The Perfect Mix (Keller Weddings Book 1) Read Free Page B

embarrassed.”
    Her saying that made it worse. He didn’t sit but instead paced at the edge of the rug. “I’m not embarrassed. I’m frustrated you can’t keep your mouth shut.”
    Poppy grinned, and then lowered her voice conspiratorially. “It’s about Anna.”
    Jillian picked her tablet up again. “Are we making a plan?”
    “Seriously?” Beckett asked. “You’re going to put it in your tablet? Like a job ?”
    “A very serious job,” Jillian said. It looked like she was paging through her calendar. “Are we talking something more subtle or something more obvious?”
    “I don’t–” Beckett sighed. “I have no idea. I came to talk to Poppy because I wanted some ideas how to…I don’t know…”
    “Woo her?” Poopy asked, slapping a hand over her heart and leaning dramatically low over the arm of her chair.
    “Poppy,” he warned.
    She sat up, crossed her legs, and folded her hands in her lap. “All right. Seriously. This is serious.”
    He bit off a curse and dropped into a chair. Maybe he did need help. He eyed Jillian’s tablet again. “Why are you looking at that?”
    “The schedule,” Jillian said. “We have a meeting this afternoon for our monthly open house. And since the open house is at your barn, it’s absolutely necessary you come to the meeting.”
    “But I hardly ever come to–”
    “The meeting where Anna will be,” Jillian added.
    Beckett glanced at Poppy, who grinned at him again. “I told you we needed Jillian’s help.”
    “There’s more where that came from,” Jillian said, still looking at her tablet. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
    {}{}{}
    Even though she didn’t have another event for two days, Anna kept busy at the bakery. She put a check next to the third item on her list on the white board by the back door. It was far less sophisticated than Jillian’s system, but they couldn’t all be Jillian.
    Anna had decided long ago that she thrived in chaos, as evident by the flour, batter, and pots and pans all over the kitchen.
    The cleaning part was less fun, though. And it was hot in here. Only the middle of June and already warm, even for how high they were in the foothills. Park Creek had been Anna’s home since she was born. And except for time away during college, which was only an hour west, she’d been here her whole life.
    Maybe I need a break . Anna rubbed the back of her hand on her cheek and went for the door. She’d been thinking the same thing for months now. That maybe it was time for her to try something new. Somewhere else.
    But that would mean leaving her family. That would mean leaving‒
    “Beckett!” Anna slapped a hand to her chest when she opened to the door to reveal him standing there. “What are you doing?”
    He took in her appearance, a slow smile spreading on his lips. And those cute dimples she’d always loved that probably drove girls crazy winked back at her. “I came to help you.”
    Anna propped the door open to let in a breeze and tried to tuck some stray hairs underneath her bandana.
    “You have some flour.” He reached out, but his hand stopped just short of her cheek. “Right there.”
    Her mind whirled at the strange flutter she felt in her stomach. What the hell? This was Beckett. Beckett. Damn those dimples. He could charm the pants off a nun. She brushed at her cheek. “Better?”
    “There’s still some–”
    “Can you just get it, please?” He balked and she frowned. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing.”
    He used the pad of his thumb to brush her cheekbone, stepping far closer than necessary in the warm kitchen. And there went the flutter again. He had to be a whole head taller than her–and of course she’d noticed it before, but Beckett was…well, a friend. Like she’d told him.
    A friend who smelled like the woods, like a deep forest full of magic and secrets.
    She had serious issues.
    “You’re good,” Beckett said, stepping back.
    Anna blinked. And focused. She was probably just