Especially not when she smiled at me like she did when I walked through the door.
I had to will myself to keep from kissing her cheek when I grabbed the handle of the baby’s car seat from her.
“Good morning. How’s my girl today?”
Fuck.
She’s not your girl, moron.
Not yet anyway.
Lainey’s voice popped in my head, reminding me to go slow, so I quickly tried to cover my faux pas and said, “You’re still sleeping soundly, huh, sweet girl?” as if I was talking to Ruthie.
Jess softly whispered, “Good morning.”
Then I noticed half the bakery was watching us—including Lainey—so I put my hand on the small of Jess’ back and directed her toward the swinging doors leading to the kitchen.
I walked directly to Lainey’s office and set Ruthie’s car seat next to the crib, then kneeled down to touch her little hand. With her eyes closed, she wrapped her fingers around my index one and smiled.
And I was in love.
Chapter Sixteen
Jessica
I put my stuff on the floor just inside Lainey’s office, then grabbed an apron that was hanging on one of the hooks in the kitchen and tucked my hair up in the new baseball cap Lainey had given me yesterday when I’d joked about how attractive the hairnet made me.
After washing my hands and dusting the center table with flour, I pulled the bowl of cinnamon roll dough out of the refrigerator.
Alan popped his head around the doorjamb of Lainey’s office. “Hey, should I put Ruthie in the crib?”
“No, she’ll be okay in her car seat until she eats in a few hours.”
“I brought an extra shirt today,” he said, beaming.
Me too. Two of them actually—I’d left the bakery t-shirts Lainey had given me in the diaper bag, knowing I’d need one sooner or later.
“You don’t have to burp her…”
He came out of the office and stood on the other side of the table as I rolled out the dough.
“Iwantto. Getting to hold her yesterday was one of the highlights of my day.”
I looked up at him and asked, “Oneof the highlights?” I didn’t ask what the others were, but the question hung in the air.
The corner of his mouth hitched, and he replied, “Yesterday was a good day. I saw my brother, got settled into my place, met you and Ruthie…”
I felt my heart rate pick up. Was he implying he considered meetingmea bright spot of his day?
No way.
“Had your shirt ruined—twice,” I reminded him.
“It’s not ruined, and even if it was”—he gave me a wink—“totally worth it.”
Oh my.
Our eyes locked, and I kept his gaze—which surprised me, because I was always the one who looked away first.
