Sprinkled with Love

When she stepped into the aisle with the baking supplies, she glanced at the list. She needed chocolate chips. She grabbed the name-brand milk chocolate ones. In her opinion, there was no skimping when it came to chocolate.

When she turned to place the chocolate chips in the cart, her gaze strayed across Avery. His expression was stormy and lines of frustration were written all over his face.

“Are you going to talk to me?” he asked.

“Yes.” Just not about what was bothering her. “Do you see the flaked coconut around here?”

He moved around the cart toward her. “I don’t want to talk about the shopping list.”

“But we need to find this stuff—”

He placed his hand on hers. “What we need is for you to tell me what happened back there.”

Her gaze moved from his face to his hand. As though he realized he was now holding her hand, he withdrew his hand. She couldn’t believe he didn’t know what was going on.

“I’m not having this conversation here,” she said firmly.

“But why? I don’t understand. I was just giving you credit for helping me get through this competition. I thought mentioning your contribution would have made you happy.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s—nothing. Forget it.” She moved away from him to continue their shopping. Thankfully their list was short so it shouldn’t take them too long.

Avery cleared his throat. “Is there anything I can help with?”

“Yes, we need parchment paper. I’m out.”

“Parchment paper? I’m guessing that’s not with the construction paper.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “No. Try the aisle with the aluminum foil and plastic wrap.”

“I’ll be back.”

While he was off on that task, she consulted the store list again. She kept losing her train of thought. She moved down the baking aisle, searching for the coconut. At last, she spotted it. She grabbed a bag of the generic stuff. In this case, generic would do.

She turned around and nearly bumped into Avery. She jumped back. “I didn’t hear you.”

“Mus

t be my stealth abilities.” He grinned at her.

“Uh-huh. Well, you can have this.” She handed over the coconut.

Avery’s face scrunched up in obvious disgust. “What’s this for?”

Was he serious? “It’s for your cookie recipe. Is that a problem?”

He was still frowning. “Uh, I guess not.”

She pressed her hands to her hips. “We seem to be experiencing another lack of communication. What’s up with the frowny face?”

He shrugged. “I don’t like coconut.”

“But you picked out the recipe. Didn’t you read over the ingredients?”

“Not really.”