He wasn’t happy with her; that much was obvious. He was here to play the game, and obviously Danielle’s presence ignited something competitive in him. However, last night, she had made a misstep with him. But what was the alternative?
Admit that she was attracted to him? Absolutely not. The very idea made her want to run and hide.
She needed to focus on the here and now.
Danielle was dressed all in black, and Jessie thought that was an interesting contrast, consideringshewas the outlaw. Yeah. That was a pretty fun contrast, honestly. But instead of looking at her opponent, she looked at her own setup. Thought about the things she wanted to say. Because if there was one thing she had learned in life, it was that focusing on other people didn’t help. It only gave you a lean, hungry look that vultures recognized.
It made you look wilting and weak, as if you might die. That was when they started circling. It was why Jessie led with confidence. It was why she looked content with her own company at all times.
Flynn looked down at the table, then back up at her. “You really bake these?”
“I did.”
For some reason she felt she had just opened her chest up and showed him her heart. Squishy and tender. She hated that feeling.
But she had figured she might as well bake the things she was bringing, since she enjoyed doing it. But maybe she shouldn’t have. Maybe it had been a bad choice.
Maybe she should’ve just bought some cupcakes.
And then nobody could criticize her baking, and no one couldcriticize her. And Flynn couldn’t say it was weird or silly or girly that she liked to bake.
“Looks good,” he said.
And she realized that being exposed and wounded were perhaps not the two worst things that could’ve happened. Because his praise made warmth spread through her like melting butter. It made her heart trip over itself. Made her feel like she was floating.
“They are,” she said, because a comeback was always a great defense. Always.
“I trust you.”
“You should try one. Have a cinnamon roll and some coffee. That way people will know that they can just grab stuff.”
“You think that will make them grab baked goods?”
“Yeah. People always need someone to be modeling the behavior.”
“Is that so?”
“Well, I’m going to have a lemon bar,” Millie said, reaching out and taking one, and then pouring herself some coffee. “Austin is going to come down with Emma a little bit later.”
“Great. Give Jessie a chance to kiss a baby.”
Jessie wrinkled her nose. “I generally don’t kiss babies. I’m not … used to small humans.”
“Really?” He shrugged. “I like them. Especially when I can hand them back to their parents. Being an uncle has been a lot of fun.”
His observation made her feel twitchy. She didn’t want to think of him as being good with children. She liked him in his box. But unfortunately, she was seeing him out of it more and more lately.
“Storytime starts soon,” Millie said. “Which means that the crowd will pick up a little bit. And then there’s a book club that meets here in a couple of hours. Older ladies who are retired and like to talk about romance in the middle of the day. I always join them.”
“You read romance?” Jessie asked.
“I didn’t use to,” said Millie. “But … I started about a year and a half ago. One of my regular customers talked me into it. She thought I might learn a few things.”
Jessie considered her confession. Millie had gone on to hook up with Austin, who was a far better man than Michael could ever be. She looked across the space at Danielle. She couldn’t imagine Millie with the more diminutive man in slacks who was helping arrange Danielle’s balloons.
Millie and Austin might appear to be an unlikely couple, they might appear to be opposites, but they fit. Complemented each other.
Jessie knew that love was real; she just couldn’t claim to be an expert on what produced real, healthy love and also created a healthy family. Her parents had always been obsessed with each other. But they were the same kind of strange. And that meant they had raised their kids to be the exact same kind of strange. She supposed most people were like that; they just weren’t completely unorthodox. Danielle and her fiancé Michael Hall certainly had the same energy. Correct and officious; likely they fancied themselves subtle, when they really weren’t. They were clearly upset about this whole turn of events, and that delighted Jessie.
