She snatched the knife from him, taking it to the sink to cover her stunned blush. “How am I supposed to cut a piece for myself when you already licked the knife?” she muttered.

She couldn’t believe he’d made an actual joke. To her. And it had been a borderline dirty joke, at that. Everyone in this county had followed the trial of her assailant, and no one had so much as given her a sideways smirk since the day she moved home from college. People were too uncomfortable now to ever have fun with her. Gossip, however, was a whole different animal. She knew behind closed doors, they whispered and speculated, and more than one of them thought she was at fault for what had happened to her. But in public? No one had dared make an off-color comment to her in over five years. It was ridiculous: like they thought the attack had damaged her sense of humor or something.

“This is only an appetizer,” he said, as he cut the cake. “Trust me, we don’t have time for a full serving right now. Wait for it . . .” Even before he’d fully lifted his hand to point to his pocket, it chimed with a new text message. Followed by another and another, the first chime not even finishing before the next started. “Told you so.”

He grabbed a plate with his right hand and raised the cake platter with his left, jogging it just right to get the loose piece of cake to tumble out onto the plate, landing frosting-side down and cracking his perfectly fluffy sunshine-yellow cake layers apart.

She came back to cut her own piece, but he nudged her aside to snatch up a fork and stab it into the cake. “Grab your shoes. We’ve got to go.” He shoved the bite in his mouth and rolled his eyes in dramatic ecstasy. “Hot damn, I’m good.” He snatched another piece up on the fork. “One for the road?” He held it up, and the cake was in her mouth before she was certain how it’d happened.

And then smooth vanilla melted on her tongue and lemon struck the perfect sting to balance it, her mouth watering even as she chewed. “Oh my God.”

LJ laughed. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.” He flashed to the front door and stomped into his boots. Then he ruined the whole effort of taking them off by coming back across the kitchen and stealing another “bite” that was nearly half the slice.

“Hey, leave some for me!” Andra grabbed the fork out of his hand, laughing when he coughed on his enormous mouthful. She got herself a little more frosting this time, but as she was going back in for more, LJ stole her fork and tossed it in the sink with a ring of metal against porcelain. His phone chimed again.