Chapter 2
2
SAWYER
T he last thing I wanted to do was spend the afternoon with a chatty, overly cheerful neighbor. Normally, I’d be rushing to finish up the job and get the hell out of here, so why was I taking my time in the hopes of dragging it out?
Because she was hot as hell. That was why.
“Anyway, so, it was probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “There’s no guarantee a rental cabin’s oven will work. But the oven in my apartment is a piece of junk. It never cooks anything right. What else could I do?”
Silence followed, and it took me a second to realize she’d asked me a question. Her voice had become like background noise as I checked the wires in the hole where the stove had been when I arrived. But it was the kind of background noise that calmed me.
That was the weirdest thing I’d ever experienced, and I’d experienced some fucked-up stuff. Calm from someone talking nonstop? What was that all about?
We’d introduced ourselves soon after I’d shown up, and from there, I’d said very little. I didn’t mind, though. At least she was keeping me company.
“I guess you do what you have to do,” I said. “Can you come help me with this?”
“Oh yes. Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. I’ve been running my mouth. I tend to talk a lot when I’m nervous. And silence makes me nervous. You’re not much of a talker.”
“You could say that,” I said. “I just need you to help hold this while I connect the wires.”
She stepped into place, grabbing the oven in all the wrong places. “Like this?”
“On the sides,” I said. “You can use your body to kind of hold it in place.”
Her body. I didn’t want to think about that. But saying the words had called attention to those curves that had my hands itching to touch them.
And now she was standing way too close to me, even though I couldn’t see her from where I stood. I smelled vanilla, probably from the heart-shaped cookies on that island behind us.
When she’d held out the platter and I’d seen words like I’m yours printed on the cookies, I had thoughts. Thoughts that involved getting naked with this woman. It sure seemed like she was flirting with me, maybe even offering herself to me.
But of course, that was absurd. She was my neighbor. And bringing a platter of cookies was neighborly. Even if it hadn’t been in exchange for free labor, there would have been nothing at all sexual about it.
Still, a man’s mind couldn’t help but wander.
“Are you sure this is safe?” she asked. “I would absolutely hate myself if you got electrocuted.”
“I’d hate you too,” I said.
“Is that a joke? The first joke I’ve heard from you?”
It wasn’t really a joke, but yeah, it was my bad attempt at humor. I didn’t respond to her question, though. Instead, I kept things professional.
“I shut it off at the breaker, remember? There’s no electricity coming to this part of the house.”
“Right,” she said. “Have you done this before?”
Crap. Not only was she chatty, but now she was expecting me to talk. I might be a complete asshole, but I was still a gentleman deep down. I was raised right, and I spent time in the military. Good manners were second nature to me. I couldn’t be rude to a beautiful woman like her if I tried.
“Eight years in the military,” I said. “I guess you could say I learned a little bit of everything. Plus, I was the only guy in my house growing up. If something needed to be fixed, we didn’t have the money to pay someone, and we usually had a landlord who was an asshole about it.”
Asshole. I winced. I didn’t usually cuss in front of women, especially women I didn’t know all that well. Okay, there weren’t any women I knew well these days.
She laughed. “The guy who owns this place owes you a favor. It would’ve broken anyway, and he would have had to pay an electrician to come fix it. You just saved him a bunch of money. Want me to tell him?”
“No,” I said. “But I could break it after you leave, and you could tell him you want a refund for the oven not working.”
Silence. I wanted to look at her, but I couldn’t take my eyes off what I was doing.
“I shouldn’t have come here to start with,” she finally said. “I just wanted to get away…and do things on my own for a few days. My parents always took care of things for me. That’s why I’m up here alone. It’s also why I entered the competition. I want to prove to myself—and the world—that I’m not a complete screw-up.”
Her tone had changed in the past few minutes. She’d gone from being a cheerful, bouncing-off-the-walls chatterbox to someone going through some sort of crisis. She was way too young for it to be a mid-life one.
“Yeah, well, I jumped right into life after high school,” I said. “I went straight from graduation to boot camp. I didn’t really have anyone to clean up after me if I made messes. You do what you have to do.”
The silence that followed made me wonder if my tone had been too harsh. I was hardened and cynical. Maybe a little bitter too.
Okay, a lot bitter. Life had handed me a whole pile of lemons, and they were sour as hell. I’d battled through every challenge and come out the other side.
