Chapter 10

chapter

ten

Caroline

After we dry off, we corral stuff into my bedroom. I turn the television on loud and then gather blankets and pillows while Damien heads to the kitchen to grab snacks. Before I know it, we're huddled under the blankets.

Somehow Damien has arranged everything so the pillows keep the blankets from laying directly on us.

"This is amazing. It's like you built a little igloo out of bedding," I say.

"You never made a blanket and cushion fort when you were a kid?"

I swallow thickly but busy myself by opening a box of crackers. He brought in a fancy charcuterie board set up with cheeses and nuts and fruit.

"I guess not."

He tips my chin up so I'm looking at him.

"Hey, where did you go?"

"I'm right here."

He shakes his head. "No, something flashed across your eyes and then it's like you just disappeared. I'm not going to push, but I'd love it if you'd share with me?"

"Answer a question for me first?" I ask.

"Anything," he says, then pops a square of cheese in his mouth.

"How are you like this? It's like there's two versions of you. The hot and sexy bad boy of baking and then this sensitive, sweet man?"

He nods. "Yeah, I get that it could be confusing. This," he pats his chest, "is the real me. The Damien Leblanc who grew up in a house full of women, the youngest of two kids. The Bad Boy of Baking is a persona. I mean is it me on the camera doing all of those things? Yes. But it legit started as a last-ditch effort to save my family's bakery.

"It was my sister, Aurelia's idea. Our bakery has been on the main street square of Sabine Pass. It's a tiny town right on the border between Texas and Louisiana." He pauses and looks at me. "Are you sure you want to know all of this?"

"Yes, please continue." I load up a cracker with cheese and fig preserves.

"Alright. So the bakery has been in the family—my mama's family, so that's the Boudreaux's—since the early nineteen hundred's. After the pandemic though, things were hard for everyone. So many stores and restaurants closed. Our bakery was so close. We were coasting by on a second mortgage and prayers."

"There were places in Saddle Creek that closed too. So sad." I chew, then motion for him to keep going.

"Yeah, so one night she and I were talking about what—if anything—we could do to help. She had this harebrained idea after scrolling through social media. So she set things up in my kitchen and filmed me making, I think it was something simple like bread pudding." He shrugs. "I don't know. It seemed stupid, but three videos later, I went viral. Money started pouring in and we saved the bakery."

"Just like that?" I ask.

"Yeah, just like that."

"Well, that bad boy has to be somewhat a part of you for you to so effortlessly slide into that role."

He chuckles. "I took as many non-academic classes as possible to graduate high school. I was fairly good at theatre, so it probably comes from that. My sister calls him Mr. Smexy Pants."

I bark out a laugh. "I think I've met him."

"Unfortunately, you have. It's now kind of a shield I put on when I'm in public. The attention can be unsettling sometimes. But with you, I'm afraid it was just my wounded pride."

"Because I said horrible things about your video. I'd been blindsided by the production team with one of them, and previously I'd been unfamiliar with your work."

"And it repulsed you," he says.

Another laugh. "I wish. It had turned me inside out. I'd never seen anything so seductive or sensual. I was not prepared to be filmed while getting aroused."

I lean over for a brief kiss. "I'm enough of an adult to admit when I was wrong. You have skills and your baking is next level. Are you sure you haven't had formal training?"

"Formal, as in my mama, my maw maw, and my aunts Aileen and Alice, not to mention my bossy big sister telling me what to do my entire life. I told you, big family of women."

"Probably why you're so sweet," I say.

"Can you record that and send it to Aurelia?" He cups my face and leans over for a kiss. "You still don't have to tell me about the other thing if you don't want to."

"No, I will. But you'll think I'm pathetic. Sounds like you come from a family that's overflowing with love. That is the opposite of my experience. I don't remember much about my life before moving in with the dragons. Which is probably for the best.

"As far as I know my mom has never been treated or medicated for her bi-polar disorder. I know that we didn't always have a place to sleep or food to eat. So at some point she brought me to her mother's house and dropped me off. I haven't seen her since."

"Shit, Sweetness, I'm so sorry. You're right, my family is amazing, and I shouldn't complain about them."

"You weren't. In fact, you get a very sweet smile when you talk about them."

"Don't tell them that."

"Promise. So anyways, I think I was around eight or nine when I went to live with the dragons. That would be my grandmother and her sister. They're not very nice; I don't think I've ever received so much as a hug or kind word from either of them. But they never kicked me out. They fed and clothed me." I release a tight chuckle. "More or less. And they paid for my culinary school education."

"How could they never hug you?" He pulls me over so I'm snuggled in his lap. "You're very huggable."

"I'm not sure. You remember Duck McScrooge?"

He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. "The cranky one with the monocle who was always counting his money?"

"Exactly. That's like my grandmother and aunt. They're rich, as best I can tell, though aside from the bare necessities and my schooling, they haven't shared it with me. It's why I want to win this competition so badly."

"Then we'll win it!"

"The Texas Monthly write up for our bakery would mean everything since we haven't been open long. But that prize money would allow me to pay them back for my education and finally move out of their house."

"You still live with them?"

"I do. I have the entire attic to myself and my cats. Though my kitties are naughty and do escape to the main part of the house periodically. Drives Aunt Cissy crazy." I grin.

"You're amazing, Caroline Mathis. Simply amazing."

"That seems a bit of a stretch."

He shakes his head. "No, I see you. I know you."

And in that moment, I've never felt more seen or known.