Page 47 of Mr. Swoony

She slides off the stool. “You make it too easy.” She comes over and hugs me. “I’m upstairs if you ever need me. I can’t wait to tell Rowan about the sign.”

“Thanks, Kyleigh.”

She winks just like Conor does and waves. “Bye, guys.”

“Wait, I’m coming with you.” Jade quickly hugs me. “I’m only a short Uber ride away.” She points at Conor. “Behave yourself. You think Henry is scary, remember how good I am at darts.” Her eyes fall to his crotch.

Conor covers his package.

She smiles. “Now you two behave and have fun.” Her voice is so sugary sweet, you’d never guess she just threatened Conor.

The door shuts after them, and I peek inside the bags. “What’s all this?”

“We’re going to bake a cake from scratch.” He unpacks the grocery bags, taking out all the ingredients. “What’s this about a sign?”

I watch him for a second, not looking at me but pulling out each item just so we can bake a cake. My emotions bubble up and pour over until I wrap my arms around his neck and breathe him in.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

His arms move around my back, but he doesn’t pull me closer. “It’s just cake supplies.”

“It’s so much more, and you know it.” I tighten my hold before falling back down on my heels.

His cheeks are pink when I pull away, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

“So you don’t mind me helping you?” he asks. “You’ll bake a cake with me?”

“I’d love to.”

He pulls out a recipe. “I found this online.”

This will be a lot harder than I thought. We’re only on day one.

Twenty

Conor

Is she trying to torture me, or am I torturing myself? Eloise’s thank you hug threw me off guard.

She’s probably just emotional. Today had to be hard for her, going back to the house where she thought she would embark on a life with the one person she loved most in the world. So, I figured the easiest way to keep her mind occupied would be to work on her list, and the easiest thing to cross off would be baking the cake. Plus, I don’t want to assume she’s going to include me in her quest to do everything on her bucket list, so I didn’t want to choose one of the bigger tasks.

“I found this recipe, but you can search for one yourself if you don’t like it.” I hand her my phone, and she hesitates before taking it.

I watch as she reads it over. Her hair is down in light waves and veils her face, blocking her reaction to the recipe I picked out.

“I think this is good. We should definitely try vanilla before we do anything fancy.” She digs into her purse hanging off the breakfast stool.

“What’s your favorite cake flavor?” I ask.

“Probably chocolate on chocolate.” She uses both hands to push her hair away from her face and secure her long strands in a bun. “You?”

“Red velvet with cream cheese.”

“Oh, that’s a good one too. Maybe that will be our third cake.” She chuckles.

I love the way she says our as if I’m on this adventure with her.

Her finger runs over the screen of my phone. “We have to get the butter soft and the eggs at room temperature.”

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