***

  After Payton was done with her customer, she went back behind the grill and finished mixing her donut batter for tomorrow and put it in the fridge to rise. Then she set about preparing the cookie dough.

  Imagine that. She was going on a date Saturday night with a man that didn’t ask her out for her looks. Or that he thought she was some dumb blonde that would put out for him.

  Someone that wouldn’t aspire to anything more than making sandwiches, grilling burgers, or baking cookies and could be a side piece on his arm.

  She was sick of being looked down on for what she did for a living because she didn’t have a college degree or being treated like a piece of property.

  Or that she wasn’t some trained chef. That what she did was something that most people could do in their own house for dinner or lunch.

  But she loved what she did. She made damn good money at it, even if she did work more than twelve hours a day.

  Maybe sometime soon she could get more staff on, but she knew she’d still work as much as she did. She liked that she was the one making all the donuts and cookies. All the salads. Maybe some people didn’t think they were special, but others did.

  They were her recipes that she’d tweaked over the years. Enough so that people came in to just buy containers of them.

  Her aunt had been shocked the first time that had happened. When she’d asked if she could start making the salads. And they flew out of the case like hotdogs at a carnival speed-eating contest.

  Had Aunt Millie been a bit annoyed that Payton had changed the recipe and not told her? She had at first until she realized how fast they were selling out. Then her aunt let her have free rein to do those things. She’d been eighteen when she’d worked up the courage to do it. It was all gravy from there.

  The donuts, the cookies, the expansion of some of the subs. Those were all her ideas and the business just seemed to take off. Little by little Aunt Millie was only running the counter and Payton was behind the grill.

  It was easy to make those changes with Aunt Millie backing her up and encouraging her. Not so easy when she had no one to talk to about it all.

  In the past two years when her aunt got sick more often than not and couldn’t work as much, Payton was running the place anyway. When Aunt Millie died last year, it wasn’t so much a shock but rather her heart being wrenched out of her.

  The woman who took her under her wing was gone. The woman who at times was more of a mother to her than her own mom.

  Then came the fear of what she was going to do with her life. Where she was going to work. She’d never worked anywhere other than for her aunt.

  And when she’d found out the business was left to her, there was fear in that. How was she going to run it alone?

  Sure, Aunt Millie had shown her the ropes on the day-to-day operations, but she’d never really looked at the books. She had no idea how to pay the bills. She’d been ordering supplies, but always with Aunt Millie overseeing things.

  She remembered those first few months of stress while she prayed she didn’t miss a bill. That she didn’t over or underpay someone because she put numbers in backwards. But she figured it out, and she got some help and she paid a service to do some of the work and ease her mind.

  Or maybe it was the weird dreams she had when she was stressing, her aunt talking to her, telling her to relax. Telling her to find help. It’s there if you ask.

  So she’d listened to those dreams and took a chance and found someone she could pay to help her out.

  It was that or live in fear. The money to the accounting firm to do her payroll, taxes, and give her some profit and loss statements quarterly was well worth it in the end.

  Yep, she’d done a lot of things wrong in her life, like Bryce said. But trying at something new had never been one of them.

  Too bad she was so good at always failing.

  So Proud Of You

  Bryce was done with his sub and pasta salad and working on his thesis for the night. Unfortunately, he wasn’t getting anywhere because he was watching the clock.

  When was the last time he watched the clock for anything?

  But it was almost seven and he was waiting for Payton to contact him. It probably wouldn’t be more than just giving her address, but at least the date would be firmed up in his mind and in hers if he had her address and time to pick her up.

  As much as he wanted to go to breakfast there tomorrow, he knew it’d be overkill again. Probably closer to stalker material on top of it.

  When seven o’clock came around, his phone went off and he looked down to see it was Payton. She was prompt, even better. Something he very rarely was.

  Hey, Bryce, it’s Payton, he read.

  He typed back, Hi. It’s Bryce. Talk about a lame response.

  Then came a smiley face and her address. What time on Saturday? she asked.

  How about six. Casual?

  Sounds good. See you then. He tossed his phone down knowing there wasn’t much more to say after he typed back a goodbye. Since he wasn’t much of a texter or talker, it worked for him.

  Now he let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding and wondered again why he was so worked up over this date.

  At least he had two days to figure out where to take her and hopefully relax a little.

  It was almost an hour later when his phone rang and he saw it was his brother Ryder calling. “Hey,” he said, picking it up on the first ring.

  “What are you doing Saturday? Want to get a beer?”

  “Sorry, I’ve got a date,” he could proudly tell his brother.

  “Yeah, right,” Ryder said back.

  “I do. I just set it up.”

  “Who asked you out?” Ryder asked.

  “No one. I asked her out. Don’t you think I can ask a girl out?”

  “I know you can, it’s just that you hardly ever do,” Ryder argued.

  “Why do I have to when women are knocking down my door? You know as well as I do the Fierce genes get us the chicks.”

