Tempt Him

by Jaymes, Olivia

  I was a shit with women. They’d all deserved better, although I could mitigate some of the damage by saying that I’d warned them all ahead of time. But the minute any of them looked like they might be getting attached…I was gone.

  I had probably become that warning tale that women would tell their friends about. Don’t date a guy like him. He’s trouble.

  Dad was right. It was time to grow up and be the person I wanted to be. I had to do more than just think about it. Words were nice, but actions had meaning.

  And Mia? Where did that leave us? Right now there was no us but I wanted there to be. I’d been so busy running from love and commitment I hadn’t noticed that it was sitting right next to me or eating Sunday dinner next door.

  Mia was the one. My one.

  Failure to win her love was not an option.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Mia

  Shelby pointed to a storefront a few doors down the street. “That’s the bakery that’s going to do the cake. They have a great reputation and all they do is wedding cakes.”

  I was going to taste wedding cakes with my sister today because Brad had some business thing in Boston this weekend and he didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, anyway. I, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to try all the cakes, fillings, and icings. I’d triple-checked with Shelby that we would be allowed to taste every flavor if we wanted to. I wanted to. After the week I’d had, I wanted as much sugar and liquor as I could get.

  As my friends had predicted, Josh hadn’t gone quietly away. I’d been bombarded with texts, emails, phone calls, and even flowers all week. By Friday my nerves were shot and my backbone felt more like jelly. I didn’t like my resistance wavering one bit but Josh had a way of slipping under my defenses when I wasn’t paying any attention. I’d need to be vigilant at all times going forward until he got the message that I wasn’t going to cave.

  No one tells you that being strong is exhausting.

  “I think you should do a chocolate cake. That’s unusual.”

  From the look Shelby gave me I might as well have said that I wanted to strip and run naked up and down the block. My uber-traditional sister was officially scandalized.

  “Chocolate is for the groom’s cake,” she said as we entered the adorable shop. It was all bright and happy with pink and yellow walls decorated with huge photos of the most gorgeous cakes I’d ever seen. The whole place smelled like sugary heaven and I couldn’t stop myself from taking a deep breath of the aroma. I could happily die right here, my face smeared in frosting and crumbs all over my shirt.

  “No one will be able to tell what flavor the cake is because it will be covered in frosting,” I pointed out. “Don’t pick a flavor because you think it’s what you’re supposed to have. Pick it because it tastes out of this world.”

  “Maybe,” Shelby conceded. “I do like chocolate.”

  It was a family trait, along with red hair and green eyes.

  A smiling woman wearing an apron came out from the back room to greet us. “Hello, you must be the Kellys. I’m Janelle, the owner of Wishful Cakes. Which one of you is the bride?”

  “This one,” I said, pointing to Shelby. “Shelby. I’m her sister Mia.”

  “Welcome Shelby and Mia,” the woman said, handing each of us a thick brochure and leading us to a table. “We’ll get your tasting started. Are there any allergies we need to know about?”

  “Shellfish.”

  Shelby must have been more nervous than I thought to have blurted out that she was allergic to crustaceans. Other than renting the venue, this was the first major decision Shelby had made about the wedding and she was doing it without Brad.

  “I don’t think they’re going to make you a crab cake, sis,” I whispered, elbowing her slightly. “Why don’t we sit down?”

  With pink cheeks Shelby sat down, murmuring her apologies to Janelle. “I’m sorry about that. Habit, I guess. No, we don’t have any allergies to worry about but just in case I’d like to avoid peanuts because that’s a common issue.”

  “That’s not a problem. Let me go get your first tray.”

  Sitting across from Shelby, I draped my jacket and purse over the back of the chair, careful not to disturb the couple sitting next to us at another table. The man looked around my age but the bride looked much younger, maybe her early twenties. They appeared to be having a wonderful time tasting their cakes though, laughing and joking.

