Marking me. Making me his. But I already was. I always had been.

But in the time between the kiss till now, I’d managed to convince myself that I’d somehow dreamed it. Or that I’d overhyped the way he’d touched me, looked at me, the way his voice went raspy and full of promise.

As had been established, I was very good at convincing myself of all manner of things.

But seeing Rowan saunter in, his eyes instinctively finding mine, it became an inescapable fact that I had not imagined anything at all.

He had changed. He was wearing a flannel, black and red, unbuttoned with a black tee underneath, molding to his abs. The jeans he was wearing were worn, splattered with paint, and he had on his work boots. And of course, his trademark baseball cap on backward.

I found it very hard—almost impossible, if I’m honest —to do things like serve the remaining customers in front of him in line.

My fingers were numb, stomach swirling with butterflies and my body urging me to run. That’s what I did, ran away from things that made me feel fear, uneasy, a little too alive.

And Rowan made me feel all of those things.

But that stare… That froze me in place.

“Hi,” I breathed when he stood in front of me.

He didn’t say anything, just kept looking at me in that way that wasn’t fit for public consumption.

When my lower lip trembled, his eyes followed the movement.

Then he stopped staring.

He took action. Purposefully coming around the counter, he passed Tina at the coffee machine heading straight for me.

“What are you—”

I didn’t have time to ask the rest of that question since he was kissing me.

In the middle of my bakery.

With witnesses.

Like, a lot of them.

And I knew this town. My regulars. They were nosy. And they would very much be enjoying the show. I was not into PDA. Not at all.

Except for right now.

The kiss lasted longer than was appropriate for my place of work and business, but there was nothing else I could do but kiss him back.

I was clutching on to the sides of his shirt for dear life.

Rowan pulled back, mouth still inches from mine. “Hi.”

I blinked rapidly, trying to get my bearings after that kiss while simultaneously analyzing the roughness of his voice while uttering that one word.

Then the sounds of the bakery rushed back in, and I realized what had just happened.

“Rowan, you cannot just kiss me in the middle of my bakery,” I hissed as I stepped back, brushing my hands over my hair which had been messy before all of this.

I had tried to sound stern and pissed off, but it obviously didn’t work since Rowan was grinning with a twinkling gaze.

“I think he just did, sweetheart,” Tina answered for him, sounding amused as she poured milk for a latte.

I glanced over to Tina, who not only sounded amused but looked it too. Her own green eyes were sparkling with warmth. Which was definitely uncharacteristic since she wasn’t exactly known for being warm and fuzzy with anyone but her wife.