“You sit there and look pretty. Tell me about your meeting. I’m going to do some real fancy mixing here, peanut butter, an egg, and some sugar, and you’ll promise to be impressed.”
“I genuinely will be impressed. I don’t know how to bake anything other than a frozen pizza. It’s too much like science. Cooking I can handle. Baking… nah.”
“Raised by a single mother who worked two jobs. I learned early on that the way to her heart is fresh baked cookies.”
“That’s the kind of kid to have, wow.”
“I gave her shit in other ways, don’t worry.”
“Oh yeah?”
He laughed. “Yeah. But we’re tight. We always have been. She moved to the Turks and Caicos last year—her reward for raising good business men, she says, and she’s not wrong—but we keep telling her she’ll be back. She liked to work shifts in the tasting room.”
“That’s adorable.”
“Tell her that when you meet her, she’ll love you forever.”
He said it super casually, like it was no big deal that she would meet his family. Well, she’d already met his brother. And for all his mom would know, she was just a colleague. A neighbour.
A very friendly neighbour.
Disentangling her feelings for Evan when he moved on from their lovely little affair would be a complicated process, but Complicated was her word for the year, and so far, it hadn’t been all that bad.
She pushed that thought away and focused on business while he worked. “It was… I mean, you had warned me. Carrie warned me. Evie warned me. Her ex-husband, though, is a piece of work.”
“Dale? Yeah. We’re not each other’s biggest fans.”
“That’s an understatement, Evan! I think the guy has a personal vendetta out for you.”
“Maybe I should have warned you about that.”
“You know?”
Evan shrugged. “Sure. I mean, it’s not rooted in any kind of reality, so I have no idea what exactly he thinks—it’s jealousy over Evie, in part, which is truly ridiculous. And also business envy.”
“He runs the car dealership, right?”
Evan rolled his eyes. “He’s a sales guy there. I dunno. Maybe he’s the manager now. I don’t keep tabs.”
“Well, he keeps tabs on you, and if I were you, I’d watch your six.”
“Watch my—” His lips curled up. “You’re adorable.”
“And your town mayor is a sociopath.”
“Ah,” Evan said. “He’s your mayor now, too.”
She groaned.
Her phone rang just as Evan slid the first tray of cookies into the oven. “Oh, it’s Brent, hang on.” She answered it. “Hey. I’m at Evan’s.”
“Ah, I’d forgotten. I just got off work. Thought we could talk for a bit. I, uh, have counselling tomorrow.”
“Oh.” Her heart flip-flopped. “Do you want to talk now? He’s baking cookies. I was just venting about my meeting today.”
“No, it’s okay. Venting? Was it not good?”
“I met the biggest cog in the local political wheel, and he’s an asshat. But it’s fine. Now I have a better idea of what I’m dealing with.” She turned in a slow circle. “Are you home now?”
