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“Don’t let it get to your head,” she grumbled, shaking her head at the way Kevin laughed as he pushed a set of double doors that led to the back of the shop.
But it wasn’t a storage room he was taking her to. It was the kitchen.
Jess stood there for a beat, awestruck. A commercial oven, counter space, and an industrial-sized mixer were along one wall. A deep chest freezer sat parallel to her left. She stepped around the extra bikes toward the back and eyed a decent-sized walk-in. Nothing was humming, which meant everything was currently unplugged.
“What do you think?” Kevin asked softly.
Jess turned to him, noticing he was smiling at her. It made her squirm a little. “It’s fine, it will do.”
“Jessica, you’re such a liar. You should see your face right now. You’re glowing.”
“I am not glowing,” she snipped.
“You are too,” Kevin jested. “You’re probably already imagining that menu of yours.”
She scowled and turned away from him, not wanting to tell him that she spent the previous night hunched over a notepad, dreaming up exactly that. Her own bakery.
“As long as you promise me there will be kanelbullar, you can do whatever you want,” Kevin continued.
Her heart fluttered thinking about how she’d soon be able to make her favorite pastry again—and any other pastry she wanted.
She pulled her mouth into a scowl, trying her best to contain her excitement. She didn’t want to give Kevin that satisfaction quite yet. “I can’t exactly make anything with all of these bikes in here.”
“Oh, you don’t want to bake around the bikes? I thought it would give this place a little charm,” he teased.
She rolled her eyes, grabbing the handlebars of a shiny purple one. “Very funny.”
The two of them pushed bikes out of the kitchen and into the main shop.
“You’re not wearing your glasses,” Kevin observed.
She nodded, flicking a kickstand out for a bike and parking it. “They broke in my frenzied move out of the apartment.”
He nodded, his face flushed. “I’m sorry, Jess,” he whispered.
She frowned. “Why? You’re getting what you want.”
“I already told you, all I want is for you to be happy,” he responded softly. “Even if my methods were…”
“Asinine?”
He huffed a laugh. “Something like that.”
She observed the golden boy, the way his shoulders slumped, his hazel eyes dim as he stared back at her, looking like he really, truly screwed up.
“This whole thing has made me realize something,” she said.
He cocked a brow. “Yeah? What’s that?”
“That I actually hate wearing glasses.”
His laughter was bright, ringing through the tiny bike shop like shining silver bells, the sound making her smile.
“Why are these back here anyway?” Jess asked, turning her face from his as she made her way back into the kitchen.
“I’ve had these models for ages, they just don’t sell,” Kevin said as he followed. “But it would be dumb to get rid of them, so they sit back here.”
“Could you rent them out?”
