The Delicious Series: The First Volume

by Stella Starling

  “Please,” Gavin said, one of his dimples almost peeking out despite his obvious worry. “If you can pull out a Disney princess quote for every occasion, I think you’ll be able to remember a few digits.”

  Danny waved a pastry brush at the array of decorating supplies laid out in front of him. “I only focus on the important things.”

  Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. “Doesn’t Delicious give you a paycheck every week? I’d say that’s pretty important.”

  True, but—

  “Beauty is more important than money.”

  Gavin’s eyebrows went up. “So my lifelong dream isn’t important?”

  Danny held back another eye roll, trying not to laugh. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “Besides, where else could you spend all day getting paid to decorate things?” Gavin asked, lips twitching with humor.

  “Good point,” Danny conceded with a grin. “Fine. I’ll find a way to remember the damn code.”

  “We’ll make it something easy, I promise,” Gavin said with a laugh before glancing over at the clock again. “But now I really have to get going. Thanks for stopping in to tell us, though, Sherri.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” she said.

  Gavin turned back to Danny for a second. “Can you get started on the butterflies for the Simpson-Cornwall wedding next week? I know we’ve got time, but I don’t want anything to go wrong since it’s such a big order. I prepped all the cookies for you this morning.”

  Danny nodded absently, fishing his earbuds out of his pocket with his mind already drifting back to baby shower designs.

  “Danny,” Gavin said, giving the earbuds a pointed look. “You need to listen for customers until Brandon gets in.”

  Brandon was the high-school kid who covered the front counter in the afternoons.

  “Right,” Danny said, tucking them away again.

  “And I’m expecting a UPS delivery later,” Gavin added. “It’s the new stand mixer you wanted. I was hoping it would come before I left.” His face broke into a wicked smile. “I hear the new delivery driver is hot.”

  Danny grimaced, hating to burst his friend’s bubble. “I’ve met him, Gav, but trust me, you don’t want to go there. He’s in every afternoon to pick up our online orders, and God, he’s seriously too much. Last week he offered to come back after we closed so I could have the honor of blowing him.” Danny rolled his eyes. “Not that he isn’t a romantic,” he added sarcastically. “He made it clear that he’d also consider taking me out on a real date if I ‘toned it down’ a bit.”

  Gavin’s eyebrows drew together in a frown.

  “I’ve met that guy. What an asshole,” Sherri said, frowning. “He’s been sniffing around Mallory, too. She told me they went out the other night.”

  “So, he’s bi?” Gavin asked.

  “And a player,” Sherri added.

  “Not to mention just ew,” Danny threw in.

  “Well, there goes that dream,” Gavin said, not sounding all that heartbroken. “But do listen for the bell, okay, Danny? You don’t have to do the UPS driver, just sign for the mixer when he shows up.”

  “That I can do,” Danny promised, shooing the two of them off. “Now go already, these cookies aren’t going to decorate themselves. Even miracles take time.”

  “Cinderella,” Gavin called back as the little bell on the front door announced their departure.

  Danny grinned, then forgot about his friends as he got into the zone, lost in the joys of mixing shades of blue for the baby shower order. He was making art. Getting paid to make art, as Gavin had pointed out. And even if he had to do it without a soundtrack, that still meant that Danny had the very best job in the world.

  Danny didn’t usually bother with a lunch break, but after the UPS delivery finally came, he’d decided he needed to get out for a bit and shake off the aftereffects of having to put up with the smarmy driver again. “Tad,” the man had introduced himself as this time, leaning across the counter and looking Danny up and down like he was one of the pastries for sale.

  God. “Ew” was seriously not even strong enough.

  Yes, objectively, the man was hot, but there was just something about him that turned Danny off… and that was even before Tad had made it clear that he only considered Danny good enough for a back-room blowjob the week before.

