Page 25 of Her Movie Star's Secret Plan

“Well, if you try, the answer is no.”

“I wasn’t planning on offering you money. Chase already warned me about that.”

“Of course, he did. Then what do you want, Owen?”

“I want to help you. In whatever way I can.”

“Why?” Alexis asked.

“Because I feel responsible for hurting your business. You wouldn’t be struggling if it weren’t for me.”

That wasn’t entirely true, but she didn’t want to go into it in the middle of her bakery. Her struggles had more to do with the fact that she had a huge overdue tax bill.

“To be honest, business has picked up lately.”

Owen looked pleased to hear the news. “It has? That’s great.”

“Yeah. I’ve had a bunch of ladies from church coming in lately. New customers.”

“It must be because they tried Hadley’s and realized it wasn’t that good.”

Alexis couldn’t help but smile. “You’re ridiculous. Hadley’s is fantastic. Everyone loves it there. Maybe the real reason is that a celebrity built a restaurant across the street from me, and now people are just starting to notice.”

Owen smiled. “Maybe that’s why.”

* * *

Vincent cameto the bakery twice later that week. Once it was on Alexis’s day off, but Delilah was there and told her about how he’d been sniffing around, gathering information. Two days later, Alexis was working when Vincent came over again.

“Hi there, what can I get you?” Alexis asked.

“I’d like to try your blueberry streusel muffins.”

Alexis put her hands on her hips. “And why, exactly, is that?”

“Because they look delicious, and I’m hungry.” Vincent gave her a smile she figured was supposed to calm her down. But it did nothing of the sort.

“I know who you are. You’re the pastry chef at Hadley’s.”

“And?”

“And I think you’re over here to steal my recipes.”

“Why would I need to do that? Hadley’s is thriving.” He looked around the empty shop. “Clearly, that’s not the case here.”

“And yet, you’re still here.”

“I ordered muffins.”

Alexis sighed. She couldn’t think of a good reason to turn this man away. He was a paying customer, after all. He did have a point about Hadley’s thriving. Maybe he really was just hungry.

“How many muffins would you like?”

“Three, please.”

She filled a brown paper bag with the muffins. “Anything else?”

“That’s it.”

---