The Delicious Series: The First Volume

by Stella Starling

  The Delicious Series

  The First Volume

  Stella Starling

  The Delicious Series: The First Volume

  A collection that includes the previously published, full-length novels Someday, Delicious, and Falling.

  Someday © Stella Starling 2016 and 2019

  Delicious © Stella Starling 2016 and 2019

  Falling © Stella Starling 2016 and 2019

  Amazon Kindle Second Edition

  Edited by Elizabeth Peters

  Cover Design by Cate Ashwood

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  The author has asserted her rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book.

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature readers.

  Contents

  The Delicious Series

  Someday

  Delicious

  Falling

  Sneak Peek: Again

  Also by Stella Starling

  Stay In Touch

  About the Author

  The Delicious Series

  Hello, lovely Reader!

  Thank you for picking up this copy of The Delicious Series, The First Volume. The six original books of the series can all be read as standalones, however, they do include cameos of other series characters and also happen in a chronological timeline that may make it more enjoyable to read them in order.

  The short novella I Do was originally released as bonus material and is not a standalone. Chronologically, it occurs after the events in Wrecked and the story is another glimpse at the lives of Jeremy and Nick, from Falling.

  The series order is as follows:

  1 - Someday (Danny and Mace)

  2 - Delicious (Gaven and Ben

  3 - Falling (Jeremy and Nick)

  4 - Again (Cash and Robbie)

  5 - Wrecked (Beck and Liam)

  5.5 - I Do (Jeremy and Nick)

  6 - Promise (Jared and Tristan)

  Happy Reading!

  Stella

  Someday

  From the back cover

  “When you’re around, you’re all I can see.”

  “Someday, my prince will come.”

  Danny is an artist with the best job in the world, creating beautiful things at Delicious, the bakery his best friend owns. The only thing that would make life better is finding his own personal Prince Charming, but despite a life-long addiction to happily-ever-after, Danny doesn’t really hold out much hope for that. He’d rather stay alone than compromise who he is for men who are only interested if he tones down his flamboyant personality.

  “Someday, I’ll find a better life."

  Mace first learned to protect himself while growing up in a harsh foster care system. Serving an unjust prison sentence taught him even more valuable life lessons. Don’t let your feelings show. Trusting people only gets you hurt. It’s okay to want things, just don’t expect to ever actually get them. Now that he’s a free man again, Mace lives by those life lessons, keeping to himself and saving for a better life… even if he has no idea what that better life might end up looking like.

  “It’s you. My better life is you."

  When their paths unexpectedly cross, Mace finds himself questioning everything life has taught him, from his sexuality to the wisdom of trusting someone with his heart, and as the two men get to know each other, Danny’s dreams go to war with his doubts. Actually getting everything he wants sounds like the stuff of fairytales, but sometimes, even in real life, dreams really can come true…

  Someday is a gay romance novel of approximately 71,000 words containing flowers with secret meanings, cookies too pretty to eat, an ex-convict who loves beautiful things, and an artist who knows he can trust in the wisdom of all the princesses who have come before him… and maybe, if he’s lucky, in the man he’s fallen for, too.

  For all my “Sierras”

  1

  Danny

  Danny pinched a couple of dead leaves off the flowers in the hanging basket next to the entrance of Delicious, frowning as he looked it over with a critical eye. It was definitely past its prime. He’d have to try and talk Gavin into giving him a bigger budget to spruce up the front of the bakery now that spring had finally arrived. They were already getting a lot more foot traffic, and flowers were a quick and easy way to decorate.

  Live ones were, at least.

  He rolled his eyes as he pushed open the front door, wishing for the millionth time that he could convince his frugal best friend to put a little more money into beautifying the place. Not that Delicious was an eyesore—God, he wouldn’t be able to stomach working there if Gavin ever let it get to that point—but there was definite room for improvement.

  The cute little bell on the door tinkled as Danny walked in, and Gavin looked up with the wide just-for-customers smile that showed off his dimples. It turned wry when he saw that it was Danny, though, and he shot a pointed look at the clock before turning his attention back to the couple at the counter in front of him. They seemed to be trying to decide between an assortment of the spring-flower cookies Danny had decorated the night before and a dozen cupcakes topped with green sugar-mold leaves. Danny grinned, sure that Gavin would see to it that the customers walked out with both.

  He headed into the back, ignoring the whispered “you’re late” comment as he passed. As far as Danny was concerned, his best friend was far too stressed and uptight about his three-month-old bakery business. So far, Delicious had been a huge success, but he knew that wouldn’t stop Gavin’s chronic tendency to worry about every last detail. Still, Gavin should know better than to let Danny be one of those worries. He would never let Gavin down by missing a shift.

  And besides, he wasn’t technically late, he was just… punctual.

  The bell tinkled again, but it must have been the customers leaving this time rather than new ones coming in, because a moment later Gavin popped back into the prep area.

