Page 49 of Good Girls Don't Kiss and Tell

“Are you out of your freaking mind?”

“Sorry I scared you. I saw your car out front and was surprised you were here. Wanted to check on you.”

“How did you get in?” she asked.

He pointed behind him. “You forgot to lock the back door. Dangerous thing to do, apparently. People could come inside, although I don’t know why they would with all your caterwauling. I thought there might be a dying cat in here and came to investigate.”

“I do not sound like a dying cat! And I do not appreciate you standing around watching me like a creeper.”

Eric laughed. “I knocked a bunch of times, but you didn’t answer. Wasn’t trying to creep around. I really was concerned.”

“I’m fine.”

“Where are your folks?” he asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She turned on the mixer and stuck it into a bowl. She was probably hoping he’d take the hint.

Didn’t she know him at all?

He reached out and grabbed the mixer from her, switching it off.

“Watch it! That mixer is expensive.”

“You don’t say? I guess you better start talking, or the mixer gets it.”

She snorted and tried to take the mixer back from him, but he held it above his head, unconcerned with the droplets of batter dripping over his shoulders.

“Okay, Tony Soprano, stop holding my mixer hostage. I’ve got one more cake to finish, and then I’m going to grab dinner and head back to spend the evening with my parents. That’s all. Nothing else going on.”

Eric wasn’t buying it though. “Tanya could have made the cakes for you. So, why did you need to get away from your parents after only a few hours?”

“You’re annoying.”

“And persistent.”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s stupid,” she said.

He set the mixer on the counter, then grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. “It matters a lot to me.”

She tried to extract her hand and scoffed sarcastically. “Why? Because we’re supposed to care?”

Eric growled in frustration. “You are such a pain in the ass! With or without our arrangement, I’d still care. We might not always see eye to eye, but I thought we might just be turning into friends.”

He watched her expression crumble, and she groaned as she scrubbed her free hand over her face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I thought this could work. My mother is completely impossible.”

It took a second for Eric to realize what she was saying. “Your mom has a problem with me?”

“No, she has an issue with small business owners.”

Eric’s brow furrowed. “You’re a small business owner.”

“Exactly, and she hates it. She wanted me to go to law school and marry some senior partner, or some shit like that. Instead, I went to college and majored in business. I took all my savings and put it into this place, and she can’t stand that she’s been wrong about me making a mistake. She likes you fine, but because you’re in exactly the same boat as me, she thinks we’re a disaster waiting to happen.”

She grabbed her mixer from the table. “I don’t care, anyway. I just need to deal with the fact that my mother will never be happy, no matter how many times I prove I’m completely capable of handling my own life.”

Eric wrapped his arms around her waist without thinking. He almost pulled away when she stiffened, but then he found her leaning back into him as she mixed her batter.

“I have a crazy idea. What if you finish up here and I grab dinner for all of us? Go see if I can win your mom over.’

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