Forking Around (Hot Cakes Book 2)

by Erin Nicholas

  “That’s because we ran out of strawberries, and our supplier doesn’t come until later today,” Josie said. “Those are the last ones, and Jane made us swear to hide everything in the back when we said we were running low.” She pointed at the two empty mason jars that had held strawberry pie and the one Jane now had her fork buried inside.

  “You’re a mess,” Max told Jane.

  “No shit.” She took another bite.

  Josie climbed up onto the ladder she’d pushed in front of the tall shelves that displayed old photos and memorabilia from the bakery’s history. She held a feather duster.

  Zoe remained behind the front counter waiting on the few customers still trickling in and out, but the morning rush was over. And now her friends could concentrate on Jane. Much to Jane’s chagrin.

  “I’m so glad you’re here, Max,” Josie said as she reached to whisk the duster over the picture frames and vintage cookie jars on the highest shelf.

  Jane frowned at her. “I haven’t been that bad.”

  “I don’t like seeing you this sad,” Josie said. “Especially when you could go fix it right now.”

  “I’m working through some things,” Jane said grumpily.

  She’d been doing everything grumpily since she’d watched Dax walk back into Sunny Orchard three days ago. And eating strawberry pie grumpily was difficult because it really was heaven on earth.

  “What things?” Max asked, sitting back in the chair and looking at her as if she was pathetic.

  Which, of course, she was.

  “That Dax loves me,” Jane said.

  Max just sat, clearly waiting for more. “And?” he finally asked.

  “I think he really meant it.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Max said. “Of course he meant it. He bought a nursing home because of you.”

  Jane’s eyes widened. “Right? I know. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.”

  Max shook his head.

  “Well, seriously,” Jane went on. She even put her fork down. “When he told me he loved me, I asked if he was sure.”

  Max chuckled.

  Jane frowned. She’d been serious when she’d asked. “And he said ‘why else would I buy a nursing home?’ and that is what I’ve been thinking about for two days. I mean, honestly, why else would he? For fun? I don’t know if owning a nursing home is really fun. At least not on the scale with going to Comic-Con and the other stuff he’s done. And then there’s the farm thing. I mean, he could go out and hang out with Dallas and Justin and those guys any time if he suddenly thinks goats and llamas are fun. He doesn’t need to own a nursing home so he has an excuse or something. And then there’s my dad. I mean, I know Dax likes him and wants to make him happier, but he could go over there and visit him. Or take him on outings like we did the other day. He would not have to buy the nursing home just to make my dad happier. So I think maybe he really did buy it because he loves me, and somehow loving me made him think about how he could do something bigger and more meaningful and something more… permanent.”

  She dragged in a deep breath, very aware that she’d been ranting, but that had all been swirling around in her mind for two days now amid the sugar and caffeine and now just came tumbling out. She’d been desperately trying to figure out another reason for Dax’s seemingly impulsive purchase, but she couldn’t come up with anything else.

  She watched Max. He seemed to just be waiting to be sure she was done.

  Josie’s sigh was audible. “I promise you I’ve told her he meant it when he said he loves her,” she said to Max.

  “I believe you.” Max gave Jane a sympathetic look. “But she’s never been in love before. She doesn’t know what to do now that she believes it.”

  “Do you think she believes it?” Josie asked. She turned on the rung of the ladder partially so she could look down at them.

  “I do. I think it’s sunk in.”

  “But it shouldn’t be this hard,” Josie insisted. “She’s in love with him too. He’s been texting her almost nonstop. She needs to just go be with him already.”

  “Hello!” Jane said. “I’m still here.”

  “Josie’s right,” Max told her.

  Josie gave her a smug look and turned back to dusting the shelves.

  “You need to just go be with him,” Max said.

  “It’s not that easy,” Jane said. Grumpily.

  “Of course it is,” Josie said. “Falling in love should be the easiest thing.”