It would be nice if I could coast for a while, the way people like this woman did. To just have two parents who led the family rather than a struggling mom who worked eighty-hour weeks while I stayed home alone. The woman in the apartment across the hall was available if I needed anything, but there was all kinds of trouble a ten-year-old kid could get into in an apartment alone all day.
I shoved those thoughts aside as I moved around to where Hailey stood. My goal was to slide it back into its space, but she didn’t move right away, and that put me uncomfortably close to her.
Or maybe it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. In fact, it was too comfortable. Her vanilla scent was almost overwhelming. But instead of holding my breath to avoid its effect on me, I inhaled deeply.
“Do you want to…?” I gestured for her to scoot to the right.
“Sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if…” She paused and shook her head. “Never mind.”
She slid to the right, taking that side of the oven. Together, we nudged it into place, with me bearing the majority of the weight. Then I stepped back and examined it.
“Looks straight to me,” I said. “Ready to fire this thing up and see if it works?”
I didn’t realize the full effect the beautiful baker was having on me until I stepped away from her to go to the breaker box. I sucked air into my lungs like I’d been starved for it for the past half hour or so.
But as I waited for that feeling I got any time I was attracted to a woman, something even weirder happened. The walls weren’t closing in on me. I was breathing just fine. Okay, so I needed a second to recover from this intense chemistry I was feeling with her, but that wasn’t the same as fear.
No, it was another emotion altogether. Excitement.
“It’s working,” she called out seconds after I flipped the switch.
I returned to find her standing in front of the stove. She’d taken off the apron, and it was now draped over one of the stools pushed up to the island.
Now that I had the chance, I scanned her body from head to toe, taking in the pale pink sweater and faded jeans that fit just tight enough to show off that impressively round ass. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, the thick, reddish-brown strands bouncing as she moved.
But when she turned, it was the face that drew my full attention. Those big brown eyes and that intoxicating smile.
Damn, she was beautiful. That was the only way to put it.
“I’m making you dinner to thank you,” she said. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
I was heading toward the oven to grab my toolbox from the counter, but her words slowed my stride. I stopped near the island.
“It’s only noon,” I said.
“It’s after two, actually.” She looked over her shoulder at the oven and back at me. “The clock reset.”
Right, it was blinking twelve o’clock. I felt like a dumbass for not realizing that.
“Six o’clock,” she said. “Do you like lasagna?”
I nodded. “But you don’t have to do that.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head slightly. “Are you really going to turn down delicious lasagna from an award-winning baker?”
“Your baking has won awards?” I asked.
She straightened her head and shrugged. “No, but it will soon, thanks in large part to you.”
All I’d done was fix her oven. I didn’t know anything about awards or baking.
“Without your skills, I’d be going to Seduction Summit in a couple of days without the baking samples we’re required to bring. I’m not sure if not having them would be enough to disqualify me, but I don’t want to find out.”
“Seduction Summit?” I asked. “Is that a real place?”
If it was, I wanted to go there. Especially if it meant being seduced by this woman. Or maybe I’d be the one doing the seducing. Either way, it was cool with me.
“It’s a little mountain town in North Carolina,” she said. “Mostly known for its skiing. But they’re trying to keep business coming in even after ski season is over.”
“Is ski season still going on there?” I asked, glancing toward the windows.
It was still chilly here in Montana, but maybe snow wasn’t falling in North Carolina anymore. Heck if I’d know a darn thing about skiing.
“It’s an annual event,” she said. “They have a block of rooms booked for us. I guess the skiers don’t like it, but bakers like to ski too. Anyway, it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, but I decided since this is the month of love, I’d do a Valentine’s Day theme with my cookies.” She gestured toward the island. “You sure you don’t want to try one?”
My mouth watered just looking at them. I wasn’t big on sweets, but damn if those didn’t look good.
“Maybe one,” I said.
I reached over and grabbed the one on top, eyeing the words on it. Be mine . I lifted my gaze and stared directly at her as I took a bite. It was like I was sending a message.
But what I wanted that message to be was that, no, I wouldn’t be hers. Or anyone’s. It was my first instinct—guard my heart at all costs.
The problem was, I was feeling the exact opposite of that. If I was going to belong to anyone, this woman standing in front of me would be the person. And that was a feeling I didn’t know how to handle.