out of chocolate. Just sold them twenty minutes ago. Dammit. I shouldn’t have let them take them all. But don’t worry. I can make more. Won’t take a minute.”
Rori saw Mike take a covert glance at the display before saying, “Actually we were going to get carrot this time. You know how Kris loves those, and we never get enough of them.”
Rori stole her own glance at the display and fought a smile. Wendy was all sold out except for a few red velvets and about a dozen carrot cake.
“Oh, Kris will be there?” Wendy said, pulling out a travel carton. “Then you have to have carrot. I only have fourteen. Is that enough?”
Mike didn’t even try to hide his smile. “Six should be plenty. Plus whatever red velvets you have to spare.”
“Of course, of course,” Wendy said, pulling out the tray.
“Do you mind if we run to the store and come back for those?” he asked. “It will make it easier if we don’t have to carry them around or put them in a hot car longer than necessary.”
“Of course!” Wendy repeated. “Go. They’ll be ready when you get back. And don’t forget my—”
“Jalapeños,” Mike said with her. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll be right back.”
The world became abruptly silent once the bakery door was shut behind them, and Mike sent Rori an almost apologetic smile. “She loves her work.”
“And she’s amazing at it,” Rori said, gesturing with the croissant in her hand. “This is decadent.”
“A girl dessert. Maybe even a couple’s dessert for a restaurant, but not something you give your dad on Father’s Day.”
Okay. Maybe he had a point. But it was still the best thing Rori had put in her mouth in recent memory. “But jalapeños in a dessert?”
Mike stopped in his tracks. “Are you serious? Have you seriously never tried chocolate and peppers?”
Rori shook her head, trying not to smile at how scandalized he looked. And likeable. A guy like him was far too easy to look at for him to have a good personality on top of it. He must be flawed. Deeply. There was a reason the Mr. Perfect who had just gotten her to eat a chocolate croissant as easy as breathing was currently single. Single, hot men were single because they never committed. No need to romanticize otherwise.
“I’ll get you some,” he said, as if that was the end of the matter.
“Here?” she said, glancing at the store.
“No, they won’t have it here,” he said. “But sometime.”
Rori wasn’t sure why she nodded. She hadn’t eaten a chocolate bar since she was a teenager, but suddenly it seemed like the rational thing to do. One should know what two exotic flavors tasted like together, after all.
Once they entered the store, Mike moved with surprising speed. He grabbed vanilla a food coloring almost before Rori was aware that he had even paused, and after that he headed to the produce section to buy three times as many jalapeños as Wendy could ever need. In under three minutes they were in and out of the store.
That shouldn’t be sexy, Rori told herself. A man knowing his way around a grocery store and buying more for a woman he’d had a casual conversation with than he did for himself?
No, surely that wasn’t sexy. She must be reacting to the croissant. Which had been delicious. Then again, so was play of muscles in his arms as he carried the large bag of jalapeños.
And since when had she become obsessed with arms?
Probably about the same time she’d found a pair of arms worth staring at, Rori decided. Some things were just worth enjoying. Chocolate croissants and strong arms being among them.
“Oh my goodness!” Wendy called, opening the door to her store while they were still a ways off. “I should have told you not to get so many. I would have been fine with a dozen or so.”
Mike waved that off. “No need for you to have to go to the store again today. These should be enough to experiment with.”
“And then some,” she said. “How much do I owe you?”
“You owe me the first taste once you perfect the recipe,” he said without missing a beat.
“Oh, don’t be silly,” she said, eyeing the bag and clearly doing some mental math.
“I’m dead serious,” Mike said, handing the sack over. “It’s more than a fair trade on my side.”
“Hmmph,” Wendy said, eyes narrowed even as she accepted defeat. “Well, then, now that your hands are free, you can be a