Semi-Sweet On You: Hot Cakes Series

by Nicholas, Erin

  A few minutes later, he clicked the light off and started down the hall to the staircase.

  He heard footsteps coming down as he got to the foyer. His heart kicked against his ribs. Had Whitney changed her mind about leaving him with just one kiss?

  “Whit?” he asked softly.

  “No,” came the answering not-quite-a-whisper.

  He smiled into the darkness. “Hey, Didi.”

  “Hi, honey.”

  “You okay?”

  “Sure.”

  He heard a step creak as she came down further.

  “What are you doing?”

  “My show is on.”

  It was eleven at night. He doubted her show, whatever it was, was on. But Whitney had mentioned that Didi was up at odd hours.

  “Which show?”

  “Magnum, P.I.”

  Cam grinned. Okay, so maybe there were reruns on. “The old one or the new?”

  “There’s a new one?” she asked.

  “Yeah. They remade it.”

  Didi stopped on the third step up and he could now see her with the light spilling in through the tall windows on either side of the front door from the lamps on the porch.

  “Why in the world would they remake it? Tom Selleck can’t be replaced.”

  He had kind of figured she’d feel that way. His mother did. “The new guy is pretty handsome,” Cam told her. “According to my sources.”

  “Hmph,” Didi said. “I’m not interested.”

  “You don’t even want to check it out? Dark hair. Lots of muscles. Really nice cars.”

  She hesitated. “Well…”

  He grinned. “It won’t hurt to watch an episode or two.”

  “I suppose.”

  “And I assume you like Tom Selleck’s new show then? Blue Bloods?” he asked.

  “Tom Selleck has a new show?”

  “He does. Pretty popular.”

  “Can you find that one too?”

  “I absolutely can.” If Whitney didn’t already have all the streaming services needed, Cam could fix that in about two minutes.

  “I knew having you move in was the right thing to do,” Didi said. She came the rest of the way down the steps.

  “Oh… now?” he asked. “How about we watch tomorrow?”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said, moving past him to head down the hall to the family room. “We’re both awake, we might as well do it now.”

  Cam heard another creak on the steps and he glanced up. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he could see more clearly. Though obviously it was Whitney. There was no one else in the house.

  “She wants to watch Magnum, P.I.?” Whitney asked.

  “Yeah. Is that the usual routine?”

  “Yeah. She’s seen all the episodes a dozen times but…” She sighed. “She doesn’t remember them so they’re all new to her.”

  He smiled slightly. “That’s kind of great. I’d love to see some of my favorite shows and movies for the first time again.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve also seen them all a dozen times now. It’s not so great.”

  He gave a small laugh. “Then it really is great that I’m here. I’ve never seen a single episode of Magnum, P.I. Old or new.”

  “She’ll be up until three a.m., Cam.” Whitney sounded exhausted just thinking about it.

  “But then she sleeps in late tomorrow right?” he asked.

  “She’ll sleep past ten. Probably. Though…”

  He could see that she was chewing on her bottom lip. “What?”

  “This will sound bad.”

  “Come on, Whit. Tell me.”

  “Okay, I put a bell on her doorknob when she goes to bed so I can hear her when she gets up.”

  “Seems like a good idea. Why do you think that sounds bad?”

  “It’s something people do for little kids. I feel bad that sometimes I use techniques like that.”

  Cam moved to stand directly at the bottom of the steps. Whitney was five steps up but this way he could see her fully. And she could see him. “You’re doing it to keep her safe,” he said. “You’re not harming her in any way. And it probably helps you sleep more soundly because you’re not worrying about what she’s getting up to.”

  She nodded.

  “So stop feeling bad. It’s all good. And now tonight you can put some earplugs in or put some music on or something and sleep like a baby. I’ve got this.”

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  “Does it make you like me a little more? Make you a little softer toward me? Make you a tiny bit closer to wanting to take your clothes off with me?” he asked lightly.

