Baking was the best option.

Because she wasn’t speaking to him—which made the demanding-he-explain-himself thing difficult—and her mom would be upset if Zoe killed him.

The silent treatment wasn’t brand new to him. She was great at the silent treatment and had used it several times over the years with Aiden and Cam.

She started ladling muffin batter into the tins for her fourth batch of muffins. That was a lot for a family Christmas morning brunch, but Jane and Josie were going to stop by and Jane would probably bring her little sister Kelsey and Josie might bring her sister Paige and there were always a few friends of her parents’ that stopped by to say hi. And Cam and Aiden could each eat half a dozen of her muffins by themselves.

Yeah, Aiden liked her muffins and her pie.

Zoe felt her eyes narrowing and her blood pressure increasing.

He’d said no. Not just that, but he’d only said no. No explanation, no let’s talk this out, no I’m-too-drunk-to-do-you-right-but-how-about-tomorrow-night. Just no.

She realized she was beating the batter with the ladle and crushing the blueberries. She dropped the ladle, braced her hands on the counter and just breathed in and out.

Or maybe there would be no tomorrow night because he just really didn’t want to have sex with her. All the pie talk had just been talk about pie. Real pie. She’d read into the whole stupid thing. It had sounded fun and sexy and flirty in her mind but she was just crazy and Aiden saw her as a little sister and someone to wipe boogers on and nothing more.

She really hated him right now.

Aiden pushed away from the fridge and crossed to the coffee pot.

Zoe straightened and felt herself smile. A very wicked smile. She started scooping batter into the tins again.

“There’s no coffee?”

There was coffee. But she’d hidden the grounds and the K-cups for the Keurig.

“No.”

That was all she said. Just no. Simple.

He sighed. He knew that there was coffee and that she’d hidden it. There had been a bunch of coffee yesterday. But Aiden also knew her. She was a McCaffery. Specifically, she was Letty McCaffery’s granddaughter. Letty had held a grudge against her best friend from childhood for fifty years. It had divided the entire town and set up a professional and personal feud between the two families that was still going on.

Zoe was not someone who got over being slighted easily.

And turning her down for sex had definitely slighted her.

“Can I have a muffin at least?” he asked.

He was really pushing his luck. She turned to face him, her eyes narrow.

“No.”

She could see that he completely understood why ‘no’ was the only answer he was getting.

He sighed. “We should talk about this. You know that.”

“No.”

“Are you going to speak to me at all today?”

She folded her arms, not caring that she was dripping muffin batter on the floor. She didn’t even have to answer that one. He knew.

“And I’m going to assume that there’s not a friend to pick up from the airport and you got me up this early for…some other reason?”

She lifted an eyebrow.

He nodded. “Got it. I think I’ll head over to your mom’s for coffee. And… friendliness.”

Zoe didn’t really care. He wouldn’t tell Maggie that Zoe was mad at him because then he’d have to tell her why and he did not want to do that, she was sure. It was likely her mother was up already, getting brunch stuff ready. If not, she was at the table, drinking coffee and reading. All of the McCaffery women were early birds. Maggie would love to have Aiden come over.

And it would get him out of Zoe’s sight.

Because dammit, she really was mad. And he looked really good this morning.

How could he look good after turning her down and leaving her…ugh, humiliated like that?

It was the kiss.

She could not forget the way he’d kissed her. Like he was all in. Like every single thing she wanted and needed was right there and he was ready and willing and able to give it to her.

But then he’d pulled back.

He should have fucking said no and pushed her away before he kissed her and made her one thousand percent sure he was the one she wanted to do this with the first time.

Yeah, she hated him.

He stopped at the back door and looked back. “You going to forgive me?” he asked.

She felt her eyes burning slightly, but she lifted her chin.

“Right. No,” he answered himself. He blew out a breath, then let himself out.

5

“Oh my God, please make it stop.” Camden looked at Aiden. “I’m begging you.”

The ”it” he was referring to was Dax Marshall, another of their partners and friends. More specifically, it was his whistling of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” as he came into the conference room for their morning meeting.

Aiden understood. Cam was severely hung over, as he always was after they took a trip to Appleby.

“Seriously. Shut him up,” Cam hissed. He was surly on a good day, but downright asshole-ish when hung over.

Aiden swallowed hard and scrubbed a hand over his face. He wasn’t feeling a whole hell of a lot better than Cam at the moment. Last night he’d joined his buddy with his bottle of whiskey because he’d had a not-great-at-all run-in with a woman in Appleby as well. Thankfully, Cam had been caught up in his feelings over Whitney so hadn’t asked why Aiden was drinking too. Not that Aiden would have told him the truth. Definitely not.

Cam wasn’t exactly the protective type. Zoe wasn’t the type that needed protecting. She was feisty and more than able to take care of herself. And she certainly didn’t need to be protected from Aiden. He’d never do anything to hurt her. He was ninety percent sure he was in love with her. But he didn’t really want to know what Cam would think of him and Zoe together at the moment.

Then again, he and Zoe weren’t together. At all. They were less together now than they had been before she’d kissed the hell out of him in his bed.

The next morning in the kitchen had been downright chilly. And loud. Good Lord the woman could make muffin tins sound like gongs.

The reception in her kitchen had convinced him to eat at Maggie’s before Zoe showed up for brunch. Zoe would have absolutely put ghost peppers in his eggs or dog shit in his hash browns.

She was not happy with him.

As in, she wasn’t speaking to him. Every time he was within two feet of her, she’d found a way to skirt around him or simply head in the other direction.

The one time he’d managed to block her into the corner of the dining room, she’d given him a look that could only be described as murderous and said, “If you really think I’m above kneeing you in the balls in my mother’s house, you are dead wrong.”

Not the kind of talking he’d hoped to get from her. He’d let her go.

”I’m going to heave my coffee mug at his head,” Cam growled.

Dax was still whistling. He was also sitting at the head of the conference table, with his feet propped on the shiny mahogany surface. He had his hands linked behind his head and Aiden knew Dax realized Cam was hungover.

“Knock it off,” Aiden told him. “You know he’s always like this the morning after.”