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“Your work speaks for itself, Cash.” I held up the cup of soup, which I was currently devouring. “Your food is excellent.”
“Says the girl who has a top-twenty list of PopTart flavors.”
I laughed. “Had. I got tired of them during college. Haven’t had one for years.” Sobering, I muttered, “My ex wouldn’t have wanted them in the pantry anyway.”
I could feel Cash staring at me, like he wanted to know more, but Wes Winchester was the last topic I wanted to get into today.
“I take it it wasn’t an amicable divorce?” he asked.
I shrugged. “It was amicable enough.” Thanks, in part, to my dad being my ex’s mentor in their law firm. “Just glad to get away from him.”
“He’s in California?”
I nodded as I stuck the last of the turkey croissant in my mouth and savored the salty taste.
“Dragonfly Lake is definitely ‘away,’” Cash said, one side of his mouth twitching upward.
“I’m not staying,” I clarified.
“You’re not moving back?”
“I’m trying to get into screenwriting,” I said. “There’s a new-ish streaming company that’s looking for series and movies. Stream. They’re interested in a series I wrote.”
“I’ve heard of it. That’s impressive as hell. Congratulations.”
“Nothing’s signed yet.” I knew better than to count on anything before the signatures were dry and the money was in the bank. “My agent is optimistic though. In part because they’re also considering hiring me as the head writer for the show. I have a meeting with an executive next week that could springboard my career.”
He sent me a smile that took me back nearly twenty years, when it felt like it was him and me against the world. “I’m happy for you, Ava. They’d be idiots to let you slip away.” His eyes burned with intensity, as if there was a deeper meaning to his words. I couldn’t even begin to think about that. “You always talked about wanting to write someday.”
“Talking was all I had time to do until after my mom died,” I said frankly. “I ended up going to film school in LA. Anyway…” I’d finished the soup and sandwich—all while standing because I didn’t want to get too comfortable with him—and closed the cup inside the bigger container. I stepped toward the dresser, where he’d left the empty bag, and stuffed the containers inside to throw away when I left the room. “I need to get back to work.”
Cash closed the distance from the window to the dresser. “You didn’t think I’d forget dessert, did you?” He picked up the second bag, took out a square container, and held it out to me.
The familiar gesture struck me, even though so many years, so much of life had passed since he’d done that. Before I even opened the box, I knew.
“Hummingbird cake?”
“See for yourself.”
I opened the box to a triple-layered slice of fluffy, cream-cheese-frosted cake. Without trying, I could smell the pineapple and bananas and sugar. Hummingbird cake was packed chock-full of comfort, like a grandmotherly hug—unless you were eating it in bed with the baker’s grandson after sex, which had been the case many times in the past.
With memories dogging my mind, I made the mistake of glancing up at Cash. He was closer than I’d thought, maybe a foot away, and peering down at me with—I could swear it—heat in his eyes, as if he was remembering those nights too.
“It smells amazing,” I said. “I’m going to save it for a midnight snack.” Mainly because I needed him out of here, away from me. It was too tempting to fall into the easiness and affection we’d had in the past, and whatever had been was irrelevant now. I needed to remember that.
Breaking eye contact, I closed the cake box, spun around, and walked toward the door. “Thank you, Cash. You’re in the right career, for sure.” I reached the door and opened it, then smiled to soften that I was, in essence, kicking him out after he’d done something so kind for me.
“I like to think so,” he said as he joined me at the door. “I’m glad we cleared the air about the past.”
Before I could react, he leaned down and kissed my forehead, just a quick touch, but it had the impact of a punch to the chest.
“Good night, Ava.”
I don’t even know if I said goodnight back to him, but within seconds, I had the door closed between us, and I leaned my back against it, lying to myself that Cash Henry no longer had any hold over me.
Chapter6
Ava
