Baked With Love

by Tina Martin

  He blinked, focusing on the email from Felicity again and decided to log onto the site. Why? He didn’t know. With a date lined up with Gianna, he was certain he didn’t need their services any longer. Then he thought about something Regal had said earlier – what if Gianna was one of the women listed on Wedded Bliss? Since he had access, he decided to find out for himself. He knew she wouldn’t be. Besides most of the women listed on the site were nothing but gold diggers as far as he was concerned. Gianna wasn’t that type of woman. She was modest, genuinely sweet, innocent and shied away from men.

  Just for kicks, he typed in her name – Gianna Jacobsen – and when a profile came up, he nearly fell out of his chair. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t his Gianna.

  His Gianna.

  “It better not be her,” he said even-toned. There wasn’t a picture attached to the profile, so he clicked to open it up:

  Name: Gianna Jacobsen

  Age: 29

  Occupation: Baker

  Description: Hi. I’m Gianna Jacobsen. I like to bake cupcakes. Most people think I’m weird and by most people I mean men. Men think I’m weird, which is probably the reason I’m still single. I believe in love. In happily-ever-afters. In romance. I’ve just never experienced it for myself. I’m too busy. Who am I kidding? I’m too flaky. Okay, scratch that last part. I’m not flaky. I’m...I don’t know what I am. Aren’t you just dying to date me? Hee hee hee. Seriously, if I were you, I’d click off of this profile ASAP. Nothing to see here. I’m invisible, hence the reason I didn’t upload a pic. If I were as fabulous as my bestie, I’d upload a picture, but trust me, you don’t want to see this face. You wouldn’t see it, anyway. No one does.

  Interesting facts about me: I’ve had full custody of my little sister since I was 19. She’s my family, all I have in this world and I love her dearly.

  Anything else you want to add: It is my belief that, like life, love is fleeting in this world—here one day and gone the next. That’s why you should hang on to the people you love and let them know you love them every day because they can be here today and gone tomorrow.

  ___________

  Ramsey must’ve read the profile five times over before he leaned back in his chair and frowned. He didn’t know what to make of it. What was she doing on this website? It bothered him. It wasn’t in her character to do something as risky as finding a date online – especially a husband. And why did her profile not seem legitimate – like she didn’t want to find a man by talking down about herself, calling herself invisible, flaky and weird? A woman looking to impress a man wouldn’t say those things about herself. Did she have some self-esteem issues?

  That night, he couldn’t sleep thinking about her being listed on the website. At two in the morning, he tossed and turned whenever he would think of her going on dates with those men who may have found her profile. How many dates had she been on? Did she find any of the men interesting? Was she seeing or dating other men currently? Is that what her obligations consisted of?

  Chapter 9

  Gianna had taken steps to make sure her sister was taken care of while she was gone. That way, she wouldn’t feel so guilty about leaving her. She placed a bowl of soup in the microwave for easy access. She even arranged to have Felicity stop by the house to check on her. Still, she would rather be there with Gemma herself. In fact, she was having second thoughts about leaving her, but Gemma convinced her to go. Told her she needed to have some fun, too.

  So, she went. After parking her Honda, she stepped out pulled in a deep breath and headed for the double glass entrance of Luce. She stepped inside, was instantly greeted by the maître D who asked for her name, then showed her to the table where Ramsey had been waiting.

  Ramsey was about to take a sip of wine when he looked up and saw her. He set the glass back down on the white tablecloth and looked up at her again, his eyes widening to take in the full view of this gorgeous beauty. Wow!

  He couldn’t believe his eyes. As far as looks, she definitely wasn’t the same woman from the bakery. Her hair – the first time he’d seen it loose was luxuriously black and tossed with curls, tumbling around her shoulders, enhancing her already beautiful face. She’d applied just a few touches of makeup, and he particularly liked the red lipstick that brought out the lovely shape of her full lips. Then there was her dress – the short black body-hugging dress that stopped mid-thigh showing off a bomb body that was ordinarily hidden behind a black apron. The neckline dipped just enough to tease his eyes. And her legs – it had to have been the sexiest pair he’d ever seen on a woman. They were smooth and buttery brown, leading down to a pair of strappy red heels that made her appear at least four inches taller. To be a man who wasn’t primarily concerned with looks, he surely found himself in a daze with her. So had the other men whose heads turned when she walked by.

  “Here you are, madam,” the maître D said to her.

  “Hi,” Gianna said to Ramsey.

  He had every intention of standing to get her chair, but he was so stunned, he was still seated. Then, he snapped out of it, quickly rose up from his seat and pulled out her chair.

  “Thank you,” she said as she sat down.

  “You’re welcome,” Ramsey told her, getting a whiff of the perfume of whatever it was that smelled so freakin’ good on the exposed portion of her back. Everything in him wanted to lower his mouth there and leave a kiss, but considering how skittish she was, she’d probably jump through the roof. No exaggeration.

  “Your server will be right with you,” the maître D said.

