Page 85 of Baking and Angels

Eleanor shook her head. “No, not at all. It’s just what Icando. Once I had my… issues with my boyfriend, no one would touch me after that. The investors I was trying to line up all disappeared. It’s just that instead of quitting or moving away like everyone and their dog wanted me to do, I picked myself up, went into rehab, and have been working to raise my profile ever since. At a certain point of celebrity, all that past stuff is just, you know, quirky.”

“And what is it that you really want, then?” he asked before he could stop himself, his instincts to give her that littlest push too hardto resist.

“A tea house,” she said softly, before blinking and shaking her head. “Sorry, that’sstupid…”

“No, no, no,” he assured. “It’s not stupid. It sounds lovely. It was one of my favorite things to make. Tea cakes, sandwiches,and such.”

It was all the encouragement she needed. “What I’m actually thinking about is a hybrid place. There would be two rooms with soundproofing between them. One side would do the full formal high tea. We’d also serve lunch and brunches, but the other side would be like a tea express with desserts and snack boxes. People could come in and work like they do at coffee shops.”

Her eyes twinkled as she talked, going into more details about how she would lay out the kitchen and what they would serve, things she wanted to try. He listened contentedly as he refocused on making the coffee syrup. “That seems like a lot of work,” he said as he stirred in the brandy and sugars into a few fresh cups ofespresso.

“Yeah, but it would be work for myself for once,” she muttered, the bitterness of her last few years slipping intoher voice.

“I know what that is like,” he agreed as he took the cooked-up syrup off the heat and poured it into a bowl to start cooling. Then he picked it up to hand over tothe chef.

Their hands met as she reached to take it from him, and they both stopped. “You do, don’t you?” Eleanor asked, her voice as dreamy as her gaze. A new spike, sharp and electric, leapt from where his hand met her skin. It wasn’t literal, but it felt real. His heartbeat sped up as a sensation flooded through him. It was a different one from when hetouched…

Eleanor shyly tucked a stray hair back behind her ear. “You know, Rafferty, I was thinking, once we get this done, we could go grab a little dinner and maybe have that talk we didn’t getto have?”

“Talk?”

“About what kind of future you’re looking for,” she smiled shyly. “Maybe, it’s one in atea shop?”

“I…” he tried to say, but he was too lost in her eyes to remember what it was. Her hard-as-nails exterior gave way to a sweeter one before him, much like Helena’s had been once…

He stepped back, breaking the tension between them.

Then his phone rang.

Desperate for any sort of escape, he let the bowl go too fast, forcing Eleanor to finish grabbing it. The liquid inside bounced dangerously close to the lip insidethe bowl.

“Apologies,” he muttered as he dug out his phone from under the borrowed apron, his heart jumping again when he saw Helena’s name and number.

With shaking fingers he answered it.

She didn’t wait for him to greet her. “Hey, Raffie. What are you doing right now?”

Chapter 33

Dressing

Down

“Hi! Hi, Raffie!” Helena called out as she leaned from the entryway of the clothing establishment 105th.

Unzipping his coat, he obeyed her frantic gesturing and entered the men’s clothing store, only to be greeted by another woman.

“Hello there again, honey cakes,” the bright woman with her Southern twang greeted him, opening her arms to give Rafferty a committed hug. He didn’t return it, and she didn’t seem to mind. Then she stepped back, holding him at arm’s length as she looked him up and down with approving eyes. It was almost motherly. No, worse. Auntly.

“Rafferty, you remember Honey?” Helena asked as way of introduction.

Honey didn’t wait for an acknowledgment. She seemed to believe that of course he remembered her. Which, of course, he did. “Well, let’s go on back and nick those clothes off. I wanna see what we’re working with,” she declared, followed by a suggestive tiger growl, before turning around to head to the back ofthe store.

“What is going on?” Rafferty asked, feeling like he was undressed already in the market square, which shouldn’t have bothered him. But it did.

“She’s going to do your fitting for your new uniform!” Helena chirped, clearly excited as she tugged on his sleeve.

He looked around the store at the fashionable mannequins in their fashionable clothes. “This is the place you brought me before. Where you got me that suit?”

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