Sugarcoated

by Erin Nicholas

  “My pleasure,” Aiden muttered back.

  Had Caleb wanted to take Zoe out? Had he been flirting every morning, working up to asking her out? Had he taken her out? Had Caleb been the guy to make Zoe “good” with the virginity thing as she’d put it last night?

  “Hey,” Aiden said to Caleb.

  The other man turned back.

  Aiden glanced over to where Josie and Zoe were waiting on new customers.

  “You have a problem with me?” Aiden asked.

  Caleb looked surprised. “Should I?”

  “I’m here. Back in Appleby. And I’m with Zoe now.”

  Caleb looked over at Zoe. “Okay.”

  “You sure?” Aiden said. “You’re okay with that? No issues?”

  “Issues like what?” Caleb asked.

  “Issues like maybe you thought something was going to happen with her, and now I’m here fucking that up for you.”

  Caleb shook his head. “You’re not fucking anything up for me.”

  That wasn’t exactly a denial of him wanting something to happen. It also wasn’t a confirmation that he thought Aiden was a threat. Just that he wasn’t worried about Aiden being here. He could take that a few ways. “Good to hear.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got what I want from Zoe.”

  Caleb waited a beat—just long enough for a wave of rage to wash through Aiden and his blood pressure to spike—then he lifted his bag of muffins. But then he smirked. So obviously Aiden still wanted to punch him in the mouth.

  “Fucker,” Aiden breathed.

  “Um, calling our customers fuckers is really not the image we’d like to project here. Nor is the general body language that makes it seem like you want to fight them,” Josie said. Her voice was low as she reached past him for two scones, a muffin, and a cinnamon roll.

  “Did they date?” Aiden asked, still glaring at Caleb’s back as the man exited the shop.

  “Caleb and Zoe?” Josie said. She frowned. “No.”

  “Is he the one she finally slept with or something?”

  Josie frowned harder. “No.”

  Well, that was something. “But he wants to.”

  “Maybe,” she said with a shrug.

  “That’s not okay.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Aiden. If she doesn’t want to, then it doesn’t matter if he wants to.”

  Yeah, okay, that was true. “Who was it?”

  “Who was it what?”

  “Who did she sleep with?”

  Jocelyn shook her head. “You need to have that conversation with Zoe. And you know it.”

  “She won’t tell me.”

  “Then maybe you don’t get to know.”

  “I should get to know.”

  “Just because you want to?” Josie put a hand on her hip.

  “Yeah. Because I care. Because she matters to me.”

  Aiden looked over at Zoe. She was now talking to Lucy Scranton. Lucy was old enough to be her mother.

  Or her mother-in-law. Her son, Luke, was about Zoe’s age. Good-looking guy. He was the basketball coach and taught history. That was pretty great. Noble and stuff. The kind of guy that could marry the beautiful small-town, family-oriented, never-leaving-home baker.

  Aiden shook his head and scrubbed a hand over his face.

  He was losing it. A little. Luke wasn’t going to marry Zoe. Neither was Caleb. Or anyone else in here. Or not in here. Except him, of course. He needed to cool it.

  But again, when he looked at Zoe, the word mine went through his mind.

  “Aiden,” Josie said. “I think you need to do two things.”

  “Okay.” Aiden squared up to her, ready for the advice.

  “One, realize that Zoe is sugar and spice. Being in a relationship with her—of any kind—is dealing with her humor and intelligence and drive and willing to work her ass off for what she wants, but also her sass and her stubbornness and a lot of I’ll-just-do-it-myself and I’m-always-right.”

  “A relationship like a friendship and working together too?” he asked with a slight smile.

  “You’ve got it.” Josie sighed but also smiled. “She’s a lot. Of everything. You could try to give up the spice, but without her, life becomes a lot less flavorful.”

  That was all very accurate in his experience as well. Josie had known Zoe since kindergarten and now worked with her every day in this bakery. Just the two of them. It was probably safe to say Josie knew Zoe almost better than anyone did.

