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“Well,” she said, glancing toward her front walkway. “I know today didn’t exactly go according to plan, but there’s still a lot to see in the town. And I know you need to spend a certain amount of time exploring it, so do you want to meet up again tomorrow?”
“Why? So this town can actually kill me like it tried to do all evening?” Noah said, making her stomach drop before she realized he was joking. He hesitated for a moment, his gaze roving over her face, and Mindy had to fight the urge to squirm beneath the weight of his familiar green eyes. “Tomorrow it is.”
“Okay. You can come by my place again, and we’ll go from there.”
He nodded, and the two of them stood awkwardly on the sidewalk in front of her house for a moment. She had no idea what the normal thing to do in this scenario would be. Should she go in for a hug? A handshake? Neither?
Finally, Mindy settled on giving Noah a little wave before beginning the trek up to her door. About halfway up the walk, she threw a glance over her shoulder, surprised to find Noah still standing at her gate, waiting for her to get safely into her front door.
“You don’t have to watch me go in, you know,” she said with a faint laugh, and Noah shrugged.
“Old habits,” he explained, and Mindy felt her cheeks grow warm.
She got to her door, feeling his eyes on her the entire time she was working to unlock it. When the lock finally clicked and the handle began to turn, Mindy turned around before she could overthink it. Noah had just started walking away, apparently satisfied that no one was going to come grab her on her own doorstep.
“Noah,” she called out. He stopped and turned to look at her expectantly. “I’ll show you the bakery tomorrow if you want. You can meet me there instead of here.”
His bright, enthusiastic smile and a quick nod was his only answer before he turned and began making his way down the street in the direction of the Warm and Bright Hotel. Mindy’s heartbeat picked up, making her face flush even hotter as she slipped into her house.
“I have to show him the bakery eventually,” she said to herself.
Gus appeared in the entryway at the sound of the door closing, his whole body wriggling with the force of his excited tail wagging as he rushed toward her. She scooped him up and held him to her chest, scratching behind his ears as he snuggled against her.
“Isn’t that right, buddy?” Mindy continued, happy to be able to at least talk to her dog about it. “I don’t have very long to show Noah that Snowy Pine Ridge is worth preserving just the way it is, and today didn’t go exactly as planned. So I have to show him the bakery, right?”
Gus’s tongue flicked out, lapping at the tip of her nose, and she laughed, taking that as agreement. And even if Mindy didn’t entirely believe her own words, she decided not to look any closer at the way the thought of seeing Noah standing in the center of Baking Fiend made her heart race. She’d choose to focus on the fact that this was all for the good of the town.
And she definitely wouldn’t give any mind to how good it had felt to be around him again.
No, Mindy would not be thinking about that at all.
CHAPTERSIX
Noah squinted against the bright rays of the rising sun as he made his way from the hotel toward Baking Fiend. When his phone had pinged with a message after he’d returned to his room the previous night and Mindy’s name had popped up on the screen, his heart had begun to pound. But the message had been a simple one.
MINDY: Baking Fiend opens at 7. Get there a little before then, I have a surprise for you.
Before he’d been able to respond, a second text had come through containing the bakery’s address. He’d groaned a bit at the early hour, but still, he’d texted back right away to let her know he’d be there. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to waking up early. In fact, most of his days had begun at five o’clock in the morning for the last few years. But he had been hoping that he’d be able to catch up on a bit of sleep while in Snowy Pine Ridge.
Apparently, Mindy had other plans for him.
Noah was shocked at how many people were out and about at this time of day, several of them giving him friendly smiles as he made his way through the town. In Boston, people mostly ignored everyone around them. They definitely didn’t spare a smile and an errant “good morning” for a stranger walking down the road. He couldn’t quite figure out which he preferred, even if he did have to admit that the smiles and the kind words were making him have to fight the urge to plaster a smile on his face.
As the bakery came into view, though, Noah could no longer fight off his grin. It was the same building he’d noticed when he’d first arrived in town, and the thought occurred to him that he had been so close to Mindy that day without even realizing it. It almost felt a bit like fate—or it would if he believed in such sentimental things.
He dismissed those thoughts as he strode toward the door. The sign on the window was still turned to CLOSED, but when he approached the bakery, it was easy to see Mindy on the other side of the glass, darting back and forth as she got things ready for the day. He raised a fist, rapping it against the door lightly to get her attention.
Her blonde curls bobbed as her head snapped up, and a slow, almost unconscious smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she waved him into the bakery. Noah decided not to pay attention to the way that smile lit up her face, or the way his heart beat a little faster at the sight of it as he pulled the door open and stepped inside.
Immediately, he was wrapped in a cocoon of delicious scents. The aromas of cinnamon, blueberry, vanilla, and apple swirled in the air, making his mouth water. Noah had to fight to stop himself from raising his nose toward the ceiling and taking a deep sniff.
Instead, he turned his attention to his surroundings, taking in the retro black and white tile, the mismatched wrought iron tables and chairs, and the charming pastel blue of the walls, with prints and pictures that all had a distinctly Parisian theme. The space was small, but even he couldn’t deny its charm, or the fact that the atmosphere of the bakery was so overwhelminglyMindy.
“So,” she said from behind the counter, spreading her arms out to the sides to gesture to the space around them. “What do you think?”
“I can definitely tell you decorated it,” he answered, giving her a wink to let her know he was just teasing.
Mindy rolled her eyes at him and shook her head, chuckling as she walked toward one of the large ovens in the kitchen area.
