Page 9 of Her Movie Star's Secret Plan

“Yep.”

“Text me if you need anything. I’m going to take a bubble bath.” After the day she’d had, she would need one.

“You got it.”

Alexis went upstairs to her apartment. She tossed her bag on the blue couch Chase had bought when he was tired of sleeping on her ratty old one. One of these days, she hoped to get her bakery successful enough to buy a house. Maybe one that had been fixed up like the one Owen was staying in.

She went into the bathroom and turned on the water until it was just the right temperature. Then she plugged up the tub and stripped down. She put some vanilla-scented bubble bath under the stream of water and sighed as bubbles formed. She turned on some relaxing spa music on her phone and then slipped into the warm water.

Her body ached from a long day at the bakery. She usually crashed soon after getting off work. She needed to take the time to pamper herself more, but getting up at the crack of dawn was the life of a baker. She’d never minded getting up early. She’d wanted to bake for as long as she could remember. When she was little, her mom had gotten her an Easy-Bake oven, thinking that would keep her busy, but it hadn’t been enough for her. She was right back in her mom’s kitchen, putting full-sized cakes in the full-sized oven. Eventually, her mom gave up and let her take over the kitchen.

She couldn’t bear to lose everything she’d worked so hard to establish. She was living her dream, and she would not let anyone take that away from her. And that was why she had to brainstorm new ways to get people into her bakery. In the past, she’d gotten customers in the door by having unique cupcakes and desserts. Maybe it was time to do some research on new recipes.

Her location was excellent, the best in town. She had a cute little chalkboard sign that she kept outside her bakery, where she would write out the newest cupcake creations. She got new customers that way. She’d also taken cookie samples to several churches in the area. Maybe it was time to do that again. Her sugar cookies always won the church ladies over.

She could go to some wedding venues in town, like the Whitmore House and the art museum, and see if they’d be willing to recommend her to the brides who came to set up their weddings. Maybe Tessa could help her run an ad for her bakery in the paper. She’d done that in the past, and it had brought in more customers.

She’d been doing so well for a while and thought she’d be okay. She’d even considered hiring another employee. But this tax bill was killing her. She had no idea how she was going to pay it back with the state of her finances.

She slipped deeper down into the water. She breathed in the warm vanilla scent of the bubbles all around her. Her thoughts drifted to what Delilah had said about Owen checking her out. Had she been exaggerating, or did she see something that wasn’t there? There was no way Owen would check her out. He could get any girl he wanted. Why would he give her a second glance?

He had paid no attention to her in high school. But that was when she’d been Chase’s annoying, chubby little sister who baked all the time. She still baked all the time, but her chubby days were behind her. She’d ended them when she’d taken up running. And she’d learned to be very selective about the desserts she ate. Was it possible that he’d changed his mind about the way he saw her now?

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