bet if you think about it you could come up with a guess.”
He did think about it. Seemingly. Then he took a small step forward. “I have something to do with your stupidity?”
Oh what the hell? He was a friend of a friend, but he didn’t live here. He didn’t know her. Her friends were going to find out soon enough—from her—that she had a thing for this guy. They were hopefully going to help her drink it away. So what would it matter if she confessed?
“You have everything to do with it.”
His eyebrows rose. “How?”
“Well, it seems that I have a little thing for you, and it was fine when you had only saved my neck. But then you started coming to the bakery and I saw you every day. But you didn’t even really want to talk to me. You definitely didn’t want to flirt. Which I didn’t love, but I could get over after you walked out with your scones and hot water.”
Why did she mention the hot water? She wasn’t sure. Maybe just because it was definitely a sign her fascination with him was crazy.
“But now you’re coming to dinner here. At this place I love with these people I love. And you’re being charming and… long suffering, which I find funny and endearing… and it just makes it harder to not be disappointed that my crush on you isn’t reciprocal.”
She took a deep breath.
“But,” she added, before he had a chance to respond, “it's fine. I’m a grown-up, and while getting worked up over cheesy potatoes is annoying, I can deal with it.”
He seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then asked, “Cheesy potatoes?”
She nodded. He had to already think she was a little cuckoo, so what could it hurt to go all in here? “I found it sexy how you ate the cheesy potatoes.”
Yeah, that was definitely a look of surprise on his face.
“So anyway,” she concluded, “I’m not exactly fine, but I’m going to survive. Especially if you could just, you know, go back to Chicago. But until then, it will all be okay.”
There, that hadn’t been so bad. She turned and started to open her door.
“Jocelyn.”
But his deep voice—and her full name—stopped her.
He knew her full name?
She turned back. And swallowed hard. There was no way she could have labeled the look on his face, but it was… not uninterested.
“Yes?”
“You have a crush on me?”
She felt her cheeks heat a little, but she rolled her eyes. Come on. He had to hear her say it twice? Really? “Yes.”
“And you think that it’s not reciprocal.”
“Right.”
“And that’s why you’ve been acting strange tonight? Because you’ve been uncomfortable around me because you think you have unrequited feelings?”
She blew out a breath. “Is this the serious-businessman thing? Like how much you love spreadsheets and stuff? You have to go over every single point and make everything really black and white?”
His lips curled again. “Probably. Though it might also be that I want to be very sure about your feelings right now.”
“Why is that?”
“Just tell me all of that is true.”
She threw her arms wide. “Okay, fine, yes, Grant. You got it all right. That’s all true.”
“Very good to know.” Then he reached up, cupped the back of her head, stepped her back until she was against her car, and kissed her.
Oooo-kay.
So maybe indifferent wasn’t quite the right word to use.
Grant did not kiss her as if he was indifferent to her. He kissed her as if he’d been thinking about it as long as she had. And had been thinking about covering her in cheesy potatoes.
Then he gave a little groan, tipped his head, pressed even closer, deepened the kiss, and all she could think was no, marshmallow fluff. For sure.
Josie felt every stroke of his tongue in her lower belly and between her legs. She was immediately up on tiptoe and gripping his shoulders, arching closer.
They kissed for long minutes before Grant finally lifted his head. They were both breathing hard and just stared at each other for several seconds.
Josie licked her lips. He let her go, and she lowered back flat on her feet.
“Very reciprocal,” he finally said.
“The first day you just walked out of the bakery,” she said. That was the part that had been bugging her the most.
He nodded. “I was afraid you were going to make me want to stay in town.”
Oh. That was definitely not what she’d expected him to say. And she was equally surprised by how much she liked