Page 66 of The Best Parts of Him

“There’s tons of room in your freezer,” Ryland had pointed out, ignoring his friend. “The only thing in there is frozen steak. You don’t even have ice cream.”

“But twenty loaves?”

“I had to replace the ones I ate.”

“You ate three of them,” Dabbs had said, his laughter echoing in the car. “Not twenty. Bellamy’s cursing your name right now.”

Shaking his head as the memory gently faded, Ryland took his package into the kitchen. It was a square box and fairly large, roughly the size of a moving box. He took scissors to the packaging and ripped at the brown paper. It revealed a plain cardboard box—exactly like a moving box—inside which was enough bubble wrap and packing peanuts to keep the most delicate crystal safe.

What he extracted was not crystal. It was a package of apple bread.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Ten to be exact.

“Dear god,” Miles muttered.

Taped to one of the loaves was a note in Dabbs’ handwriting.

We could go together like apple bread and butter.

Ryland let out a sound of delirious happiness that he’d deny if anybody asked.

He’d said something similar to Dabbs in Maplewood, hadn’t he? Something about going together like donuts and coffee?

No, Timbits and coffee.

And Dabbs had remembered.

Gah!

“Wow.” Miles popped the bubble wrap and read the note over Ryland’s shoulder. “That’s the corniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I think I love him.”

“Aw.” Wrapping an arm around Ryland’s neck, Miles gave his temple a messy kiss. “I love that for you.”

Ryland laughed and pushed him away. “Get off me.”

“I’m going to bed, loverboy. See you tomorrow.”

Miles disappeared down the hall, leaving Ryland bouncing on his toes. He had no idea what he was going to do with ten loaves of apple bread but?—

Okay, yeah. He could see Dabbs’ dilemma now.

Disregarding that it was after eleven, he called Dabbs.

“Hey,” Dabbs’ smooth voice said in his ear. “I was just thinking about you.”

Momentarily diverted, Ryland grinned so wide his cheeks ached. “That’s nice to hear.”

“How are you, Rya?”

“Good. I’m looking at enough apple bread to feed my entire team though. Is this payback for the twenty loaves?”