“Who are Josie and Jane?” Dax asked.
“No one you need to worry about,” Aiden told him quickly.
Cam laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. Josie and Zoe keep saying Josie needs a sugar daddy to take care of her.”
“I’ve got tons of money,” Dax said. “Who’s Josie?”
“Zoe’s best friend and assistant at the bakery,” Cam said.
“She bakes?” Dax asked. “I’m in. Set me up.”
“Hell no,” Aiden told him.
“Why not?”
“Because I like Josie,” Aiden said. “And you’re… a lot. Josie is too… sweet for you.”
“I’m a lot of fucking fun,” Dax said. He dropped his feet to the floor. “I’m a goddamned delight. Women love me. I am sweet.” He pointed at his phone. “I can get twelve women on the phone right now who would tell you I’m sweet as hell.”
“Yes. Until they need you to be serious about something,” Aiden said. “You’re allergic to serious.”
“I’m not allergic.” But Dax wasn’t nearly as emphatic now.
“You pretended to get into a car accident so you couldn’t make it to a girlfriend’s uncle’s funeral,” Cam said.
“Great uncle,” Dax said. “And it wasn’t pretend.”
“You braked for a squirrel, and a bicyclist ran into the back of your car,” Cam said.
“I had to be sure he was okay.”
“He was fine.”
“But I had to be sure.”
“And you broke up with a girl in college because she was homesick,” Aiden pointed out.
“She was going to drop out after the semester. The relationship was doomed.”
“It was September,” Aiden said.
“She wasn’t embracing all that college life had to offer. She never wanted to go and try to meet new people. She cried every day.”
“She was sad. And you broke up with her.” Aiden and Cam had been juniors when Ollie and Dax had been freshmen. Ollie and Dax had hit campus ready to live it up and have the time of their lives.
“We were clearly mismatched,” Dax said dryly.
“What did you see in her in the first place?” Cam asked.
“She was splashing around in the fountain in the middle of campus. I thought that seemed like fun. Like she was kind of a risk taker or something.” Dax sat back and put his feet up. “After I found out she was just in there to get her hat back after it had blown off her head, I thought I should at least give her a chance.”
Aiden and Cam both snorted. Dax grinned. “I like fun girls. That’s not a crime. Is Josie fun?”
“Josie is sweet,” Aiden emphasized. “And Zoe’s best friend and someone I care about, so you are not going to do anything with her.”
“Jane could handle you though,” Cam said.
Dax perked up. “Jane? Okay, who’s Jane?”
“Zoe’s other best friend,” Aiden said.
“But she’s not really fun,” Cam said.
“Jane’s awesome,” Aiden protested.
“She is,” Cam agreed. “But she’s… practical. Definitely serious. She doesn’t have time for video games and dressing up like fairies, and she’d think you and your beanbag chairs and gummy bears are all ridiculous. She’s not your type at all.”
The thing was, Dax probably needed a girl like Jane. Someone to keep his feet on the ground. Grant did that for him, in a fatherly or annoyed-big-brother way. Dax probably needed a long-term relationship with a girl like Grant. Someone who appreciated his brilliance but didn’t let him get too full of himself. Which actually made Aiden instantly turn back to the entire reason for his visit to the hotel.
“Okay, about Hot Cakes,” he said, sitting forward in his chair. “You can meet Jane, actually. She works at the factory, and we need to talk to her more about employee satisfaction and benefits and the things we can do to improve things there.”
Dax dropped his feet to the floor again and sat up straight. “Go into the factory and make it more fun to work there.”
“That’s not what I said,” Aiden told him.
“Are you sure?”
“The factory doesn’t need to be fun,” Aiden said. “It needs to be safe and efficient and…” He shrugged. “It would be great if it was pleasant. Or at least didn’t suck.”
“Pleasant, fun, unsucky. All kind of the same thing,” Dax said.