  “Wow, you told a joke. Good for you,” Ryder said, laughing. “So who is the lucky lady?”

  “Just someone I met.”

  “Met where? At school? Another professor?” His brothers always felt he couldn’t date anyone unless they had the same interests as him. Sad, but true. The boring dull women he’d been accused of having on his arm one too many times in life.

  “No. The owner of this place I’ve been going to eat. We’ve talked a few times and she’s nice. I asked if I could take her out since she is always cooking for me.”

  “Smooth one. I didn’t think you had it in you to come up with that line.”

  Bryce frowned. “It wasn’t a line, but the truth.”

  Geez, did Payton think it was a line and that was why she asked why he was asking her out? Was he that far out of touch? Maybe it wasn’t that good of an idea to take his brother’s advice and go out of his comfort zone.

  “It obviously worked. Where are you taking her? Better be somewhere good since she is always cooking for you.”

  “I don’t know yet. I said casual.”

  “You’ll figure it out. There are lots of places to go around here. Let me know how it turns out,” Ryder said, then hung up the phone.

  It wasn’t ten minutes later that Sam was calling him. “What do you want?” he asked his older brother, knowing the reason for the call.

  “You got a date on your own. I’m so proud of you.”

  “Suck it, Sam,” he said, then hung up the phone. He loved his brother to a point. This wasn’t one of those points.

  He went back to working and realized he didn’t have the attention span even after having the date set up.

  His brothers managed to get under his skin when they didn’t normally have the ability to do that since he’d become an adult. Why was he letting them influence decisions in his life at this point?

  As a kid, they did it all the time. They’d come in and interrupt him when he was trying to study. Nag him to go out and play basketball, football, ride bikes. All the fun things.

  They didn’t get what he was doing was fun too. They didn’t get him half the time.

  Which made him wonder how Payton was going to understand him.

  And here he was already putting up obstacles in a relationship before he even had one date.

  Damn it for all the shitty dates he’d had in the past. The relationships that never worked out with people who held the same interests as him. He’d usually grow tired of them. Or the few he dated outside of his normal type and found they wanted something from him rather than just wanting to be with him. Or the boredom that eased in when any physical chemistry wore off.

  It’s true what they say—you can outrun your past, you can hide from it, but it’s always there lurking and controlling your future.

  ***

  Payton wanted to keep the text short and sweet with Bryce for two reasons. One, she hated texts because she was so awkward at it. And two, she tended to make a lot of mistakes while typing and it took her forever to do it as she wanted to reread what she texted multiple times so she didn’t come off sounding ignorant.

  Besides, she didn’t picture Bryce the type that liked to text either. And it was too early for them to call and talk on the phone in her eyes.

  But their date was set and she was excited since she hadn’t been on a date in over six months. Even before that she’d only been on a few and it was normally guys that hit on her while she worked.

  Pretty sad now that she thought of it. Hadn’t she sworn to not go on any more dates with guys that met her through work?

  The problem was, all she did was work, so if she didn’t meet men there she didn’t meet them anywhere else.

  Not unless she counted stores and malls where she was randomly hit on or whistled at. How to piss a woman off? Whistle at them like they are some animal. A piece of meat to be picked at and then discharged. No, thank you!

  She might not be the brightest bulb on the tree in her mind, but she damn well didn’t deserve to be treated like an idiot. She wanted to be able to talk to a man about the world or interesting topics.

  Bryce was different. He wasn’t like the typical guy that asked her out.

  He didn’t call her sweetie or honey. He didn’t even really flirt with her.

  He was more awkward and she liked that since she was pretty damn awkward herself.

  Not only that, it was adorable on him. Tall, dark, and handsome with almost a clumsy side he tried to hide. But she saw.

  It kind of reminded her of herself. That what she looked like on the outside wasn’t really what she was like on the inside.

  She didn’t find that often with men. Which was why she stopped looking.

  But here when she wasn’t looking at all, someone came her way and asked her on a date.

  Guess she’d find out how it would all work out in two days.

  Which gave her two days for her to get her nerves under control.

  Fool Of Himself

  Bryce pulled into the apartment complex and all that came to mind was a concrete jungle. There wasn’t any grass around, just parking lots and brick buildings that were three stories tall.

  It was nicely maintained, but had no character at all. Not that he knew much about character in his own one-bedroom loft-style apartment that used to be an industrial building and was converted. Many might think the brick and piping exposed had no character either. Or rather felt cold.

  He actually didn’t think one way or the other when he rented the place aside from the fact it was close to work and fit his needs. He didn’t need a lot of space and it was easy to maintain.

  So then why was he judging where Payton lived? Why was he acting so differently than he normally did? That was the question?

  Like changing his shirt three times. When was the last time he’d done that?

  Or debating on jeans or shorts. It was warm enough for shorts, but that was too casual so he threw on jeans instead with a button-down shirt, then rolled up the sleeves. A T-shirt probably wasn’t dressy enough either.

