Page 40 of Surprised By Love

It’s Thursday and my day off, so I decide to stock up on some of the baking supplies I’m running low on. I’m pushing the shopping cart down the baking aisles of Hal’s Market when I see a familiar face. Josh, he’s standing in front of the baking flour, looking confused.

“Funny seeing you here,” I say as I walk up beside him.

“It is?” he says, raising a brow.

“Yes. Seeing you in the baking aisles. I thought you said you can’t bake?”

He laughs. “I can’t.”

“Okayyyy…” I tilt my head. “So why are you standing in the baking aisle looking at flour if you can’t bake?”

“I wanted to surprise the kids and have sugar cookies ready for them when they get home so they can decorate them. They loved yours and haven’t stopped talking about them.”

“I’m so glad they liked them. Is that the recipe?” I say, nodding towards the paper in his hand.

“Yes. I printed it from a website. I was going to ask my mom for her recipe, but then she would have wanted to come bake them herself.” He laughs. “That might have been a better idea. But I’d like to surprise them, my mom included.”

“Let me see it?” I say, holding out my hand.

Josh pauses, then reluctantly hands over the recipe.

I stifle a laugh.

“What? What’s wrong with the recipe?” He sounds worried.

“Oh nothing. It’s a basic sugar cookie recipe.”

“So, why is that funny?”

“Well. You said the kids liked my cookies. These won’t taste like mine.”

“Oh,” Josh says, and he hangs his head. My. God. He looks so pitiful it’s kinda cute.

I need to help him out. “Here, let me.” I grab his shopping cart and start adding all the ingredients for my signature sugar cookies.

“What are you doing?” He pushes my cart up beside me.

“I’m getting you all the ingredients you need to make my cookies. I’ll send you the recipe and you can make mine. On one condition.”

“Which is?”

“You don’t tell anyone what’s in them.”

“Oh, it’s a secret recipe?”

I nod as I toss Vanilla extract, all-purpose flour and baking powder into the cart.

“I have a great idea,” Josh says, coming up behind me. “Why don’t you come over and you can show me how to make them?”

I stop and turn to him. “You… want me to come to your house and show you how to make my sugar cookies?”

“Yeah, why not? This way I’ll know they’ll get done properly and my kids won’t die from food poisoning.”

I bark out a laugh. “Well, since you put it that way. How can I say no?” What was I doing? Going to Josh’s house alone to show him how to bake? I mean, I want to spend more time with him and see if what Vicki and Becca think is true, but is this really a good idea?

“Give me a minute to see if Vicki or Becca can watch Amelia.”

A minute later, I put my phone back in my purse. “Well, it’s all set. I’m all yours.” Did I just seriously say that? My face warms and I know Josh can see I’m blushing.

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