  “And what’s the second thing I need to do?”

  “Stop threatening and insulting our customers.”

  Right. “You feel sorry for Caleb?”

  “Nope. But you being annoying to the customers will be annoying to Zoe, and that will prolong the time it’s going to take you to get her naked. And that girl needs a release. More than beating eggs and whipping cream and kneading dough can give her.”

  “Are those euphemisms?”

  “I almost wish they were,” Josie said, then she took him by the arm and turned him toward the register.

  “Are you saying…”

  “Go wait on someone,” Josie said. “And if they don’t walk out with at least a dozen of something… you’re fired.”

  Aiden did. But he couldn’t get it out of his head that if kneading dough was not a euphemism for sex—and Zoe needed a release—that meant Zoe definitely going to bed alone every night.

  He was so distracting.

  She’d known him all her life. She’d been ignoring him for a large portion of it. She’d been blocking out the sound of Aiden and Cam chasing each other with Nerf guns, playing video games, watching football on TV, and generally roughhousing and being boys in her house for years.

  But at the moment, he was sitting at a table near the window of the bakery, quietly working on his computer while she frosted sugar cookies, and she could barely focus on what she was doing.

  What the hell was that?

  It was the kiss. Out of the blue. In front of everyone.

  Okay, it was the kiss and having his fingers in her panties first thing that morning.

  And how he’d looked in only his boxers, walking into that kitchen as if he was completely comfortable with them being half naked together.

  At least it should have been all that. That was all part of it, for sure. But it was also the way he’d come behind the counter and started helping out that morning.

  Staking his claim.

  It had been clear as day that’s what he’d been doing.

  To everyone.

  She knew because she’d already ignored two calls and three texts from her mother.

  What happened this morning with Aiden?! Lucy said he KISSED you in front of everyone!

  Zoe Marie! What is going on! Are you dating Aiden?!

  WE WILL TALK.

  Oh, she was sure they would. She just knew she needed to have some answers before they did.

  Not answers from Aiden. He’d actually been very clear about what he was thinking and wanting.

  She needed answers for her. If they were just going to sleep together, that would be one thing. Something they could keep between just the two of them. Something that wouldn’t involve her entire family, all their friends, and the whole town.

  More than that would… involve everyone.

  Was that what she wanted? That wasn’t a fair question. Until yesterday, when he’d waltzed back into town and announced he was back, to stay, and wanted to be with her—with her with her—she hadn’t known that was an option. So she’d never thought about it.

  The bakery was mostly empty during the day. Between the breakfast rush and people picking orders up later in the day, it was quiet with very few exceptions. There was a book club that met once a month and a group of young moms that got together every Tuesday and Thursday while their toddlers were at playtime at the preschool. There were occasionally people in and out, but for the most part during the day it was Zoe and Josie and George and Phil.

  George was a retired b
anker who’d lost his wife about a year ago. He came every day at 10 a.m. in the suits he’d worn to work for forty-five years. He sat at the table closest to the coffeepots with his two newspapers. He barely said a word other than giving his muffin order. His snowy-white hair was a sharp contrast to his ebony skin and his kind, if slightly sad, brown eyes.

  Phil was a retired over-the-road trucker. He, too, had lost his wife a little over a year ago. He came in wearing jeans and a t-shirt, also with two newspapers. He had leathery tan skin from years outside loading and unloading his trucks, and his long gray hair was always gathered in a ponytail.

  The two men looked very different and had very different backgrounds. But they both liked coffee and muffins and reading the paper in the morning. They would sit at neighboring tables, not speaking, but after they each finished their first newspaper, they would pass it to the other.

  Their little ritual always made Zoe smile. They clearly didn’t want to chat in the mornings, but they also didn’t want to have coffee and read the paper completely alone.

  They hung out until about eleven thirty, then they both cleaned up their tables, tucked their newspapers under their arms, and headed out.

  Zoe liked both men a lot, but she’d been antsy waiting for them to leave today so she could talk to Aiden.

