Page 23 of Bad Boy Bakers, Vol. 2

Chapter Three

As he strode up Rebecca’s front walk, it occurred to Grey that he’d never done this before—picked her up for a formal date.

Back in high school, they’d just been friends, and when things had changed between them that last summer, they’d kept everything on the down-low because they’d both worried about how Lonnie would react to the shift in their group dynamic.

It felt good to go straight up to her door, no worries about friends or parents.

But there were still plenty of nerves around the woman herself.

She didn’t yet understand his intentions.

That he was well and truly in this for a second chance.

But she would. And Grey was determined not to fuck it up.

He rang the bell at six on the dot. The front door swung open almost at once, as if she’d been waiting just on the other side.

The sight of her distracted him from his pleasure over the idea that she’d anticipated this night as much as he had.

His breath wooshed out. The deep purple of the wrap dress she wore made those stunning green eyes pop, and it clung to her curves in a way that made his hands itch to touch and explore.

Her rich brown hair fell in stylish, glossy waves around her shoulders, framing the face that had always stolen his breath.

She’d done something with makeup he couldn’t have identified, but it enhanced rather than concealed.

She’d always been beautiful, and the intervening years had done nothing to diminish that.

Objectively, he knew she’d had two children.

That she was technically a grandmother now.

But he couldn’t see any of that as he looked at her.

He saw only a vital, vibrant, attractive woman that he wanted on every possible level.

Down, boy.

Swallowing hard, he found a smile. “You look amazing.”

Rebecca smoothed a self-conscious hand down her skirt. “Is this okay? You didn’t tell me where we were going, so I had to guess.”

“Actually, I figured you’d appreciate not being the center of gossip, so if it’s alright with you, I’m cooking back at my place.”

She loosed a breath, her shoulders dropping to a more relaxed posture as she slipped into her coat. “Thank you. That’s great. You left quite the ruckus in the hen house yesterday.”

He waited for her to lock the door behind her and offered his arm. “In retrospect, asking you out at your place of business was maybe not my best move. But I didn’t have your phone number.”

When she hesitated, he wondered if he’d made a mistake clarifying right off that he intended this to be a date, not just a catch up between old friends.

But she slipped her arm through his. “I expect we should rectify that.”

He curled his fingers over hers, soaking in the warmth from that point of contact. “We should.”

The drive back to his rental house took only a few minutes.

He let her inside and led her back to the kitchen, where he’d left a bottle of wine and two glasses.

As she peeled off her coat, he pulled the charcuterie board he’d prepped out of the fridge and set it on the counter beside the bowl of crackers before opening the wine and pouring her a glass.

Rebecca lifted a brow as she accepted. “I’m impressed.”

“I’ve got a little more game than I had at eighteen.”

Her rich laugh echoed through the kitchen as he poured his own glass.

“Please, sit. I’ll get started on dinner.”

She slid onto one of the barstools and assembled a stack of salami and one of the fancy cheeses. “I feel like we need to address the elephant in the room.”

Grey paused, his hands fisting on the container of baby bella mushrooms. Was she really going to put everything right out there? “All right.”

“First off, I need to say that I’m so sorry for all the hurtful things I said the last time I saw you.

I was young and angry, and I didn’t know how to deal with the fact that you and I weren’t on the same page.

That whole summer, I was building a life for us in my head, but I didn’t actually talk to you about it. ”

“And then I went and built a different one.”

She lifted her glass in acknowledgment. “It wasn’t fair of me to get angry about that.”

“I get it. And I didn’t win any prizes for how I handled things either.

As you say, we were young, and, really, probably not ready for what we found.

” God knew, he hadn’t understood what he’d walked away from then.

But he didn’t want to linger in a past that couldn’t be changed.

“How about we both acknowledge we hurt each other, and we both regret it?”

“I can accept that.”

They toasted the long overdue detente.

“What was the other thing? You said that was first.”

“Oh, well, there’s the issue of Jonah.”

Pulse beating thick in his veins, Grey deliberately didn’t pick up the knife. “What about him?”

“Why didn’t you tell him you knew me?”

So it wasn’t what he suspected. Or if it was, she was staying quiet for now.

