Free Confessions in the Dark by Jeanette Grey Page A

couch. She loved that she got to see her nephew most days, and with Cole doing the heavy lifting, this afternoon had been easier than most. But she’d been on her feet and dealing with preteens of one sort or another since seven that morning, and the last of her reserves was just about done.
    Letting her head loll against the cushions, she spied the brownie she’d grabbed for herself but never gotten around to eating. Cole hadn’t budged from his seat at her table yet, though he’d scooted his chair around and grabbed his crutches, looking more or less ready to stage his escape. She held up the brownie before bringing it to her mouth. “So you make these from scratch, you said?”
    It failed to quite match the image of him she had in her mind, but he nodded in confirmation. Max certainly hadn’t complained about the quality of his baking—and the kid wasn’t shy about that kind of thing when Serena got the crummy grocery store ones instead of the good ones from the bakery down the street. With a shrug, she took a bite.
    Her brows just about hit her hairline. “Holy crap.”
    “Is that a good thing?”
    “That’s an amazing thing.” It was dense and fudgy and loaded with chocolate chips, and if she hadn’t been attracted to Cole from the get-go, she might’ve been willing to overlook a whole multitude of sins with this on the offer. “Wow.”
    He gave her a smirking sort of a smile. “Glad you approve.”
    “No, seriously, where did you learn to bake like this?”
    And she was starting to recognize it now—the way darkness could creep over his features. The downward tilt to his mouth that appeared when they were close to crossing one of his lines. “Recipe books.”
    With that, he stood, balance all skewed to one side as he got his crutches tucked under his arms.
    Was she really supposed to let it go at that, though? She’d followed enough recipes in her day, and none of her results had ever been as good as this. “No no no. There has to be a secret.”
    “There’s not—”
    “Can you teach me?”
    She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. She’d already asked so much of him with the tutoring for Max. He had to be exhausted with the lot of them.
    But he turned to face her. “Can you take me to my doctor’s appointment next week?”
    “Of course.” She’d promised him that from the very outset. “As long as it’s after I get out of school. Whenever you need.”
    “Then we’re agreed. Baking lessons and help with fractions.”
    “You don’t have to.”
    He even seemed surprised when he opened his mouth. “I don’t mind.”
    Oh. Well, all right, then.
    She grinned as she said, “Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”

CHAPTER SIX
    S o.” There was a creeping feeling just under Cole’s skin, making his hands too warm, his palms damp. “What has you so keen to learn to bake?”
    A few days had passed since Serena had brought it up, and he hadn’t expected her to forget it, precisely, but neither had he been prepared for her to come knocking on his door again so soon. In retrospect, he really shouldn’t have been surprised. The woman wasn’t afraid to ask for what she wanted.
    Maybe he should’ve turned her away; normally, he would have. But there’d been something hopeful to her face. Something he hadn’t wanted to disappoint.
    He’d asked her in.
    Now here she stood, surrounded by the ingredients for his mother’s chocolate biscuits. He sat on a stool beside her, supervising, instructing, and it was so like that first evening they’d spent together. When he’d invited her in and made her a cup of tea. When in a flurry of foot-in-mouth disease he’d offered her a slice of Helen’s birthday cake and subsequently lost his bloody mind.
    He leaned forward in his seat, bracing his arms against the counter. That wouldn’t be happening this time. He had himself under control.
    Shrugging, Serena scanned the recipe they were working from and plucked a one-cup measure from the pile of