I slap his shoulder, laughing. “Fine, fine. I’ll bring plenty of everything because otherwise us ladies won’t get any. And Buster can have some, too.” TJ’s golden retriever has never met someone he couldn’t fall in love with, except when TJ orders him to attack. I don’t know how my cousin managed to turn him into an attack golden retriever, but apparently he has his own methods.
“You’re gonna make him too fat and lazy to bite bad guys in the ass.”
“Don’t be jealous just because he loves me more than you.” In my peripheral vision, I notice a customer leave and a new one come in.
“Can I help you?” Victor says.
“I’m here for my fiancée.”
Annoyance tugs my eyebrows together as I turn. I didn’t want to deal with Noah right now, and most especially not in front of TJ. My cousin has never met Noah before, and I’d prefer to have kept it that way. An overprotective TJ is an overbearing TJ.
My cousin’s jaw drops. “You’re got engagedand didn’t tell me?”
“No, of course not. He doesn’t speak English natively, so he confuses fiancée with…” I try to think of some plausible word since “enemy” will only start a scene with TJ.
“The love of his life?” Noah says, unhelpful as usual. “His future wife?”
TJ looks even more confused.
“Baker,” I say with a fake smile, then turn to Noah. “What are you doing here? Where’s your Rim-Me blow-up doll?”
My cousin makes a choking sound.
Noah’s expression remains sweet, his eyes shining as he looks at me. He must’ve taken some acting lessons in the last several months. “Bobbi, Rammi was an unfortunate misunderstanding. Really.”
“Is that what you call the future mother of your children?” My voice is sweeter and smoother than the butter cream on TJ’s cupcakes. Thankfully my cousin doesn’t try to stick himself between me and Noah. He tends to stay out of the way if he doesn’t understand the situation, unless there’s an imminent threat of violence.
“She most definitely isn’t pregnant,” Noah says. “At least, not by me. Anyway, I was in the neighborhood and wanted to check up onmyfiancéeand get a croissant. Which you have.” He gestures at the single one left.
I turn to TJ with a smile, this time genuine. “Since you’ve been such a great customer, I’m throwing this croissant in. Enjoy.”
His dark eyes slide between me, Noah, then back. He shrugs his massive shoulders. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.”
Noah languidly watches me put the last croissant into TJ’s bag. He isn’t upset about it. What’s going through that mind of his? “I’ll pay you a grand for that croissant,” he says to TJ.
“Uh…”
“I’ll trade you five apple pies for it,” I say.
TJ shoves his meaty hand into the bag and gives me the croissant back.
As I take the flaky pastry, I let my fingers go limp. The poor thing falls with a plop on the floor. “Oops.”
“You still owe me five pies,” TJ says quickly, clear on what’s important.
At the same, Noah says, “Three-second rule!”
“Of course,” I say to TJ as I take a step forward and stomp on the croissant. Then I slide my foot around, smearing the croissant over about five square feet of floor. “Oh, darn. I slipped.”
Noah looks at me like I stomped on his heart. “Cruel. Very cruel. You didn’t have to do that, Bobbi.”
“Actually, I did.” It’s all I can do not to throw Rammi in Noah’s face. The only reason I don’t is that I don’t want him to know I still have unresolved feelings about him. That’d be too humiliating.
TJ’s brow has begun to knit with suspicion. “Is this guy bothering you?” He shifts his body so he’s partially shielding me from Noah, which is completely unnecessary. The only thing Noah has done is break my heart over and over again, and there’s nothing TJ can do to protect that particular bit of my anatomy.
“Nope. And he’s going to leave now,before I call the police. Noah?” I say, indicating the door. But the second the name slips from my mouth, I wince. Shit. Now TJ knows who it is.
TJ scowls at Noah like he’s a rat he’d love to trample on. I shake my head at him—an incident at the bakery wouldnotbe good for business. Still, his nostrils flare and hot air puffs out, like an angry bull. His eyes rake Noah up and down, then he tilts his head like whatever he’s seeing doesn’t compute.