  He could see her fighting her smile even from five steps away. “The first two things, yes.”

  “Not the naked thing?” he asked, lifting a brow.

  “Well, I already want to take my clothes off with you, so this doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with that.”

  Okay, he had not been expecting that. But he liked it. A lot. He grinned. “Of course you would say that when there’s a sweet little lady wide awake and wanting to watch TV—”

  Just then the clatter of a tea kettle hitting the floor broke the relative quiet of the house.

  “And needing some assistance in the kitchen,” he finished with a little grimace.

  Whitney laughed. “If you think I wasn’t completely aware of the situation when I made that confession, you’re crazy.”

  “I’m not going to forget it,” he told her, his voice husky.

  There was just a beat and then she said, “I know.”

  She turned and headed back upstairs.

  Cam appreciated that she was going to let him do this—stay up and take care of Didi. That was why he was here, of course. Well, one reason. But, while she’d resisted at first, once they got over all her arguments, she was now letting it go.

  She was either totally trusting him—or she was really exhausted.

  He couldn’t imagine staying up until 3 a.m. every day and then getting to the office by eight. It was possible that before the guys had taken over Hot Cakes that she’d come in later, but she was always there well before he strolled in at nine. She was trying to impress them. She didn’t know that early birds weren’t the guys’ style. Though Aiden had been showing up earlier at the office since he’d been with Zoe. Grant probably would be too now that he was living with Josie. The girls went into the bakery at 6 a.m.

  Still, no one judged anyone else for what time they got to work. Well, not beyond the usual ribbing about what—or who—had kept the guy up late the night before and had him guzzling coffee the next morning.

  Of course, that had all changed a lot too. Three of the guys were now in serious relationships and Cam did not want to hear about what Aiden and Zoe had been up to late at night.

  He heard another clatter from the kitchen and he headed in that direction before the sounds changed from the sound a tea kettle against the ceramic tile to something more like a tea cup hitting the floor.

  “Let me get that,” he said, taking the kettle from Didi where she was filling it with water. “I assume you like chocolate chip cookies?”

  She gave him a wide-eyed look. “Who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies?”

  He nodded. “Weirdos.”

  “Exactly. Never trust someone who doesn’t like cookies.”

  “Sage advice.” He filled the kettle and set it on the stove.

  He could have made her tea from the Keurig sitting on the counter about a foot away from the stove, but he figured Didi was a lot like Letty had been.

  His grandmother always maintained that cutting corners was for things like shopping for pants and dusting bookshelves. She said when you found pants you liked, you bought two pairs in every color and were done with it for a good long while. She also kept her books at the front edge of the shelf so she only had to dust the tops of the books. As she said, no one ever looked behind the books.

  But cutting corners was never for food pre
paration. That included tea.

  He got Didi settled in front of the TV. He started Magnum, P.I. at season one, episode one. If she didn’t remember them anyway and he was going to be watching with her, he might as well see it from the beginning.

  He could see her and the TV from the kitchen with the open-concept design of the less formal rooms at the back of the massive house. He put the cookies in the oven as the first episode rolled. Didi sat on one end of the sofa with a blanket covering her lap and her tea cup cradled between her hands. She looked completely content and Cam smiled. It was late at night, but otherwise there was nothing wrong with this. And Lord knew he’d spent plenty of nights up late reading briefs or writing proposals or exchanging snarky emails with the attorneys for other companies who put in similar long hours when needed.

  “I’m so glad Whitney finally has someone to appreciate her,” Didi commented as he joined her on the couch. “Besides me, of course.”

  “I absolutely do,” Cam said sincerely.

  “Good. Fuck her father and brothers.”

  Cam snorted. Didi’s words made him feel amused, for sure. But also… protective. No one was going to treat Whitney the way her father and brothers had any more. Yeah, fuck her dad and brothers.

  He smiled at Didi and she returned the grin. Then she looked back at the TV. “Okay, shh… Tom Selleck is on.”

  Yeah, he and Didi were going to be fine.