  “It’s not easy when there are all these other people who are getting involved. It’s not just sex and pie, you know. There’s toilets and chemistry tests and wheelchairs and freaking llamas.”

  “I believe they’re alpacas, actually.”

  Everyone turned toward the new voice. Including Josie. Who actually whipped around quickly. Which caused her to wobble on the ladder. Which caused her foot to slip off the rung. Which caused her to fall.

  Fortunately, the new guy caught her on her way down.

  Jane gasped and was halfway out of her chair when the man’s arms went around Josie, sweeping her up, and eliciting a little squeak from her.

  Everyone froze for a moment.

  “Holy shit, that was smooth as hell,” Max said.

  “Josie, are you okay?” Jane asked at the same time.

  But Josie didn’t reply. She was staring at the man who held her. As he stared back at her.

  “Um.” Max shot Jane a look.

  She shrugged at him then looked back at Josie and her savior. “Josie?”

  Still nothing.

  “Jocelyn Diane!” Jane said loudly.

  That shook Josie out of her daze. She blinked and then looked at Jane.

  The man seemed to snap out of it too. He swung Josie’s feet to the floor, righting her.

  Josie swept a hand down the front of her dress and apron and cleared her throat. “Yes. Yeah. I’m good. Fine.”

  “Wow.” Jane looked at the man. “That was amazing. Great reflexes.”

  “Well, we’ve had some practice at this.” He was looking at Josie when he said it.

  Jane frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Uh, this is… uh...” Josie tucked her hair behind her ear, and Jane was very interested to see her friend was blushing. “This is the man who caught me the other night too.”

  Jane felt her mouth drop open. She looked at the man with wide eyes. “Really?”

  “The other night?” Max asked.

  “Josie slipped off a stool in here the other night and was saved by a handsome stranger,” Jane said, her mouth curling. “Or so the story goes.”

  Josie’s blush got darker as Jane spilled that she’d called him handsome.

  “Maybe you need to keep your feet on the floor around here,” Jane teased.

  “Or maybe not,” Max said with a grin. He extended his hand to the other man. “I’m Max.”

  “Grant Lorre.” The man took Max’s hand.

  “Wait.” Jane frowned. “Grant Lorre? As in Hot Cakes Grant Lorre?”

  “Yes.”

  “As in our boss?” Jane asked, shooting Max a glance.

  Max cleared his throat. “Oh shit. Sorry. We didn’t recognize you, Mr. Lorre.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to,” Grant said. He looked at Jane. “I’m actually here to talk to you. And not about Hot Cakes.”

  “Me?” Jane asked.

  “It’s about Dax.”

  “Oh.” She sank back into her seat. Was she in trouble for fraternizing with him when he’d been her boss? They hadn’t slept together, but their flirtation had probably been obvious.

  “I’m going to… go”—Josie started for the kitchen—“do … something… somewhere else.”

  It was clear Grant flustered her friend, and Jane couldn’t wait to dig into that further with Josie and Zoe and a bottle of wine later. But Grant was here to talk to her about Dax. Which meant they might need two bottles of wine later.

  “Yeah, I’m gonna head out,” M
ax said, getting up. “Call me later if you need,” he told Jane. Then he swiped the one uneaten strawberry muffin from in front of her. “Love you.”

  “Love you too,” she said. Suddenly her stomach was twisting, making her regret all the baked goods she’d consumed.

  After the door closed behind Max, it was just Jane and Grant left in the bakery. Besides George and Phil, two regulars. They came in after the rush, sat at the same two tables every morning, and read the paper. They didn’t come in together, exactly, but, both widowers, they came in at the same time and stayed for the same amount of time every morning.

  She focused on the man across the table. She had to admit she understood why Josie might be a little flustered after being in his arms. He was very good looking. Tall, broad shouldered, dark hair and eyes. He looked as comfortable in his suit as she felt in her yoga pants and the t-shirt that had been washed a million times and was soft as a baby’s bottom.

