Page 6 of Find Me
“Thank you. What’s up?”
“We got some of your mail,” he said, holding it out to me. “Are you going to Copper Mountain?”
I took the mail from him and before I could question how he would know that, my eyes fell on the top envelope. It was from Copper Mountain High School addressed to Shiloh Pierce. “Yeah. I registered there for my senior year.”
“My brother Creed and I go there,” he said.
“Oh.”
“If you want, I can show you around before class starts Monday morning.”
That was sweet of him to offer. It would be the first time I’d be starting a new school without knowing anyone and without Shayla by my side. “I might take you up on that.”
At my response he smiled brightly and my heartbeat picked up a beat. “So what were you baking?”
It took me a second to comprehend what he was asking. “Oh, uh.” I felt my cheeks getting hot again. As I stared at Colt sheepishly, I got an idea. “Do you and your brothers like cookies, brownies, and such? Because I may have made enough to fill a bakery and there’s no way I could eat it all.”
His eyebrows rose. “We’re growing boys. Of course we do.”
I smiled and opened the front door wider. “You’re welcome to come in while I pack up a container for you to take home.”
He stepped inside.
“If you’ll follow me,” I said over my shoulder, catching him looking around as we walked through the living room. His eyes went wide when we entered the kitchen. At least it wasn’t a mess anymore. “Yeah. One of my many faults is I sometimes get lost in what I’m doing. I’ve been known to go above and beyond. Especially if I’m having a bad day,” I explained as I pulled out a bin filled to the brim with new Tupperware I’d bought the other day.
“You had a bad day?”
I looked away from him. “Yes and no.” I didn’t elaborate and he thankfully didn’t push. “Are you or your brothers allergic to anything? I don’t want someone going into anaphylactic shock because I put peanuts in some of the brownies.”
He shook his head. “No known food allergies. Can I try one of these?” he asked, pointing to one of the peanut butter cookies.
“Help yourself.” I smiled and began filling a plastic container with an assortment of goodies.
Colt took a bite of the cookie and groaned. “Wow, these are good.”
I chuckled. “You sound surprised.”
With his cheeks puffed out around the cookie, he shook his head. “There you go again. You’re kind of a ball buster, you know that?”
I’d been called worse. Stuck up, snob, whore. Not that what he’d said was an insult. In fact, it sounded like he enjoyed that I gave him a hard time.
“I’m glad you like the cookie, but wait until you try the key lime bars. They’re my mom’s recipe.” The moment the words left my mouth I regretted them. I turned away to hide the pain I was undoubtedly showing and busied myself with packing up two-thirds of everything I’d made. Once I had my face schooled and my emotions at bay, I turned back around and stacked two large plastic containers in front of him. “Okay, here you go.”
“Are you trying to make me fat?” he teased, taking the containers from me.
“Aren’t guys supposed to be bottomless pits? Besides, there’s what, three of you—?”
“Four,” he corrected.
“There are four of you and only one of me. I still won’t be able to finish what I have left but it’s nice to know most of everything I made won’t go to waste. You taking all this off my hands is doing me a favor, really.”
He tilted his head slightly, seeming confused. “What about your uncle?”
Oops.
“He left today,” I replied honestly and tucked some of my lilac hair behind my ear. “He was only here to help me get situated.”
Colt went quiet as he stared at me. I felt the urge to squirm or palm-smack my face, so I busied myself with packing up the rest of the baked goodies in my own container.