  While we waited for Janelle to come back, I paged through the colorful brochure. The list of flavors was impressive and they could also make gluten-free or dairy-free cakes.

  “They have a chocolate chip cake,” I said, practically bouncing up and down in my chair. “And salted caramel. You have to get the salted caramel.”

  I might never fall in love and get married but I now wanted my very own wedding cake. It didn’t have to be anything fancy. Just one – or two – layers. No bride and groom topper. Maybe just a lonely woman and all her cats. Did they have toppers like that? Maybe they could do a custom order.

  “We’re going to have four tiers, I think, so we’ll need four flavors. I want the top tier to be something Brad will like since we’ll eat that on our first anniversary.”

  I loved cake but frozen-for-a-year cake didn’t sound so good, even to me.

  “I’ve heard some couples just have a re-creation of the top tier done so they don’t have to eat old, dried out cake.”

  “That’s a fabulous idea. We’ll do that.”

  “And you might as well get whatever you want because Brad doesn’t like sweets and especially chocolate.”

  I liked Brad. He was a good guy. But the fact that he didn’t like chocolate always made me give him the side eye. He wasn’t even allergic to it. He just didn’t like it.

  Janelle had brought out a huge tray of small cake slices alongside little cups of filling and icing, all carefully labeled. There were paper plates and plastic cutlery on the tray as well.

  “I’ll leave you both to work through these. There are two other trays also. I encourage you to mix and match as much as possible. If you need more of a flavor just let us know. Once you choose your flavors, then you can look through the style books and choose a cake. Unless you already have something in mind, of course.”

  Janelle left a stack of three binders on the corner of the table and Shelby immediately abandoned the baked bounty in front of her to leaf through the photos of fancy cakes.

  “You do that after you pick a flavor,” I said, stuffing a forkful of lemon cake and filling in my mouth. “Oh my God, this is so good. You have to try this one.”

  My sister’s gaze darted around the room and then she leaned forward so that no one else would over hear. “Don’t judge me. What if I told you that I don’t really care which flavor we get as long as it’s delicious?”

  “Okay… Then why are we here? You could have ordered a cake over the phone.”

  I could be doing laundry right now. Or napping.

  Fingers tapping on the open binder, Shelby gave me a sheepish look. “I just want it to be like the cake in my head.”

  Others might judge my sister, but I wouldn’t. She was all caught up in this bride stuff. I’m not sure how it happened but she was. Normally she was far too practical to care about whether the icing was buttercream or fondant but she’d fallen down the rabbit hole and I didn’t have a clue how to bring her back to sanity.

  “Shelby,” I said gently. “Do you think perhaps you’ve gone a little too far here? That maybe all of this engagement and wedding stuff has started to eat away at your brain cells until you’re making stupid decisions? I’m your sister and I want to help.”

  “I’m not that bad,” Shelby protested but I could tell she was taking in my words and thinking about them. “Am I?”

  “Not yet. You have time to save yourself. Think about it… You actually said – out loud – that you don’t care how the cake tastes. I don’t even know who you are when you say things like that. Next thing you know
you’re going to start talking about lace or satin or roses or tulips and you won’t be able to tell me what day it is unless it’s in relation to the date of the wedding.”

  “I just want everything to be perfect.”

  Ah, there we have it. I’d had an inkling and she’d finally admitted it. Perfection. If I’d just said that she would have lectured me about unattainable goals, but she’d said it so it was fine.

  Excuse me while I vomit.

  “No such thing. But I have good news for you.” Shelby crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, waiting for my happy news. “If the cake doesn’t show up or the band or the flowers, you’ll still be married to Brad. That’s the whole point of this. It’s not just to get to wear a dress and have your picture taken, right?”

  Burying her face in her hands, Shelby shook her head. “It’s just so stressful. Brad’s family is so judgmental and I’m not even sure they like me. I want to show them…”

  “How perfect you are,” I finished for her. “No one is perfect, Shel. Not even you.”