Yeah, well, Aiden had seen Dax in fun-mode. It was his default mode, actually. “We don’t need plastic rainbow slides inside or a candy bar. We need…” Aiden trailed off. “Fuck. I don’t know what we need. That’s the point. I haven’t even been inside the factory we now own. I know we need to do some work on the benefits and making the workers more stable and happy, but I can’t do it. And Cam can’t do it.”
“I’d love to do it,” Cam said. His voice was low and didn’t sound joking. At all.
“No.”
“Let me go in and find out from the horse’s mouth all the ways they’ve failed,” he said. “Now that sounds like fun.”
“What’s going on?” Dax asked.
“Whitney is the VP of sales and marketing at Hot Cakes,” Aiden said, watching Cam.
Cam’s jaw ticked at the mention of her name.
“Whitney the ex?” Dax asked. “That’s right.”
“So Cam can’t go in there,” Aiden said again.
“I can’t go inside the building that houses the company I now own twenty percent of?” Cam asked. “That sounds like bullshit.”
Aiden rubbed the middle of his forehead. “One thing at a time. You can’t go because everyone knows you.” Aiden blew out an exasperated breath. “Look, I know I can’t keep you and Whitney apart forever. Hell, she knows that too.”
Cam’s eyes snapped to his. “She said that?”
“Pretty much. She’s resigned to this. Not happy, of course, but she is grateful the company isn’t going out of business entirely and that we’re saving the jobs. She was honest about the fact her dad has let things go because he doesn’t care about Hot Cakes anymore, and things aren’t how she’d like them to be. She’s also grateful we’re keeping her employed. She acknowledges we don’t have to do that.”
“Good,” Cam said simply.
“But let’s not rub it in,” Aiden said.
“Oh, I’m rubbing this in,” Cam said. “Sorry, buddy, but there is no way I’m not going to gloat over the fact that the fucking company she chose over being with me is now only staying afloat because of me. That is definitely going to come up in conversation.”
Aiden sighed. As much as he wished Cam could get past all that, he couldn’t completely blame his friend for his bitterness. Whitney had chosen the business and her family over Cam. And now he was a huge success and that company and family needed bailing out. By Cam. It was kind of beautiful in a way.
“You can’t go in there yet, then,” Aiden said. “We need more information and a plan before we announce anything and let everyone know who we are.”
“You haven’t told Zoe and my mom and dad yet, have you?” Cam asked.
“No.”
“You waiting for the engagement party or what?”
“I’m waiting to have a plan. I want everyone—including them—to fully understand our intentions.”
“Our intentions are to keep Hot Cakes open. And successful. Even more so than they’ve been up to this point,” Cam said. “That’s my intention anyway. I want to make that company bigger and better than it ever was under the Lancasters.”
“I want something new to do,” Dax said, shrugging. “I need a new challenge.”
And Grant and Ollie fell into those two categories as well. Grant would want to build this investment into something even bigger. Ollie needed a new place to put his creative energy.
“Great,” Aiden said. “But we need to be able to show the employees that things are totally stable and going to improve. And we need the town”—he looked at Cam—“including your family, to understand that what we’re
doing is good. That it’s important to the town, and we’re doing it for noble reasons.”
“Fine. Then how do you want to do this?” Cam asked, giving in.
“We need to talk to the employees, get a feel for the physical plant, meet everyone from the factory workers to the office staff. You and Grant and I need to go over the financials, the benefits, look at the suppliers. Anything we can do that doesn’t involve someone local. If it has to do with the banks or anything, we’ll get Grant to do it. Just for a few more days. I just need to have a clearer direction before I let Zoe and Maggie and Steve in on everything. I want them to all know that I’m serious about this and to know our goals and plans so I can prove this isn’t a threat to Buttered Up.”
That all sounded great. Practical. Reasonable.
But those were things Zoe was not when it came to the bakery and her family legacy.
