He was only teasing —surely— but Baylin’s cheeks burned red hot, nonetheless.
Teddy must’ve noticed. The gleam in his pale green eyes became even shinier.
“Grab an apron from the back of the pantry door; I’d hate for you to ruin your fifth baseball t-shirt in as many days as you’ve been here.”
“These are the height of fashion, I’ll have you know,” Teddy replied, running his hands over the silly peanut dressed as a vintage umpire emblazoned on his chest, which meant the muscles under said t-shirt became clearly visible through the soft cotton material.
Good heavens.
“Do you ever wear anything besides goofy mascots no one has heard of?”
“Ouch. Shots fired!” Teddy clutched his chest. “I better get that apron so I don’t bleed all over the floor.”
He returned before she’d adequately re-centered her nerves, but she could fake confidence with the best of ’em.
“Ready to flood?” she asked.
“Sure?” he questioned.
Baylin raised an eyebrow at his firsteversign of uncertainty.
“Sure,” he repeated with a definitive dip of his chin.
“It’s very easy,” she told him. “I’ll pipe an outline of frosting along the edge of each cookie. Give it a minute to dry and then use the matching icing to fill in, orflood,the top. They’ll dry overnight, and I’ll add a message to each heart in the morning.”
“Like those little boxes of Valentine’s candy,” Teddy exclaimed.
“Conversation Hearts… It’s the theme of this year’s festival.”
“Which explains why you named your quiltSpeaking of Love,” he filled in.
“Not too original, I guess,” Baylin said with a slight shrug.
“But it is,” he countered. She gestured to brush off his contradiction, but Teddy circled the kitchen island, took the icing bag from her hand, and laid it on their workspace. Taking hold of her shoulders, he turned Baylin to face him.
“You were right about the quality of the quilts in the show,” Teddy told her, looking directly into her eyes. A warm wave of awareness skittered down her spine. “But yours is special…unique, bolder. It grabs your attention and refuses to let go, daring anyone who sees it to walk away. The hearts in their shades of deep reds and hot pinks scream strength while your elaborate stitching design with white thread on white fabric promises soft femininity.” He searched her eyes before lifting a hand from her shoulder to her cheek. “Incomparable,” hewhispered, cupping her jaw and caressing her skin with his thumb.
Teddy made it difficult to inhale and exhale like a regular human being.
Because he made her feel like something far beyond normal.
“Thank you.” She met his gaze, determined to match his conviction…fake it ’til you make it and all that rubbish.
Teddy studied her for another long moment. He gave a single nod as his beautiful lips bloomed into that smile that never seemed too far away.
“So, what words of love do you have planned for us?”
“Excuse me?”
“For the cookies,” he said, as thoughsheneeded to keep up. “What are we writing on them? How aboutHey, hottie!Ooo, or maybeHow U Doin?”
His over-the-top drama proved her undoing; she gave into the urge to laugh, and then she —they— couldn’t stop.
By the time they’d outlined and flooded the two hundred forty cookies she’d set out to decorate, they’d both passed into goofy delirium and found every little thing hilarious.
Lying in bed later than night, Baylin predicted her abs would be sore from laughing so hard through the afternoon and evening. Teddy had teased and joked and entertained, and Baylin had dished out equal banter in return.
They’d had fun.