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Lightning and Claws

Page 21

by Layla Dorine

“I’m going to laugh if we’ve been reading the same things,” Rusty said before pulling his phone from the drawer on the coffee table and pulling up his reading app while Roark did the same.

As soon as they swapped phones, Roark stared laughing. “I’ve read seven out of the first ten cozy mysteries on your list. The bakeshop ones always make me hungry.”

“Wait, is that why you decided to make lemon bars out of the blue and shortbread cookies?”

“Yeah, those were in the books I was reading.”

“You’re reading them out of order!” Rusty complained. “What the hell, man?”

“Hey, I didn’t see numbers on them or anything.”

“There is a reading list in the back of each book,” Rusty said.

“Oops, must have skipped that part.”

“Have you gotten to the banana bread book yet?”

“Nope.”

“Please feel free to bake as much as you’d like when you do.”

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Logan said. “But any and all behaviors that result in desserts or breakfast pastries are to be encouraged.”

“Sometimes one morphs into another around here,” Rusty said. “When Roark made the lemon bars, he was so thrilled with the way the lemon filling came out that the next day he rolled out puff pastry dough and made lemon cheesecake Danishes.”

“Have you ever tried adding blackberries to them?” Logan asked.

Rusty paused and pursed his lips before shaking his head.

“No, I have not,” Roark said. “But I do have everything to make them in the morning. Now that you put it in my head, I’m eager to see what they taste like.”

“I’d say that was a win all the way around,” Rusty declared. “Just know that suggesting a food to him is the same as begging him to make it, he is that much of a foodie.”

“I use it as a brain break,” Roark said. “With all the things I had to learn to get the business off the ground, there are times when all I see when I close my eyes is sheep.”

“I didn’t see a barn or even a coral when we pulled in,” Logan said. “Where do you keep them?”

“In the borderlands,” Roark explained. “My sister and her family live on the property and care for the sheep. Going from business to business was eye-opening, because it showed just how beneficial the wool and meat have been to a variety of different enterprises. A lot of late nights went into the launch, and some days, the paperwork and purchase orders are an absolute nightmare to go through. But Baz helped me learn how to set up spreadsheets and files for everything, so for the most part, things have been running smoothly. I handle the business aspect, and they handle the animals. We make quarterly stock runs, which keep me away from home for a few days. Otherwise, I’m able to run everything from here.”

“So, walk me through the daily routine,” Logan asked as Rusty piped up.

“Hey, there we go, it’s short enough that the pups should sleep through all of it.”

“I love Unstoppable,” Logan declared. “Hell, I can’t think of a single Denzel movie I don’t like.”

“Same!” Rusty and Roark declared.

“Hands down, Training Day is my favorite but watching it back-to-back with Unstoppable makes for the perfect afternoon,” Rusty said.

“Don’t forget Courage Under Fire, Logan piped up, or Philadelphia.”

“I have to be in the right mood to watch Philadelphia, otherwise, I require a box of tissues and some serious cuddle time afterward,” Roark declared.

“See, now that’s me with Glory,” Logan replied, “and Remember the Titans.”

“I can watch football movies all day,” Rusty said.

“You can watch sports movies all day, not just football,” Roark pointed out. “Between hockey, motorsports of all kinds, anything wrestling, or MMA-related, or featuring a wrestler or an MMA fighter, you are in your element.”