by Tasha Blue
THE END
Authors Personal Message:
Hey gorgeous!
I really hope you enjoyed my novel and if you want to see all my other BWWM Pregnancy romances that you can see them all on my Amazon page here :)
Otherwise turn the page to enjoy one final bonus book that I included for your pleasure :)
THE BEST MAN'S
BABY
A BWWM PREGNANCY ROMANCE By..
TASHA BLUE
Summary
It was meant to be one hot steamy night but it became much, much more...
Carla has focused all her adult life on her career rather then relationships and it is not something she usually regrets. However, now she is maid of honor at her best friends wedding and she is beginning to wonder when her future husband will ever arrive.
At the reception, while everyone is full of joy, Carla is feeling more lonely then ever. She is surprised to discover that the incredibly dashing best man Daniel is still single himself. And lonely too.
One drink turns into more then a few and the sexual tension between the two of them reaches its peak once they hit the hotel bedroom.
It was supposed to be a one night stand but 2 months later and Carla finds out she is pregnant and now she has some huge decisions to make. Daniel might have been the best man at the wedding but is he the best man for her baby?
Chapter1
Today more than any other day, Carla was excited to get to the bakery. Her popularity as a specialty cake maker always saw her creating beautiful designs in cream and vanilla, but today she was working on an item with particular significance. Her cousin Diane's wedding was on Sunday and she had asked Carla to make the cake.
Carla stepped into the bakery, smiling and breathed in the delicious scents of marzipan and cocoa, which filled the store. Carla's Cakes had a small shop front with glass cases for cupcakes and small pastries to be displayed, but Carla's workroom was the magnificent kitchen through the door behind the counter.
Her young apprentice and store assistant, Lily, was already behind the counter, organizing the cupcake displays and updating the “flavor of the day’ chalkboard. She was a young woman just out of her teens with long auburn hair and sweet green eyes. Lily smiled often, which is perhaps why the two got along perfectly.
"Good morning, Lily!" Carla said brightly, as she breezed into the bakery that Friday morning. She was an attractive woman with beautiful dark chocolate-colored skin and long, black hair, which she always wore up to expose the slender slope of her neck. She had bright golden brown eyes and they shone even brighter when she smiled, and that was often. Despite her love of cake and pastry, she had a slender figure with generous curves, and her friends told her more than once that if she would only let go of her fears, the path to true love would definitely run smooth, and then she could have her pick of men.
She flashed a smile at her assistant and waved toward the window.
"The display looks great! Are those the chocolate orange or the cocoa-pralines?"
"A few of both."
"Wonderful! Has it been a busy morning?" Carla asked hopefully.
"The usual rush of school children. Abby came by too to have her regular pre-meeting muffin." Lily told her conversationally.
"Well, she's eating for two now." Carla reminded her.
"She doesn't look like it." Lily said wistfully, patting her own stomach meaningfully.
"She never stops eating and doesn't gain a pound. You know, she came in here last week, ordered a family-size box of éclairs and ate every one while we were talking. Then she bought another box because she was supposed to be taking them to a family party!"
"Well, at least she's keeping us in business," Carla laughed. She cast her eyes around the storefront and, seeing that it was empty, she beckoned Lily to follow her into the kitchen. Lily's eyes lit up in expectation and she eagerly followed Carla into the back of the bakery.
"Are you going to teach me how to do the icing drops?" Lily asked with eager anticipation. Her eyes were wide and hopeful like a child on Christmas morning and she looked at Carla with utter excitement. Carla spoke to her like an affectionate mother to her excitable daughter.
"Not today." she chuckled. "Today I want to show you how to prepare the toppers for a wedding cake. Have you been practicing your sugar craft?"
"I have made so many sugar petals and candied almonds that Pete says it feels like we're living in a gingerbread house." Lily laughed. "I've been practicing molding with clay, but I've been dying to get my hands on some icing."
"Well, here is the design." Carla told her. Her voice took on a careful and conscientious tone as she began to teach. She was a natural tutor; patient and encouraging, and she showed Lily a picture of a cake topper of a bride and groom wearing roller skates…. the bride holding out an arm to help the groom up on his feet.
Lily laughed. "What's the story behind that?"
"Diane and Cliff's first date was at a roller rink,” Carla explained. "Cliff was terrible at it and fell over a thousand times, which Diane thought was adorable and the rest is history, I guess."
"That's so sweet." Lily said with a romantic sigh. "I love weddings."
The apprentice leaned back against the counter with dreamy eyes, as she got lost in her romantic thoughts. Carla had to draw her back quickly before her student daydreamed the morning away.
"Where did Pete take you on your first date?" Carla asked her.
"To a dive bar." Lily recalled with a giggle. "He'd never been to that part of town before and thought it looked nice from the outside. We went in and it was full of bikers playing poker and drunks passed out on benches."
"Oh wow." Carla chuckled. "Did you get right out of there?"