Grabbing a kitchen towel, he began to clean the mushrooms. “As I mentioned, I was Jonah’s CO for several years.

In that capacity, I needed to have a particular kind of relationship with him that wasn’t clouded by any personal stuff.

I had no idea what your reaction might be if he brought me up, so I kept it under my hat.

Over the years, we got to be pretty close.

Your son is loyal as the day is long, and frankly, I didn’t want to lose that by bringing our complicated past into it.

Especially since I had no way of knowing if I’d ever even been mentioned. Which, I’m guessing, I wasn’t.”

Distress flickered over her pretty face.

“That’s not a criticism, Rebel. You married Lonnie. There was no reason for you to have told your kids about me. But I have wondered for years why Jonah’s a Ferguson and not a Barker.”

“Well, that’s a story.”

He wouldn’t press her, but he waited, letting the silence do the job for him as he continued to chop vegetables.

Rebecca spun her wineglass, staring into its depths, as if the words she needed were hiding in the deep red liquid. “I don’t know if you were aware that Lonnie and I divorced well before he died.”

“Yeah. Jonah mentioned something at one point.” And it had killed Grey not to interrogate him about it.

He’d wanted to know everything, but there was no reasonable or graceful way to ask without getting into truths he hadn’t been prepared to reveal.

He picked up the knife and began to slice the mushrooms. “What happened?”

“That’s complicated. There’s what I thought happened. And then what we only recently found out was the truth.” She paused to make another cracker and chase it with wine. Grey gave her the space to gather her thoughts.

“When Jonah was eight and Sam was five, Lonnie walked out on all of us. No explanation. No question. No fighting. He just walked away from our entire family and asked for a divorce. And after that divorce, he didn’t want anything to do with the kids or me.

Waived his parental rights. He was the one who asked for the name change.

The kids don’t know that part. But I saw it for what it was. Another way to cut us off.”

Grey’s hand fisted on the hilt of the knife. This didn’t sound at all like the man he’d known. The man he’d once considered a brother. “That must have been devastating.”

“Yeah. I mean, it would have been one thing if we’d been fighting and having problems. But this just came entirely out of left field.

For a long time, I wondered if he’d met someone else.

If he regretted marrying so young and starting a family immediately.

” She took a bigger swig of wine. “As far as I’m aware, he never had any prolonged relationship with anyone.

He just chose to be alone. Like he’d hit his quota and maxed out on what he was willing to endure for family.

” Something raw and ragged passed over her face.

Grey laid his hand over hers, wanting to offer comfort. “I’m sorry.” Family had always been at the center of what she’d wanted, so he couldn’t imagine how deeply that had cut her.

She turned her hand up to link with his and squeezed, offering a sad smile. “That was what we believed for years. Then he died, and because of a lot of complicated stuff I really don’t want to get into tonight, we found out that he’d basically been blackmailed.”

Whatever explanations Grey might have imagined, that hadn’t even made the list. “Blackmailed. To leave you?”

“Not directly. Long story very short, he got involved in something he shouldn’t have. When he tried to get out, they threatened us as his family.”

“Why the hell didn’t y’all just leave town? Or go to the police?”

With a helpless shrug, she pulled away. “I never knew about any of this when it was happening. I don’t know why Lonnie chose the nuclear option.

I don’t know why he didn’t feel like he could talk to me.

I guess he thought there was no hope of escape from his poor choices, and no circumstance where he got to keep the life we’d built.

” She turned the wineglass between her fingers, her gaze going unfocused.

Did she miss that life? Was she grieving the loss of it all over again? Somewhere under all the hurt she’d lived with, did she still love Lonnie?

Grey didn’t know how to ask, and either way, Lonnie was dead.

Seeming to come back to herself, Rebecca took another sip of wine.

“The kids are still struggling to reconcile everything we found out. Sam was young enough when he left that she doesn’t have a lot of the good memories.

But Jonah remembers, and he felt so much more betrayal.

I think it was worst on him. He stopped being a child that day.

My sweet, fun, funny little boy decided he had to be a man because Lonnie wouldn’t be.

And I’m so damned proud of who he’s become, but I hate what he had to go through to get there. ”