Page 35 of Ignite

“Yo, sis? What are you thinking about?”

Jazz jolted back to the present and regarded her brother with a shaky smile. “Nothing you need to know about.”

“Was it the motorcycle guy?”

She coughed to cover her surprise. “Why would you think that?”

“’Cause he’s cool, and he likes you.” Hugo grinned and handed another tray of rolled dough to Erica. “He wants to be your boyfriend.”

“How do you know?”

“Duh,” he intoned. “He didn’t let Mom or Liz say bad stuff about you. That means he likes you.” He paused and looked up at his favorite sister. “Don’t you like him?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Then you should be his girlfriend.”

Jazz wished like hell she could view everything through her brother’s eyes. Simple and straightforward. If A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C.

Could it be that easy?

Her phone buzzed, and she saw a new text from the subject of her conversation with Hugo.

Wolf: The fridge is empty. I’m gonna grab some groceries and cook dinner before work. Grabbed your spare key from the rack. Hope you don’t mind. How do you feel about lasagna?

She ignored the invasion of her space and concentrated on his other words. He was getting groceries.He was getting groceries!

Jazz: I like lasagna.

Wolf: What’s your favorite coffee in the morning? I noticed you don’t have any here.

Jazz: I don’t really like coffee. I’m more of a tea person.

Wolf: Your shitting me. You make fancy coffee drinks all day and don’t like it yourself?

Jazz: You’re. I drink coffee sometimes, but I like hot tea better.

Wolf: You’re something else, baby. I’ll get some fancy teas, then. See you at the house.

“You’re doing that face again,” Hugo interrupted.

“That was… um… Wolf. The biker. He’s getting groceries and making lasagna for dinner.”

Her brother didn’t bother to hide his I-told-you-so look. “See? Boyfriend. You’re so weird.”

19

Summer was making its debut,and heat would be upon the city very soon, but for now, the nights were still cool and comfortable. Jazz sat facing the river on the front deck, which had room enough for a small round table and two folding lounge chairs. Freya’s gurgling purr accompanied the river sounds as the cat kneaded her thighs. Jazz lifted a cup and sipped the herbal tea.

The workday had been incredibly long and exhausting. No different from the rest of the past few weeks. No clue how much longer she would be able to keep up with the pace, but Wolf was there every minute.

He also seemed to have moved in—permanently. Originally, he told her he needed a place to crash for a little while. That had been two weeks ago. Currently, he was in her shower making use of the new water heater he’d installed earlier that afternoon.

It was admittedly convenient to have him around, as her place needed some care. They often worked at the bakery together, and she rode on the back of his bike there and back.

She wasn’t naive enough not to understand what that meant.

Bill was healing, and Madge had started coming back to work more. He was still a long way off from being able to take care of himself, but at least his wife could get the baking done, which was an essential part of their business, and give Jazz a break from the counter.

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