"No, we stayed to drink and it was awesome." Lily told her. "After a few shots, we were playing poker ourselves and then Pete walked me home. He was so drunk he could barely stand up straight, but then I was pretty trashed myself. He ended up back at my place because he could not slur out his address to the cab driver. He crashed on the couch and I woke up the next morning to breakfast in bed and flowers. He said he was so sorry to have embarrassed himself, but I just laughed and told him we had fun. He stayed the whole day and we just couldn't stop talking.
We just clicked, you know? He's gotten better at choosing date locations now, but I'll always remember that dive bar as a great laugh. I've said before that I want our wedding reception there, just because it's such a great memory."
"Do you think there's any chance he's going to pop the question soon?" Carla asked with anticipation. "How long have you been together now?"
"Three years." Lily said. "It feels like for-ever." She dragged the words out slowly and squeezed at a tube of writing icing restlessly. Lily was like an eternal teenager, always impatient to take the next big step and getting lost in naive daydreams about how perfect everything would be when all her dreams came true in the future, without really paying much attention to the present.
"Do you think he will ask?" Carla wondered, looking at her.
"I don't know." Lily confessed with a dramatic sigh. She paced up and down the kitchen with that youthful agitation she always carried which made Carla feel dizzy from watching her. "I think he wants to get through med school first before we think about anything like that."
"That makes sense." Carla agreed.
"I just get so impatient!" Lily told her. She smoothed some molding chocolate over a polystyrene figure just like Carla was doing, and then picked up a sculpting scalpel to begin to work the chocolate into the shape of a hapless groom while Carla worked on the bride. Her eyes followed the movements of Carla's hands carefully and Carla watched over her attentively, gently offering her advice here and there and then continuing with the conversation.
"He'll get there in the end," Carla assured her in a motherly fashion.
"And what about you?" Lily asked with interest. "It's been a while since we last discussed your love life."
Carla laughed. "My
love life?" she repeated. "I'm not looking for anything right now."
"Why not?" Lily insisted. "You're a stunner. You should be fighting them off!"
"I'm not holding back." Carla denied. "I'm simply waiting for the right time. I'm waiting for it to find me. I know too many women who just rush into relationships before they have their own lives figured out and they end up stuck under their husbands' thumbs, wishing they had held onto their independence longer."
Lily giggled at her words. "You make it sound like marriage is a prison sentence!" she said. "It's not like you have to choose between your own happiness and your husband's, it's about choosing a husband that makes you happy."
"I know." Carla sighed. Lily's youthful optimism was nice, but Carla was more reserved in her own expectations for love. "I'm sure my time will come, but even if it never does, I'm still doing very well on my own."
Carla liked to think that she believed in love, but in truth, she was a bit disillusioned with the idea of romance. Her parents had divorced when she was very young, which had broken her heart, and then she had a string of bad boyfriends who had cheated on her and disappointed her, which had left her with no real desire to dive back into the dating world and begin it all over again. She saw other people falling in love all the time; she made their wedding cakes, but her own love life was way off track.
"Weddings are a great place to meet people." Lily told her pointedly. "My sister met her husband at a wedding. It's basically speed dating."
Carla laughed. "Is it?"
"Sure it is." Lily insisted. "There's romance in the air; music, dancing, too much alcohol. It's the perfect mix for singles."
"Well, I'll look forward to that." Carla joked. "It's been so long since I went to a wedding. I was a flower girl for my aunt when I was six and then there were a whole bunch a few years ago when everyone started to hit twenty-five. It's like the magic age to settle down."
"How old are you, again?" Lily asked, cocking her head to one side and narrowing her eyes as though she were trying to figure it out. Her scrutiny made Carla's cheeks get warm and she felt as if she were about a hundred, although there was barely eight years between them.
"Twenty-eight."
Lily made a face before she could stop herself, but Carla couldn't take offense. Lily was barely out of high school, and for her being two years from thirty seemed a lifetime away. Yet, she already had a partner and was thinking about marriage. It made Carla feel like she'd missed the boat, but her apprentice noticed her downcast expression and quickly jumped in to backtrack her words.
"Then again, who wants to get tied down young?" she asked her positively. "You know, you're right. You're an ambitious person. You can rock it on your own."
"You know, when I was younger, I was always looking for a boyfriend and jealous when my friends had guys and I didn't, but once I discovered the baking and started to build my own business, all that feeling like I needed to rush into meeting someone just disappeared." Carla told her. "I've got so many things to focus on now, so much to do for myself; I really don't have the time to give my attention to anyone else right now."
Even as Carla said it, she felt like she was perhaps trying to convince herself a little, too. In truth, she was a very happy person. She built her bakery from scratch after years of teaching herself how to bake and refining her skills so that she could create pure works of art from sugar and butter and had found that she was a natural businesswoman whose friendly nature and constant bright smile drew people to her and her work.
Still, she was a hot-blooded woman just like any other, and there were days when she closed up shop and gone home that she crawled into bed alone and felt like frosting hadn't quite filled a void in her that day.
"I was the other way around." Lily said. "I didn't care about guys at all until I met Pete and then suddenly I had tunnel vision. I'm crazy about him now.”
