Page 60 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

‘Jerk.’ Hazel smacked his shoulder.

‘What we do now, Haze, is exactly what we’ve been doing.’ He shrugged and took another sip of coffee while Hazel pretended not to stare at his bare chest. ‘We keep following your clues and giving you the best lead up to your birthday ever, and if that includes more of this...’ he gestured between them and somehow even that was hot, ‘then that’s great.’

‘Okay.’ How did he make it sound so simple? Like they didn’t just alter everything between them. Maybe they hadn’t? Maybe she was overreacting.

‘And if you don’t want to do more of this part, that’s fine with me, too.’

She knew he meant it, knew he wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t one hundred percent on board with. He’d already proven that plenty of times.

‘I want more of this part.’

His smile grew. ‘Great, me too.’ He leaned back on the couch and stretched his legs out and rested his feet on the little tufted ottoman she’d ordered in a moment of online shopping frenzy. Something she used to do when she was bored. Now she apparently just had sex with the town sex god.

‘So your sister’s pregnant?’

‘You change subjects almost as fast as my nieces.’

Hazel winced. ‘Sorry. Bad habit.’

Noah’s head was resting on the back of the couch and his eyes were closed but he was still smiling. ‘It’s okay. Keeps me on my toes.’

Said toes wiggled happily on the ottoman and Hazel couldn’t help the way her gaze slid from his feet up the long lean lines of his legs, over his taut stomach and across his chest. She followed the breadth of his shoulders with her eyes and the strong curves of his arm muscles. His forearm flexed as he adjusted his hold on his coffee mug, the friendship bracelets sliding down his arm as he brought the cup to his lips.

His eyes were open again. Caught. Oops.

She thought he might tease her for staring but instead he just winked and went on. ‘According to my niece Cece, her mother, my oldest sister Rachel, is pregnant, yeah. But I don’t think I’m supposed to know yet.’

He shrugged like it didn’t really matter to him either way, but the lines of his body had gone tense.

‘You love them, your nieces.’

‘Of course.’

‘And your sisters, you love them, too.’

He paused for a sip and maybe to figure out his answer. ‘Of course, yeah. It’s just more complicated with them. You know how family can be.’

‘I guess. I don’t have any siblings.’

‘Really? I thought I heard your dad, uh one of your dads, talking about someone ... a Frida?’

‘Frida is one of my mom’s dogs. Diego and Frida.’

‘Right. I forgot you have a mom, too.’

‘Yep. No shortage of parents, just no siblings. At least no human siblings. My mom is overly dedicated to her dogs, some might say.’

Noah huffed a small laugh but his gaze was far away.

‘Why’d you leave home?’ Hazel was definitely not doing the ‘morning after a casual fling’ right, but she also felt like she and Noah had become friends and she was curious about him.

‘Aw, Haze, you don’t want to hear about that.’ He leaned toward her and waggled his eyebrows. ‘There’s so many more interesting ways we can spend the morning.’

She frowned and Noah sat back.

‘Okay fine, you really want to know?’

‘Yes.’