  But whatever, the day was too nice to worry about that. As soon as Brandon had shown up for work, Danny had grabbed his phone, earbuds, and sketchpad and headed out. He’d also tucked a couple of cupcakes into one of the cute little bags Gavin had recently ordered with the Delicious logo on the front, deciding he was entitled to ignore Gavin’s earlier comment about his eating habits.

  The spring day was gorgeous, and thinking of the line of cookies he’d started decorating as realistic-looking spring flowers, he decided to walk over to nearby Woodward Park. So far he’d just done the classics—tulips, daffodils, and crocuses—and they’d been selling like hotcakes, but the botanical gardens in the gorgeous forty-five-acre public space would offer plenty of inspiration for other varieties, too. And bonus: as long as Danny spent his lunch hour sketching, he could avoid feeling guilty about taking a little extra time away from the bakery.

  Not that Gavin would begrudge him the break, of course. And, despite their banter that morning, Danny really did know how much the success of the bakery meant to his friend. Sure, he’d enjoy sketching, but he’d also use it to fuel his creativity at the bakery. After all, while he couldn’t understand wanting to be tied to something as complicated as a small business himself, he was more than happy to throw everything he had into helping make the Gavin’s dream come true… especially since Gavin’s dream allowed Danny to do his favorite thing in the world.

  God, there really wasn’t anything better than getting to make beautiful things every day.

  Firming his resolve to make it into a working lunch, Danny made a beeline for the rose garden. Roses weren’t his favorite flowers—too overdone, in his opinion—but with wedding season coming, he could easily imagine a dozen ways to work the classic flowers into some decorating themes that would add to the bakery’s bottom line. He figured he could sketch a few in different stages of bloom, then see if he could put together some ideas for Gavin.

  The rose garden was virtually empty—another perk of being able to stop by in the middle of the working day—and even if it wasn’t Danny’s favorite area of the park, it was still pretty glorious to walk through with the sun shining down and the flowers perfuming the air around him. Other than himself, there were just a few couples taking pictures, one mother with a couple of small children in tow, and a couple of gardeners working at keeping the flowering plants confined to their geometrically perfect flower beds. The highly structured setting was one of the reasons Danny generally avoided the rose garden. He much preferred the sprawling profusion of plants in other areas of the park, but—

  Well, hello.

  Danny had been lost in his own thoughts as he wandered through the manicured area, letting his gaze roam over the different varieties of roses in the hope of finding some that would inspire him to want to sit down and draw them, but now he’d ended up near one of the gardeners, and the man was most definitely... inspirational.

  There was a low bench just off the path, conveniently placed with a perfect view of the… flowers… and Danny set his earbuds and the bag from Delicious down on the warm stone surface, folding his legs under him as he settled in to sketch. The roses may have been too far from the bench to actually see the level of detail he’d been hoping to capture, but he was perfectly content to work on improving his mastery of drawing the human form for a while instead.

  Especially this particular human form.

  Danny nibbled on his lip, his heart inexplicably beating a little faster. The man in front of him didn’t look like what he would expect for a gardener. He was big, easily a head taller than Danny, and probably sixty pounds heavier. It was quite obviously sixty pounds of p
ure muscle, too, the kind that was all hard planes and interesting contours and made Danny want to know what it would feel like to be pinned down underneath it.

  A little sigh of longing escaped before he could catch it, and he craned his head to try to get a better view of the tattoo whose edge was peeking out from under the short sleeve of the man’s khaki “Tulsa Parks” shirt.

  Hot Gardener didn’t seem to notice Danny at all.

  Probably for the best.

  Blatantly ogling the formidable-looking man was probably not the smartest move Danny had ever made, but the day was too nice to feel all that concerned about it. And flowers, right? There were flowers to be drawn, which was a legitimate excuse to be staring in Hot Gardener’s general direction. Besides, even if the man noticed Danny’s attention and took offense, he was a park employee. It wasn’t like he would do anything about it while he was working, and it wasn’t like Danny was ever going to run into the gardener when he was out of uniform.

