Page 9 of Bake You Mine (Port Fortune #1)

six

Liam woke to a bang, followed by a thump.

He angled onto his side and found Teddy, the usual suspect for this kind of wake-up call, curled beside him in bed.

There was a second bang. He was awake enough now to guess the commotion was coming from the front door.

Teddy arched his back and hopped off to investigate.

Liam followed, tugging on a shirt and shorts. He swung it open and blinked. He wouldn’t have been more surprised to find Aubrey on the other side than he would be to wake up duct taped to the ceiling.

She stood there—a petite tornado of rage, her hair wild and loose around her shoulders.

Dark, snug yoga pants clung to her lower half, and she was drowning in a ratty two-sizes-too-big T-shirt advertising a decades-old fun run.

It slipped forward some, revealing the beautiful column of her neck, and down to her collarbone and cleavage.

“Hey, asshole, I’m talking to you!” At the snap of Aubrey’s fingers, he came to attention.

“How did you get in here?” He gestured her inside, knowing if this carried on for much longer, he’d have pissed off neighbors to deal with, too.

“The door was propped open with a rock.”

His door swung shut behind him. “Okay, that answers one question. I have another. It’s not even six a.m., an hour I consider ungodly in the best circumstances. So, are you gonna tell me why you’re here, or what?”

She dropped her phone onto his kitchen counter. “Care to explain the twelve negative reviews Petit Chou acquired overnight? Or the hundred-plus troll comments I have across my social media platforms?”

Liam pulled her phone toward him and began scrolling. With what felt like a punch to the stomach, he realized what must have happened.

In his last post, he’d been more direct than usual.

He’d talked about wanting to stay in town and the lack of viable commercial real estate.

He’d stated his truth—put it out there for the world to know.

The last line was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek.

I’ll win by any means necessary! He’d thought the winking emoji had made the joke evident, but clearly not.

He recognized one of the names on the reviews as Dani’s. How had he forgotten what a drama llama that woman was?

One stupid post had resulted in a perfect storm of bullshit, with Aubrey at the center.

“Well? Is this your way of getting around the rules to win, making a digital smash-grab for the prize? Because I don’t give up that easily.”

After skimming one too many nasty comments, he pushed her phone away. He grinned, seeing her on the floor with Teddy, the old man had made himself comfortable on her lap. “What do you think? We’re hardly best friends, but I hope you’d know I have more integrity than that.”

She pulled a face and tugged up her T-shirt.

Liam clicked his tongue against his teeth.

Shame. The view had been stellar, with the fabric dropping low enough to show the dark lace encasing her breasts.

He made a fist. This wasn’t the time or place, especially as she’d accused him of something awful.

She managed a half-hearted shrug. “Fair enough. But how the hell would you feel in my shoes?”

“I didn’t sic anyone on you, Aubrey. I promise.

It’s not my style, whether you know that or not—ask anyone.

I want to win, but I’ll do it fairly. I wasn’t serious when I asked you to give up the competition.

Sure, a little part of me hoped you’d take pity on me.

” He tilted his head toward her and gazed at her through his lashes.

She let out a short laugh. “You’re trying now, even if you’re not aware of it.”

He laughed and flicked his hair out of his eyes. “That time, I was. Sorry.”

She exhaled. “Maybe part of me did take pity on you, especially when your lines draw out in front of my shop. Gary and the chamber of commerce want us to play this game, and let’s be real, he’s a madcap ball of fun most of the time, but he’s serious about this competition.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Liam conceded.

“Who is this Dani chick, anyway? She has the most comments of anyone. Because if she’s your girlfriend, make it clear that we’re just competing, nothing else.

” She kept her eyes on Teddy, who had climbed from her lap to perch on her shoulder, even though half his body hung over her chest. The smug, furry prick had the gall to eye him up, almost saying Bet you wish you were me, huh?

“Dani is my ex-girlfriend. She might have thought we’d get back together or something because…” he trailed off, distracted by that damn shirt falling forward again.

“Because? ”

Liam quickly averted his eyes. “Because…none of your business.”

