Page 5 of Fierce-Baker

He let out a half laugh, his shoulder lifting with it. “Who is it you’ve got in mind for him?”

The smile filled her face. “So you can help me?”

“No.” He was shaking his head. “So I can warn him. You never know when to quit. You don’t know him that well or his past. Maybe he wants no part of it.”

“Everyone says that, but they come around.”

“If you say so. And you still didn’t tell me who.”

“And I’m not going to,” she said, nodding her head and marching right past her middle son.

It was only recently that she’d decided Tasha might be the perfect fit for Baker.

Both were nice, funny, outgoing and yet single.

Tasha, she could understand that. A single mother, no word on the father, probably had some baggage there also.

But Baker. The guy had been employed a few years and she’d never heard one lick of a significant other. Nothing more than maybe he’d dated on and off.

Whatever his reasons were, or what might hold him back, maybe Tasha had the same problem.

Getting people to bond over those things could be a good way to get a spark lit.

It never hurt to try.

And she was famous for trying and getting it right!

2

RUMORS WOULD EXPLODE

The smile tugged at Baker’s mouth the second he felt a presence behind him.

He didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

Jolene Fierce.

For a woman barely five-foot-nothing, she walked like she was announcing herself to the whole damn distillery. And Mason’s little habit of spritzing her vest with that citrusy “here-comes-Mom” scent? Yeah... he was pretty sure Jolene knew about that. She kneweverything.

The rhythmic tap on the concrete—her sneaker tip—nearly made him snort. Almost.

“I know you know I’m here, Baker.”

“Maybe I’m busy.” He kept his back to her, measuring out the wheat for the gin batch. Once the weight hit exactly where he wanted it, he shut the funnel with a satisfying click.

“Now you’re not,” Jolene said.

This time the laugh escaped. He couldn’t help it. For all her meddling, she never interrupted him mid-task.

“Is there something I can help you with?” he asked, turning and heading for the forklift.

He had a vat waiting and preferred to get to it before the conversation took a turn. And with Jolene, it always did.

“I wanted to see if you enjoyed the party Saturday. I’ve only been trying to get you to go for, I don’t know… two years?”

Their annual July Fourth party.

“I did. It was loud and chaotic. But not the hellscape I expected.”