Page 26 of Business Casual
I roll my eyes and slip my phone in my back pocket. “Thank you.”
“I can send you that shirtless picture, if you want.”
“Noted.”
He grins, back to the aloof version of himself that I’m used to. “I also have this.” He dangles a white paper bag in front of my face.
“What is it?”
“A cupcake.”
“I don’t want a cupcake.”
He sighs and thrusts the bag into my chest. “Layla told me to upsell the cupcakes, so you’re getting a cupcake.”
“But this isn’t you selling it. This is you giving it to me.”
“I’ll pay for it.”
“I don’t want the cupcake.”
His jaw clenches and releases. I like it probably too much. “Takethe cupcake. The cupcake is here for you. You asked for the cupcake before, remember? But the cupcake was being stupid and didn’t say the right things.”
A laugh bursts out of me, loud in the stillness of the trees. What an absolutely ridiculous situation I’ve managed to put myself in. Charlie blinks, his shoulders finally relaxing with a slow exhale. His lips quirk at the corners.
“Okay, I’ll take the cupcake.” I close my hand around the top of the bag, and the band around my chest loosens. I peek inside. Chocolate hazelnut. I hope it has a ganache filling too. “What are you doing here anyway?” I ask into the bag.
“Are you asking me or the cupcake?”
“I’m asking you.”
“Oh.” He messes with the cuff of his flannel, fingers rubbing over the soft material. “I wanted to talk to you.”
I unroll the top of the bag from where he crushed it with his hand and slip my fingers inside, swiping through the top of the cupcake. I pop my thumb in my mouth and chocolatey-hazelnut goodness explodes on my tongue. I make a faint sound. Charlie’s eyes go hazy. He sways to the side.
“I meant here. On the farm. What are you doing on the farm?”
“What?” he asks, voice somewhere far away.
“Charlie.”
“What?” he asks again, yelling a little bit.
I fold the top of the bag over again. I’ll eat the cupcake later. “What are you doing at Lovelight? I thought you were supposed to be back in New York.”
“Oh.” He hitches his thumb over his shoulder, still looking a little dazed. “I work here now.”
“At…the bakehouse?”
He tips his head back and forth. “Kind of all over, I guess. Wherever Layla and Beckett need me. I’m taking over for Stella while she’s on her honeymoon.”
I didn’t realize she was going on a honeymoon. Last I heard, she and Luka were planning on sticking around for the harvest and holiday season before doing something together in the spring.
“Wedding present,” Charlie explains, seeing the question on my face.
“That was generous of you.”
He kicks a loose pebble with the toe of his boot. It goes bouncing down the path. Somewhere on the other side of the trees, two ladies laugh, voices drifting closer to the bakehouse.
