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“Did you just close my bakery down to do this?”
She gestured to the bakery. “What does it look like? Are you taking it or what?”
I folded my arms. I’d just regretted doing this, but a stubborn streak told me not to give in.
But Paisley planted her hands on the counter, and she leaned towards me, and my stomach dropped when she spoke in a low murmur, meeting my eyes.
“Uncross your arms.”
I—wasn’t emotionally prepared for this. I uncrossed them purely by reflex, my face burning. Paisley nodded.
“Good. Put your hands out, Harper.”
I put my hands out. I looked at them like they were betraying me. I felt like my whole body burned with embarrassment. Just because she was using the voice she used when we’d had sex and she’d told me what to do—
“Mm-hm. Just like that. Turn your palms up.”
I turned my palms up. I genuinely didn’t even think about it. She set the box down on my hands, and she leaned in closer, her gaze locked on mine. I didn’t want to know how much I was blushing right now.
“Right hand, up. On the ribbon. Hold the loose strand.”
“I… told you I can’t accept it,” I murmured weakly, but I took the loose strand of ribbon. The double entendre of unfastening it so the dressing could fall away wasn’t lost on me.
“Now pull on it.”
I pulled the ribbon. My breath hitched in my throat as it pulled against a snag, straining against the loose knot, tension building through my body as it drew tighter—and then I gasped, a small one but still an embarrassing one, when it gave, the ribbon coming undone and falling limp over my hand. My heart was racing. Over opening a present?Really?
Paisley smiled wider, and she reached up, and she took her glasses off. My head went fuzzy. With all the associations, and the fact that she’d taken her glasses off in the boat when we’d…
“You know what to do,” she whispered. I jerked involuntarily, every part of me embarrassingly flush with self-awareness, but I moved my hands to tear the wrapping, peeling strips away until it came down to a white gift box with a pale pink trim around the edges.
Paisley smiled, a glint in her eyes.
“Good,” she said, leaning back again, putting her glasses back on, breaking the spell. I jerked back to reality, my hands still shaking, as she gestured to the box. “C’mon, the gift is inside.”
I was going to—going to have a fucking heart attack and die. I burned with embarrassment, frustrated with myself to the point where I thought I’d die for being affected like that. “All right, all right,” I muttered, looking down at the box, forcing myself not to look at Paisley. “If you’re going to get pushy.”
She laughed. “You like when I do.”
Dammit.I did need to leave Bayview. With shaking hands, I lifted up the box lid, and I stopped, frowning at the inside.
A picture frame. It was a gorgeous frame, clearly from Emory’s shop, hand-carved wood with a quick ocean view painted into the corner along with the wordBayview,but… the frame was empty.
“Pais, I think you forgot the photo.”
“What?” She went wide-eyed, looking at it. “Oh, crap. Oh, god. What did I do with it?”
I gave her a deadpan look. After a second, she broke into her signature smile.
“Nah, I’m kidding. That was on purpose.”
“Sure.”
“I mean it. Are you ready for my brilliant idea?”
“No, it’s too brilliant for me to withstand. I’d better put it back and just open the shop again.”
She leaned over the counter, eyes sparkling. “We’re gonna take a picture for it.”