  Although—God—that was another inspirational thought in and of itself.

  Danny’s pencil skimmed over the page as his mind took that idea and ran with it, letting it guide his hand even as it filled his imagination. It had been far too long since he’d been naked with another man. He’d foolishly let himself get his hopes up about the cop who’d asked him out the week before... until it had become clear that by “out,” the man had actually meant “in.”

  In his pants.

  In his bedroom.

  In the back of his police cruiser.

  The cop hadn’t been picky, other than wanting to fuck Danny out of sight of anyone who might have actually seen the two of them together, of course. God, it was depressing to always be attracted to exactly the type of guy who found him too femme to be seen with.

  Like, no doubt, this guy one would.

  Except, of course, not really this guy. Danny would put money on the hot gardener being straight… but a boy could dream, right? And if he wanted to be ridiculously optimistic about it, like his favorite princess said, if you kept on believing, the dream that you wished for could really come true.

  Or... not.

  The tip snapped off his pencil, and Danny stifled a sigh, fishing out another one. Unfortunately, dreams in real life didn’t work out the way they did for princesses. Still, he could get some mileage from the fantasy, right?

  He’d already filled a handful of pages with rough sketches of the gorgeous man tending to the roses in front of him, but he flipped over to a fresh one, deciding to go for a different angle. The sketches were his fantasy, after all, so he could do whatever he wanted with them, and what he wanted was to see the man naked, just as he’d been sketching… but preferably looking down at Danny while Danny sucked him off.

  That would be truly inspirational.

  He tipped his head to the side, trying to get a better view of Hot Gardener’s face, and the man must have felt Danny’s gaze, because he obligingly turned and met his eyes for a split second, making Danny’s breath hitch.

  Just… wow. He really was gorgeous.

  Danny felt his cheeks heat, unable to look away, but the other man didn’t so much as crack a smile before turning his attention back to the roses in front of him. Danny quickly looked back down and got to work, biting his lip to hold in a nervous laugh at the thought of how completely screwed he would be if the guy were to catch sight of what he was drawing. He’d taken enough anatomy classes during art school to be able to draw what was probably a pretty realistic version of the man’s naked body based on the way his muscles moved and shifted under the almost-too-tight park uniform. But since he’d never know for sure—and again, Danny’s fantasy, Danny’s rules—he went ahead and embellished it to fit the way he hoped the man would look naked.

  He peeked up a few times as he sketched, trying again to decipher what the tattoo could be, but it was too well hidden to be able to tell. Which was perfect, really, since it gave his imagination free rein to cover the man in whatever designs he wanted.

  And why not… flowers?

  The thought made him laugh out loud, but it was just too perfect. They were everywhere, and Danny had promised himself that he’d sketch some while he was at the park, right? True, he hadn’t expected to be drawing them as embellishments on such a ridiculously hot body, but art always benefited from improvisation. Later, he could add color and shading to the paper, bringing the gorgeous blooms that he covered the man’s sketched chest and arms with to vibrant life. At some point, he’d even talk Gavin into letting him recreate them with sugar and frosting.

  The flowers, of course, not the man.

  But still, Danny would get a kick out of knowing just how “delicious” the true inspiration for the new flower line he was envisioning really was.

  He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up in time to see the second gardener—not nearly as attractive as his gardener—approaching the hot one. The other guy said something in a low voice, glancing over at Danny with a smirk, and his fantasy man met his eyes for the second time, his previously expressionless face now marred by an angry scowl.

  And… that was reality for you.

  Danny sighed, the day suddenly a little less bright. Hot Gardener had caught him looking, and he was quite obviously not happy about it. Danny would take that as his cue to pack up his fantasies and leave.

  He tucked his sketch pad under his arm and grabbed the Delicious bag off the stone bench. It was past time to get back to the bakery, anyway.