  But he had an intensity about him that made him not her type. Her type was, apparently, a charming goofball who was only intense about Ping-Pong and llamas. Wait, excuse her, alpacas.

  “How is Dax?” she asked. God, she missed him. When she wasn’t thinking about how crazy he was. Or how, if she went to see him she’d probably propose to him, and there was a good chance she’d come home to find a baby goat or an alpaca in her living room some night.

  No, that wasn’t true. Even when she thought about those things, she missed him.

  “I’m guessing kind of miserable about now,” Grant said, looking at his watch.

  “Really?” Did she want him to be miserable? Maybe a little. She was miserable. And five pounds heavier than she’d been two days ago.

  “Airplanes and hangovers don’t mix well,” Grant said. “Though, he should definitely know that by now, so I wouldn’t give him too much sympathy.”

  “He’s on an airplane?” Her heart thunked hard against her chest. Dammit, he’d gone back to Chicago. She’d chased him off.

  No! She didn’t want him to leave. He couldn’t run Sunny Orchard from Chicago. That meant he’d probably sold it. Son of a bitch! “How is it that he’s able to keep buying and selling major businesses so quickly and easily?” she demanded of Grant. “Shouldn’t these things take a few days, at least? I couldn’t sell my mountain bike for three months, and it was practically new—I do not like biking because biking sucks—and I was asking like a hundred bucks! That was a steal! How can he just change his mind and snap his fingers and everything just poof falls into place? And why didn’t any of his friends stop him? Any of you?” She glared at Grant. “You know he would be great at this nursing home thing! Fun innovations, bold ideas, making people happy—those are his specialties! He needs to start doing something more permanent. To see that he can make people happy long term. That he’s not just a temporary reprieve for people.”

  She stopped, realizing that not only had she been ranting again but this time it was at her boss. One of them, anyway. Having this many was starting to get annoying. Oh, and she’d pretty much just told herself that Dax needed to keep the nursing home.

  Grant just waited until she was done, however.

  When Jane pressed her lips together, he said, “I agree. Except for the part about biking. Biking is great. And that selling major businesses is fast and easy. It’s not. But he hasn’t even tried to sell the nursing home, so there’s that. Which is also why we didn’t try to talk him out of selling it.”

  She pulled in a deep breath. Okay, he wasn’t selling it. That was good. But he was still on an airplane right now.

  “Then why is he going back to Chicago?” Maybe he just needed to get more socks or something from his apartment.

  “He’s not going to Chicago. He’s on his way to Texas. For a nursing home conference.”

  She took that in. “Oh.” She frowned. “Oh.” He was going to a conference. To learn. To network. To figure some things out. “Wow.”

  “And I fully expect that in a year, he’ll be presenting at conferences like that one, teaching other people about how to implement programs like the ones he’s going to be doing at Sunny Orchard.”

  She smiled at that. “You think so?”

  “I do. Because of all the things you said.” Grant leaned in. “Look, of all people, I get where you’re coming from. The things Dax does are short term, fun, frivolous. But that’s all on purpose. Those things accomplish his goals. But this is… different. It’s more than that. He doesn’t want this to be short term, and he knows it will take time and there will be ups and downs.”

  “He does?” she asked.

  Grant hesitated then nodded. “He probably does.”

  She laughed lightly.

  “Listen, Dax is brilliant. And he’s got a huge heart. He’s a pain in the ass, but I’ve been lucky enough to be his friend for nine years. I could have taken a number of jobs and made a ton of money and hung out with people more like me. But I need Dax. I need them all, but sometimes I think I need Dax and Ollie the most. The dreamers. The guys who are willing to go big. The guys who are willing to make me ask ‘what if?’ once in a while.” Grant smiled. “I like to play it safe. Thanks to those guys, I have adventures too.”

  “And it always works out?” Jane asked, her heart hammering.

  “Definitely not,” Grant said. “But we’re still here. Nine years later. Laughing.”

  She nodded. “So I can trust him to put his heart into this and do his best?”