  11

  “What if we make them in the shape of alpacas?” Ollie asked.

  Whitney looked at him. She still wasn’t entirely sure how to tell when Ollie was being serious. Though she was starting to learn that he was always about half serious. He threw ideas out and left it to his partners to decide which ones would stick and which ones were ridiculous. But he never said things he didn’t mean at least a little.

  “You think we should make the new bars in the shape of alpacas?” Grant asked.

  “Why not?” Ollie asked. But when he asked the question he sincerely wanted to know the reasons why that might be a bad idea. “Everyone loves alpacas.”

  “I do not think that’s true,” Aiden said.

  “Okay, most people like alpacas,” Ollie countered.

  “The petting zoo was a huge success,” Piper said, handing Grant a folder.

  She wasn’t officially part of the meeting but she never hesitated to give her input. And her input was always excellent. Whitney couldn’t figure out why the guys hadn’t made Piper a business partner yet. Of course, they needed her in the role she held, keeping track of everything and everyone. Maybe that was it. They certainly paid her well for it. Whitney had seen her employee file. She saw all the employee files. But over the past few months it had been clear that Piper earned every single penny.

  “I don’t know if it was huge,” Ollie said with a little frown.

  Aiden nodded. “Oh, it was.”

  Piper gave Ollie a smug smile.

  Now that Whitney knew the petting zoo had been Piper’s idea and had stemmed mostly from the fact that she thought Drew Ryan was cute—and she liked making Ollie jealous—Whitney rolled her eyes.

  “These are the caramel crunch bars we’re talking about, right?” Dax asked.

  Whitney was glad Dax still came in for the 9 a.m. meeting. He was fun to have around, had great ideas, and she’d noticed that when all five guys were together, they were much more creative and relaxed.

  Of course, they were missing Cam today. Again. This was day three of Cam living with her and Didi. And missing the morning meeting at Hot Cakes. Because of her.

  Well, because of Didi. Actually because of him. He was the one who had decided to insert himself into their situation. So she didn’t feel guilty exactly. But as someone who wanted Hot Cakes to be the very best it could be, she was aware that they were missing a piece of their puzzle.

  Ollie nodded. “Yeah, the new bars.”

  “So they’ll be brown—because of the chocolate,” Dax said. “And a little lumpy because of the crispy-crunchy pieces.”

  Ollie shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “And then you want to make them look like an animal.”

  Ollie frowned. “What are you getting at?”

  “Alpaca poop,” Dax said. “That’s what I’m getting at. They could remind people of alpaca poop.”

  “I thought you liked alpacas,” Ollie said.

  “Love them.”

  “So…”

  “But they poop, Ollie.” Dax shrugged.

  “But they’ll be shaped like alpacas,” Ollie said. “Not like poop.”

  “Sure. But the color and texture could be reminiscent of poop. Add in the animal shape and it might put that thought in people’s heads,” Dax said.

  “It might just be you,” Ollie told him.

  “No, I think he has a point,” Piper said, picking up plates that had held muffins from Buttered Up.

  It was a really good thing that they’d smoothed over the tension between the two businesses if for nothing else than because it meant they could have breakfast pastries at morning meetings now. Zoe’s muffins and scones were amazing.

  “You’re just saying that because you’re being contrary,” Ollie said.

  Piper gave him a look with one arched brow. “I am?”

  “You are,” he said with a frown. “You’re disagreeing with everything I’ve said lately.”

  “Maybe you’ve been wrong a lot lately,” Piper said.

  “I figured you would love the alpaca idea,” Ollie replied. “What with your new fascination with the Ryan farm and all.”

  “That’s sweet of you to think of me,” Piper said with a big—totally fake—smile. “But my fascination with the farm isn’t really about the alpacas.”

  Ollie’s frown deepened. “Should we just make the new bars look like Drew Ryan then?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Piper said.