  “Where did you park?” he asked Danny in lieu of a greeting. “I didn’t see your car out front and you know Sherri asked us not to use the street parking in front of her shop anymore.”

  Sherri, the bubbly owner of Best Dressed, the little retail boutique next door to Delicious, had quickly become one of Danny’s favorite people and he didn’t blame her for being concerned about street parking. The neighborhood had been designed as a walking destination for the upscale new condos that had been built there over the last few years, but that meant that parking spaces were at a premium.

  “Good morning, Gav,” Danny said pointedly, ignoring his friend’s hyper-anxiety as he tied on an apron and started flipping through the stack of orders waiting for him.

  Gavin drummed his fingers on the counter. “One o’clock doesn’t count as morning, Danny. Which, by the way, was the time you were supposed to already be here by.”

  “And here I am, as promised,” Danny answered in a happy sing-song. “And when I promise something, I never, ever break that promise. Ever.” He paused, then shook his head in disappointment when Gavin failed to pick up on his quote. “Rapunzel… from Tangled? No? Okay, whatever. Stop stressing out, Gav, for real. I
’m here, I’m ready to work, and I didn’t park in front of Sherri’s. It’s a nice day, so I walked.”

  Gavin cocked an eyebrow at him, squeezing into the tiny alcove he used as an office. “Walked? So that means you lost your keys again?” he asked, rummaging around on the desk with some boring-looking paperwork.

  “Maybe.” Danny bit back a smile. His friend knew him too well.

  Gavin’s lips twitched and he shook his head. “What is that, like, ten blocks from your apartment? You’d better find them again before the weather turns shitty.”

  Danny laughed. “Shitty? Gavin, hello, spring just started.”

  “I’m talking about winter,” Gavin said with a straight face.

  Danny threw a cookie at him. Unfrosted, because he was being nice. “Have a little faith, Gav,” he said. “You don’t think I’ll be able to find my keys sometime before winter?”

  Gavin grinned, ignoring the cookie. “Remember when you threw your car keys out with the trash back in high school? Or that time you lost them at the lake? We had to get your car towed. Or when—”

  “Whatever,” Danny said, cutting him off with a hand in the air.

  “I’m just saying, you aren’t exactly the most detail-oriented person,” Gavin forged on, ignoring the hand just like he had the cookie as he kept fussing with paperwork. “You know I love you, Danny, but you do have a tendency to... overlook things.”

  “Pfft.” Danny said, fluttering his hand dismissively. “Only the unimportant things. I save my attention for the details that matter. Isn’t that why we keep selling out of my china-and-lace Mother’s Day cookies? Anyway, the keys will turn up, and if I need to drive somewhere in the meantime, I can always borrow your car.”

  “Yeah, no. Sorry,” Gavin said with a laugh, finally emerging from his “office” with a handful of file folders in hand. “But on the bright side, you’ll be putting in about a mile and a half every day and exercise is always a good thing.”

  “Are you saying I’m getting fat?” Danny asked, mock-gasping as he looked down at himself and then back up at Gavin’s twinkling eyes.

  “No,” Gavin said. “But if there were any justice in the world, you would be. I know you think cupcakes are a legitimate food group—”

  “I prefer to think of it as quality control,” Danny interrupted, biting back a smile as he started flipping through the stack of orders he’d be preparing that day. “I take my job seriously, you know.”

  “Well, with the amount of quality you’re controlling, you should be fat,” Gavin said, his dimples peeking through as he oh-so-clearly tried not to smile. “It’s completely unfair that I have to work my ass off at the gym while you get to eat whatever you want.”

  Danny smiled. “Magic exists, if you believe.”

  “Cinderella,” Gavin said dryly, correctly identifying the quote. “You overuse that one.”

  Danny’s smile widened. “It’s a classic… kind of like my genes. And it’s not my fault I have good ones.”

  “Those are good jeans, Danny.”

  Danny hadn’t heard the bell that time and Sherri’s voice from behind made him jump.

  “Your ass looks nice in them,” she added, winking.

  “I know, right?” he said, recovering with a minimum of heart palpitations. He gave her a quick hug as she entered the prep area before turning back to the day’s order slips. There were a couple of custom ones—pink elephant cupcakes for a child’s fourth birthday and four dozen cookies for a baby shower that gave him free rein to design whatever he wanted.

  Carte blanche? Heaven.

  “Good morning, Sherri,” he added belatedly, looking up with a grin.

  Sherri glanced at the clock, then back at Danny. “Does it still count as morning?” she asked, eyes sparkling with mirth.

  “I like to think of morning more as a state of mind than something actually tied to the clock,” Danny said.

  “Well, I’m just glad the clock says I’m in time to catch Gavin before he leaves,” Sherri said agreeably.

  “You’re lucky you caught him. Such a slacker.” Danny teased, grinning over at his workaholic best friend. “Being the boss makes him think he can skip out in the middle of the afternoon.”

