Page 17 of Bake You Mine (Port Fortune #1)

He relaxed into his chair. “See what? Your ex and his wife are trying to push boundaries?” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “Did you see how she checked me out?”

Aubrey rubbed at her temples again. “Judging by his snark, they’re on the outs again. I don’t care. He’s not my problem. My kid, on the other hand…I will dress them like turkeys if they hurt her.”

Liam should be glad Aubrey wasn’t interested in him. She came part and parcel with a pre-teen. Daphne was a great kid from what he knew of her. Liking a kid was way different than dating her mom .

“How old are you anyway, Aubs? You look too young to have a kid in middle school.”

Her cheeks turned as pink as a rare steak, and she wouldn’t meet his gaze. Again.

“I’m thirty-six, so I was twenty-four when I had her. She’s also a year ahead in school. You’re what, twenty-nine?” Her voice squeaked.

This woman had him a hundred different types of fucked up. Yesterday, she wasn’t interested. Today, hate wasn’t the four-letter word he had in mind when she finally met his gaze.

“Yeah, I’m twenty-nine. I’ll be thirty in January.”

She lowered her head as she cut into the galette and served them both a slice. They ate in silence, save her odd appreciative murmur.

“Okay, I’ll admit it, that’s good. Although you can only take credit for the apples.”

His mouth dropped open. “Hey, I did have to work the puff pastry!”

She grinned as she wiped away crumbs. “Okay, fair enough.” She reached for her water bottle and took a swig. “Thanks for the galette.” Her gaze was soft and appreciative. “I should also thank you for standing up to my asshole ex. It would have taken twenty minutes to get him out of here on my own.”

“Hey, no problem.”

She set down the water bottle and sighed. “Don’t ever marry with physical attraction as the main connection, Liam. It’ll never go the way you hope.”

Surprised at her confiding in him, he nudged further. “Is that the only reason you married him?”

She shrugged. “It was a big reason for the love at first sight. Fifteen years and one kid later, he ditched me for a younger model. It shouldn’t have surprised me. I learned the connection must be deeper if you want the relationship to last.”

He hardly knew Aubrey, yet he already felt a connection with her beyond their love of food. Her words didn’t exactly match up with her body language, but he wouldn’t push her.

Not unless she wanted him to.

“Mom, you’re not seriously going to make me eat dinner, are you?”

Aubrey cut a glance at Daphne. Sitting in the backseat, Daphne rubbed her belly appreciatively. Usually, she’d never let her kid have sweets before dinner.

“I shouldn’t have let you have that soufflé,” Aubrey said.

“Like you could have stopped me! It’s the best thing you’ve ever made. Seriously.”

The lemon soufflé had been Liam’s final item to taste test. Delicate, with just the right amount of sweetness. And yeah, pretty fucking good, if she did say so herself.

He agreed and immediately demanded they add it to the menu for the first challenge, which surprised her.

After all, they were in direct competition.

Even though he could be trying to trip her up, given the soufflés’ tricky nature, she liked to think he was being straight with her.

It would be an impressive dessert if she could pull it off.

“Compromise, we’ll have soup and sammies?”

“Ugh, okay. I’m mad you gave Liam the rest of the soufflé!”

“I don’t want any of your teeth falling out.”

Her kid laughed. “I’m glad I stayed with you, Mom. Dad tried to ask me for ice cream again before they left. ”

Aubrey clenched her jaw, then caught herself. At her last dental appointment, she’d been warned she would grind her teeth to dust if she didn’t drop that habit. “I’ll talk to your father about that, don’t worry.”

Aubrey hissed out a long breath. She’d rather get a simultaneous pap smear and root canal than talk to Chris.

After the stunt they had pulled, she needed to remind him of the rules regarding their kid.

Which was a damned shame since, once upon a time, he would’ve been in the running for World’s Greatest Dad.

Despite her best attempts, the wound her divorce had left hadn’t quite scabbed over. Oh, she didn’t want Chris back. Not in a million years. But she’d always had a tough time trusting people—and that trait hadn’t improved since they’d gone their separate ways.

Knowing where your trauma came from didn’t make it any easier to navigate it. So she fell into unattainable crushes and read romance novels to pass the time.

Maybe she could date again when Daphne went off to college.

Daphne bolted from the backseat as soon as the van was in park. Aubrey’s father stood in the circular drive, watering the flower beds that dotted either side of the front door. As he finished watering, they made their way inside. Aubrey gave him the rough plan for dinner.

“Tom told me Chris showed up there today.”

Tom and her father were two gossiping biddies, trading texts and phone calls about not only Aubrey’s life but all of Port Fortune’s goings on.

Daphne popped out from behind the fridge door before slamming it shut and running up the stairs.

“He did, and I handled it, Dad. Don’t worry.”

With a sigh, her father pulled out plastic baggies full of lunch meat and a fresh loaf of miche from Petit Chou. “I’m not about to repeat the speech you’ve heard from me a million times?—”

“So don’t.”

Her father had never cared for Christopher. When they started dating, she thought he was overprotective. Now, she knew her father had seen through the pretty boy facade.

Unfortunately, one of her father’s annoying habits was reminding her he’d been right. Aubrey tried not to let her father’s speeches get to her. He meant well, and since the death of his wife five years ago, Aubrey and Daphne were all he had.

Dad needed to put himself out there and meet someone else. But considering she wasn’t exactly setting the Port Fortune dating scene ablaze, she could recognize that she was the pot, her father the kettle.

“Can you agree that if Chris pulls more crap like he did today, you’ll get the lawyer involved? Because you have to admit, you’ve only recently gotten better at dealing with him.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve handled him fine for a long time now. If that’s an underhanded dig that I have shitty taste in men, that’s no newsflash to me.”

Moving around so much as a kid, she’d never dated one guy for too long. Chris was her only serious relationship ever. Sure, she’d gone on plenty of dates after the divorce, but no one worth seeing twice.

Men in Aubrey’s life did one thing.

They left.

“Alright, alright. Consider the subject closed.”

She came around the counter and squeezed his forearm. “I smell like sugar and shit. I will take the world’s fastest shower before dinner, okay?”

“One more thing. Have you thought about going back to therapy, Aubs? ”

She let out a nervous laugh. “Are you seeing something I’m not, Dad?”

He patted her hand. “No. You’ve got more on your plate than usual. I want to be sure you’re taking care of yourself. Remember how you said you maybe wanted to add on a new anxiety medication, too?”

She knew he was right, but calling her therapist and her doctor for new medication were two more tasks on her never-ending to-do list.

“I’ll handle it, I promise.”

“Good. Love you, kid.”

As she climbed the stairs, she remembered how sweet Liam had been to her today. He should be the kind of guy you lose yourself in for the weekend. Instead, he was a keeper, and she couldn’t help but be jealous of the woman who would one day make him hers.