Page 46 of Between Love and Loathing

He had already answered. “Ms. Milton, how are you?” Silence. “Yeah, I’m dating her. She’s proven to be a joy in my life I’d missed out on for quite some time.” Silence. “Of course her bakery is going to do well here. She’s made a cupcake that has a poppy on it—” Ah, my mother couldn’t stand talking about that. “No. She’ll definitely continue baking, Ms. Milton. Why would I do that?”

My heart fell and I shook my head, trying to grab the phone away. I knew what my mother would say. I should be staying home, taking care of him, and my investment in baking was a frivolous one.

Dominic stood up and backed away from the counter, keeping the phone out of my reach as he frowned. “Ms. Milton, your daughter loves baking. It makes her happy, and what makes her happy should make her mother happy, right?”

As he waited, he hummed low, and I knew that look. He didn’t agree with anything she was saying.

“Well, I’ll see what we can do. Clara’s been very busy because I do have her work hard. We also haven’t sent invitations for the reopening to outside guests yet. Exclusive HEAT members at this time have access. And that means you’d have to talk to Evie—”

I saw the phone light up, saw that she’d hung up on him, and he was smiling when he set it down on the counter. “She’s a real piece of work, huh? How long haven’t you been talking to her?”

“Very sparingly since I’ve been here.” I shrugged.

“Why?” he asked softly, coming around the counter to pull me close.

“Because I’m trying to create something healthier for myself. I just … I was stressed there. Seriously in pain.” I truly felt it in my bones sometimes, there was no other way to describe it. “Here I feel lighter. I’m trying to do what’s best for me, and sometimes that means …”

“Means what?”

“Means making a choice to choose me.” To choose yourself sometimes wasn’t selfish, right? It was necessary.

He whispered, “Own it, cupcake.” And then he kissed me like it was what we should be doing.

I stepped away from him, too comfortable in his arms, left him with a small smile, and went back to reorganizing the spices in the back kitchen. “I emailed Rita with my next change. She’s not happy. You’ll have to talk to her. Again,” I informed him.

“Am I going to have to argue with her?” He lifted a brow and then actually wrinkled his nose. Fuck, those glasses were so stupidly hot. Who was I kidding?

“I’d told her I wanted pink and red dishes.”

“She’s going to flip out then. I should be rewarded for the shit I’m going to take for getting you these five changes.”

“Isn’t this your resort?” I quipped.

“Rita thinks she owns my resort, along with your bakery,” he admitted, and that actually made me chuckle.

“Want a treat for your efforts?” I pointed to one of the chocolates I’d just made. He eyed it longer than normal. Then he shook his head and closed his eyes.

He dug into his pocket and popped one of his dumb mints instead. Then he mumbled, “I want a treat, but I want it to be your pussy, not a damn truffle.”

“Oh my God.” I rolled my eyes and went back to work.

* * *

Not much later,Paloma twirled in, waving her phone at both of us. “You two move fast, don’t you?”

“I think Dominic just accidentally said that. Right?” I stared at him pointedly. “They’re making it much bigger than it should be.”

Of course the man hadn’t said anything in an hour, but he had the audacity to speak up right then, “If you say so.”

I ground my teeth together. “Knock that off, Dominic Hardy. We have a resort to open, not a freaking wedding to plan. Stop creating gossip for no reason.”

He smirked at me. “Want to go gossip in the back room for a minute?”

Paloma squealed and plopped down next to him. “She’s fucking furious, and you love it. You two are so cute.”

I huffed at them both, “Neither of you are getting any food from me today.”

Paloma groaned and Dominic grabbed another of his stupid mints as he shrugged. The two of them had me needing a moment of fresh air. There was too much gossip and too many whispers about me going around, so silence was what I wanted. But then I turned toward the lobby doors and saw another person I’d been avoiding texts from because he was too good of a friend to lie to about my fake relationship.