip as she seemed to consider her next words. Zach gave her the time she needed, despite the fact that all he could think of was kissing her again. “I wanted to talk about yesterday.” Color rose high in her cheeks, but she didn’t avert her gaze. “About… the kiss.”
Zach nodded. For his part, he knew what he wanted to say about it. He wanted to tell her that it had been amazing, that for the past twenty-four hours, he’d barely been able to stop thinking about it. But he didn’t want to scare her off. Or scare himself by admitting the growing depth of his feelings for her, if he was being entirely honest.
