“Okay.”
“Pancakes or waffles?”
She laughs. “That’s your very personal question?”
“That’s not personal enough? Would you rather I’d have asked if you liked anal?”
Her cheeks turn pink. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“See? I know enough about you to know you’d have slapped me for even asking. Besides, I also know enough about you to know the answer to that question already.”
“You do not.” Her eyes are wide. “You can’t, because I don’t know the answer to that question.”
“I knew you were going to say that.” I lean close to her and whisper, my palm caressing her ass cheek. “But I also know the answer is that you’ll like it with me.”
“God, you’re arrogant, aren’t you?”
“Truthful and arrogant are two different things.”
“Yeah, I’m clear on the difference. I’m also clear on which one you are.”
“Back to the important question. Do you have a waffle maker? Sex makes me hungry.”
“I have a seven-year-old kid. Of course I have a waffle maker.”
I smack her lightly on the ass. “Then get in the kitchen and make me some waffles already.” I pause for a beat, putting up my hands in mock surrender. “Kidding. Don’t hit me.”
“You’ve come really close to getting slapped a couple of times, caveman.”
“Just trying to live up to my name.”
“Are you really hungry?”
I palm her ass cheek. “Very.”
“For waffles?”
“Not anymore.”
Then I roll her onto her back, my hands spreading her thighs, and I prove just how hungry I am – and what exactly I want to eat.
Afterwards, she lies on her stomach, stretched out in bed like a cat, her breathing slow and rhythmic. I think she’s fallen asleep until she speaks. “You grew up in West Bend.”
“Yeah.” I immediately tense at the thought of what she overheard from the catty old bitches at the bakery. The prison rumor was infuriating enough. Not that I care what the small-minded people in this town think except for this girl. I find myself caring what she thinks a little too much.
“But you just came back.”
“A few months ago. I left the first chance I could.”
She nods, but she seems to know to tread lightly because she doesn’t probe anymore. “I passed through here on the way to visit my parents with Chloe. They’ve lived in Colorado for a few years now, and I’d driven through here before, but it never quite struck me the way it did the last time I came through. There was just something about this place – how small it was, the quaint little downtown, I’m not quite sure what, exactly – but it felt good, someplace I could raise Chloe. When I saw the bakery was for sale… I had this idea of what a small town was like, but I didn’t anticipate how it would feel to be an outsider.”
“My family was always on the outside in this town. All of us – my brothers – got out of here as soon as we could.”
“Where are your brothers?”
“Back in West Bend.”
“Why?”
I exhale heavily. “It’s complicated.”
She’s quiet for a while before she speaks. “I’m not on the run from the law or in witness protection or anything.”
I laugh, too loud for the room, then clear my throat. “Yeah, I don’t exactly picture you being a criminal mastermind.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I could totally be a criminal mastermind.”
“Okay, so you robbed banks and then came to West Bend to fulfill your dream of opening up a bakery. No – you were mafia, right? A mafia princess.”
“You never know. It could happen.”
“I take it those were some of the rumors about you?”
“Yeah. The kids in Chloe’s class don’t let up on her about it. I think they get half of it from their parents.”
“Is she getting bullied?” I clench my jaw, unable to stifle the feeling of anger I have at the thought. I know what it’s like to be a kid on the outside in this town.
“Not physically, but I still worry about her. Of course, Chloe took it pretty much in stride. She told them we were spies.”
“Clever kid.”
“She is.” Lily is silent for a long time before she exhales heavily. “She’s really perceptive. Which is why…” She goes silent again. “Chloe… she hasn’t really had a father around. My… ex… he died before she was born, so it’s just been me and her and she hasn’t known any different.” She exhales again, the sound weighty. “If you’re here in the morning… I mean, I don’t want her to get the wrong idea, you know?”