Forking Around (Hot Cakes Book 2)

by Erin Nicholas

  “Yep. Never seen him before.”

  “He didn’t tell you his name when you introduced yourself?” Jane prompted.

  “Nope. He stared at me for a few seconds then asked if I was Zoe. When I said, “No, I’m Josie,” he turned on his heel and walked out the door.” She finally looked up. “And that all sounds pretty stupid when I tell the story out loud.”

  “He didn’t even tell you his name?” Jane asked. This was a crazy story, but for some reason she was grinning. Maybe because Josie actually looked a little starry eyed about the whole thing.

  “He didn’t. When I said I wasn’t Zoe, he walked out. Not another word.” Josie sighed. “He had a great, low voice too.”

  Jane shook her head. “Wow, you’re half in love with a guy who said like a dozen words to you and walked out? That’s pretty rude, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. It was weird,” Josie agreed. “But there was something about the way he looked at me.”

  Jane arched her brows.

  “But… you were humming,” Zoe said, looking puzzled. “Why were you humming?”

  “Because whenever I think of it, I smile,” Josie said. “And because of the tingles.”

  The last two words were almost too quiet to hear.

  “The tingles?” Jane pressed. “He gave you tingles.”

  “Major tingles,” Josie confirmed. “And I swear he must have felt something too. He let go of me super quick, like he’d gotten shocked or something.”

  “Why are you so enamored with this guy?” Zoe asked.

  Josie shrugged. “It was the most romantic thing to happen to me in a very long time.”

  “That was romantic?” Zoe demanded. “He kept you from breaking your neck and then asked for me and walked out?”

  “I can’t explain it,” Josie said. “It was just a moment.”

  Jane caught Zoe’s eyes and gave her a little head shake. Josie was a sweetheart and a romantic. There was nothing wrong with that. The guy was a stranger, probably stopping by to try to sell Zoe some new cake pans or something. Josie would never see him again, so it didn’t really matter if they’d had a moment.

  “Hey, Jane, there’s someone here to see you,” Maggie, Zoe’s mom, said, popping her head into the kitchen.

  Jane felt her heart flip. Dax was here. She had to admit, she kind of understood where Josie was coming from. Sometimes there were just moments. Simple chemistry. Even before they’d had sex in her car, there were definitely moments where Dax made her hum. Or would have if she were the humming type.

  “Thanks, I’ll be right up.”

  “Oh, I have to see this,” Zoe said, setting the full-sized pie she was wrapping on the worktable and wiping her hands.

  “See what?” Jane asked, starting for the door.

  “You in love,” Josie said, sliding off the stool. “We’ve never seen that before.”

  Well, she had a point.

  11

  He’d dreamed of Jane last night.

  That didn’t surprise him. He’d absolutely gone to bed with her on his mind.

  What did surprise him was that the dreams didn’t include her naked and bent over the sofa in the living room of his suite, or her naked and on her knees in front of him in the shower, or her naked and tangled up in the sheets on his king-sized bed.

  She wasn’t naked in his dreams at all.

  She was sitting at a big table, somewhere outside—the place didn’t look familiar—with people from Hot Cakes and her sister and stepsister and Zoe and Aiden and Josie and Piper and Ollie and Grant and Cam. And Dax’s father.

  They had all been there, sitting around a big table laden with food and drinks. They’d all been just talking and laughing.

  Then he’d come to the table, carrying a tray of strawberry pies and had passed them out before bending and kissing Jane and then taking his seat next to her.

  They’d basically been hosting a dinner party for all the people in their life. As a couple.

  It was the most normal, almost boring, dream he’d ever had. And he’d awakened from it feeling happy and in the best mood he’d been in for a while. Which was saying something. He was generally in a good mood.

  Then when he’d looked at the clock beside his bed and saw it was only 7 a.m.—thirty minutes before his alarm was set to go off—he was even further convinced Jane was magical.

  So he’d been whistling when he stepped into Buttered Up at ten to eight.

