LITMIR.BIZ

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it off the floor. The classroom in the church’s auxiliary building was pleasant and serene, but then she always felt peaceful after spending an hour in fellowship, studying her Bible. She was focused and calm and everything seemed clear.

      Aubrey fell in beside her and they trailed the small crowd filing out the door. “I’m in the mood for chocolate. Want to stop by the ice creamery and pig out on sundaes?”

      “Like I would ever think that was a bad idea.” Really. Did Aubrey even have to ask? She staggered under the weight of her mammoth bag. She was really going to have to find the time to go through it and clean it out—not that she was skilled at stuff like that. “I need sustenance if I’m going to be able to face my day tomorrow. It’s jam-packed.”

      “You remembered we were going to babysit for Danielle, right?” Aubrey waited a beat before rolling her eyes. Their stepsister was happily married with two great kids. “It’s okay. Don’t even bother. I’ll babysit and you’ll do it next Friday. I’ve got that church retreat thing. So, tomorrow’s packed?”

      “It’s just that I got this referral from Chloe’s wedding. It was Brice, really—”

      “Ex-boyfriend alert,” Aubrey cut in, although by the interested lift of her eyebrows she’d caught the Brice reference. “It’s Mike, directly ahead, in the hall.”

      They were still safely stuck in the doorway of the classroom, in a small queue, but she was definitely visible. Ava could feel his smug gaze sweeping over her. She didn’t have to look to know he had some poor clueless woman hanging on his arm. Two years ago, she’d been there, believing the stories he told about what a moral Christian guy he was on the surface.

      Unfortunately, his supposed values were pure fabrication, and every time she spotted him she felt beyond foolish. Yep, even years later, her nose was turning glowing strawberry red again. Why couldn’t she have noticed right away that he wasn’t what he seemed? It was her fault-blindness. She just couldn’t see the big glaring signs of trouble that other people could.

      “That poor woman,” Aubrey said with sympathy and kindness. Good, gentle Aubrey never made a fool of herself and never made any mistakes at all, much less mistakes of gargantuan proportion. “I’m going to add both of them to my prayers. She’s bound to be heartbroken one day.”

      Just like I was. Ava could still feel the crack in her heart from him. “I’ll pray for her, too.”

      She purposely didn’t look ahead down the hall, so she wouldn’t have to see him. Or to remember she’d really fallen hard for Mike. Discovering who he really was had been tough.

      “And there’s Ken.” Aubrey grabbed Ava’s wrist and steered her toward the far wall. “No, don’t look up.”

      Great. Ken was probably with someone, too. He’d been the chef who, on the third date, said he’d waited long enough and tried to take liberties. She’d accidentally broken two fingers on his right hand when she’d bolted from the passenger seat of his car and slammed his hand in the door.

      Really, did she look like the kind of girl who said one thing and did another?

      No—it was some men. See? It went right back to them. They needed to think faithful, pious thoughts. Study their Bibles even more. She was really starting to get disillusioned about men. All men.

      What about Brice? a little voice asked—a voice that seemed to come straight from her heart.

      What about him? So, he’d been a gentleman so far, but wasn’t that the problem? How deep did the gentleman thing go? She’d been fooled too many times by how a man seemed. So, he was Mr. Eligible Bachelor. Did that mean he was really good at fooling others? Or was he truly a good man, soul deep?

      Well, if she was interested in him, maybe that was a sign right there. Ken and Mike were excellent examples of her flaw-blindness. What if she was doing the same exact thing with Brice? If the man was interested in her, as time had proved over and over again, there had to be something wrong with him.

      It was as simple as that. And if the tiny hope in her heart wished for more, that he truly was what he seemed, did she risk finding out? Face it, she didn’t have Aubrey’s quiet beauty or her sister Katherine’s classic poise. She’d driven her own mother away.

      Don’t think about that. She squeezed the pain from her heart. Erased the thought from her mind. Purposefully turned her thoughts from her failures and to her business. Her shop. She had more sketching to do tonight when they got home. And breakfast treats to bake for the construction dudes.

      Maybe she’d do a batch of scones. She’d lose herself in the kitchen. Baking always made everything right. Baking made her problems and failures turn from shouts into silence.

      There would be no dreaming. She’d lost too many dreams to waste them on what could never truly be. Brice had given her the perfect solution. He’d said he was happy to be friends. He didn’t want anything to complicate their business relationship, and she was going to hold him to it, whether her heart liked it or not.

      Pleased with that plan, she led Aubrey out of the church hall and through the parking lot, beeped the SUV unlocked and headed straight to the ice creamery.

       Chapter Seven

      Brice climbed out of his truck and into the morning. The hiss of the sprinkler system in the city park diagonally across the street provided enough background noise to drown out the faint hum of distant traffic. It was early enough yet that only an infrequent car motored down the nearby street. Birds took flight from the tree overhead when Rex hopped onto the sun-warmed blacktop. The parking lot was empty, except for them. He’d beaten Ava here. Again.

      Ava. Spotting her in the restaurant last night had given him a chance to clear the air. The only problem was, nothing felt clearer. Their agreement to keep it to business, sure, that was crystal clear. But his feelings for her became more complicated every time he was around her.

      Lord, You know I’m in over my head. Please, I need some help. If it’s not too much trouble, show me the way.

      As if in answer, he felt a shift in the calm peace of the morning. It was as if the nearly nonexistent breeze had completely vanished, as if the world stopped spinning on its axis. As if for one nanosecond, the rotation of the earth ceased. Brice felt an odd prickling at the back of his neck. When he turned around, there she was.

      Or, more accurately, there she was in her yellow SUV driving straight toward him. The morning light cut at an angle through her windshield, illumining her clearly. Those sunglasses were perched on her nose again, and the bill of the baseball cap—pink, today—framed her heart-shaped face. She whipped into the parking space closest to the front door. Right beside his truck.

      Her nearness was like taking an unexpected punch to the chest. Brice rocked back on his heels from the impact. He watched her through the windshield as she chattered on her cell while cutting the engine, pulling the e-brake and gathering up her things.

      Knowing there would be more bakery boxes and careens of coffee and spiced tea, he moved to help. Rex bounded ahead, whining in anticipation of being with Ava.

      “I know just how you feel, buddy.” He scrubbed his dog’s head with his knuckles.

      Her driver’s side door was open, but she’d turned away, still busy gathering her things and absorbed in her phone conversation. Her dulcet, cheerful tone was as soft as the morning breeze. “Yes, Madeline, I’d be happy to bring by my catalogue. If your client wants something unique, then I’m the right baker. I specialize in one-of-a-kind designs.”

      She backed out of the vehicle, dragging her enormous purse with her. The bulk of it clattered over the console and snagged on the emergency brake, which stopped her progress. No one was cuter. Captivated, he could not look away as she freed her bag from the snag.

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