  “I know that. No one knows that more than I do. But his family… I just want to show them that I’m good enough for their baby boy.”

  “You never told me they were giving you grief.”

  When she finally looked up, her eyes were bright with unshed tears and her lips quivered. “They didn’t until the engagement. I guess I was fine when we were only dating but now that I’m going to be Mrs. Brad Hollingsworth the Third they’re looking at me much more closely. And finding me lacking.”

  Now that just pissed me off. The Hollingsworth family sounded like real snots.

  “You’re a wonderful person and Brad is lucky to have you.”

  “You have to say that. You’re my sister.”

  “No, I don’t have to say that, and he is lucky. Which he must know because he proposed. Now do you really not care how the cake tastes because I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around that.”

  Sniffling, Shelby reached for the chocolate chip cake. “I’m actually dying to try this one with the white chocolate filling.”

  “And the lemon.” I pushed the plate closer to her. “You have to try the lemon.”

  One hour, two dozen flavor combinations, and a major sugar rush later we were both giggling our heads off. So far Shelby had chosen chocolate chip, lemon, and salted caramel. She was leaning toward a nice sedate vanilla for the final tier paired with a dark chocolate filling.

  “I think that sounds amazing. Go for it.”

  “I thought you’d want me to pick something more exotic.”

  “Honestly if I eat one more piece of cake I’m going to explode.”

  I was actually feeling a little queasy. Perhaps ordering myself a wedding cake of my own wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had. I’d table it and decide later.

  Shelby reached for the binders again. “Now we can decide on a style.”

  Can a person get heartburn from too much buttercream and ganache? There didn’t appear any place to burp in private.

  “I’m going to get us a couple of waters,” I said as my sister blissfully paged through the photos. There was a water cooler in the corner of the store. “I’ll be right back.”

  Something without sugar was needed right away.

  “That sounds good,” she said without looking up. “I’ll just wait here.”

  She was gone. In wedding-land. The best thing I could do is let her enjoy the ride. I quickly filled two large paper cups with water and turned to head back to the table when I had to stop short. The man from the couple next to us was standing right behind me quietly waiting his turn.

  “Oops! I didn’t get any water on you, did I?”

  A few drops had sloshed on my wrist but it wasn’t a big deal. It was only water but some people were weird about things like that.

  He wasn’t one of them, thankfully.

  He laughed and shook his head and that’s when I received my first good look at him. Cute. Very cute. Almost black hair. Dimples. Twinkling blue eyes. Black frame glasses. He reminded me of Clark Kent.

  Then I remembered that he was here at a bakery that only sold wedding cakes and it wasn’t because his doctor had told him he wasn’t getting enough sugar and flour in his diet.

  “I’m fine,” he assured me again, his gaze wandering to Shelby and then back at me. “Completely dry. So…are you the bride?”

  After the week I’d had, the question caught me funny. If he only knew how messed up my love life was right now.

  “No, I’m the maid of honor. My sister is the bride.”

  “Congratulations to your sister. It’s sweet of you to help her out with this. Where’s the groom?”

  “Business trip. Also, he doesn’t really like sweets or chocolate.”

  Shaking his head, he laughed. “I love chocolate so I was happy to come. I’m here helping my sister as well. Her fiancé is in the military and is currently overseas. My name’s Gib, by the way.”

  So he wasn’t a prospective groom. Just a really sweet guy helping his sister.

  “That’s really nice of you. Gib. Not every brother would do something like that.”

  Was that his actual name or was it short for something?

  “Sara is the youngest in our family and the only girl. Now that her fiancé is overseas we’re trying help out with the wedding. I volunteered for cake duty. One of my other brothers has volunteered to meet with caterers. Another for flowers and so on.” His smile fell for a moment. “Our mom died a few years ago so she can’t be here to help my sister.”

  I was almost in tears listening to the story. It was the sweetest thing I’d heard in a long time.

