Page 43 of Surprised By Love

“We can use both cookie sheets and the parchment paper. The rest is in the bags you bought.”

He reaches around me to grab the parchment paper and he is so close I can smell his spicy, woodsy cologne and my God. He smells unbelievable. I instinctively close my eyes and breathe him in, permanently etching his scent into my memory.

“Got it,” he says, and I open my eyes to see him walking out of the pantry. I shake my head out of the daze he put me under and follow him into the kitchen.

He has two islands in his kitchen, which is every baker’s dream. One is a prep island with bar chairs on either side to seat six, the other island is huge, and it sits in the middle of the kitchen with a smaller sink and plenty of drawers and storage. I wish we could redo the kitchen in Grams’ house, but Vicki won’t have it. She likes it the way it is. I will admit I do too, but to bake in this kitchen every day would be a dream.

After we collect the bowls, utensils, and all the ingredients, Josh grabs two aprons from the hooks inside the pantry door.

He passes me one that says If you’re reading this, get out of my kitchen. I laughed. “I love this.” I say, putting the apron around my neck. It reminds me of the aprons I have at home. Bake it till you make it and where there’s a whisk, there’s a way.

“Here, let me help,” Josh says and puts his hands on my shoulders, turning me around. My skin heats the second his hands are on me. Josh grabs the ties and his hands brush along my waist. My whole body shivers and I swear I can feel his breath on my neck. What is this guy doing to me? I’m not sure I’m going to survive this if he keeps touching me.

“There ya go,” he says and grabs the other apron and puts it on. It says Kiss the Cook.

Oh, lord help me, I want to.

I let out a breath and hope he can’t tell what his touch just did to me.

I call out the ingredients, and he brings them to me. I measure them out, telling him what I’m doing as I do it. He is standing right beside me, and I can feel the heat from his body.

Damn this man.

“Okay, next we need to add the eggs,” I say, as I reach for the carton at the same time as him and his hand lands on mine. We both freeze for a beat. I look up at him and he’s staring at me, his eyes full of desire and again I think he might lean down and kiss me but nope. He lifts his hand off mine.

“I can crack the eggs,” he says, opening the carton and taking out four eggs.

I take him in as he cracks the eggs into the bowl and this man looks good in the kitchen. His t-shirt pulled tight over his broad shoulders and muscular arms is a sight to see and the way his jeans hug his thick thighs. My lord. I swear they only made these kinds of men in romance novels. I avert my eyes so I don’t start drooling or do something stupid like grab his ass. It’s so tempting, but that’s not me. Or at least it wasn’t before I met Josh.

“Ok. What’s next?” He turns to face me.

I talk him through the next few steps and then it’s time to roll out the dough. “I got this,” he says, grabbing the rolling pin. He sprinkles some flour on the wooden pin and rolls out the dough.

His dough is so uneven I try to hold in a laugh, but I can’t. I burst out laughing.

“What?” he asks, looking at me. “What’s so funny? Did I do something wrong?”

It’s so cute he can’t tell what he did. “Look at. Your dough,” I say in between giggles.

He looks at it from the top, then tilts his head and looks from the side and he laughs. “Oh. I guess maybe you should do it.” He passes me the rolling pin.

I take the pin and re-roll the dough. I can feel his eyes on me and my body instantly reacts, feeling warm all over. He takes a seat on the stool beside me as I finish rolling out the dough. Once the dough is the right thickness, we cut out fun Christmas shapes.

We place the first batch in the oven and Josh goes to the fridge and pulls out two waters. He passes me one and takes a seat on a stool. “You really love baking, don’t you?” he says as he opens his water and takes a sip.

I take a seat and open my water. “I do. Being able to bake every day is a dream come true.”

“Are you serious about buying the shop next to the diner?”

I pause for a moment. “I think so. It would be my ultimate dream. I’m just nervous. I’ve never done something so challenging before. Open my very own shop? It sounds crazy.”

He nods and then he smiles at me, his dimples on full display and Holy Mother of God. Those dimples are going to be my undoing. If I wasn’t already sitting, I would have fallen over. “You can do it. I think you would be a huge success. Based on the things I’ve tried so far, I bet you’d sell out daily.”

His words hit me in the heart. He honestly thinks I can do that? “Thank you for saying that. It means a lot.”

“It’s the truth.” He takes a sip of his water and the alarm on his phone goes off. The first batch is done. I slip off the stool and reach for the oven mitts, but Josh beats me to it. He places the cookie sheet on top of the stove and I move closer to look.

The smell of sugar cookies filling the air and I take a deep breath. “I love the smell of freshly baked sugar cookies.”

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