to hold a civilized conversation, much less drive a motorized vehicle.”
“For the love of God, woman. It’s not even eight,” he grumbled. His eyes dropped back to his mug as though his outburst had taken too much out of him.
Not a morning person, eh? In her giddy mood, she almost joked she’d made a narrow escape that night by sneaking out on him before he woke up. She stopped short, horrified at her own callousness. She hid her troubled expression under the awning of her lashes and silently chastised herself.
“Damn it.” Landon raked his fingers through his hair. By the remorse on his face, he’d misread her expression and thought he’d hurt her feelings. “I didn’t get much sleep last night. I promise to be better behaved once I finish my coffee.”
“You’re fine.” She waved aside his apology, pouring herself a steaming mug of coffee and topping his off as well. “It’s gorgeous outside. Let’s drink our coffee on the porch.”
Without further protests, Landon followed her outside and settled his six-foot-three-ish frame into a yellow-and-white chaise. Sinking into its twin, Aubrey sighed and soaked in the vast otherworldly hills spread out before them.
Compared to the dense green mountains surrounding Weldon, these hills appeared stark and desolate. They sizzled under the unforgiving sun by day and shivered against the coastal winds by night. The resilient way the stringy trees and the waving fields of grass persevered commanded respect as much as the grapes they cultivated within their depths.
“Tomorrow, I’ll bake some sweet buns for breakfast.” Eyes sliding shut, she inhaled the steam rising from her mug and then took a sip. “This coffee deserves some company.”
“Does that mean you’ll wake up even earlier?”
Ooh, a complete sentence.
The caffeine seemed to be kicking in. He even managed a crooked smile.
“Ha ha. I’ll do most of the prep work tonight so I can just pop them in the oven tomorrow morning. Wait and see. Even Oscar the Grouch would turn into Mr. Sunshine after some of my sweet buns.”
“Are you always this humble?”
Aubrey stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m proud of my family legacy. It’s my grandma’s recipe.”
“Your grandma?” Landon’s gaze strayed to her lips as though waiting for another glimpse of her tongue.
Without conscious thought, she wet her suddenly dry lips and watched his pupils swallow the brown of his eyes. Gah.
“Mm-hmm.” She cleared her throat, unnerved by the charge in the air. “My grandma taught me everything I know about baking.”
“Comfort Zone’s an amazing place. She must be proud of you.”
His voice was a husky caress. Nervous energy fluttered through her, heat blossoming on her cheeks. Landon abruptly shifted his eyes to the horizon.
“She would’ve been, I think. I couldn’t have opened Comfort Zone if it weren’t for her.”
“How so?”
“I used to travel a lot, too. Not as fancy as yours, but I’d visit a country and live there for a few months working odd jobs until I saved up enough money to move on to a different place. It was wonderful, but exhausting. It got old after a few years, but I didn’t know how to come home.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” he said softly.
A flutter of happiness tipped the corners of her mouth. Don’t ask why I’m happy about that. He mirrored her smile, and she forgot to breathe.
“Well, I finally came back because my grandma got sick,” she continued, slightly out of breath. “In a lot of ways, I was closer to her than to my mom. I wanted to be by her side to send her off. When she passed away a few months later, she left me some money with a message.”
“What kind of message?”
“Oh, something very short, but profound. ‘Time to get baking, girlie!’”
“Sounds like you had the world’s coolest grandmother.”
“No doubt about it.”
“Are you going to use the sweet bun recipe for the show?”
“Hold your tongue, devil. Didn’t you hear me? It’s our family legacy. That one’s staying in my mind vault.” And no smooth-talking, executive producer was going to extract the sweet bun recipe from her. “I already have some other ideas for my new desserts. That’s why I wanted us to go wine tasting today. Mostly, ports and dessert wines. I have to make sure I can find the wines I imagined for the recipes.”
She had a lot of work to do if she didn’t want to embarrass herself on national television. Aubrey pinched her bottom lip and squished it between her fingers. A nervous habit.
“While the early bird may get