His lips were warm and cool, soft and firm. His taste was pure heaven. When he deepened the kiss, Audra molded her body to his. Jack held her tighter. Her head spun. She couldn’t catch her breath.
Shaken by the intensity of her feelings, Audra broke the kiss and made herself step back. She dug her short nails into the palms of her hands. “I promised you breakfast.”
“What’s on the menu?” Unasked questions hovered in Jack’s eyes.
Audra wasn’t ready to address them. She escaped into the kitchen. “Bacon, waffles, and blueberries.”
“Blueberries?”
Audra paused to look at him. Her voice was sharp with concern. “Are you allergic?”
“No, but—”
“Then don’t knock it.” Audra led the way into the kitchen.
Blueberries? Jack still had his doubts, but at least there would be bacon. “Do you need a hand?”
“Just keep me company.”
He settled on the maple chair, at the matching square kitchen table, and treated himself to the pleasure of watching Audra. She was dressed in sunshine with her bright yellow shorts and green top. She moved around the kitchen with efficiency, collecting the makings of their breakfast. In moments, bacon sizzled in the frying pan, waffles browned in the toaster, and coffee brewed in its machine.
Jack let Audra steer the conversation with light topics: their morning jog, fishing, and what they each planned to do today. But as she fixed their plates, his curiosity got the better of him.
“Whose idea was the breakup?” He stood to take their breakfast plates to the table.
Thankfully, Audra didn’t pretend not to understand his question. She set a mug of coffee beside his plate. “Mine.”
He’d suspected as much. “Why?”
Jack took his seat and sipped his coffee. She’d remembered he took it black with only one sugar. Every time he was with her, it got harder for that stubborn block of ice to remain around his heart.
Audra settled on the chair across from him. She sketched circles of syrup all over her waffles, then passed the bottle to Jack. “It was a combination of things—his fiancée and their unborn child.”
Jack’s brows lifted. “I see.”
“It took me a while, but so did I.” Audra sliced into her waffles.
Jack picked up a blueberry and examined it suspiciously. “Did you confront him?”
Audra sipped her coffee. “Wendell—”
“‘Wendell’? That’s his name?”
Audra ignored his interruption. “He said they’d broken off their engagement.”
“But you didn’t believe him?”
Audra gave him a wry smile. “You didn’t see the ring.”
“Suppose there hadn’t been a ring?” Jack ate the blueberry. It wasn’t bad.
Audra shook her head as she chewed a forkful of waffles. She added a blueberry. “I don’t deal in hypotheticals. The fact is, there’s a ring. There’s a fiancée and she’s pregnant with Wendell’s child. He told me he cared about me, but all the while, he was leading a double life.”
“So the problem is you don’t trust him?”
Audra frowned. “Could you?”
“No.”