“Did Dad ever have a muscle car?” 

Baekhyun frowned in concentration, thinking about Seungwan’s question. “Not that I remember. Chanyeol?”

Their brother lifted his head from under the hood of his beater. “Nope.” 

“He didn’t own one, but he always read car magazines,” Jongin said, crossing the bar of his garage with a tray of coffees from Joohyun’s shop. “Your wife asked why you sent me, by the way. She misses you.”

Seungwan felt his face heat up.

Joohyun wouldn’t have meant it like that, but she’d accidentally sent him an indirect message: she’d noticed that he’d been dodging her. Crap. 

He didn’t feel great about the distance, either.

No, Seungwan downright missed her. But when Chanyeol had put out the bat call that he wanted to work on his car this weekend, and Seungwan happened to be off, he jumped at the reasonable excuse to get out of the house.

His bathroom renovation was done, and he needed something, anything, to do with his hands that wasn’t touching his off-limits wife. 

“I’ll see her in a couple of hours,” he muttered.

Baekhyun took a coffee, and a marshmallow dream bar, too. “How’s she liking the new bathroom? Spending a lot of time having bubble baths now that it’s all nice in there?”

God, his brothers were killing him in a hundred different ways.

Now Seungwan was picturing Joohyun partially covered by pillowy white clouds of— “She’s more of a shower person.”  

Because that was her bathroom and his was the one with the soaker tub.

Their two wings of the house, and apparently she had noticed he’d started retreating to his corner a little too often.

It wasn’t fair. That wasn’t their deal, and he would stop it immediately.

The grown-up thing to do would be to lock it down.

He waved off the coffee from Jongin. “You know what? I’m going up there right now. Chanyeol's going to be tinkering for a bit. I’ll see you guys later.”

At the bakery, Seungwan waited his turn in line, watching Joohyun do her thing.

She was charming with her customers, and observant, too.

When Kwon Seulgi's toddler son demanded a cookie—loudly, and rudely, although Seungwan understood the todler’s urgency, the cookies did look amazing—Joohyun fetched two of them from the glass case, but didn’t hand them over.

She gave his older sister a conspiratorial look, softened her tone, and asked the little girl if she would like a cookie as well.

“Yes, please,” Aeri said.

“Excellent manners,” praised Seulgi.

Joohyun looked at the little boy. “Can you say, Please, may I have a cookie?”

He pouted. “Please.”

She held it almost all the way out to him. “Of course. Can you say thank you?”

God, Seungwan’s insides pulled tight.

It was not appropriate for him to imagine her perched on top of him, her dangling just out of reach of his mouth, making him be very polite before he could on her s. 

Joohyun had been having that effect on Seungwan lately, through no fault of her own.

Whole scenes would pop into his head like that, from completely benign things she would say.

Playful, teasing, courteous Joohyun, just going about her life in Purpletown, turned Seungwan on in ways that went completely against their deal.  

The crush he was developing on his wife was layered, complicated, and entirely one-sided.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

When the Kwons were sorted, their cookies in hand and the rest of Seulgi's order boxed up, it was Seungwan’s turn.

“Hey stranger.” Joohyun beamed at him as he leaned against the counter. There wasn’t anyone behind him in line, so he didn’t need to rush. “Did you finish up with your brothers early? I thought you said you were going to be hanging out with them all day.” 

“I changed my mind.”

“Can I make you a coffee?”

“That’s why I’m here.” Not to on you, that would be wrong. “Double espresso?”

“Coming right up.” Joohyun gave him another wholesome smile that his brain immediately turned into sin. “Is everything okay with your brothers? They didn’t chase you away, did they?”

Seungwan shook his head. “I just realized I’d rather pop over here and say hi than sit around and wait for Chanyeol to finish whatever it was he was doing.” 

“What was he doing?”

Seungwan laughed, because he hadn’t been paying attention. “I honestly couldn’t tell you.” He’d been thinking about Joohyun instead.  

Her smile softened as her gaze lingered on his face. “You’ve been juggling a lot lately. And it feels like we’ve been two ships in the night. Our schedules sometimes synch up nicely, and then sometimes...”

Joohyun mimed an explosion. Then she passed him a perfectly pulled espresso.

He reached across the counter to grab her hand. “I’ll make a point to drop in more often, then.”

“Good. Because I miss you, you know?” She twisted her fingers around his and squeezed.  

, the things her touch did to him now...

Seungwan dragged in a rough breath. “I miss you, too.”

Over the next few days, Joohyun noticed that Seungwan went out of his way to spend time with her, and as they settled into a new routine, she found she was sleeping better and working smarter.

From his own accounting, it seemed the same was true for Seungwan too, and in hindsight, she realized she’d been worried by his temporary retreat.

Joohyun had felt far too lonely in her first marriage, and didn’t like it in her second, either, no matter how unconventional their arrangement might be.

On the other hand, she didn’t feel right asking too much of Seungwan, or projecting her baggage onto their unique situation, so she was grateful she didn’t need to spell any of that out.  

But the peace in her heart didn’t last long, because one morning mid-week, out the front window of her shop, she caught sight of the last person she wanted to see: her ex-husband.

Before she could pop smoke and disappear, Jackass was pulling her front door open and stepping inside.  

Into her space.

Joohyun’s breath caught in , a tangle of fear and anger. What the was he doing there?

He looked the same as he had the last time she saw him, slick and handsome and an absolute snake.

She didn’t greet him politely. She didn’t greet him at all. She went straight for the obvious what the question. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”

She’d noticed, and ignored. She didn’t owe him her time anymore. “Why?”

He dragged out the pause before he told her, going for maximum effect. “I’ve recently moved to near the area.” 

“You have to be kidding me.”

“You know how the Army is.” He shrugged. “They move you unexpectedly.”

They hadn't moved her, even after she begged. If he was telling the truth, and she had no reason to think he was being honest with her—he never had been before—it was an ironic twist that he’d ended up here. 

Had she known the army would move Jackass to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, she would have stayed put at the camp in Yongsan, Seoul instead.

And then she never would have tapped out, never would have gone to culinary school and become a baker. Only to end up face to face with her ex all over again.

But then she probably wouldn’t have ever reconnected with Seungwan and landed here in Purpletown