Staci was staring at her as if she’d grown a second head or maybe really had created Danishes with just her mind power. She should have kept that special nugget to herself, Alysse thought. But Jay had rattled her. She had no idea if using him was going to help her out or if she was out for revenge, even though that wasn’t her style.
“Sorry. Forget I said that. Let’s get the baking done,” she said, eyeing the butter she’d need next.
“Oh, hell, no,” Staci said, coming over to Alysse’s station. “You can’t drop a bombshell like that and then say never mind. I want details.”
Alysse paused and leaned back against the counter. Maybe talking to Staci would help. Although logically, she already knew what she should do—never see Jay again. “Like what?”
“Let’s start with your marriage,” Staci said. “But we have to work while we talk or we won’t be able to open on time.”
Her friend returned to her station and picked up where she’d left off. That she was being so matter-of-fact enabled Alysse to regain her equilibrium. She knew she had to work, the bakery’s fate rested on the two of them getting their products made each morning.
“We met and married in Vegas and spent a fabulous week in the honeymoon suite of the Golden Dream Hotel. When I woke up on the day we were supposed to go home, he was gone. No note, nothing. Just disappeared.”
“Oh, my God. That’s... How did you cope with it?” Staci asked. “I would have hunted his ass down and reamed him a new one.”
“He’s a Marine...a warrior. He’d be hard to take in a fight.” To be honest, that had been part of what had drawn her to Jay. Being athletic she was hard-pressed to find a guy much better than her at most sports and one who didn’t treat her like one of the guys. From the beginning Jay had treated her as though she was special—a lady.
“I don’t care. What did you do?” Staci asked again. She had all of her ingredients assembled.
“I channeled that anger into baking and beating you at regional competitions,” Alysse said. She flipped on her mixer to combine the wet and dry ingredients. Staci did the same, but came over to her.
“Because you are in pain I’m going to let you get away with saying you always beat me,” she said, giving Alysse a quick hug before going back to her station.
Alysse realized then that she hadn’t shut out everyone when Jay had hurt her. Just men. She’d formed this bond with Staci and she was close to her brother’s girlfriend, too.
She and Staci removed their dough from the mixers and started rolling it out. One of the things that Alysse loved most about baking was how she could take a bunch of separate things and make them into something whole. Something good. She liked seeing the dough form.
“So what happened then?” Staci asked.
“I divorced him while he was on tour in Iraq. He signed the papers and my attorney said he reenlisted but went to Afghanistan this time. I have tried to put him out of my mind but I don’t know that I was too successful.”
“Given the string of lackluster dates you’ve been on, I’d say you haven’t been. So why’s he back?” Staci asked.
Alysse paid close attention to the individual Danishes she was starting to create on her baking sheets. She went to the refrigerator to get the different fruits that she had prepared last night while she’d been waiting for Jay’s cake to bake.
“I don’t know,” she said.
She didn’t want to tell Staci he wanted her back and was determined to win her over. She didn’t want Staci to know how weak she was where Jay was concerned and that she was contemplating letting him into her life, considering how badly he’d hurt her.
“Yeah, right.”
Staci was preparing croissants and had set the dough aside to rise, now she moved on to the doughnuts.
“Did you sleep with him?” Staci asked in a low voice.
“Staci!”
“Well?”
Alysse bit her lower lip. “I’m not going to answer that.”
“That means you did. You still want him. Do you still love him?” Staci persisted.
“I don’t know. I think he’s the reason all my dates have sucked so much and I want to be able to move on. I’m still not sure I can trust him or myself. He’s come back to figure out if he can have a life outside the Corps and apparently he wants me to be a part of it.”
Alysse wasn’t too sure that was really what Jay was after, but that was what he’d said. She trusted him to a certain extent but it was hard to see him as the settled-down type. He hadn’t been four years ago; had what happened in the Middle East really changed him?