Good.It should. He’s the one who kissed me first!
He steps closer. Not too close. Just enough for me to feel him at my back.
“You don’t have to act fine,” he murmurs. “Not with me.”
My throat feels tight. “I’m not acting.”
A single beat of silence tells me he’s calling my bluff without saying a word.
“We can talk later,” he says quietly. “Or now. Or not at all until you’re ready. But don’t pretend nothing’s changed.”
My heart somersaults.
I grip the cinnamon tighter. “Everything is changing.”
He is silent for a moment. Then whispers softly, “Yeah. It is.”
I swallow. “Hayes…”
But before I can finish, before I can unravel into the feelings clawing up my chest, the community center door bangs open.
“EMMY!” Evie’s voice slices through the air. “Tell me why Mom is texting me pictures of the bakery and asking if you’ve died!”
I sag forward in pure relief. Saved by chaos.
Hayes mutters, “Perfect timing,” under his breath.
Evie storms inside, her scarf half-on and half-off, doing her usual dramatic, flailing arm thing. I don’t even get a greeting before she hooks me by the elbow and launches into a rant about the town Facebook group, rumors, and someone named Juniper Hart claiming she saw “flames shooting to the heavens.”
And just like that, the spell breaks. My heartbeat barely returns to normal, and I have room to breathe again.
I glance over my shoulder.
Hayes is watching me.
Not pushing.
Not demanding.
Just waiting.
And that—more than the kiss, more than the maple in the cookies, more than the memory he gave back to me—is what settles warm and deep in my chest.
He’ll wait.
For me.
For the conversation.
For whatever this is becoming.
For the first time in a long time, the idea of letting someone…lettingHayesin doesn’t make me want to run.
It makes me want to stay.
“So, of course, Mom drove to the bakery to see for herself,” Evie keeps on rambling. “I told you we shouldn’t have given heran extra key.” She takes a deep breath. “She let herself in and said she could still smell the smoke in the air but the whole place looked like it had been deep cleaned and the kitchen was clearly freshly painted. Not a speck of dust in sight.”
My eyes widen and I look over and Hayes again. He just shrugs.
