Page 14 of Spicy or Sweet (Wintermore #2)

NOELLE

I’ve never seen someone carve the peel from a lemon so intensely. Honestly, I’ve just never seen anyone work so intensely in a kitchen, period.

There are a hundred things I should be doing, but I’m falling behind on my to-do list because I can’t stop watching Shay.

At first, I just wanted to make sure she was okay after last night.

Intense doesn’t even begin to cover it. It can’t have been easy to open up about the accident like she did, to talk about her sister, but she seems fine today.

Maybe a little more tired than she usually is—I spotted several takeout cups from The Frosty Bean in the recycling when I came in. Otherwise, she seems right as rain.

Once I confirmed that, it should’ve been easy to look away, but I can’t.

It’s not like she’s doing or making anything particularly exciting; she’s just doing it in a way that could only be described as…

captivating. She narrows her eyes, focusing solely on whatever she’s working on, her lips pursed.

I’ve never noticed how small her hands are, how delicate her fingers are.

Why would I have? But now that I have noticed them… God, I think I’m losing it.

I turn my attention back to the bowl of cookie dough before me.

Triple chocolate, with crushed pretzels and big flakes of coconut.

It smells divine. No matter how long I’ve been baking, I never tire of stealing a bite of cookie dough as I’m scooping it.

I know people say you shouldn’t, but life is too short to worry about raw cookie dough.

In the three and a half days we’ve worked together, I’ve tried to get a grasp on Shay’s music taste, but I can’t.

It’s all over the shop, from country, to ’90s boy bands, to R my lips brush hers for a split second at most, but Shay groans, and the sound strikes a match somewhere deep inside me.

What the fuck am I doing?

I jump back, putting three feet between us. Shay stares at me, open-mouthed, her hair mussed and her cheeks rosy.

“Noelle—”

“I have to go.” I don’t give her a chance to respond. I turn on my heel and run out of the kitchen faster than I think I’ve ever run from anything before.

I kissed Shay fucking Harland.

I am so fucked.