Page 30 of Heartbeats & Highways

“I’m Brielle,” she introduced.

“Nice to meet you,” I murmured.

“Have you met Roman yet? Did he give you the lay of the land?”

“Oh, he was starting to, but then he got a phone call.”

“Do you like donuts?”

“Donuts?”

She nodded. “Yeah, donuts. I brought a dozen from Pie in the Sky—the bakery where I’m a cake decorator. I had a meeting there this morning with Brooklyn and I almost never leave empty handed.”

Her exuberance and energy had my head spinning.

She didn’t wait for me to reply. She all but skipped back over to the counter to grab the box of donuts. She cut the string holding it closed, propped the lid open, and brought it over.

The scent of sugar and flour hit my nose and made my mouth water.

“I’m partial to the blueberry buttermilk,” she said, reaching in the box. “But you can’t go wrong with any of them.”

I was overwhelmed with choices. I decided on the glazed chocolate.

“Wait,” Brielle said. She set the box down on the coffee table and shoved the donut into her mouth as she walked behind the counter. She crouched down where I couldn’t see her, but then she called out, “We’ve got milk. You want some?”

“Sure,” I said, unable to stop the smile from blooming across my face. “You keep milk in the mini fridge?”

“Only since I started filling in,” she said as she returned with a sleeve of plastic cups and the carton of milk. “It’s become routine for me to bring some sort of baked good. It keeps them happy.”

“Noted.”

She poured a cup of milk and handed it to me.

“I’m not going to lie, I’m glad as hell you’re taking over. I’m getting squirrelly. I need to get back to my love of decorating wedding cakes.”

“Why haven’t you been doing that?” I inquired as I dunked my donut into the milk.

“Brooklyn’s been on maternity leave. So she scaled way back on the catering side of things. But she’s ready to get back to work.” She gestured to the donut. “Good, right?”

“Very good.”

“So, how did you meet Savage?” she asked.

“Excuse me?”

“How did you meet Savage?” she repeated. “Roman didn’t tell me. He just said a new girl Savage met was starting and that I’d need to train her.”

“Oh.” I frowned. Other than Savage telling me the illegal fighting ring was a secret; Savage and I had never actually discussed what to tell people about how we met. I also didn’t want anyone knowing that I’d been working there either.

Brielle’s blue eyes were stuck on me, avid with curiosity.

I settled for some version of the truth. “I met him at a taco truck.”

“A taco truck?”

I nodded.

“And you just casually mentioned you needed a job?” she asked in confusion.

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