  “Oh my God, are you sick or something?” Jane asked, coming through the door from the kitchen.

  He moved to the end of the bakery case. Jane came around in front of the case, and Zoe and Josie stopped just behind it. An older woman and man were serving the customers at the register.

  “I feel amazing.” Dax slipped an arm around Jane’s waist and kissed her temple.

  She gave him a big, wide-eyed stare that clearly said, “What the hell?”

  “Good morning,” he said with a grin, unconcerned about her reaction.

  She put her elbow against his side, trying to push him away. He laughed and dropped his arm.

  “’Morning, Dax,” Josie said, looking back and forth between them curiously.

  He liked that having a man kiss Jane publicly seemed unusual. “Good morning, Josie,” he said. “How are you?”

  “I’m great. And you?”

  “I’ve never been better.” He looked down at Jane. “Seriously.” He wanted her to see his sincerity too. He was a well-known goofball, but he was crazy about her, and he wanted her to know he meant that with everything in him.

  “I heard a rumor about you,” Josie said, putting three lemon-poppyseed muffins into a carryout box and passing them to the man who was helping the customers.

  “Oh?”

  “I heard you’re no longer an owner at Hot Cakes,” she said.

  “Oh, that’s true. Feel free to spread it around,” he confirmed.

  “Really?” Josie cast a glance at Jane. “So it’s not a secret either?”

  “Of course not,” Dax said.

  “Are we also allowed to talk about the reason for it?” Josie asked.

  “No.”

  “Sure.”

  Jane and Dax spoke at the same time, then looked at each other.

  “You’re not going to tell everyone why you are thinking about giving up your shares,” Jane said. She narrowed her eyes. “Unless there’s a reason other than the one you told me about last night.”

  “You,” Dax said. “You are the reason. The only one. And I’m not thinking about it. I did it.”

  She swallowed hard, and when Dax glanced at her two best friends, they were both watching with huge smiles.

  “You can’t tell everyone that,” Jane said, lowering her voice. “You shouldn’t really tell people you’re giving up your shares at all.”

  “Why not?” Dax and Josie were the ones speaking simultaneously this time.

  “Because when it doesn’t work out and you buy those shares back, everyone will know, and that will require even more explanation,” Jane said.

  Dax turned to face her more fully. “I have no reason to believe it’s not going to work out.”

  “You live in Chicago.”

  “For now,” he agreed.

  “We’re very different.”

  “In wonderful ways,” he said.

  “You don’t want to be a part of my crazy life long term, Dax.”

  “I think I do, actually.”

  “One night with the girls and you’re so confident.”

  Dax laughed. “Admit it. The way I handled them was at least thirty percent of why you got naked with me in your car last night.”

  Jane gave a squeak-cough and looked at her friends again.

  “Your car?” Zoe said. “You left that detail out.”

  Dax grinned down at Jane. “You told them the naked part though?”

  Jane rolled her eyes as Josie confirmed, “Oh yes.”

  Jane shook her head and looked at him again. “Ma
ybe you saving me from Kelsey and Aspen’s dramatics was the whole reason the car happened.”

  “Nah,” he said with a shake of his head. “You’ve been wanting to get into my pants since we first met.”

  Zoe laughed and Josie said, “Yeah, I saw you two at Granny’s together, remember? The naked-in-your-car thing was just waiting to happen.”

  Dax gave Jane a smug grin. “And don’t try to tell me I got you all softened up with the ice cream, because you were giving me that look when you saw me leaning against your car at Hot Cakes.”

  “I was not.” Jane’s cheeks were a little pink.

  And she didn’t ask what look? She totally knew. Dax grinned. “You totally were.”

  She shook her head. “So we’ll just move into my tiny apartment together, and you’ll do your video game stuff from my kitchen table?”

  He shrugged. “Or we can buy a house. Or build one. Or I could rent some office space.”

  Honestly, if her entire protest was the size of her kitchen, he was so in.

  “You’re really going to have to throw me harder challenges than that,” he said.