“Okay, I’m going to meet with Whitney. Alone.” He slid a look at Cam as he got to his feet. “For now, you guys read up on everything. Start thinking about how you think we should roll this out.” He pointed at Cam. “Maybe take the chip off your shoulder for a second and think about how we should best approach this with Appleby.”
Cam frowned, but he didn’t dispute the chip on his shoulder. “Okay. I’ll talk to Dad about it. He’ll have some ideas.”
“Cam,” Aiden said with a sigh. “He doesn’t know.”
Cam rolled his eyes. “Fuuuuuck. Can you get that taken care of?”
“Yeah. I’m… working on it.” His thoughts went directly to Zoe.
Zoe who had told their mom she and Aiden were together. Zoe who had let him touch her in the kitchen that morning. Zoe who had let him kiss her in front of everyone at the bakery. Zoe who had liked hearing that he had business nearby that meant he really was staying.
Yeah, he was working on it. He was making progress.
But dammit, the closer he got to her, the more he realized that messing this up and losing her was not an option. He wanted her even more than he’d known, and he had to make her see that they could have it all.
“You guys work on this stuff, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said. He started for the door but turned back. “And stay out of Appleby.”
“They don’t know me there,” Dax said.
“You don’t need anything in Appleby,” Aiden said. “Dubuque has everything Appleby does and much, much more.”
“We’ll go to the brewing company downtown,” Cam said. “Awesome beer and pizza.”
“Fine. I just thought I could look around the town,” Dax said.
“You can’t drive the roadster if you do. Or wear the fedora.”
Dax looked at Cam. “Can we take the roadster downtown?”
“Fuck yeah,” Cam said.
Dax looked at Aiden. “Fine, I’ll stay away from Appleby for now.”
“Thanks,” Aiden said dryly.
He pulled his phone from his pocket as he crossed the lobby a few minutes later, preparing to call Whitney and see if she could meet briefly, but the phone dinged with a text before he could dial.
It was Zoe.
Got an emergency order for butterfly cupcakes. Pink. I’m out of pink frosting. She included a sad-faced emoji.
But her second text made him feel a hell of a lot better.
But they’re cream-filled cupcakes, so I’m making extra filling. Maybe we can make do with that. For tonight.
He stopped walking, nearly getting plowed over by a woman rolling two oversized suitcases toward the front desk.
“I’m so sorry,” he apologized, stepping out of her way.
But Zoe had just propositioned him. With cream filling. How had the rest of the world not stopped and just observed a moment of awe like he had? When they’d talked about cream fillings, it had included the word clit.
That meant Zoe McCaffery had just invited him over to suck on her clit.
That’s what he’d read in that text anyway. He would be very happy to explain that to her too, when he saw her.
But before he could text something back, his phone rang. It was Whitney. She was available to meet right now.
He blew out a breath. Fuck. He really needed to talk to Whitney. Hot Cakes was depending on him.
The cream filling was going to have to wait for a few hours.
He’d survive.
Probably.
14
Could a woman get blue balls?
Obviously not, but what was the equivalent? Blue clit? And what was the appropriate reaction to—or punishment for—a guy causing it for the same woman twice? A woman he claimed to want a relationship with? After he’d already proven that the orgasms he could give were so much better than the DIY ones she was used to?
These were the things Zoe contemplated as she kneaded dough, chopped fruit, and whipped frosting over the next three days.
Three. Days.
None of it had worked off her frustration.
Aiden had texted her from Dubuque the day Maggie caught them kissing to say he was so sorry, but his meeting was going to go late. She’d thought he meant maybe seven or eight. She’d stalled at the bakery—with the cupcake cream—until seven thirty. She’d fallen asleep at home at ten. An hour later than she usually went to bed so she could be up at 5 a.m. She hadn’t heard him come home and only knew he was there the next morning because his car was in the driveway.
The same had happened the next two nights.
