Page 65 of Theirs for the Holidays

Some of it ends up on the counter, and I give them a mock stern look that has them laughing and scooping it back into the bowl with sheepish looks. “Sorry, Teach,” Sawyer says.

“You’re all very silly.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” He sidles closer to me, and then all of a sudden he’sveryclose. I open my mouth to ask what he’s doing, when he smears a bit of flour across my cheek.

It surprises a laugh out of me, and I flick flour onto his black dress shirt before he can back away. “Don’t turn my kitchen into a war zone.”

“I’ll behave!” he says, holding his hands up in surrender.

“You don’t know the meaning of the word,” Rhett deadpans.

Lennox just snorts.

“Betrayal,” Sawyer declares. “I can be on my best behavior. You believe in me, don’t you, Peaches?”

The nickname makes my cheeks go a little pink, and I put my hands on my hips, looking up at him. “I don’t know. You have a mischievous face. Like you’re up to something.”

Sawyer makes his eyes very big, batting his lashes at me as he puts on his most innocent expression. It’s comical on his handsome face, and I laugh harder. “Who me?” he asks, fluttering his lashes faster. “Me? Mischievous? I’m hurt. Wounded, even. How can I go on, et cetera, et cetera?”

“The et ceterasreallysell it,” Lennox tells him.

Sawyer flicks more flour his way and then glances at me. “I’m still behaving.”

“Uh huh, sure. Less flour on the floor and each other, more on the counter for shaping these scones when the time comes.”

“Do you bake like this for yourself a lot?” Lennox asks me as the lesson moves on.

I shake my head. “Not a lot, no. Usually I have leftovers from the bakery if I want something. Sometimes I’ll do it if I’m experimenting with something new, or if I need stress relief.”The reminder of earlier when I was trying to do that crosses my mind, but I shove it away before I can blush at the memory of how that turned out.

“I always had this dream of baking for a family or my friends though,” I admit. “Getting up on a Sunday morning and making pancakes from scratch or muffins or something. Spending a Saturday doing croissants and then having them the next day. It feels good to make things for other people, but the bakery is close enough.”

“You make people happy,” Sawyer tells me. “I saw it when I was there the other day.”

I smile at him, touched. “Thanks. That’s all I want to do, really.”

“It’s good,” Lennox says. “That you have something like that. Something that you know is your calling, that brings you joy.”

“A lot of people don’t,” Rhett agrees, his voice soft.

“Or they do and never pursue it,” Sawyer adds.

“What,” Lennox says, giving him a look. “Can you relate to that?”

“Maybe.” He shrugs. “But we’re not talking about me.”

“Maybe we should be. Wandering all over and ‘sowing your wild oats or whatever’ isn’t doing it for you anymore?” Lennox makes air quotes with his good hand, but Sawyer doesn’t laugh.

His face closes down, and he turns back to the bowl. “What do we add next, Vi?” he asks me.

“Oh, uh, put that in the freezer while we mix the wet stuff.”

“Sawyer being avoidant,” Rhett mutters. “Must be a day ending in a Y.”

Sawyer whips around to give his brother a hard look. “Are we talking about being avoidant? Because you wrote the book on that shit, Rhett. Maybe I learned from watching you.”

“Or maybe I’m avoidant because every conversation with you ends with you running away. I don’t spend my time chasingpointless shit, and after this many years, I know a lost cause when I see one.”

“No, you just chase squirrels up there in the middle of fucking nowhere. I’m surprised you even remember how to have a conversation with real people.”