  He got out of his car and made his way to building three, climbed the stairs to the second floor, and opened the door to go in the hallway. She was apartment six on the end. So eighteen in the building, three on each side and it looked as if they all had their own little private balcony.

  He was five minutes early and made sure of it. No reason to show up late like he normally was. The door was opened seconds after he knocked.

  Payton was dressed similarly to him in jeans and a shirt. Not button-down of course, but a cotton shirt that allowed him to see the body that was hidden behind the apron she’d always sported at work.

  Long legs, trim waist, average-sized breasts that he was trying not to look at. Her hair was pulled away from her face with not a lot of makeup on. She looked simple yet stunning. An angel almost. All she was missing were the wings and halo in his mind. And he wondered how the hell he was able to land her.

  “Hi,” she said. “Right on time. I like that.”

  He held back the grimace. “I tried. I’m normally late, I should say that now.”

  She smiled and held the door open wider for him to come in. “Let me guess, you get caught up doing work or something and lose track of time?”

  “Yeah. It drives my mother insane. I go to dinner a few times a month and she’s learned to make things that don’t need to be done at a certain time or I ruin the meal.”

  “Sounds like it happens a lot.”

  “I’m embarrassed to say how many times.”

  He looked around her place. Though the outside had no character the inside seemed to suit her well. The tone on the walls was light, almost a gray, but there was artwork and splashes of color all around. Furniture was pretty neutral too, but bright throw pillows.

  “So where are we going?” she asked. She must have caught his eyes and said, “Want me to show you around? It’s not much, but it’s mine.”

  “It’s a nice place. I’ve just got a one-bedroom loft myself. Yours is much more cheerful than my place.”

  She laughed and the sound shot heat to his already confused brain. “I have to make up for the lack of atmosphere on the outside. Anyway, this is the living room, which isn’t all that big. The kitchen is a good sized and that was more important to me.”

  He followed her off to the side and saw the kitchen was bigger than his and immaculate. She was one neat person and he could appreciate that trait. “Do you do a lot of baking in here or are you sick of it from doing it at work all day?”

  “I experiment on new things here all the time. Cookies and muffins, donuts and stuff. I want to make sure it works out before I spend the time, energy, and supplies on something new. I do more cooking here than at work. I mean I like nice meals too, but you see what I serve at work.”

  “I like what you serve there. That is about what I live off of. Or I go to my mom’s.”

  “You don’t cook at all?” she asked. “My bedroom and bath are down that hall.”

  Since she wasn’t moving in that direction, he knew he wasn’t going to see it anytime soon. Pity. “Sandwiches, eggs. Things like that. Not nearly as good as yours.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment when not many think what I do is all that impressive.”

  He was shocked to hear that. “I’ve watched you work. Not just the food that is out of this world, but how fast you are. I don’t know if I’ve ever been served that fast before and definitely never been someplace that neat.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her eyes softening. “That’s important to me. I want the food to be good, of course I do, but the service has to be stellar too or the food alone won’t bring people back.”

  “I guess I never thought of it that way before, but you seem to really know what you’re doing.”

  She dipped her head down like he embarrassed her and he wasn’t sure why. “So where do you want to go?” he asked. “What are you in the mood for? There’s this good pub downtown I like or we can go the Italian route.”

  “Italian,” she said. “Definitely Italian.”

  “Good choice.” He held his hand out for her to walk in front of him, but she stopped, almost causing him to bump into her back.

  “I need to lock up, so you’ll have to go out before me.”

  Yeah, he was making a fool of himself and had no idea why.

  ***

  Payton had been nervous for no reason. She worried they didn’t have much in common and didn’t know what they could talk about.

  Those nerves bled over into weird dreams again last night where her aunt was lecturing her to stop it. To give herself some credit for being a smart, sweet girl that men wanted to be around for more than a hot treat on their arm.

  She’d never believed her aunt when she’d say those things to her in the past, even though it was nice to hear them. It seemed no one really encouraged her much in life or made her feel good about herself.

  What they saw was her looks, thought she had all the confidence in the world, but didn’t know the person behind it. The shield she put up so others didn’t know how hurt she was over simple words most of her life.

  But so far in just ten minutes there didn’t seem to be any awkward silence with her and Bryce and that was a... positive thing that she needed. Just Bryce almost bumping into her, but she found that kind of endearing.

  He seemed almost unsure of himself and that made him all the sweeter in her eyes.

  Guess that old saying of not judging a book by its cover held true.

  He was such a treat on the eyes. Tall and slim. Not skinny. She wasn’t a fan of skinny in a man, but he was more like trim.

  She’d bet there was plenty of muscle under his clothes, just not bulging. Since she’d never been a fan of meatheads, it was fine with her.

  Seeing him dressed in jeans and his fitted shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a few buttons undone let her know he had one heck of a body for a scholar. Not someone that just sat behind a desk.