  “Absolutely. And,” Grant added, “when you get one of us on your side, you get all five of us. And we’re a pretty formidable team.”

  Jane smiled and nodded again. “Seems that way.” She felt lighter. Her stomach hurt a little, but it was definitely now because of overdoing the sugar and butter for two days. “I feel like I’m going to want to kill him from time to time,” she admitted.

  “Oh, you will,” Grant agreed.

  She laughed.

  Grant got to his feet. “It was nice meeting you finally,” he said.

  “You too.” She hesitated but then asked, “Hey, Grant?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t suppose… this is really unlike me to ask, but I think maybe this once I need to be a little over the top for Dax. I don’t think people do that for him much, and I was thinking that might be good for me too.”

  “Okay.” Grant looked amused.

  “And, what the hell, I guess I might as well be a little bold and ask you… I don’t suppose you would be able to help me get to Texas to where he is? Like today? Like soon?”

  Grant smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I could do that.”

  Her heart flipped and she nodded. “And I also don’t suppose you know where I could get a gigantic gummy bear?”

  That surprised him a little more, evidently. But he nodded again. “Well, I have known Dax Marshall for nine years. I know more about gummy candy than any man should.”

  “So you could get me and a gigantic gummy bear to Texas in the next few hours?”

  “Yes, I could.”

  She grinned and hopped up out of her chair. “Don’t tell Aiden, but you’re my favorite boss.”

  He chuckled and started for the bakery door. “I’ll have Piper call you in a little bit.”

  “Great!” Jane felt happiness washing through her and reached for the rest of her unfinished strawberry pie. She was now celebrating after all. For just a second her brain—and stomach—asked, are you sure about this? But she refused to ever be in a position where she was sick of strawberry anything. She scooped up a big bite.

  Just as Josie came through the swinging doors from the kitchen.

  Her gaze landed on Grant who stopped at the door, looking over at her.

  They both froze for a moment, and Jane felt her eyes widen watching them.

  Then the kitchen door swung back and hit Josie in the butt, startling her and making her take an awkward step forward.

  When she’d caught her balance, she looked up at Grant again.

&
nbsp; “’Bye, Josie,” he said, a slight smile curving his lips.

  “Um, bye, Grant.”

  “Maybe I’ll see you again. Soon.”

  Josie nodded slowly. “Do you like sweets?”

  Grant’s smile grew and he nodded. “I do. Though I’m very particular.”

  “We can do whatever you want. Special order,” Josie said.

  Jane put a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggle. She wasn’t sure her friend even realized how flirtatious she sounded.

  But Grant did. His grin grew almost wolfish. “I’ll keep that in mind. For sure.” Then he stepped through the door, pulling it shut behind him, the little bell above tinkling merrily.

  Josie continued to stare at the door for almost ten seconds.

  “You’ll do whatever he wants, special order?” Jane finally demanded, allowing herself to laugh out loud.

  “What?” Josie asked.

  Zoe was laughing too. “Do you like sweets?” she asked, mimicking Josie’s voice but batting her eyelashes. “You little hussy!” She swatted Josie playfully with the towel she held. “Willing to give Grant your sweets just because he caught you heroically in his arms not once, but twice.”

  Josie’s cheeks were pink but she laughed. “That is not what I meant.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “We run a bakery,” Josie insisted. “He said he’d see me again. I’m sure he was talking about my cupcakes.”

  “I’m sure he was talking about your cupcakes too,” Phil piped up from his table.

  George nodded.

  Jane, Josie, and Zoe all burst out laughing.

  “Well, I have to say,” Josie admitted. “The name Hot Cakes is taking on a whole new meaning with these guys in charge.”

  Jane couldn’t agree more.

  Comic-Con was four million times better than Nursing Home-Con.

  This thing wasn’t even called Nursing Home-Con. It wasn’t even that cool. Dax left the conference room at the hotel with a thick packet of handouts, feeling like he was in way over his head. Which, of course, he was.