  “How about I don’t like gummy bears or beanbag chairs and refuse to paint even a single wall in my home yellow?” she asked, crossing her arms.

  “All the more reason for me to rent office space,” he agreed.

  “Like I might never let you have gummy bears in my house.”

  He shrugged. “I can make you like gummy bears.”

  “No, you can’t.”

  He gave her a look. A look that was full of all the dirty thoughts he was having about her and his favorite candy. “Dare me.”

  She cleared her throat.

  “But an office somewhere downtown will be better anyway,” he said, letting her off the hook. Kind of. They were going to come back to this conversation at some point.

  “Because you can’t be left alone all day?” Jane asked. “You’ll be bored or get into trouble?”

  “Or both,” he agreed. “I’d rather have an office where people might come in and where I can pop out for lunch.” Even as he spoke, he could imagine an office with a huge front window where he could watch the traffic and wave to people walking by. “I could put a cappuccino machine in and have a candy bar there,” he said. “I’d encourage all the local businesspeople to stop by to chat and grab some candy or coffee.”

  “Ahem,” Zoe said. “I sell coffee. You can’t have free cappuccino in your office just because you might get lonely.”

  He grinned at her. “I guess I can just pop in here whenever I get bored.”

  Zoe smiled even as she arched a brow. “And that would be, what, three or four times a day?”

  “Oh, way more than that.”

  She laughed. “Maybe you could rent an office at Hot Cakes. Then you could have Aiden and whoever else around to talk to.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe they could move down here. That would make Hot Cakes more a part of the local business scene, right? We’d mingle with the other people who make this town work. And that will help out some local business owner who has space they need to fill.”

  “You don’t think management should be on scene at the factory?” Jane asked. Then she shook her head. “You know what? Never mind. Having management off-site might be great.”

  He laughed. “And if I’m based here, we can actually put together that gaming conference here those friends of Kelsey and Aspen’s were interested in. That would be a big boon to the town and local economy.” He started to nod as the idea took shape. “Yeah, great idea. I’ll have to hand a lot of it off to Ollie. These big plans are his thing.” That would also keep his friend in town longer. Dax would miss Ollie the most if he were back in Chicago. “We’ll leave our headquarters in Chicago, but this can be a second location for Fluke Inc.” He grinned at her. “Thanks for the great idea, Jane. That’s awesome. When should I bring my stuff over to your place? That will really cut down on my drive time too.”

  She was just staring at him. Then she looked at her friends.

  Zoe held up a hand and shook her head. “Don’t look at me. Aiden walked back in here day one saying we were going to get married, and I thought he was nuts, but look at me now.”

  Yeah, now she was madly in love, happy, and engaged to be married.

  “Can you put a few strawberry muffins in a bag and on my tab?” Jane asked, completely changing the subject from moving in together. “We need to go.”

  “Of course.” Josie wiggled her eyebrows at Jane and Dax laughed.

  “Not like that,” Jane said quickly.

  Josie nodded. “Okay.”

  “We have somewhere to be.”

  “I believe you.” Josie grabbed four muffins and slid them into a bag.

  “Seriously,” Jane said.

  Josie handed the bag over. “Enjoy whatever you’ll be doing.”

  Jane just took a deep breath and then blew it out. “See you later.”

  “You will,” Josie promised.

  “Wine night Monday night,” Zoe said.

  Jane glanced at Dax then back to her friends. “Yeah, I think I’ll need that.”

  Dax didn’t know why exactly, but that made him feel proud. Like he was achieving something here that he didn’t even fully understand. But being something Jane wanted to discuss at wine night with her friends—which was obviously what they all meant—seemed like an accomplishment.

  Jane started for the door, but as he went to follow her he heard Josie whisper, “Dax.”

  He turned back. “Yeah?”

  “She’s not used to having a lot of positive attention focused on her. She’s the one always focusing on everyone else and what they need and how she can help them.”

  “Okay.” That definitely seemed to be exactly who Jane was.

