Don't Go Baking My Heart

That damn list would truly haunt him forever. “I was wrong, okay? That list hasn’t done me any favours, and it’s useless because here you are.”

“Yes, here I am. Everything you like to fuck but don’t actually want. Which I told you is cool. Just be honest with yourself and me. My sister’s single, just FYI.”

“Reba.”

She tugged on the door handle. “Can you open the car, please? And what the hell was that whole thing about me looking more myself? I don’t need you defending me.”

“Maybe not, but it doesn’t hurt to have someone in your corner.”

She rolled her eyes, waiting on him to press the button on his key fob to disarm his alarm. He disengaged the locks and walked around to the driver’s side. She wasn’t going to believe a word he said, which was fine. Words were a little trickier for him, but he would convince her she was wrong. Devon was a man of action.

What exactly do you want to convince her of? Do you even know?

“You enjoy having sex with me.” That wasn’t the best way to make his point, but it was easier than saying, ‘I think I like like you,’ which would make him sound like some awkward teenager.

She snorted when he drove away from her house. “You want me to stroke your ego now, is that it? I’m still too hungover for this.”

“No, I…” He was making an absolute mess of this. “I know you think I was trying to dissect you like something under a microscope, and I’m sorry. I’m not good at this. I need to analyse things I don’t understand, and that can come across in a weird way. My spreadsheets help me with that.”

“Perhaps, but I’m a real live person! Not a problem to be solved. Plus, I still have zero idea what you’re going on about.”

“The sex has been amazing. If I haven’t said that, just know that it has been. I just happened to realise it isn’t all I want.” He tapped his fingers against the wheel. She was still saying nothing. He glanced at her. Her entire body was turned his way, mouth slightly open, just blinking at him.

He had to refocus on the road, but her stare burned into the side of his face. Or that could be his body’s reaction to what he had dropped in the broad light of day like that. Sharing things like this made his entire body lock up like it was covering him in the necessary armour to protect the soft insides he had just exposed with those words.

“Joya and I aren’t rekindling anything,” he ventured on. “I just want to make that clear first. I know you thought otherwise. We talked briefly last night. I told my mother I didn’t appreciate her trying to make this a thing.”

“She seems nice.”

“Yeah. We don’t really know each other like that anymore, though.”

“Hmm. Joya not being in the equation doesn’t make a difference, does it? I’m not one of your proposals that you tweak until it’s just right. You put me in a whole risk thingie.”

“I know that. I’m not trying to. I just…it’s what I do, but I shouldn’t have done that to you.”

She reached over and fiddled with his radio until some R&B blared out. He didn’t have a clue who was singing, but he recognised the genre. He also knew she was trying to change the topic by distracting him with the sudden blare of the music. Reba was good at that, distracting him, but Devon wasn’t going to be swayed today.

He lowered the volume, and she sat back. “Well, here’s something you don’t know. Trina bet that I could get you to fall for my charms. Get you to actually say you want me. What do you have to say to that?”

He stopped at the light that was one street away from the turn-off to his neighbourhood, which gave him ample time to look at her again. She was gazing at him expectantly, waiting for his reaction to her surprising words. With all the random things Reba had done since they’d met, he hadn’t anticipated that.

This was another thing she was tossing in his path to distract from his confession. “Was sex part of it?”

She bit her lip, looked down at her nails. “I’m tempted to say it was, but no. That just kind of happened on its own.”

“Okay.”

She looked up. “That’s it? Okay?”

“Yes, I’m not really surprised by this.”

She raised a brow. “You’re not?”

“Reba, it was obvious you were pushing my buttons from the start. I figured that was just all you, which I do know is true, but I didn’t know someone had also bet you to do it. You were going to win, either way, it seems. I thought it would be easy to just ignore you, but clearly not, and I think I’m fine with that. More than fine, actually.” He blew out a breath and shook his head. So this was what it felt like to talk about his feelings. Unpleasant but strangely freeing. Who knew?

“Why aren’t you upset about this?” she demanded.

“Why do you want me to be?” he shot back.