  “I thought you were arguing that it was still morning?” Gavin asked, that eyebrow going up again. “But if you’d like afternoons off, just let me know, Danny. I’d be happy to give up the four a.m. prep shift.”

  “Oh, God,” Danny said, groaning at the thought. “Neither one of us would like me if I were here at that ungodly hour.”

  “True,” Gavin agreed… a little too enthusiastically, in Danny’s opinion. “You’re a beast without enough sleep.”

  Also true, so maybe he couldn’t blame Gavin.

  “Oh,” Sherri said, eyes widening as she looked back and forth between the two of them. “Did you two used to…?”

  “God, no,” Danny said.

  “I love Danny,” Gavin said at the same time. “But he’s not my type.”

  “Apparently, I’m not anyone’s type,” Danny said, grimacing before he could help it. Then he rallied, squaring his shoulders. “But someday, my prince will come.”

  “Isn’t that from Snow White?” Sherri asked, her lips twitching.

  Danny smiled. “Thank you for recognizing greatness, honey. You’ve just made me like you even more.”

  “Does this mean that your date with the cop was a no-go?” Gavin asked, frowning.

  “Mm-hmm,” Danny agreed, not meeting his friend’s eyes. He was over it. Totally. “I’m alone,” he added. “But I’m alone and free… no one? Elsa… ?” He sighed as both his friends failed to show their appreciation for Her Frozen Highness’s infinite wisdom. “Let’s just say I ended up spending too much time with my girls over the weekend.”

  “I can tell,” Gavin said, giving him a long-suffering look. And then, to Sherri, “It’s never a good sign when he starts obsessively quoting them.”

  “Whatever,” Danny said, even though he knew it was true. God, that cop had been a real dick. “I was born to be a Disney princess. Where did I go wrong?”

  “I don’t know, princess,” Gavin said, shaking his head with a smile. He glanced at the clock. “But I have to get out of here. I’ve got an appointment at the bank. And I’m guessing you’re going to need my spare keys to lock up tonight?”

  “Oh, God, that’s right,” Danny said, feeling a momentary twinge of guilt at having misplaced his since now they included a copy of the bakery key, too. “I guess I do. Sorry, Gav.” He handed Sherri a cookie he’d frosted with an improved version of her store’s logo while they’d been talking. “I’ll find mine soon, I promise.”

  “Oh my God,” Sherri said, grinning in delight as she looked the cookie over. “How did you do that so quickly, Danny? I should totally change my logo to pastels.”

  “Everything’s better in pastel,” he agreed, organizing his brushes on the prep table. Painting on cookies was the best, and he was already half checking out of the conversation as he started planning the four dozen baby shower cookies from the first order slip.

  “Keys, Danny,” Gavin said, tossing the spare set to him when he looked up.

  Danny caught them and pocketed them.

  “That’s actually what I came to talk to you about, Gavin,” Sherri said, losing her smile. “Are all the store keys accounted for?”

  “Yes?” Gavin said, his voice lilting up in confusion. Then he shook his head. “Well, mine and the spare are, but I guess Danny’s aren’t.”

  “Mine are accounted for,” Danny insisted. “They’re in my apartment.”

  Somewhere.

  Probably.

  Well, no. Definitely...ish.

  “Are you sure?” Sherri asked, her brow crinkling in concern. “Because Hot Leaves was robbed last night.”

  “What?” Danny blurted, shocked. “You mean the tea store?”

  “Oh, shit,” Gavin said, the blood draining from his face. “Is Mallory okay?”
>
  She was the owner of the cute little tea shop across the street.

  Danny looked at his friend’s stricken expression in concern. God, he felt for Mallory for sure, but Gavin really didn’t need something new to stress about. This whole business-ownership thing already had him maxing out his worry quota… which, given that it was Gavin, was already way higher than the average.

  Sherri bit her lip, but nodded. “She’s fine. It happened after hours, so Mallory wasn’t there, thank God. But I guess they made off with all her petty cash and a bunch of electronics.”

  “A break-in?” Gavin asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Jesus. I wouldn’t have expected that in this neighborhood.”

  “That’s the thing, though. It wasn’t a break in,” Sherri said, frowning. “The cops said that the thieves must have had a key, because there was no sign of forced entry. They were questioning Mallory about who else had access to the building, but you know she runs that place by herself.” She shook her head, sighing, and added, “Anyway, I just thought you’d want to know. I’m going to get an alarm system installed at Best Dressed this week, just in case.”

  “Maybe I should look into getting one, too,” Gavin said, worrying his lip between his teeth. “I’ve been thinking about doing it anyway. It’s one more expense, but” —he shot a glance at Danny— “at least that way you could get in with a code instead of needing to hold onto your keys.”

  “So I’m going to have to remember a code now?” Danny asked, rolling his eyes.