Page 30 of A Sweet Mess

“I just saw the most beautiful doe right outside my patio.” Aubrey strode into the kitchen and found Landon slouched over a steaming mug in the kitchen. He grunted and waved in the direction of a coffeepot. “Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?”

He glanced at her with bleary eyes and gulped down his coffee like it was tequila after a hard day. Aubrey shrugged and maneuvered toward the coffee, giving him a wide berth. Humming under her breath, she searched the cupboards for a nice, big mug. She was filled to the brim with optimism, and she was ready to tackle anything that came her way—including a grumpy Landon.

“Do you really have time to chauffeur me around today?” Aubrey studied his hunched form. “More importantly, are you even capable of it? You can’t seem to hold a civilized conversation, much less drive a motorized vehicle.”

“For the love of God, woman. It’s not even eight,” he grumbled. His eyes dropped back to his mug as though his outburst had taken too much out of him.

Not a morning person, eh?In her giddy mood, she almost joked she’d made a narrow escape that night by sneaking out on him before he woke up. She stopped short, horrified at her own callousness. She hid her troubled expression under the awning of her lashes and silently chastised herself.

“Damn it.” Landon raked his fingers through his hair. By the remorse on his face, he’d misread her expression and thought he’d hurt her feelings. “I didn’t get much sleep last night. I promise to be better behaved once I finish my coffee.”

“You’re fine.” She waved aside his apology, pouring herself a steaming mug of coffee and topping his off as well. “It’s gorgeous outside. Let’s drink our coffee on the porch.”

Without further protests, Landon followed her outside and settled his six-foot-three-ish frame into a yellow-and-white chaise. Sinking into its twin, Aubrey sighed and soaked in the vast otherworldly hills spread out before them.

Compared to the dense green mountains surrounding Weldon, these hills appeared stark and desolate. They sizzled under the unforgiving sun by day and shivered against the coastal winds by night. The resilient way the stringy trees and the waving fields of grass persevered commanded respect as much as the grapes they cultivated within their depths.

“Tomorrow, I’ll bake some sweet buns for breakfast.” Eyessliding shut, she inhaled the steam rising from her mug and then took a sip. “This coffee deserves some company.”

“Does that mean you’ll wake up even earlier?”

Ooh, a complete sentence.

The caffeine seemed to be kicking in. He even managed a crooked smile.

“Ha ha. I’ll do most of the prep work tonight so I can just pop them in the oven tomorrow morning. Wait and see. Even Oscar the Grouch would turn into Mr. Sunshine after some of my sweet buns.”

“Are you always this humble?”

Aubrey stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m proud of my family legacy. It’s my grandma’s recipe.”

“Your grandma?” Landon’s gaze strayed to her lips as though waiting for another glimpse of her tongue.

Without conscious thought, she wet her suddenly dry lips and watched his pupils swallow the brown of his eyes.Gah.

“Mm-hmm.” She cleared her throat, unnerved by the charge in the air. “My grandma taught me everything I know about baking.”

“Comfort Zone’s an amazing place. She must be proud of you.”

His voice was a husky caress. Nervous energy fluttered through her, heat blossoming on her cheeks. Landon abruptly shifted his eyes to the horizon.

“She would’ve been, I think. I couldn’t have opened Comfort Zone if it weren’t for her.”

“How so?”

“I used to travel a lot, too. Not as fancy as yours, but I’d visit a country and live there for a few months working odd jobs until I saved up enough money to move on to a different place. Itwas wonderful, but exhausting. It got old after a few years, but I didn’t know how to come home.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” he said softly.

A flutter of happiness tipped the corners of her mouth.Don’t ask why I’m happy about that.He mirrored her smile, and she forgot to breathe.

“Well, I finally came back because my grandma got sick,” she continued, slightly out of breath. “In a lot of ways, I was closer to her than to my mom. I wanted to be by her side to send her off. When she passed away a few months later, she left me some money with a message.”

“What kind of message?”

“Oh, something very short, but profound. ‘Time to get baking, girlie!’”

“Sounds like you had the world’s coolest grandmother.”

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