  “So just keep it up,” Josie said. “She’s going to feel a little discombobulated at first. She’s pretty used to taking charge and knowing what needs to happen next. Just keep coming at her with this you’re-amazing-and-I’m-completely-into-you stuff. She really deserves that.”

  “It’s all real,” he felt compelled enough to say.

  Josie nodded with a smile that was almost affectionate. “I know.”

  “That’s why we’re not leaning over this bakery case and threatening to make your life a living hell,” Zoe added.

  He gave her a wide-eyed nod. “Duly noted.”

  Zoe smiled. “Just remember, to melt unsweetened chocolate takes low heat and time and patience. You add the sugar in slowly. You just keep stirring. Eventually, it will melt. And once it does, it’s smooth and sweet.”

  Dax nodded. “Got it.” He started after Jane then turned back. “Oh, except the low-heat part.” Then he gave Jane’s best friends a wink and went after her.

  Dax joined Jane on the sidewalk outside the bakery. “I have a surprise for you,” he said.

  “Oh?”

  “I’ve come up with the perfect date. The surefire way to your heart. The only thing I could do once I heard about it.”

  She tilted her head with a curious smile. “What is it?”

  “The bridal fair.”

  Jane’s eyes went wide and she gave a little laugh. “Five minutes ago, we were just moving in together. Now you want to do wedding planning?”

  Dax grinned and moved in closer to her. “Don’t tease me, Ms. Kemper.”

  “You’re a little crazy.” She said it softly, looking into his eyes.

  He nodded. “Crazy about you. And the perfect way to make you a little crazy about me is to take you somewhere we can eat all the desserts we could possibly want… for free.”

  He could see the humor in her eyes.

  “I have to admit you pretty much nailed it as far the perfect date to take me on.”

  He nodded. “Movies schmovies. Candlelight dinner? Please. Surprise flight to Paris? No way. But all-you-can-eat sweets… bingo.”

  But instead of laughing, she took a deep breath. “I actually can’t go.”<
br />
  “To the bridal fair?” he asked. “I was kidding about wedding planning. We’re just going there to make sure none of the bakeries have to take leftovers home.” He paused. “We can always do the wedding planning next weekend.”

  She did smile then. “As much as I would love to eat pie and cake all day with you, and you know I really would, I spend Saturdays with my sister and dad.”

  Okay, that wasn’t an absolute no. “Well, that’s fine. We’ll take them with us.”

  Jane shook her head. “That’s sweet but I don’t think so.”

  “They don’t like cake?”

  “They both love cake.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “My dad,” she said. “He’s not very social lately. Well, for the last several months. His condition has made him depressed, and he really just wants to stay in his room all the time.”

  “Okay, well, we should at least ask,” Dax decided. “He can say no, and we’ll just hang out there with him. But maybe we can convince him. Some sunshine and fresh air and sugar could be good for him.” Then he frowned. “Wait, is sugar okay for him?”

  Jane smiled. “Yes. He can eat whatever he wants for the most part.” Then she sighed. “It’s not a lack of sunshine and fresh air. It’s true depression.”

  “I know something about that,” he said. “My mom’s was too.”

  Jane nodded. “It helps that you understand that. A psychologist sees him every other week and is helping him with his depression and anger, but it still isn’t unusual for him to ask even me and Kelsey not to come see him. If he’s having a bad day because he’s feeling weaker than usual or if it’s just a particularly emotional day, he doesn’t want us to see him like that.”

  “I totally get that,” Dax said. “Parents want to be the ones taking care of their kids, not the other way around.”

  She nodded.

  “I know being told no over and over is hard.” He reached out and grasped her upper arm, rubbing up and down. “It sucks to try, to want to help, and to have them reject it. Especially if it’s time with you they’re rejecting.”

  Jane looked into his eyes, her bottom lips between her teeth again. He could tell she saw his sincerity.

  “But,” he went on. “If you stop asking, stop trying, then they never have the chance to say yes. And even if the yeses are lot less common than the nos, they are so sweet when they come.”