Page 262 of The Maxwell Brothers

"Good morning."

"I didn't catch you last night, so I thought I'd catch you today before you leave."

"Want to come in?"

"Sure. I was banking on the fact that if I showed up with two coffees, you wouldn't kick me out."

"Of course not. I didn’t kick you out when you were terrorizing me about my music either."

"Let's not go there. Truce?"

He was wearing a suit, and he had cuff links.Oh my goodness, all my thoughts left my head.My lady bits were already in overdrive while my pulse spiked to new heights.

"I'm already making you tongue-tied?" he asked with a cocky smile.

"Hey, it's not you. It's very early in the morning. Although, I will admit I do feel so much better. Missing a shift yesterday really did make a difference."

He watched me intently as we sat down at the kitchen table, sipping our drinks. Glancing at the wall clock, I realized it was just after seven.

"Why did you give yourself a one-year deadline?” he asked.

It warmed me all over that he remembered that part of our conversation. Very observant.

“I don’t want to postpone this forever. I’ll either make it happen or need to come up with alternative plans.”

His gaze grew even more intense. “You’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. What made you decide to finally follow your dream?”

I cleared my throat, not intending to get into all this so early in the morning, then decided I’d give him the short version. "Last year, I had an accident right before my thirty-third birthday. I fell during a hike and had a huge injury to my abdomen. I had to stay home and recover for six weeks, and I had a lot of time to think."

He said nothing but was obviously listening so intently that it made me feel like he really cared.

"I remembered that I had all these dreams, and I always told myself that I’d do it someday, and something switched insideme. I didn't want to wait. I wanted to start working for my dream right away."

"And then you up and moved to Chicago and took three jobs."

“Two and a half,” I said with a wink, “but yes. I quit my job back home, and I moved. I only had one and a half jobs when I came here, and then I found another one. And obviously, now I'm in a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. I work so much that I don't have time to go real estate hunting as much as I would like to. But on the other hand, my capital is growing nicely, so I’ll be ready when I do find the right place. The extra money will also give me some peace of mind once I open the bakery."

I took another sip of coffee. I wasn’t a coffee person, but I was enjoying the hell out of this one.

Sitting here with Declan and telling him my dreams was the perfect start to a morning. He was really interested, which was nice.

“Oh, wait. How did your family dinner go?” I asked.

He laughed. “Ha! How much time do you have?”

Checking the time, I winced, rising to my feet and taking the coffee cup to the counter. “Crap. Sexy neighbor, you cannot make me late for work. On the other hand, I'm the one who invited you in, so I have no one to blame but myself."

He chuckled.

"What?" I asked. "Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not. You're cute when you talk to yourself like that."

I blinked. "Cute. Oh, okay."

"What?"

"Cute is a word people use when they don’t want to offend someone.”