  The door had just bumped shut behind George. “You know—” she started.

  Just as Aiden’s phone rang.

  He looked up at her. The phone rang again. “You okay?” he asked.

  He was giving her the choice of talking instead of taking the call? That was nice. She waved her hand. “Go ahead.”

  He picked his phone up. “Hey.” He was still looking at her. “Nice of you guys to finally get to work. I see what happens when I leave the office.”

  Zoe went back to applying blue frosting to the cookie flowers that Janice Murphy was coming to pick up later that afternoon, but she couldn’t help but hear what Aiden was saying. Clearly, he was talking to his partners. Which probably included her brother.

  “I’m going to tell her you’re going to call. She can go over all that with you,” Aiden said.

  Zoe kept working, but with it being only the two of them in the front of the bakery, it was impossible for her to not hear him. There was soft music playing overhead, but that hardly obscured his voice. She could turn it up, she supposed, but at the same time, Aiden wasn’t acting like he minded that she could hear him.

  “Because I need someone else to take the lead on that,” he said. “I can’t do it, and I think you’d be the best for that anyway, Dax.”

  He was definitely talking to his partners.

  “Fine, but Cam needs to stay out of it,” Aiden said. “He knows why.”

  Zoe glanced over at her brother’s name. Aiden was now standing and looking out the window, away from her.

  She took a second to check him out. His jacket was still hanging on the back of his chair and his sleeves were still rolled up on his forearms, but he’d put his tie back on after helping behind the counter. Why? He was in here alone and obviously his work activities were all being conducted via computer and phone today.

  Probably because he knew that tie got to her.

  Then again, watching him moving behind the bakery counter, bagging muffins and scones, catching whiffs of his cologne whenever he passed her, had also gotten to her. She wasn’t used to having that extra pair of hands. Or such a big body in that space. It had seemed he was always in her way. He’d been helpful though. Kind of. After Josie had had a little talk with him about the glowering he’d been doing.

  Zoe wasn’t sure what Josie had said exactly and Zoe hadn’t asked. Aiden hadn’t been friendly to the rest of their morning customers, and he was nowhere near the salesperson Josie and Zoe were when it came to talking customers into adding to their orders, but he hadn’t messed anything up and hadn’t scowled anyone out of the store. He had also seemed intent on keeping the line moving and none of the guys lingering too long at the counter with Zoe and Josie. They’d had the morning crowd taken care of thirty minutes earlier than usual.

  Of course, they couldn’t let him keep helping if that was going to be the case. When the guys lingered, they bought more. The bakery did better business when the customers had a chance to talk with Zoe and Josie, laugh a little, flirt a little, have a sample of the day’s special, be reminded it was a coworker’s birthday—cause for a surprise muffin—or that their assistant had brought them a cinnamon roll last Wednesday and they should repay the favor.

  Yes, Josie and Zoe knew who their customers worked with, who got along with who, who didn’t, who was allergic to walnuts, who hated anything flavored with pumpkin, who was likely to choose a cinnamon roll with more frosting, or one with less. It was good business. And inevitable after living here and waiting on these people for years.

  Aiden didn’t know those things. That meant this morning, Bud Wilmer had walked out with only one cream cheese Danish rather than the dozen he should have, considering it was his best carpenter’s first day back on the job after his wife had given birth to their first daughter. Zoe could have easily convinced Bud to take Danish for the whole crew as a mini celebration. Travis Buckley had also walked out with a banana muffin for his partner, Dana. Dana hated banana muffins. That was going to be awkward.

  Aiden definitely couldn’t help anymore.

  But he could sit his nice ass at one of her tables in his suit and tie and work with her Wi-Fi any time he wanted.

  “Oliver, we need to know all about the benefits they have now so that Grant can look into improving their plans.” Aiden paused. “Yes, I want you to start comparing plans now.” He listened for a few seconds. “You can start with that, but we need to go bigger. I’m not sure we know enough.” Another pause. “Because we want to do better. We want to improve things.” He let out a sigh. “Sure. If everything is fine, great. But Dax will be able to tell us that. I don’t want bottom line and numbers and lists of services to be our only consideration, Grant. I mean it. I want Dax to talk to the employees. See what they want and need. Let’s show them they matter.”

