Before Leo walked out into the bakery, Joanna grasped his arm firmly and dropped her voice. “Please, not a word about this to her,” she pleaded. “She’d never allow it.”

“Joanna, I—” He knew Tessa would be upset—very, very upset if she learned her mother was trying to sell off their century-old bakery. The one she’d just fake-married him to save.

Her eyes took on a pleading expression. “Please, Leo. For Tessa.”

“Leo, are you coming?” Tessa called from the front.

He heaved a sigh. “Okay, fine.”

Joanna smiled and hugged him, then held him at arm’s length. Her eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, Leo,” she said. “I’m so grateful.”

Leo was left staring at the doors, his mind whirling. Joanna was grateful to him for allowing her to sell him the bakery? That was like thanking him for helping to ruin everything the Montgomerys had worked for during the past hundred years.

The doors—solid, unyielding, and large—seemed to mock him for that.

“Be nice to me, or I’ll make you into a kitchen island,” he said in jest.

And then an idea hit him. A kitchen island. For Tessa. What a great—and needed—surprise. And a meaningful one, that she could bake her creations on something that was symbolic of her family’s livelihood.

Yeah. Selling this bakery that had been in the family for generations to finance Tessa’s education was a terrible idea. There had to be a better way.

Leo walked out into the bakery to find Sam Donovan chatting up Tessa. “So we bought this house on the west side that’s got wallpaper all over the place. There are, like, ducks in the kitchen. Do you know anything about removing wallpaper?”

Leo’s gaze locked with hers, and he knew they were thinking the same thing. That Sam was in for a whole lot of wallpaper removal in that house.

As Sam droned on about the woes of home ownership, Leo walked over to Tessa and draped an arm around her shoulder. “Hi, Sam. Did I hear you congratulating Tessa on our marriage?”

“Oh. That’s right. Of course. Congratulations. I, um, I was just asking her if she knows anything about removing wallpaper. Marcy’s tearing down two walls, but I have to somehow figure out how to get the ducks off the other two standing ones.”

“That right?” Leo nuzzled Tessa’s neck, not too aggressively, but he was a little worried she’d haul off and slap him—or worse. But she actually stretched her lovely neck a little to give him better access. Either she was playing along with him or she was liking what he was doing.

Probably the former, and he’d get a tongue lashing as soon as Sam left. Which had better be soon.

And as for himself…well, he was just doing it to prove a point.