Page 230 of A Taste of Vanilla

“Naturally.”

“And there are seven rival baker guilds.”

He considers this. “Thatisa bit excessive.”

I laugh softly.

“But not silly,” he says again.

His words undo something old. Something I didn’t even know I had held so tightly.

I think of every time I almost showed someone the maps and then didn’t. Every time I hid the binder from friends. Every time I told myself it didn’t matter because it was just a little silly hobby. Just a game, just me being too much about something else.

Warren touches the edge of the map. “I like how your mind works,” he says.

I can’t breathe.

The compliment strikes me in the heart.

I press one hand over the folded map, and for a second, neither of us speaks.

Oliver clears his throat loudly from behind the bar. “Private event is over before anyone starts mating over cartography.”

“Oliver!” Marley yelps.

Oliver hands everyone a bag of fries from the back as they leave. “For your nerd aftercare.” Lisa squeezes my shoulder and tells me my world was beautiful and she’d love to play again.

I watch them leave one by one, and my heart has never been so full.

twenty

. . .

The Secretary Has Receipts

HALSTON

The bellabove Bitter Bloom’s front door rings at 2:13 on a Thursday afternoon.

That’s the exact time that the woman who slept with my fiancé walks into my bakery.

For a second, I don’t recognize her. She doesn’t look different, but my brain refuses to place her. Especially in my bakery.

I take in the polished camel coat, the dark hair tucked behind her ear, and the careful makeup. But what gets me is the necklaces. The delicate gold chains that hang around her neck.

None of it belongs inside Bitter Bloom. Not beneath the pink-and-blue chalkboard and certainly not near the pastry case.

She turns toward the counter, and my stomach drops.

Elise Harding. Grant’s secretary.

A desk decoration.

No.

That’s cruel, and I refuse to let cruelty seep into me.

She wasn’t decoration. She was a woman. A woman with an unbuttoned blouse and surprise in her eyes when Grant reacted to me.