"You seemed a little tense when I walked up. I wasn't listening to your conversation, but I could tell you were on edge."
"It's nothing. Business stuff." She tried to give me a reassuring smile, but I wasn't fully buying it. "So, does your mom hate me?"
I laughed. "Actually, she invited us to dinner again since we had to cancel."
Gabi's face fell. "On no! I never told Kilyn dinner was not happening tonight."
Cupping her face in my hands, I grinned. "I called Thano when everything happened at the bakery. I forgot to tell you Kilyn said to call her. I'm sure she'll want a play-by-play of how that all went."
Gabi laughed nervously. "That was crazy. I'm curious to see who this person is who ordered all those cakes."
The sound of the front door shutting had us both turning to look back into the living room. Charity walked by and Gabi immediately headed in.
"Where were you, Charity?" Gabi called out, anger lacing her voice.
Charity stopped walking. "What?"
I couldn't help but notice she looked a little confused. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes seemed like she was lost in another world.
"You left to run an errand and never came back! We had an emergency at the bakery and Max had to call me."
Narrowing her eyes, Charity replied, "Max always has a damn emergency."
"Well, I just spent the last few hours baking thirty lemon mascarpone cakes with Nic's mom! Not how I really wanted to get to know the woman."
Charity glanced over to me and pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh.
"So?" Gabi asked, her hands now resting on her hips. She looked so damn cute standing there all pissed off. I wanted to drag her off to her bedroom and sink deep inside of her.
"Sooo? What?"
"Charity! Where were you?"
"I am um . . . I ran an errand and then got caught by someone I know and we got to talking and I totally lost track of the time."
"Was your phone off? We called you."
She looked between Gabi and me before focusing back in on Gabi. "I lost my phone. I must have left it somewhere."
Something was off. Charity was nervous as hell. She could hardly look at either one of us.
"I've got a massive headache, if you don't mind, I need to go lay down."
Gabi and I both watched as she walked into her room and slowly shut the door.
"Is she okay? Something didn't seem right," I asked.
Gabi stared at the door. "I'm not sure. I hope she is okay. She's never lost her phone before. It's like her safety beacon. I think she needs it to breathe."
I laughed and pulled her over to me. "So, we have the evening to ourselves. What do you want to do?"
She pulled her lip in between her teeth. "Would you be upset if I said I wanted to stay in? I'm exhausted."
Lifting my hand, I brushed her blonde hair behind her ear. "As long as I'm with you I don't care where we are."
When she smiled my knees felt weak. "How about I pour you a glass of wine and you sit on the sofa. I'll massage your feet."
Her eyes lit up. "Oh, my gosh, that sounds like heaven."
Slapping her on the ass, I motioned for her to sit down while I headed into her kitchen. I had remembered where her wine glasses were from our first date when she made me dinner.
I grabbed two wine glasses and set them on the counter. Glancing down, I saw the itinerary for her trip to Italy.
"You excited about your trip to Italy?"
Her head whipped to look at me. "What? Why do you ask?"
Jesus she was on edge. "I saw your itinerary and I know you had mentioned you were looking forward to going."
Her face relaxed and then finally her body did as well. "Oh right. I am looking forward to going back. I'll be worried about the bakery though."
Handing her a wineglass, I winked as I sat down next to her. "I'm sure Charity will take care of the bakery."
After she took a sip, she frowned. "She was nowhere to be found today. If I hadn't had been here, what would have happened?"
"Max would have told the customer it was too short of a notice, but that next time they needed something to please keep your bakery in mind."
The corners of her mouth pulled up into a beautiful smile. "You're right. If I hadn't had the lemon curd made up, we wouldn't have been able to do it, anyway."
"Right."
She took another sip. "Do you think it was sort of a test? I mean seriously . . . who needs that many cakes?"
Laughing, I shook my head and reached for her foot. She'd already kicked her shoes off. "Someone having a party, large dinner, a company. I could think of a hundred things."