  “That is so lovely of you. I’m sure your sister appreciates it. Does she have any female friends to help as well?”

  It was a personal question but I had a lousy edit filter on my mouth most of the time.

  “Sort of. Her maid of honor lives several hours away so she can’t be here to help with the day to day wedding plans.” He scraped his fingers through his hair and frowned. “I’m sorry I’m monopolizing your time. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about this. You have better things to do.”

  Not really. Shelby was poring over the binders along with Janelle. Whatever design was in my sister’s head would need to come out and I wouldn’t be any help with that.

  “You’re fine,” I assured him. I didn’t feel all that nauseous anymore. “It’s a nice story and I could use one. I’ve kind of had a crappy week and your story has restored my faith in humanity. Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry you’ve had a bad week.” He glanced over his shoulder where his sister and mine were now comparing cakes. “I don’t suppose you might want to get a coffee when we’re all done here? There’s a nice coffee shop around the corner. I can assure you I’m a nice guy and completely harmless.”

  Had Gib been flirting with me? I was so effin’ clueless sometimes.

  A nice man. Good-looking. A simple cup of coffee. This was a no brainer. To move on from Josh meant going out with other men. This was my chance and a sign from the universe.

  “I guess one cup of coffee couldn’t hurt.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Josh

  “I don’t need lunch,” I growled to Luke as he pushed open the door of the local barbecue restaurant located near the office. “What I need is a drink.”

  I’d had the worst fucking week of my life. I’d lost count of the number of texts, messages, and emails I’d sent to Mia. I’d even sent flowers and a teddy bear to her work but she was still ignoring me. What did a guy have to do to say he was sorry? I’d messed up and I’d admitted it. Why wasn’t she responding?

  “It’s eleven-forty-five on a Saturday morning. Do you really think you should be drinking this early?”

  I did. Wholeheartedly.

  “In some cultures they drink all day.”

  “Then go live there. In the meantime, we’re in a small college town in the Midwest. We’ve got bars on every corner
but even we don’t drink this early. Wait a few hours and if you still want to drown your sorrows, I’ll buy.”

  The aroma of spices and smoked meat teased my nostrils and reminded me that I’d barely eaten all week, either. My stomach growled loudly, contradicting my claim that all I needed was a shot of booze. It wouldn’t hurt to put a good meal into my gut before I drank enough to forget my problems.

  “I’ll take you up on that,” I promised, stepping back when one of the waitresses walked up to seat us. Was she the one that thought I was in love with Mia?

  Luke held up two fingers. “Just two for lunch.”

  We followed her to a table in the corner right next to a window overlooking the busy street. The downtown area was always bustling on the weekends. She set our menus in front of us, took our drink orders, and disappeared into the kitchen.

  Without glancing at the menu, I knew what I wanted. “I’ll get my usual.”

  The pulled pork sandwich and steak fries. Not good for my health but great for the taste buds.

  “I think I’m going to get the brisk–”

  My brother’s voice broke off and his eyes widened. I followed his gaze to a table to our left…where Mia sat drinking coffee.

  With another man.

  Son of a fucking bitch. I hadn’t seen her in a week and she was already dating another guy. She’d been serious when she’d said she was moving on. Shit.

  I didn’t even have the four-lettered vocabulary to express my emotions, supposing that I could even identify them. I was angry. Hurt. Disappointed. What was that other feeling, though? That crushing sensation located around my rib cage? It was new and highly unwelcome.

  It might be heartbreak.

  A state I’d avoided quite successfully for many years but was now feeling it more acutely than a butcher’s knife right in the chest.

  “Just stay cool. He’s probably just a friend.”

  The warning tone in Luke’s voice didn’t help a bit. All I could see through the red tide of anger and betrayal was Mia sitting across from another man. And she was clearly enjoying herself. I’d been fucking miserable for days and here she was laughing and smiling as if all was sunny and bright in her world.