Page 34 of Fierce-Baker

“Okay. How about why we had a few conversations and then you avoided me for a week? And by the way, I had no idea it was you until you just said it. Part of me kind of thought it after Ben and Mason were sending each other signals, but that was the first it even crossed my mind. We only talked for the first time that day.”

She wouldn’t admit she had looked at him several times before.

That his rugged looks, cocky stance and swagger, and quiet laugh got her juices flowing.

Nor the good things she’d heard about him not just from Mason and Jessica, even Hope, but other employees talking in general.

“Jolene is Jolene. She does her thing and no one knows why or how. I don’t ask. Maybe I’ve needed a few days to sit on it.”

Kind of like what she’d been doing. “So now what? You just heard my horrid dating past. I’m barely dipping my toe in and so far haven’t even gotten up to my ankle again. I don’t even know if I’ve got it in me to do it again.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one who might be feeling that.”

“What’s going on with you?”

“You want to keep your baby daddy off the table, I’m going to keep my history off the table.”

If he wasn’t laughing when he said it, if she didn’t see the hurt in his eyes that she couldn’t pinpoint, then she’d take offense to his words.

But she couldn’t, because some of that hurt she still saw in the mirror.

She still felt every time she tried to date and it failed.

“I can agree to that.”

“What are you saying?” he asked.

She really was crazy. “I might as well add to your wild list of things. How about we try something I’ve never done before. A no commitments thing to both decide if we even want to see where this might go?”

“Friends with benefits?” he asked, his bottom lip coming out as if he was in thought.

“No,” she rushed out. “I don’t know. That isn’t what popped into my head.”

Liar.

“What did you mean?”

“My time is limited. I don’t want to bring anyone around my son right now.”

“Understandable.”

“I just really don’t know if I’ve got what it takes. Do I want to have a relationship in my life? I’d be lying if I didn’t say yes, but I also have to be honest and say I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to trust fully right now.”

“The same.”

She wished she knew more but couldn’t ask because then he’d do the same.

“How about I start dinner and we think about this some before we talk more?”

“I can do that.”

“Good, maybe I’m not as crazy as I thought.”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” he said, laughing. “It’s just you’re not alone this time.”

That didn’t sound promising in the least.

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