  “Thank you,” Ramsey told him. “Then he focused his attention on the beauty sitting across the table from him. She was pristine, yet sensual at the same time. Stunned he couldn’t do anything but observe at first. When he could finally find a remnant of his voice, he said, “Hi.”

  “Hi.” She smiled.

  “You look absolutely stunning,” he said, gazing into her chatoyant, light brown eyes.

  A flush crept up her face. “I wouldn’t take it that far, but thank you.”

  He stared more seeing her cheeks redden while recognizing again how hard it was for her to make eye contact with him. “Wow!”

  She blushed again. “Don’t do that. You’re making me nervous. I mean, I’m already nervous. You’re making it worse.” Gianna scanned the table for water. She saw ice water in a goblet nearest to her and reached for it. Instead of picking it up, she accidentally knocked it over – water and ice spilling all over the table.

  “Shoot!” she said unraveling the triangle-folded, black, cloth napkin to wipe up the mess, inadvertently pushing her utensils off the table and onto the floor. She had already attracted the attention of the guests sitting closest to them, but now, even more people were looking to see what all the noise was about.

  “Here, let me,” Ramsey told her.

  “No. I got it,” Gianna said frantically dabbing the area and picking up ice, dropping pieces back into the goblet.

  “Gianna, let me get the server to clean this up. Don’t worry about it, okay.”

  She still had the napkin in her hand trying to fix the situation when Ramsey placed his hand on top of hers to make her stop.

  “It’s okay,” he said, looking at her. “I’ll take care of it.”

  Gianna pulled her hand away from him. “I can’t do this.” She headed for the exit.

  “Gianna, wait.” Ramsey walked swiftly to catch up to her, but she’d already passed through the doors. As he was on the way out to find her, he informed the server that he needed a new table then he exited through the double doors. He caught up to Gianna as she descended the steps to get to the sidewalk. Latching onto her forearm with his hand, he asked, “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going home,” she said in full panic mode with misty eyes. Her hands trembled. “I can’t do this.”

  “You can’t do what?” he asked, his voice soft. “You can’t have dinner with me?”

  Her breaths were quick and forceful. Her face still flu
shed. She didn’t respond. She wanted nothing more than to leave already. She’d embarrassed herself enough for one night.

  “Gianna?”

  “I—I can’t, Ramsey. This is not me. This is not who I am. I don’t do this. I don’t know how to do this. I can’t even sit at a table without spilling a drink like a little kid.”

  “It was an accident,” Ramsey he said, trying to reason with her. “It’s okay. I got us a new table.”

  “No. It’s not okay. I—I—I feel like I’m having a pa-panic attack.” She grabbed his hand and placed it on her chest. “Do you feel that? I feel like my heart is going to crack my ribcage. That’s how hard it’s beating. This isn’t easy for me, Ramsey. I have panic attacks. This is why I didn’t want to come here but I thought, for once in my life, I could try to be normal and go out. With a man. With a man as phenomenal as you. I thought I could but I can’t.”

  “Gianna,” Ramsey said, lowering his hand from her chest and wrapping his arms around her instead.

  She looked at him.

  “You can do this. You spilled water. So what?”

  She shook her head.

  “And I’m the same guy you ate dinner with at your bakery yesterday. Look at me, Gianna.”

  She tilted her head upwards to look at him, eyes scanning his entire face before settling on his concerned eyes.

  “I’m the same guy,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel nervous around me, and I’ll try my best to make you feel as comfortable as possible. Okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  He lowered his arms from around her and asked, “Can we go back inside now?”

  Still nervous about doing so, Gianna looked down, wanting to break away from him and make a mad dash for her car.

  With the slightest touch of his index finger, Ramsey nudged her chin upward so she could look at him. “Will you please come back inside with me?”

  She studied his eyes and saw the sincerity of his request deep within their depths “Yes.”

  He smiled. “Okay.” He took her left hand into his right and that simple touch had her feeling warm all over.

  After they ascended a short set of stairs, he opened the door to Luce, allowing her to enter. Then he clutched her hand once more as they followed the maître D to a new table – one that gave them more privacy.

  Ramsey pulled out a chair for Gianna, and after she sat down, he sat across from her again. “Better?” he asked.

  She looked across the table to see him – to really see him for the first time tonight. He looked sophisticated and debonair in a black suit, silver and black vest with a white shirt underneath. Either the ambiance or the suit did something to darken his eyes. Or maybe they’d darken when he would look at her. She was sure plenty of women were eyeing him. He was just that handsome. That phenomenal.

  “Gianna Jacobsen?”

  Her lips transformed into a beautiful smile.

  “Oh. Yes, this is much better,” she said. “I may need you to hold my glass for me though.” She laughed.

  So did he. “You’ll be fine.”

  The server brought over the bottle of wine and poured some for Gianna. “I’ll give you two a few minutes to look at the menu.”

  Ramsey watched Gianna as she took a sip of wine. He hoped it would help to ease her nerves a little. “I’m going to order the agnolotti. Do you know what you want?”

