Page 5 of Almost Love

“Besides the fact that she baked the donut you inhaled in one bite?”

“Do not judge me for my love for donuts.”

Chuckling, he grabbed a tissue from the box by his chair and handed it to Fox. “Got some icing around your mouth, donut lover.”

“Look,” Fox said between wiping his mouth, “you like this woman, so you should ask her out. As someone who wasfascinatedby a person for years and then watched them marry somebody else before I could even tell them how I felt, my advice is don’t wait too long.”

“I don’t feel that way about her, man.”

“Not yet. But you might. If you keep going to her bakery for donuts, this fascination will turn into something else and then…it might be too late.”

He stared as his friend smiled and walked out of the room. His eyes stayed fixed on the curtain as it closed and Oakley let out a heavy sigh. Crushes were for school kids; infatuations and fascinations were not something that adults felt. He didn’t have feelings as much as he had an undeniable attraction to the woman. Even though his therapist insisted that ‘getting out there’ would be good for him, he was nervous. The last time he’d allowed himself to be out there, strange things happened that he couldn’t remember. Besides, relationships and romance had to take a backseat until he was really sure he could handle all of it.

He could admire her from a distance and that would be enough. Right?

Except…what was it about Clementine Kinney that made him want to throw caution to the wind?

CHAPTER 2

“He’s here!”

Clementine pushed to her feet at the words as an excited hush went through the kitchen. Forcing herself to sit back down, she closed her eyes and breathed out through her mouth slowly.We said no more crushes!Crushes hurt like hell and she was always the one that got burned in the end. The thing about crushes was that they were so fucking easy. One second of eye contact, a little flirting and she was already thinking about their first date and everything that followed. It was normal and almost acceptable when she was a teenager, but in her thirties? A hindrance.

The last time she’d indulged in a crush—her first since high school—it had hurt like hell. Five years ago, Clementine met Xander. He lived in the town over and had heard so much about her bakery. They got talking over cookies and fudge, and she’d let herself fall for him a little. He’d come by the bakery every so often, spending time chatting with her. She could tell that he was flirting, but she was being cautious. Until the day he show up during a cake tasting and sang her praises to the couple at the big table. Then her crush blossomed into something so big she had swooned. Xander’s visits increased and she looked forwardto his life updates, because listening to him talk made her feel special.

Then he showed up with a bouquet of flowers—not from Daisy’s Patch, which should have been her first sign—and asked for a cake for hisgirlfriend’sbirthday. Everyone at the bakery had seen them flirt, so the shocked silence told her that she hadn’t imagined any of their interactions. She let someone else pack up his order and hid away in her office.

Clementine knew that it wasn’t his fault, because he had no idea about her feelings. But they’d been flirting, right? In a therapy session soon after the incident, she talked about how she didn’t trust herself to know the difference anymore. What if everyone she met and formed a bond with had someone waiting at home? She wasn’t looking for her forever partner, but like everyone else, shedidwant to meet someone. But her radar was broken and she couldn’t trust signs anymore either.

So, this…thesefeelingsfor Oakley needed to be shut down. He might be a good person, but he could also confuse and hurt her. Clementine wasn’t ready for that.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who got excited at the reappearance of the pretty tattooed man, because the younger staff members were falling over themselves to see him. It was only after their first conversation that she realized he’d been coming into the shop for close to a month. By the excited sounds, you’d think they were encountering a celebrity or something.

Concentrating on her open notebook, she returned to the new cakes she was trying to create. Most chefs would experiment in the kitchen and make mistakes before finding the right ingredients; Clementine worked the other way. Throwing something away when it didn’t work was not okay. Instead, she wrote out what often went well together and tried to mix and match, letting her mind wander as she created new items for thebakery. Once she had a list, she would sit with her staff to discuss what might or might not work.

Most of the time, the combinations worked in reality. Every now and then, it would be a complete disaster and they would have to toss everything out. It happened so rarely that even though her process was peculiar, her staff supported it.

She always knew what worked best, even without having the flavors on hand to taste and test every time.

“Chef.” Freya, her first ever hire and most trusted baker, stuck her head into the office with a wide grin. “He’s asking for you.”

“Who?” She frowned at her notebook as she scribbledrhubarb?beside a list that also included chocolate, dates and coconut.

“The pretty tattooed surfer.”

“Please let him know I’m busy.”

“Clem,” Freya said in a playful warning tone.

Clementine set her pen down and rubbed her forehead. It took her a few days to stop thinking abouthim, especially when her mind so helpfully reminded her about Xander. Even then, he often popped into her thoughts when she was at the bakery. She blamed her staff, because now they were making donuts that he would like. Every morning started with hushed discussions about flavors he picked regularly and what else they could experiment with. She couldn’t understand what this man did that made everyone adore him so much.

“All right, all right,” she mumbled as she got up and stretched. Her friend was grinning when she looked over and Clementine rolled her eyes. Undoing her purple bandana, she let her hair loose and tugged on her baby blue coat. Buttoning it up and smoothing it down as she walked out. The short journey through her kitchen and into the main shop gave her a few minutes to gather herself.

Except, the sight of him made her knees wobble a bit.

“Good morning,” he said, his smooth as honey voice wrapping itself around her. “Hope I wasn’t disturbing you.”

She was tempted to sayyou were, but from behind him she saw Freya shake her head. So Clementine shook her head and pushed her hands into the pockets of her coat for something to do.

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