"You guys are so good together." Carla said.
"I should set you up." Lily said mischievously. "Tell me, Carla, what's your type?"
"My type?"
"Yeah, your type; tall, short, stocky, skinny, dark, fair, old, young? Your type?"
"Well, I suppose I like tall men." Carla admitted after a moment's pause. "I like men with nice hair and eyes, but most importantly, I like a man who can make me laugh; make me feel at ease, you know?"
"That is super vague." Lily teased. She began to get into the morning gossip and spoke like a glamor magazine's advice columnist as she carried on chatting with her boss.
“You like a tall man who has ‘nice’ hair and ‘nice’ eyes. If that's it then it shouldn't be any problem at all for you to find a man."
"He also needs to be able to fit into my life." Carla told her after more consideration. "So many men just want you to drop everything for them. They're not looking for a partner. They're looking for a cheerleader or some arm candy or something. I don't want to be that person. I want a man who sees me and the life I've built for myself and loves it all. I don't want a man who is going to get sulky and jealous because I have to prioritize work or who zones out when I tell him about my new flavors.
I want someone to share my excitement and enthusiasm and not put a downer on it. I also want to be that supportive for someone else. I want to meet a man who captivates me. I want to enjoy his company and smile when he tells me about his work because I can see how much passion is in him. I just want someone who clicks."
"That's all you want?" Lily grinned. "A tall man with nice hair and eyes who likes cake? That's, like, all men."
Carla nudged her playfully and leaned over her shoulder to look at her apprentice's work. She gave her some guidance on how to better shape the molding chocolate and they giggled over trying to find a way to make tiny icing roller skates seem authentic. Finally, after a couple of hours of labor, they had produced the perfect comical cake topper. Lily held it up to the light with pride.
"My first cake topper!" she announced. The bride's head was lopsided and her veil askew, which Carla would secretly fix later, but the baker was pleased that all her teaching had paid off and she loved to see Lily get excited about their work.
"You did a great job." Carla praised. "You'll be running this place before I know it."
Lily smiled. Carla had taken her under her wing when Lily had been eighteen and at a loose end in life. She had just lost her mother to illness, was butting heads with her father, and simply didn't know what to do with herself.
Carla had begun speaking to her in an online baking advice forum and soon they'd started chatting on instant messengers. When Carla had found out that Lily lived nearby, she invited her at once to spend a day at the bakery for a trial day and just like that, Lily had fallen into her dream job as an apprentice to the best baker in town. She owed Carla a lot not only as an employer but also as a loyal friend and mentor.
"I'll miss you if you ever move on," Lily told her sincerely. Her lips formed into a heavy pout at the idea. "I know you want to expand and have Carla's Cakes all over the place, but it won't be the same here without you."
"Oh, you'll do just fine without me." Carla comforted. "You're great at what you do. I'm always amazed by how quickly you pick up new techniques. Soon you'll be teaching me. If I ever open up a new store you can be sure that I'll be leaving you in charge here."
"You'd trust me with that?" Lily said with disbelief. She tugged at the strings of her apron in a childlike display of hope and looked up at Carla with eyes that were beginning to glaze over as another daydream came to the young apprentice's mind.
"Of course I would, Lily." Carla smiled warmly. "You're my protégée."
Carla had felt an instant connection to Lily when she had begun speaking to her on that online forum. They had begun their friendship talking about icing techniques and cake pops, but once they had started to message outside the forum, Carla had learned that Lily had been through a lot in that last year and she had been so glad that she'd been able to do something to help.
S
he never regretted it for an instant. Not only was Lily an excellent baker, but she was that encouraging voice at the other end of the phone line after bad news and a shoulder to cry on, even if she was that much younger.
"I want you to do the cake for mine and Pete's wedding, if it ever comes." Lily told her. "I want a cake topper that has us both lying on a poker table with passed out bikers all around and rainbow sponge cake inside the frosting."
"That would get people talking." Carla laughed. She put the cake topper into the walk-in refrigerator and then began to pull out the ingredients for a fresh bunch of cinnamon sultana drops, while Lily popped out to the front of the shop to prepare for the lunchtime rush hour.
Carla thought over their conversation as she whisked together eggs and flour in a bowl. She had been wondering herself lately, if perhaps it was time to seek out a man in her life, but the thought of online dating or cheesy speed dating at a local community center made her cringe.
In a perfect world, she would meet the man of her dreams completely unexpectedly and there would be no drama, no heartbreak, and everything would just come together as though it had always been planned to happen that way. She sighed. The world was not so perfect. If she wanted to meet someone, she had to put herself out there.
The idea was intimidating, at least a little, but as she thought about it, the scent in the air caught her attention. She brought her mind back to what she was doing and focused on her work in the kitchen. After the fresh batch was done, Carla took off her apron and returned to the front of the store to help Lily serve the rush of customers that always arrived for lunch hour. Most were regulars who came in daily from the office block across the street for an afternoon pick-me-up and many had become friends.