  2

  Mace

  “I’d do her in a heartbeat,” Jerry whispered, elbowing Mace in the ribs as they entered the rose garden.

  Mace flicked his eyes toward the young mother Jerry was leering at, subtly shifting away from his coworker to avoid any more of Jerry’s unnecessary touching. The woman was pretty enough. Light-haired and curvy, she reminded him a little bit of Kelsie… not that he could ever imagine his ex looking quite so happy with two small children in tow. Growing up the way they had, she’d always been adamant that she’d never saddle herself with kids.

  “What do you think Mason? You like blondes?” Jerry asked, his lips lifting in a smirk as he added, “Although look at those kids, huh? Hair that black either means she’s not really a blonde or she likes to fuck guys who aren’t.” Jerry ran a hand through his own dark hair, not waiting for Mace’s answer. “I’m hoping for option two, yeah? Gonna take the terrace next to her and enjoy the view.”

  He ambled off, much to Mace’s relief. They hadn’t worked together long, but he’d already discovered that Jerry liked to shirk his responsibilities whenever he saw a way to do so and did a half-assed job on the tasks he couldn’t find a way to get out of it.

  Mace didn’t like him, nor did he appreciate what passed for the other man’s sense of humor. Not that there was any point letting Jerry know either of those things, of course. It was always easiest just to stay quiet. Unlike most people, though, Jerry didn’t seem to take the hint when Mace kept to himself or mind the fact that he never responded to Jerry’s constant running commentary about the park’s visitors. If anything, he seemed to take it as an invitation to fill the silence. But that didn’t matter. Mace had had to put up with a lot worse in the past, and having to tune Jerry out seemed a small price to pay for the other benefits of the job.

  Part of his fucked-up prison sentence had included doing community service hours for the parks and recreation department, and once he’d been released, he’d applied for a full-time position with the horticulture department. Mace liked the fact that the job let him work outdoors making things beautiful almost as much as he liked that people generally left him alone while he did it.

  Well, people other than Jerry, at least.

  The park was quiet today, as it usually was on Mondays. Besides the woman Jerry was ogling, the rose garden was empty other than some couples posing for photos. Mace had already noticed and dismissed them, even though a part of his brain automatically kept tabs on anyone near him.
It wasn’t that he actually thought anyone at the park would be a threat, but the lifelong habit was too deeply ingrained to stop.

  By the time he’d been seven years old, Mace had perfected the art of watching people without making his observation obvious. It had taken him a few more years to learn to keep the effects of those observations off his face, but he’d eventually mastered that, as well. Both skills had been a necessary, protective shield—both foster care when he’d been younger and, more recently, in prison—and with the notable exceptions of Kelsie and Trevor, his constant attentiveness and ability to read people also meant that people rarely surprised him.

  They also rarely captured his attention for more than the few moments it took to assess and dismiss them... which was why the little slip of a man who burst into the garden like a ray of sunshine caught Mace off guard. The newcomer was brighter than the flowers that surrounded him. Not just the pink shirt and platinum hair and colorful book he carried, but the way he bounced when he walked and seemed to sort of... glow, like he was lit up from within. There was a whisper of a smile constantly playing over his lips from the moment he entered the rose garden, and tiny snippets of laughter kept sneaking past those lips once he sat down and started drawing in his book.

  He was too pretty.

  Too… everything.

  The guy never would have survived in Mace’s old neighborhood, and the thought had Mace bristling protectively even though that neighborhood was miles away, eyeing the other people wandering the gardens again to see if they’d taken notice of the pretty man, too. But no one else seemed to be paying attention to the bubbling little fountain of sunshine sketching on the bench… unlike Mace. He was filled with a buzzing awareness that made it impossible to put his attention anywhere else, as if every nerve ending in his body had suddenly woken up the minute the other man had come near, and even though he was almost done deadheading the American Beauties in front of him, he couldn’t bring himself to move away.