  She glanced up at him then back at the menu. “Maybe I’ll try the spaghetlini.”

  “Nice. You’ll like that.”

  When the waiter came by, he took their dinner orders directly from Ramsey then walked away.

  “Thank you for ordering for me,” Gianna said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Is this usually how it works?” she asked. “The man orders for the woman?”

  “That’s how it works when you’re with me, yes.”

  She took a sip of wine, glancing up to see the inquisitive glare on his face.

  “Are you implying that you’ve never been on a date?” he asked her.

  “Do you consider this a date?” she asked.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Oh. I um…I thought you were just wanting to share dinner with me like we did last night.”

  A dimple settled in his cheek. “Well, let me clarify things for you. When a man asks a woman out to dinner, he’s asking her out on a date.”

  “Got it,” she said, but still didn’t have a clue why he would want to go on a date with her.

  “Now, back to my original question—have you ever been on a date, Gianna?”

  “Somehow I feel like you’ve already asked me that before, but to answer your question, no. I don’t have time to date.”

  Yes, he had asked her that before and thanks to the profile she had on Wedded Bliss, he felt the need to ask her again. Deciding to probe even further, he asked, “Have you ever tried online dating?”

  “No.”

  His brows raised. “Never?”

  “Nope. Never,” she responded.

  “What about a matchmaking service?” he asked, immediately taking a sip of wine afterward, wondering if she’d be honest about her profile on Wedded Bliss. If she wasn’t upfront with him, it would tell him a lot about her. She had no reason to lie about her profile.

  “No. Definitely not a matchmaking service,” she replied with a chuckle. “I could never be courageous enough to do something that spontaneous.”

  Ramsey took a sip of wine, attempting to hide his disappointment. He had expected her to just come out and be truthful about it, but she was telling him a lie right to his face. He could still see her profile in his head. He’d read it so many times last night he had the entire thing – every word of it – committed to memory.

  “Oh, you know what? I take that back,” Gianna said. “The closest thing I’ve come to a matchmaking service is putting a profile on the website called, Wedded Bliss. Have you heard of it?”

  He was relieved that she was being honest now, but still, he wanted to know why she was on that website in the first place. “I have. So, you’ve met some men going through that route then?” he asked, wondering why it bothered him so much to get the question out.

  “No,” she said amid laughter.

  The food arrived before any further interrogation could ensue. Gianna sampled hers immediately. “This is good,” she mumbled.

  Ramsey hadn’t touched his food. He didn’t bother to pick up a fork, knife – nothing. He just stared at her, annoyed about her admission. If she was really the introverted woman who didn’t date, why did she put a profile on Wedded Bliss?

  She looked up at him and slowly stopped chewing when she realized he wasn’t eating. He was just staring at her. “What?” she asked, hiding her mouth with her hand.

  “I was just thinking—if you’ve never met or dated anyone from Wedded Bliss, why did you put a profile on the site? Were you looking for a husband?”

  “No. I wasn’t looking for a husband. I did it as a favor.”

  “A favor to who?”

  “To my best friend.” She smiled. “You may find this hard to believe but the woman who owns Wedded Bliss, Felicity James, is my best friend. We’ve been friends since fifth grade. Anyway, she’s a big dreamer with an even bigger personality—waaay bigger than mine and she got the idea to start the company when she was in college. When she had the website built, she asked me to enter a profile to test out the system before she rolled it out. After everything tested successfully, she inactivated my profile.”

  A smile appeared on his face then grew as relief settled him. He picked up his fork. He couldn’t believe Felicity and Gianna knew each other and that they were best friends, especially with their completely opposite personalities. But most of all, he was relieved that Gianna was telling him the truth. Now, things were starting to make sense.

  “How’s your food?” she asked him.

  “Good. Hey, last night when we talked, you seemed upset.”

  “I was fine,”
she said.

  “No. You were upset. Tell me why.”

  She looked up narrowing her eyes at him. “Why do you think I was upset?”

  “Because you were sniffling, and when you confirmed you didn’t have allergies, I knew you’d been crying. Tell me why.”

  She instantly clammed up. She wasn’t comfortable discussing details about Gemma’s sickness with him. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “Okay,” he said, hiding his annoyance. He didn’t like how she was withholding information from him, but he couldn’t make her talk. Still, it irritated him. He swished wine around in the glass while asking, “What does Gemma do for a living?”

  Gianna grimaced. “She doesn’t work.”

  “Right. She’s nineteen. Is she in college?”

  “No. What about your brother—the one you went to visit yesterday? What does he do?”

  “His name is Regal, by the way. He’s also an architect with St. Claire Architects. My other brothers, Royal and Romulus also works with us. Royal is the youngest, a pain in my rear, and he’s the troubleshooter—go figure. Romulus is our land finder.”

  “That’s wonderful. Keeping it all in the family,” she said.

  “Have you ever been in love, Gianna?”

  “No. Have you?”

  “Yes. Once.”

  “What happened to end the relationship?” she inquired.

  “She passed away.”