Page 20 of Love By the Slice

He shrugged. “My father always hated the paperwork side of his business, so I’d begun doing that for him when I was still in school. Afterward, he still wanted me, so I kept doing it part time. Ezra ended up at the shop getting some part custom machined for the brick oven, so when he asked if I could put in ten hours a week there and give him a day off, I figured, why not?”

Shelly said, “What are you going to do when you leave both of them?”

Greg shrugged. “Write business plans for humorless executives? Get a suit-and-tie job at a bank writing loans to startups? I have no idea. I’m okay killing time here for now.”

Shelly grimaced. “Surely you aren’t going to do two part time gigs forever. At some point, you’ll need health insurance and want to move out on your own.”

When Greg didn’t answer, Shelly wondered if maybe he really did intend to do it forever. Live with his parents, play with his gaming console, and bake cookies in his spare time.

She glanced at the cookies still in the oven. “Well… I’m only doing deliveries until I graduate and can do forty hours a week making rich people uncomfortable.”

He laughed. “You’re a genius at time management. You could do both.”

To punctuate Shelly’s genius at time management, the timer went off. She pulled the cookies from the oven, and they looked perfect. Greg said, “Do you have a cooling rack?” so Shelly poked around the kitchen. When she couldn’t find one, she extracted the rack from the toaster oven and crowded as many as she could onto the wires, and the rest of them onto a plate. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work.

After she got the rest of the dough balled up and onto the pan, Greg insisted she pour a glass of milk and share a cookie with him. “I’m sure yours are better,” Shelly said.

Mid-pour on his own side, Greg said, “I’m sure they’re the same. You did great.”

Before the next batch emerged from the oven, one of Shelly’s roommates came into the kitchen to be surprised by cookies. Shelly invited her to share, and she introduced her to Greg. Her roommate then hung around the kitchen preparing lunch while Shelly got the second batch from the oven, then moved the cooled cookies into a plastic container.

Shelly said, “Well, at least you can bring yours to Rowan’s fundraiser tomorrow. It’s not as many as we would have made together, but it’s something.”

Greg said, “Rowan’s going to be fine. I told you. This is just extra help.”

Shelly murmured, “Sometimes, even that extra makes a difference. I wish you’d let me do this yesterday.”

“But then your roommate wouldn’t have cookies.” Greg sounded too pleased for someone who’s failure to plan had nearly destroyed the operation. “Plus, now you know how to make cookies whenever you want.”

A few minutes later, they were off the call, and Shelly transferred the second batch of cookies into the plastic container.

Her roommate said, “Does he always blow you off that way?”

Shelly hesitated. “How?”

The roommate shrugged. “It’s just, every time you raised an objection to something, he told you it wasn’t really a problem.”

Shelly shrugged. “He’s an optimist. Most of the time, he’s right.”

The roommate went back to her lunch, and Shelly carried her cookies and the remaining milk back to her room.

Her roommate was wrong. Greg was listening.

Except…

No, hewaslistening. He saw the bright side. He had a good perspective, and he was trying to cheer her up. That was all. It was fine.

It would be fine. It would all work itself out. That’s what Greg would have told her if she’d brought this to him, and that’s what she was choosing to believe.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

EZRA WAS DEFINITELY going to lose that bet. Greg and Shelly had gotten right up to February, and everything was good. Better than good. When Lacey had gushed that baking cookies together over video chat was one of the most romantic things she’d heard, Ezra had clenched his teeth and gone back to doing inventory.

On Saturday afternoon—February the first, thank you very much—both Ezra and Greg were prepping Loveless for a big weekend. Hartwell was hosting their annual ice sculpture exhibit in the town park, and Loveless was sending their food truck.

Shelly glanced at Lacey’s hand. “You really aren’t going to get an engagement ring?”

Ezra called from the stock room, “I offered!”

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