I want to cower away.
“Are you listening?” she finally asks. “I want to make sure you’re listening when I say this.”
I swallow thickly and nod.
“Good, because you need to hear this, clearly,” she says as her head cants to the side. “Walker Boone, Knox Rylan, and Eli Black are some of the best men I know.”
I chew on my lower lip. “They are?”
“Yes,” she says without hesitation before she grins. “Never would’ve clocked them for pack, that’s for sure. But that’s what happens sometimes. Sometimes the men find one another first.Sometimes their Omega brings them together. But either way, when it clicks? It clicks.”
“And… the town thinks we’ve clicked?”
She snickers. “You don’t?”
“I don’t really know anything anymore, to be honest.”
Her smile is kind. “You’re the spoke to their wheel, Lia. I can tell by the way they look when they talk about you.”
That gets my attention. “They talk about me?”
She huffs a soft laugh. “Sweetheart, this is Honeysuckle Grove. Of course they talk about you. They talk about everyone. It’s all anyone around here ever does.” The room around me narrows as her words continue, pounding against my instincts. “Knox can’t say your name without smiling, for instance. He comes in every morning for his regular order: black coffee with a splash of mocha, though he’s added a cinnamon roll to his routine as of late.”
That makes me blush.
“And then there’s Eli,” she continues, “who gets this soft look like he’s already picturing you at his kitchen table every time he brings Amber in to get a slice of cake.”
“What’s her go-to cake?”
Tansy smiles with pride. “My spice cake. It was a favorite of mine growing up. I make sure to always have a fresh one baked just in case she comes in for it. And don’t get me started on Walker.”
“Why?”
“Walker doesn’t talk much, as I’m sure you’ve already come to find out. But when he comes in here for his afternoon tea if he’s making deliveries, he looks like a man who finally sees something he wants and is terrified of losing it again.”
My mind flashes to Rachel and everything he told me about what happened between the two of them. The scars she left behind that still flicker behind his eyes. The way he recluses intohis work, like he’s trying to burrow away from feelings he doesn’t want to acknowledge.
My poor Walker. He only wants to be chosen.
My eyes burn and I have to blink the sensation away.
“Lia, they’re head over heels for you,” Tansy says, “but they’re not pushing. Doesn’t that tell you enough?”
I continue blinking as I stand from the rolling chair and search for something to do. I’m trying to blink back tears, but they aren’t staying at bay. I feel them welling in my eyes, threatening to spill over and spoil everything.
“So,” Tansy says when I don’t respond, “the only question is: what’s holding you back?”
My voice wobbles as I check the oven, even though I know it’s off and there’s nothing inside. I just need something to do. “Would you be offended if there was another bakery in town someday?”
The question hangs there between us as I tidy up a space that isn’t disorganized to begin with. I wish she’d give me another task to do. Another recipe to bake. I’m better at these kinds of things when my body’s distracted from the swirling thoughts of my mind.
Heat creeps up the nape of my neck. Sweat threatens to bead along my brow.
I need a nap.
“Lia, look at me,” Tansy says.
I toss the rag down onto the countertop before turning to face her. “Yeah?”
