Rum and Raindrops: A Blueberry Springs Chick Lit Contemporary Romance by Jean Oram Page A

goodness.
    Rob, eyes on the road, dipped a hand in the container, taking a massive bite of brownie without looking at her. “Mmm…holy shit these are good!” He ogled the half brownie left in his hand.
    As long as Mandy kept her supplied, she had this man hooked. Forget taking him to bed such as Amber had suggested. There were simpler ways to get to a man. Less complicated ways.
    Although maybe not as satisfying.
    Jen offered him another brownie then took one for herself. One brownie left. She finished hers and reached into the container to pick up a few larger crumbs, bumping into Rob’s warm hand as he went to do the same.
    “How can your hands be warm?” She was still freezing despite Rob having cranked the heat. She was having to keep an arm across her chest so her nipples didn’t poke his eyes out.
    He shrugged and glanced at the container. He looked at the last brownie with longing. Then at Jen. Then back at the road. Sighing, Jen picked up the last brownie, split it in half and handed him a piece.
    “Did you say you’re single?” he asked with a smile.
    She paused, the line echoing against something in the back of her mind.
    Ken. Her ex.
    She sighed. She’d snagged Ken with brownies. They had been the clincher between her and the few other girls who’d been chasing him at the time.
    Jen looked at the half brownie in her hand. If she was using Mandy’s prize-winning brownies as bait instead of her own boring recipe…did that mean she had a chance at snagging a guy like Rob? A proportionally better brownie equalled a proportionally better man?
    Wait. She scrunched her eyes shut. She wasn’t aiming to snag anyone. And especially not a man who had been hired by the government to find out if she was a guilty-little-forest-fire-starting-nature-guide.
    She needed to launch some pretty serious professional boundaries before she got hurt or things got complicated.
    “You all right?” he asked.
    “Yeah, fine. Single,” she added, trying to catch up to the conversation. “You know I don’t share these brownies with just anyone. Usually people have to do something pretty special.”
    “What did I do to deserve some now? So I can get a perspective on what I’m going to have to accomplish in the future.” He shifted, angling himself toward her.
    She laughed. “Who said you deserved these? I brought these for myself. I’m just being nice and sharing a few with you so you don’t make me walk back.”
    “I would never—”
    “I know.”
    Rob placed a hand over his heart, his attention on the road. “Thank you for sharing your brownies out of the goodness of your heart. They were devoured with utmost attention to the love and devotion you put into them.”
      Giggling, Jen admitted, “I bought these from Mandy’s restaurant. Anyone with a few bucks can get their hands on these babies. But that still doesn’t mean they’re easy to come by. They usually sell out within half an hour of opening. Although, Mandy keeps a couple behind the counter for me if don’t come in right away.”
    Rob, brow furrowed in concentration as he gunned it up a muddy embankment in the shortcut, shook his head. “You’re going to kill me, woman.”
    “Who? Me?” Amused, Jen gave him her best look of innocence. “Why?”
    “First suggesting this horrific shortcut which, of course, is almost deadly due to the rain.”
    “Hey, I never suggested it for the way back.”
    “Then pushing me down a mountain. I swear you’re trying to knock me off.” He shot her a lopsided smile that made her heart and lungs do funny things that, if symptomatic in an elderly person, would suggest something fatal lurking around the corner.
    “Well, you know…” She tried to make her voice light and amused, but as they rolled into town her life rose up to smack her mood down. Even though she’d had a blast with Rob today, her life was still very much in his hands and reliant on what he found. Or didn’t find.
    She hunched forward in the