One Taste

When reporter Casselyn Hill stepped into my small town bakery with her nose held high and a lost look in her eyes, the world fell away. I even knocked over sweet Mrs. Halpert to get to her. As one of the few residents who hasn’t picked a side in the town’s decades-old feud, I’ve been tasked with accompanying Cass to our annual Fireside Flannel Festival so she can get her story. As the day wears on, the tension grows thick, and it’s more than the war brewing between the town’s two rival families. She’s distracting. Charming. And here only for the story that will prove she deserves a full-time position at her dream job. As day turns to night, I can’t stop thinking about what’s underneath all those layers. I should have been concentrating on showing her around my coastal town, not thinking about the way her lips formed around my perfectly sweet Italian meringue. Cass doesn’t have time for distractions like me, but the more time we spend together, the more I know I won’t be satisfied with just one taste.