  Ollie relaxed slightly. Whitney was probably the only one who noticed, but she’d been watching him carefully. He was jealous of Drew. She just wondered if he realized why. Did he know that he had feelings for Piper? Oliver Caprinelli was brilliant but he seemed oblivious to everything having to do with Piper and her feelings for him, and, for some reason, Whitney wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Ollie didn’t even realize that he was annoyed by Drew because Ollie was in love with Piper himself.

  “If we were going to make Drew into a snack cake it would be devil’s food with a sweet, smooth, creamy, filling.” She paused. “And it would have to be jumbo sized.”

  Whitney pressed her lips together to keep from laughing and Grant, Aiden, and Dax all swung to look at Ollie.

  Clearly those guys realized that Ollie had some feelings besides appreciation or admiration for his assistant.

  “We already have chocolate cake with cream filling,” Ollie finally said.

  It was not a great comeback. But it was very funny. To everyone else.

  Piper just nodded. “Yes, we do.” She looked at Aiden and pointed at his computer. “By the way, Cam is joining via video.”

  Aiden opened his laptop and clicked a few buttons. “Hey, man,” he greeted a moment later.

  “Hey,” Cam’s voice returned. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “No problem. We’re discussing the shape of the new snack bars.”

  When it was said like that, it sounded stupid, Whitney had to admit.

  Aiden turned the computer to face the rest of the table.

  “We should give Cam a chance to weigh in on the shape,” Ollie said. Though he didn’t look like he actually cared what Cam thought. He was watching Piper as she moved around the room. “What do you think of alpacas?”

  “Um,” Cam said.

  “No,” Grant said. “Dax has a good point about the poop.”

  “The poop?” Cam echoed.

  Aiden sighed. “Yeah, maybe you did miss a few things.”

  “Alpacas,” Ollie said, his eyes still on Piper. “The new bars—”

  “That will look lik
e poop,” Dax interjected.

  “Should be shaped like alpacas,” Ollie finished.

  Piper faced him with a hand on her hip. “I thought that we’d already—"

  “It will be far more cost effective to keep them squares or rectangles,” Whitney said quickly.

  Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.

  “We’re already set up to do squares and rectangles. And circles, of course,” she said.

  Grant nodded. “Good point.”

  “Squares and rectangles are boring,” Dax said. “No offense,” he added to Whitney.

  She smiled. “None taken.” It wasn’t as if she’d been the one to decide the shapes of their snack cakes. Then again, she doubted much thought had been given to it at all. Back when her grandparents had started Hot Cakes there probably hadn’t been a lot of shape options in the big machines they’d installed to make their cakes. “But it really will cost less to keep doing the shapes we’ve already got. No need to reconfigure the machines that way.”

  Grant and Aiden both nodded. Looking slightly relieved if she wasn’t mistaken.

  “How quickly can we get the new bars into production?” Aiden asked. “If we stick with common shapes?”

  The question was directed to Whitney. Of course it was. None of the other people in the room knew as much about snack cake production as she did.

  She nodded. “Keeping with the common shapes will cut that time down dramatically as well. A couple of weeks,” she said. “It’s less about making the snack cakes themselves—we have the base recipe and can pretty easily adjust it for mass production and shelf life—but it’s about the process of transitioning machines.” She looked around the table. They all seemed interested, and as if they weren’t sure what she was talking about.

  No one else said anything.

  So she went on. Trying very hard not to fidget. Or look at Aiden’s computer. Too much. She felt Cam’s eyes on her though, even through that screen. It was all made stranger because he was sitting in her kitchen at the breakfast bar. Where he’d offered to lick her nipples…

  “Whitney? You were saying something about the Cinnamon Curls?” Grant asked.

  See? This was why it was a problem for her to be involved with Cam. She’d get distracted in the middle of explaining that the Cinnamon Curls were their lowest selling cakes so that machine could possibly be used part-time for the new bars, but that because the new bars were chocolate and the Cinnamon Curls were not it would be a bigger transition than using a machine that already used chocolate.