Chapter 5

“What was his name?” Kelly asked, sitting across from me with her palms folded around a mug of Hazelnut Heaven coffee.

It was a Sunday morning and Pat was in the icehouse fishing with some buddies. Of course, most Minnesota icehouses were like cabins. Or better. Pat’s had a kitchenette and a big screen with cable. If they were actually fishing, it would be a miracle.

Man caves on ice were okay because it allowed for girl time. The coffee shop was closed and Kelly had taken a welcome break from it all.

I swallowed. “Gabe,” I said, burying my butterflies under a layer of false bravado. “His name was Gabe, but Kels, you should’ve seen this guy. He was like…”

“Like what?” She stirred the coffee absentmindedly, wearing the same rapturous expression she had whenever we talked gossip. And not just about my love life.

“Something out of a movie. He was gorgeous and mysterious and he asked me out on a date.”

“No,” Kelly said, her jaw dropping. “Tell me you said yes, Ally. Make my damn day. I’ve been begging you for ages to go out on a date with somebody.”

“I told him I was busy,” I said and flopped my hands around in the air by way of excusing myself from it, like it was a crime. “Oh whatever, don’t look at me like that.”

Kelly continued looking at me like that. She bucked her head forward and drew her lips into a thin line as she sighed. A deep, sigh of censure. “He sounds divine, and you just let him go?”

“You weren’t there, you don’t get it.”

“Then explain it to me,” she replied. She slurped some of her coffee and looked out her kitchen window at the snow falling outside. It was a light layer today, but it was still damn freezing. Maybe Pat would get stuck out on the lake.

The kitchen was warm though, filled with the scents of toasted bread and steaming coffee. She’d laid out all the ingredients for our baking spree today. I’d promised I’d teach her my family recipe for Snickerdoodle Christmas cookies.

I considered what to say that she’d accept as I ground my molars together in frustration.

“Well?” she prompted, resting her chin in her hands.

“It was too … intense.” That was one way of wording it. The connection we’d shared for a couple minutes had put the names of my cupcakes to shame. The raging chemistry unlike anything I’d ever felt before. Or probably would again.

“Intense?”

“Yeah. I felt naked just standing in front of the guy. I was lost in him in five seconds flat. Azure blue eyes, thick head of chestnut hair, rock hard body. Dimples.”

“How is that a bad thing, again?” She swept a bagel off her plate and crunched on the end. “Sounds like heaven. Don’t get me wrong, Pat and I are absolutely perfect, but this all sounds so whirlwind. So serendipitous. So Young and the Restless. It gives me the chills.”

“Me too,” I said, then blushed. Never in my life had I had a reaction to a man on that level. Matthew and I had done the deed; we’d been together for long enough. It’d been romantic the first couple of months, but there had never been that raging heat between us. Nothing that made me want to rip his clothes off and lick him. Like icing off of a Vanilla Vixen.

I looked at Kelly and sighed. Apparently, that told her everything.

“I think you should go for it. He’s clearly into you and he’s hot as hell —”

“How can he be into me when he only saw me for a few minutes? More likely he’s some douche bag player. Who asks a woman out that fast?” I raised my palm to stall her before she really got into it. Kelly could be very convincing when it suited her. “You know me, I don’t have time for men anymore.”

“Maybe he’s just a man who knows what he likes. What he wants. It’s been six months, Allegra,” she said, deepening her tone into lecture mode. “It’s time to move on. Hell, it doesn’t have to be anything serious with this guy. Even if it’s just a fling or something.”

“I’m not the fling kinda gal. Besides, I need to focus on work, keep the bakery going. It’s early stages, Kelly.” I practiced my own lecture voice right back.

She conceded the points with a bob of her head and another crunch of the bagel. “Yeah, I guess. But wouldn’t it be romantic if you guys ended up together?”

“Oh please,” I said, rolling my eyes. I pressed my hand to my stomach under the table, trying to still the butterflies. It would. “Anyway, it was a one-off thing. I’ll probably never see him again.”

“You will,” she said with certainty. She offered me the last bite of her breakfast but I waved it off. “You will definitely see him again.”

“No way. I probably freaked him out with all my staring and gasping.” And lusting. Probably written all over my flushed face like a skywriter’s banner trailing behind a prop plane.

“Gasping?” Kelly snorted, then choked on a bit of her bagel and cough-laughed her way back to fresh air. “You gasped? You didn’t?”

“Well, yeah, I couldn’t help it,” I replied. Man, if I kept blushing like this, my cheeks would probably stay red forever. That’d be a look to remember. “He was that hot.” Then again, hot didn’t do him justice. Not even slightly.

“You mark my words, Allegra Wilson. That man will be back for you. He’s got swagger.”

I shook my head at her, but inside, I was a wreck. My intestines flip-flopped around on a trampoline at the thought of seeing that guy again.

I shook my head. I couldn’t let him distract me from the bakery. I had loans to pay off and the insurance agent would be over to assess the damages soon. What if the policy didn’t cover all of the damage? I might be living in a ditch or tent city if any more unexpected expenses rolled in.

I rose from the table and carried my coffee cup to her sink, then stood there staring out over her snow covered lawn. The pristine white reflecting back a perfection that I didn’t feel. He wouldn’t be back. He couldn’t come back and that was that.