Chapter Sixteen
He wasn’t giving up.
Not on purchasing the ranch. And not on Jillian.
The more time Avery spent with Jillian, the more convinced he became that there was something between them—something more than friendship. Perhaps he’d moved too fast. And winning the raffle drawing for the honeymoon suite had been the ultimate in bad luck.
At the time, he thought he’d been doing a good thing when he bought those raffle tickets. He had a history of never winning those giveaways anyway. He’d actually never even bothered to ask about the prize.
And to top it off, his mishap with the butter had cost him the first round of the Bake-Off. As it was the local vet, Matthew West, won it with his chocolate macadamia nut cookies. Avery sighed and shook his head as he sat in his pickup. He sure hoped the second round of the competition went better.
It was Monday evening, time for his prearranged baking lesson with Jillian. They’d settled on lessons three nights a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He hadn’t heard from Jillian since round one of the Bake-Off. He thought of calling her to see if she still wanted to work with him, but he knew it would be too easy for her to turn him away. And if he were truthful with himself, he didn’t want that. He wanted to continue with these baking lessons.
That fact surprised him. He was the one who didn’t want anything to do with this Bake-Off originally and now he was looking for ways to keep going. He knew he had a competitive streak, but there was something more to this desire.
Jillian’s face came to mind. She’d been so good to him. He just didn’t understand how she’d jumped to the conclusion that he would do anything to hurt her. In fact, the opposite was true.
He pulled his truck up in Jillian’s driveway. He was relieved to find her car there. Now he just wondered how he’d get past the front door. He thought of coming armed with flowers, but he didn’t want to repeat Glenn’s gesture. Instead, Avery arrived empty-handed but armed with a heartfelt apology.
He stepped up to her door and paused. He sucked in a deep breath, leveled his shoulders, and knocked. When there was no response, he knocked with a little more force.
“Coming,” Jillian said.
Well, that had to be a good sign. He was half-expecting her to tell him to go away. Unless she was expecting someone else. The thought of Glenn came to mind. Avery’s jaw tensed.
The door swung open. Jillian stood there in jeans and a red top that clung to all of her amazing curves. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She wasn’t smiling, but at least she hadn’t slammed the door in his face.
“Well, don’t stand out there. Come in. It’s cold out.”
He stepped inside. “You look nice. Were you expecting someone else?”
He braced himself for her answer. The memory of Glenn claiming that Jillian was his girlfriend came to mind. Avery had hoped she would see through that man’s charade. He wasn’t good for her and if Avery could tell that within a couple of minutes of meeting him, he didn’t want to imagine the damage Glenn could do to Jillian’s life if given enough time.
She laced her fingers together. “No. Well, yes. You. We need to talk.”
Oh no. He knew that tone. He was in trouble. “Listen, about the raffle. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what the tickets were for. I thought I was just making a donation. I never thought I’d win. I didn’t want to win. I just wanted to make a contribution to Harry’s House.”
Jillian waved off his explanation. “You don’t have to apologize. But I do. I overreacted.”
What? Had he heard her correctly? She was apologizing?
She moved into the living room and sat down on the chair. “I thought I had put everything in the past—the rumors about us—the expectations that we’d get married—all of it. You know how small this town is. And I’m sure you couldn’t avoid all of the gossip while I was working for you. Everyone thought we were the up-and-coming ‘it’ couple.”
He’d ignored it at the time. It had been so much easier. He’d had so many responsibilities back then that he couldn’t take on any more. But he couldn’t lie to Jillian. And he couldn’t hide from the truth any longer.
“I heard the rumors. But I ignored them and figured the people repeating them had too much time on their hands.”
“And now they are talking again.” Jillian frowned.
“Because I won the honeymoon suite?”
Jillian nodded. “That and because we’re spending so much time together.”
Avery’s thoughts turned to her relationship with Glenn. Avery was certain Glenn wouldn’t have been happy about the raffle win or the gossip. Avery considered inquiring about him but decided he wouldn’t like the answer. After all, Glenn appeared to be well enough off by the looks of his clothes and the car. He could offer Jillian a good life. And if Avery couldn’t purchase the ranch, he wouldn’t have anything to offer Jillian. He’d be heading back out on the rodeo circuit.
Avery gave some consideration as to how best to handle this situation. He could only come up with one answer and he didn’t like it. “I don’t want to cause you more problems. I’ll be going.”
“No. Don’t. You can stay.”
“I think it’s better that I go. This way the gossip will die down. I never meant for anything like this to happen. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea and make this worse for you.” He just couldn’t bring himself to mention Glenn’s name.
“I mean it. Stay. I shouldn’t let what people say bother me so much.”
He was torn between staying and going. But when he looked into her eyes and saw the open honesty in them, his decision was made. “Then we better get to work. I don’t know anything about making a caramel apple pie except that I enjoy eating it.”
So they set to work. Once the apples were peeled, cored, and soaking, they got to work on the crust. He quickly learned there were only a handful of ingredients: butter, flour, salt, and water. It sure seemed simple enough, at the time.
With Jillian working next to him, he watched as she cut the butter into the flour and salt. He did the same until the mixture resembled coarse crumbs. And then they added the icy cold water, a tablespoon at a time until the dough formed a smooth ball.
He smiled at Jillian. “I think I’ve got it.”
“Now for the next important step, rolling out the dough for the crust.”
Okay. He had no idea what that entailed. But Jillian had thought ahead and borrowed her mother’s rolling pin so she could show him what to do. She went first and explained everything she was doing and then he tried it.
It took a few tries to get the rolling motion down. He spent a lot of time making the dough even. But when he went to lift it, the middle was completely stuck to the counter.
“Oh no,” Jillian said. “You don’t have enough flour on the counter to keep it from sticking.”
He gathered the dough, cleaned the counter, spread a liberal amount of flour over the counter, and tried again. He’d keep trying like he had with the cookies until he got it. And this time he wouldn’t let himself get distracted at the competition like he had with the butter and let it burn. When the two pies were assembled, they slid them in the oven. Avery breathed a sigh of relief.
By the time the pies came out of the oven, the dishes were washed up and he was getting tired. Who knew that baking could be such hard work?
“Well, now that those are done, I should get out of your way,” he said.
“They aren’t done.”
“They aren’t?”
She shook her head. “Well, the pie is but you aren’t. This is a baking competition so you’re going to want to make the top of the pie as appealing as possible. We’ll work on making a lattice top when you come over for your next lesson on Wednesday.”
He swallowed hard. “I have to make it pretty too?”
She smiled and nodded. “It is a competition.”
“But I thought pie was served with a scoop of ice cream on top.”
“Yes, you can do it that way. Or you can slice the pie carefully and let your hard work speak for itself by not hiding it under the ice cream.”
“All right. You’re the boss.”
She shook her head. “Not the boss. Just the mentor. In the end, it’s your pie to do as you see fit.”
At this point, he said good night. This evening had gone far better than he’d hoped. It made him optimistic for the future—their future. But before he could make a serious play for Jillian, he needed to have his life sorted.
His thoughts drifted back to buying the ranch. He’d given the idea of taking on a partner some serious thought. It couldn’t be just anyone. Time and again, he thought of Blake, who respected the land and animals like he did.