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Dana checked the time. “We really do have to go.”

“My other shoelace is undone again.” Nell headed for Gabe.

“What are you planning while you’re here?” Dana asked Mara while Gabe tied the offending shoelace.

“I’m still deciding.” That was only partly true. Mara had an itinerary in her planner and another list on her phone, but this morning she had deliberately left the cabin without checking either of them.

“I want to see some of the fall color,” she continued. “Maybe do a couple of walks. I saw some beautiful places on the drive in, but I don’t really know where I’m going yet.”

Dana looked toward Gabe. “My brother knows all the best places for fall color.”

Toby looked up from putting on his jacket. “Uncle Gabe knows where lots of the trees turn red.”

“And there’s a place where you can see the whole mountain,” Nell added.

“That sounds nice.” Mara turned to Gabe. “I’d like to see that.”

He gave her his full attention.

“I could show you,” he said. “There’s an old logging trail about ten minutes out of town. You leave the car at the bottom and walk up through the maples, and they’re already well turned. One steep stretch in the middle, then it levels off. Once you’re above the trees you get the whole valley.” He paused, then added, “Or I can tell you how to get there if you’d rather go on your own.”

Mara appreciated that he gave her the option to go it alone. “I don’t want to impose.”

“You won’t be. I’m done with the main baking by lunchtime,” he said. “I was planning to get out for a couple of hours anyway.”

“Do you offer all your customers guided tours?” Mara asked, trying to keep her tone light.

“No.” His smile appeared. “You’d be the first.”

At least he was honest. But he was also a stranger. She had known him for the length of one cup of coffee. Was she really thinking about walking up a mountain trail with a man whose last name she didn’t know? At home she would have thanked him, written down the directions, and walked it alone.

“I can vouch for him,” Dana said as if she had read Mara’s mind. “He knows the mountains, he won’t get you lost, and if he turns out to be terrible company, you can come back and complain to me.”

“When has anyone ever complained about my company?” Gabe asked.

“There’s always a first.” Dana gave her brother a sweet smile.

Mara laughed. It came easily, and that surprised her more than the attraction did. She’d come up here braced for ten quiet days of learning how to be alone again. Nobody had warned her about the warm bakery, the kid with frosting on her elbow, the pastry thief from Bear Bluff, or the handsome baker asking if she wanted to see the mountains with him.

If a kind local baker wanted to show her somewhere beautiful, she could think of several sensible reasons to refuse.

She simply didn’t want to.

CHAPTER 4

Gabe

She’s coming back. At noon, his bear said happily. She could have taken the directions and gone by herself, but she didn’t. She said yes, and she’s coming back.

Gabe smiled as he lifted the small apple pie from the cooling rack. The tin was still warm through the folded cloth in his hands, and the lattice had gone a deep gold at the edges. He checked the underside out of habit before setting it on the worktable beside the picnic basket.

He couldn’t stop smiling. Mara knew almost nothing about him. She certainly didn’t know she was his mate.

All she knew was that he owned a bakery, had a sister and two noisy children in his life, and apparently had strong feelings about pumpkin pie. And she had still chosen to spend the afternoon with him.

His bear shifted inside him, full of satisfaction. Because deep down she knows there’s something between us. So you might as well tell her the truth about it all, and then I can meet her too.

Gabe laughed under his breath and reached for the pie box. Dream on, buddy.