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“My creative process involves me parking my ass in a chair and typing. There aren’t any helpful thought bubbles.”
“I could read over your shoulder as you write—”
“No, no, no.” Daphne shuddered. “Let’s table this conversation, Chris. Any questions you have, just ask. I really need to go, though, before my cell service cuts out.”
“Yeah, I know. Okay, bye, D. Talk later.”
When he ended the call, she closed her eyes and exhaled.
Just a few more days. Get through the next few days, and the book would be launched into the world, and everything would be fine.
CHRIS
Chris hung up the phone and smiled to himself. That went well. Okay, it would have gone even better if Daphne had agreed to let him visit, but he’d work on that. For now, he had distracted her, and that was the main thing. Pretty sure he’d even made her laugh, if those choking sounds were any indication.
He knew she was more stressed than ever. So he’d been calling, feigning his own anxiety, while reassuring her that she had no reason to worry. And if he could also make her laugh, even better.
Chris chopped Belgian chocolate into chunks and threw them into the batter. He was baking brownies to send express for Daphne’s release day, since he wouldn’t be there to deliver them in person. He couldn’t admit he’d made them himself, either. Definitely not a Chris Ainsworth thing. He’d bought cookies from a high-end bakery and saved the box to pack them in.
There were two tricks to baking. One: Follow the recipe. Two: Follow the damned recipe. He’d been baking since he was a kid, and while he’d grown up watching his mother and grandmother throw in a pinch of this and a handful of that, Chris was all about precision. Find the best possible recipe and test it out. Later, being an experienced baker, he could tweak, but once he’d achieved perfection, he followed his revised recipe exactly with the best possible ingredients.
How many times had extended family members joked that he’d make some woman very happy one day? It’d been true for a while. In high school and university, girls loved his baking. Then, after his Steve Rogers transformation, that skill seemed less appealing to the women he dated, and he’d started pretending he didn’t know his way around a kitchen.
Maybe that has something to do with the type of women you date these days?
True. He attracted a very different type of woman now, and when he tried to go back to his old type—the quirky, geeky, brainy girls—they eyed him like he was a high school jock hitting on them while his friends laughed in the background.
The last woman he’d dated had seen a novel on his nightstand and said, “You read books?” in the same tone she might ask if he googled photos of underage girls. All his lines to Daphne about not reading—so many words—came verbatim from that short-lived relationship.
As Chris put the brownies into the oven, his gaze shifted to the box and ribbon. He’d need to put a note in it. As he thought, his memory tripped back to the day he met Daphne.
Oh yes, that was the answer.
Then he remembered another part of their first conversation, when he’d offered dessert on him, and a fresh idea pinged.
Hell no. He wouldn’t dare do that.
True, but this wasn’t him. It was Chris Ainsworth. And he would totally do that.
DAPHNE
She needed to buy Chris a release gift, as thanks for everything he’d done. He’d already sent hers. She smiled at the thought of the brownies… and the note that came with them. She’d woken up sick with stress, and that note had washed it away.
Dessert on me, as promised.
She’d been enough of an emotional wreck to tear up at that. It’d been incredibly thoughtful of Chris to send her a gift on release day and even more thoughtful to ask Nia what she’d want.
Then she’d realized the note was on the back of a photo. She’d flipped it over and…
It was Chris. Naked, with the open box of brownies very strategically placed. She’d laughed so hard she’d given herself a stomach cramp. Then she’d fixed a coffee and cut a brownie and texted him a thank you.
Chris: I get brownie points for not sending a dick pic, right?
Chris: Brownie points. Get it?
That made her laugh anew.
Chris: However, if you want the missing part…
