His name was as sexy as his baritone voice. I smacked that thought down and shook his hand. “Alexis Sutton.”
“I thought you preferred Lexi?”
I startled, both from the fact he remembered such a random detail and from the spark that jolted between us when our palms touched. His lips parted, eyebrows drawing down in confusion as he glanced down to our joined hands, which meant he’d felt it, too. Oh, I was in deep shit if I was going to resist this man. He made every guy I’d dated since high school look like a matchstick to his bonfire.
The moment passed and he released my hand, then dug his phone out of his pocket and cursed. Smoke spiraled from it, and I gritted my teeth against another apology. He didn’t seem too put off by it, though, and tossed it onto the counter.
He inhaled deeply and glanced at the oven just as the timer went off. I grabbed one of the cooling racks and wheeled it over as he pulled my trays out. A shudder passed through me when I smelled the perfection of my baking.
Odd as it was for me to admit it, even to myself, I was looking forward to intentionally sharing my baking with someone else.
“Time to see if you passed,” Mr. Hottie—Sam—said with a wink.
***
When Sophie came home later in the evening, I’d been laying across the couch for hours, staring at the ceiling in a daze. She stopped just inside the door, gym bag slung over her shoulder, and stuck her nose in the air. My eyes tracked her, but my mind was still in that heavenly kitchen, watching Sam bite into a cheesecake cookie with the cherry topping. The short groan of pleasure he made continued to reverberate through my skull long after I’d left.
“Why don’t I smell anything?” Sophie asked, breaking me out of my daze. “Where are the cookies? The brownies? The cherry puff pies?”
I giggled as she dramatically opened all the cabinets and our comparatively tiny oven in her search. Despite her claims of being on a diet, she never turned down the opportunity to indulge when I rage-baked after another failed relationship. She and my mother were the only ones I’d ever let taste my baking. Until today. Maybe Sam’s reaction hit sodifferentlybecause there was adifferent[14]intent.
Nothing to do with the noise he made that wouldn’t get out of my head.
“Ididbake, just not here,” I told her, sitting up. “And where have you been? It’s pretty late.”
Sophie grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and settled onto the couch beside me. “There was apoorclient in need of some personal attention at the gym today. I gave them a few extra training sessions at their house.” She licked her lips and grinned. “I was all too happy to help thepoor[15]soul.”
I didn’t ask for any more details, but I did laugh. Sophie was an absolute knockout and regularly gave “extra training sessions” to both male and female clients; she wasn’t particularly picky, but I’d seen some of her clients. They looked like professional models.
Sometimes I wished I could be like her. It wasn’t so much that she was uncaring, but more like she was uninterested in a normal, stable relationship. This was college, after all; supposedly the best time to experiment.
Getting physically close to people was not a talent of mine. It’d happened a couple of times, but I longed for something more meaningful. A real connection made of steel rather than wet paper. It wasn’t like some childish fantasy about waiting for Mr. Perfect and getting married and having a happily ever after. Normal people found those solid links every single day, and I was left sitting by the starting line with a three-strike curse over my head.
Sophie squeezed my shoulders. “He’s out there, Lex. Somewhere. Your hoodoo magic will tell you when it’s right, I’m sure.”
That brought a smile back to my face. “It’s not hoodoo.”
“Hoodoo, witchcraft, occult, it’s all spooky stuff,” she replied. She stood and stretched her spine with a satisfying crack that made me want to pop my knuckles. “Way over my head, anyway. Night.”
“Night, Sophiemy.”
She carried the water bottle with her into her room. It was odd how she hadn’t asked about my day or pestered me more about the sweets. Considering the way she’d reacted to the lack of delicious smells when she’d come home, I thought she’d push to find out more. I shrugged and started to get to my feet when Sophie ran back into the room.
“Did you say you baked today, but not at home?” shedemanded[16]. “Where exactly were you? Whose house smells like cookies and where do I need to go to get them?”
When I thought about it again, my chest felt like I had bats fluttering around in my lungs. “I auditioned for a job at that bakery you told me about. Mr. Hottie—er, Sam, Mr. Rivers gave me the job.”
Sophie squealed and threw herself at me, her biceps of steel cutting off my air supply for a brief moment. “Congratulations, Red! Oh, if I get to enjoy your baking every day instead of just after bad luck trilogies, you might as well get the insulin ready, girl.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Maybe I can get you a roommate discount or something.”
“Or just bring home the extras at the end of the night.” She planted a big kiss on my cheek and headed back toward her room. “I’ll be keeping an eye on how things progress withMr. Hottie. Just make sure you don’t burn the place down.”
She took off running and dodged the pillow I threw at her head, cackling like a maniac the whole way.
Chapter 5
Sam