“It’s not like I care one iota about your love life.” Her tone was as sharp as Teddy’s claws probably were as he dug into her shoulder for stability. “Ouch, Teddy.”

Liam leaned forward to shoo him off Aubrey, his fingers grazing against her bare shoulder. Was the rest of her skin just as soft? Now, that was a question he didn’t need an answer to. He jerked his hand back.

So caught up with the dirty thoughts dancing through his mind, he hadn’t realized he’d been staring down her shirt until she caught him, eyes narrowed.

Great, now she’d go nuclear on him.

“So, will you tell your ex to delete the reviews and tell your followers the truth? And could you delete this BS since I was dragged into a fight that has nothing to do with me?”

“I can try. I’m sorry, Aubrey. Truly.”

She exhaled and winced, closing her eyes. “Okay, then, let’s have an apologetic moment. I’m sorry for turning up like this. I hope you understand how distressing waking up to all that felt.”

He nodded. “I get it completely, and I accept your apology.”

Her mouth snapped open. “That’s great, but I need action. You might not be directly responsible, but this wouldn’t have happened on its own.” She exhaled and tugged on her T-shirt again, giving his dirty mind something to do.

“I’ll take care of this. I promise. I may not be able to fix the reviews. We both know how hard they are to remove. But I can do something about the comments.”

When she shrugged, he continued, “I’ll make a post when I’ve had a moment to think about what to say. In the meantime, tell your followers to block and report the hateful comments.”

Her face screwed into a scowl until he reached across, settling a hand on her covered shoulder. “I’m truly sorry, Aubrey. I would never have posted that if I had thought there would be blowback. I promise. I was just being honest and a little playful.”

She accepted his hand when he offered to help her stand. He lifted her as if she were a feather.

She swiped her phone. “I’d appreciate that. I’ll talk to you later.” She paused. “About the first challenge, I mean.”

Before he could reply, she was gone. Teddy hopped on the counter, demanding breakfast. While he chowed down, Liam considered what he’d have to do to make things right.

He’d have to be careful around Aubrey, since he ranked dead last on her list of favorite people.

It was probably a good thing—it made it easier to regard her as his opponent rather than a beautiful distraction.

“That’s the last of them.”

Samantha and Ella fist-bumped each other.

Despite his assurances that he’d handle his part in this mess, she’d left Liam’s in a tightly wound ball.

No, being close to the big lug first thing in the morning, when most people are hardly at their best, yet he still managed to be disgustingly handsome, had left her more irritated than relieved.

God damn his stupid face! What happened to this crush being dead in the water?

“That fast?” Aubrey stepped across the kitchen, carefully avoiding Tom as he carried a forty-pound bag of flour over one shoulder. Her gaze bounced around the crowded space. She wished all the competition BS was over, the cash prize in her bank account, and renovations underway.

Her eye twitched when she realized what would have to happen between now and then to get her there.

“Well, the troll comments are gone,” Ella said.

“The reviews are gonna be a little trickier, you know that. We’ve contacted the site and now we wait.

We could have a competition to increase our positive reviews again.

Like visit the shop, leave a positive review, send us the link, and be entered for a hundred-dollar gift card or something? ”

Aubrey knew better than to think the bad reviews would vanish.

Her pride was smarted at such vastly untrue things being said.

That said, Jenny, the food reporter from The Port Fortune Pinnacle, had contacted her to talk about the reviews, and most of the town knew they were bogus.

It still hurt, but that was the Internet.

Some things lasted forever. Because of all the drama, Jenny lobbied to put her and Liam on the cover, combining the “ReviewGate” story with information on the contest. She’d seemed a little too jazzed about that during their phone interview.

Aubrey couldn’t begrudge her a juicy story in a city where the front page was usually reserved for fights at the city council meetings or traffic accidents.

“That’s a wonderful idea, Ella. Why don’t you draft the post and get it posted across our social media accounts?”

She smiled. “Will do.”

“It looks like Liam went through and deleted most of the comments from his page,” Samantha said.

“Did you see his latest post?” Ella scrolled through her phone.

Aubrey hadn’t had much time to think about the whole kerfuffle after starting her day, with one disaster following the next.

Liam posted a simple black background with white text .