He’d come to the bakery around six thirty, looking like he’d barely gotten any sleep, and parked his tight, suited-up ass in one of the chairs and supervised the morning rush. He didn’t help, but he kept his eye on the guys in line.
When they’d cleared out, he’d come to her, kiss her until her toes curled, and apologize with a “this new project has just gotten crazy.” Or something similar.
She said she understood. She did. This was the job that was going to allow him to be in Appleby with her. She understood how much owning a business could take out of a person. At Christmastime she was sometimes at the bakery until midnight and then back by 5 a.m. to fulfill all the orders. She actually liked seeing him working hard and taking it all so seriously. She liked that they had a devoted work ethic in common.
She just didn’t like going without orgasms. Now that she’d really had a taste, she felt itchy and hot and jittery all the time thinking about it. One definite disadvantage to being able to do all her work on autopilot by now was that it left a lot of time for thinking about other things.
Like the fact they hadn’t had time to sneak in anymore hands-in-panties time. The morning rush kept her and Josie on their toes and then George and Phil were at their tables. Aiden was busy on his computer and phone almost nonstop anyway. Then around four o’clock, he’d pack up and head to Dubuque. Apparently, the guy he was meeting with also worked during the day and could only meet after hours.
Aiden had, however, given her a folder with some small business resources for employee benefits and had asked her to send him her books for the past two years. She appreciated he was still thinking of her and Buttered Up in the midst of the project that had caused him to miss dinner at her mom’s house last night and her invitation for pizza and beer with her, Jane, and Josie the night before. The project that was also making him look constantly worried and down four cups of coffee every morning.
She glanced up as he sat back in his chair with a sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face, putting his phone down for the first time in almost an hour. He’d mostly been listening to whatever was being discussed, but he’d been frowning a lot. She’d never seen him so… bothered. Things usually worked out for Aiden. He really had always seemed to have a golden touch.
Maybe this was good for him. Humbling, perhaps. Though the only two things he’d seemed totally confident about since coming back to Appleby was that she would open her arms—and legs—for him. And that she had no reason to hate Hot Cakes. Well, he’d been right about one of those.
“You know,” she
said, piping vanilla frosting onto the strawberry cupcakes and tiny strawberry pies on the table in front of her. “You don’t have to come in here so early every morning.” She looked up to find him watching her. “You could sleep in.”
George and Phil had left a while ago, and they were alone in the front of the bakery.
He gave her a smile that looked tired but sincere. “I like being here,” he said simply.
“You mean you like staking your claim,” she said. She liked him doing that too.
“That too,” he agreed.
She ignored the curl of heat in her stomach. “I think you’ve done that. Mom and Dad both said people have asked them about us. Jane and Josie too.”
“I like being here with you,” he said. He rose and approached the counter. “I like watching you work. I love the smells and sounds here. They’re… comforting. I like you filling me in on everyone as they come in and out.” He braced his hands on the counter. His dress shirt was rolled up on his forearms, and his tie was present but loose.
It was probably the tie that was making it hard for her to not be constantly horny.
“But mostly I like watching you work,” he said again.
She felt warm—even though she was frustrated. “You’re not watching me. You’re on your phone and computer.” She hoped he wasn’t watching too closely. She was trying something new, and she didn’t want him to notice and ask her about it. It was probably a dumb idea and wasn’t going to go anywhere anyway.
His gaze went over her. “I’m watching, Zoe. I’m aware of every move you make.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
“Did you know you make this little growling sound when something doesn’t turn out?”
She frowned. “No, I don’t.”
“You do.” He growled softly, clearly mimicking her.
“And ‘son of a damned fudge stick’ is your favorite curse while you’re working and you don’t think anyone is listening.”
Okay, that she did say. A lot. Under her breath. Or so she’d thought.
“And when something turns out well, you give this happy little sigh that sounds like the sigh you make when I kiss you.”
She frowned at him. “You can’t talk about kissing me.”
Sugarcoated Page 20