  He paused again and turned to pace to the front door of the bakery then back to the table.

  Zoe kept icing cookies, but her mind was only half on her task. Not even half. Because her mind was 80 percent on Aiden. Which left only 20 percent for the… what was she decorating again? Oh yeah, flowers.

  This was interesting. She’d never seen Aiden working. Not like this. Not real work.

  She’d seen him mowing grass around town as a kid. That had been before he’d developed any muscles to speak of and long before she’d developed any appreciation for guys with muscles, so seeing him with his shirt off in the summer had done nothing for her.

  She’d seen him serving ice cream and making milkshakes at the drive-in by the highway a couple of summers, mostly because her friends had thought he and Camden were so cute and always wanted to go there. What she’d seen was a couple of guys who laughed at fart jokes and who never left any mashed potatoes for her and who flirted with the same girls they said were bitches behind their backs. She had not been impressed by Aiden’s sundaes either. He skimped on the caramel and thought chocolate ice cream with marshmallow topping was the best combo, which was not true. Clearly he was not an ice cream sundae connoisseur, and she had no idea why all the girls thought he was so great behind that counter.

  But what he was doing this morning in the bakery was real work. He was a grown man now. He made a lot of money. His company was very successful. Additionally, it was clear, even from just this side of the conversation, that he was kind of the one in charge. At least, he was the one making assignments for the rest of the guys.

  Plus, dammit, he looked hot in that tie. And when he was talking business and bossing people around, his voice seemed deeper and firmer.

  Zoe shifted a little as her nipples tingled. That was stupid.

  “Great. Having you on-site would make it all even better,” he said
into the phone. He slid back into his chair and tapped on his computer keyboard. “I need a few more days.” He paused and typed something in. “I know that.” More typing. “Fine, that will work. But not Cam.”

  Zoe grinned as she finished off the petal on the last cookie. Cam was a stubborn ass and didn’t listen very well to many people. Aiden Anderson might be the one person who could get Cam to do what he wanted. Or to not do what Aiden didn’t want him to do.

  “Call me when you know.” Aiden paused. “Okay, sounds good. Let’s get this done right.”

  He disconnected, and Zoe glanced over to see him run a hand through his hair. She pressed her lips together, moving the freshly decorated cookies to the tray with the rest of the finished ones. She looked over at him again. He was typing on the computer, intent on the screen. Then he sat back, breathing out.

  “You listened to Jane,” she commented.

  He looked up, almost like he’d forgotten her for a moment. “What?”

  “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear,” she said, gesturing toward his makeshift workstation in general.

  “Oh.” He glanced at the phone then back up at her. “Right. Sorry.”

  “Didn’t bother me,” she said. She propped her hip against the worktable. “But it sounds like the things Jane said last night made an impression.”

  “What things?” he asked.

  “About benefits and how nice it would be if management would just talk to their employees and listen.”

  Aiden swallowed. “Oh. That. Yeah, I heard her.”

  “I think it’s cool you would take something a friend tells you and apply it to your company. You’re using her to help you look at your own company through an employee’s eyes and experiences rather than as management.” Zoe lifted a shoulder.

  She hadn’t really thought about the fact that her brother and Aiden had employees. She knew that, of course, but she hadn’t thought about them having people who actually depended on them and that they had to make decisions like benefits that could help or hurt the people who worked for them. That was very grown-up. Responsible. Probably stressful.

  She only had one employee, and she was thinking about Jocelyn and how Buttered Up, and its successes and failures, affected her all the time. She worried about it and felt guilty she couldn’t provide her amazing employee—and best friend—with a robust, secure, awesome benefits package. The best she could really do was pay her a decent wage—for Appleby, Iowa—give her time off when she needed it, and keep her in cupcakes and pie for life.