by Angela Evans
“Everything okay at home?” Dex asked.
“Yeah, they’re just concerned. It’s not like me to just take off without telling anyone,” she admitted. “And, most of all they want to know when I’m coming home to go back to work.” She tossed her phone on the couch cushion.
“And, what did you tell him?” Dex was slowly walking towards her as he spoke.
“I told him I need to figure out what I want to do, where I fit in.” Amelia answered.
“You seemed to fit pretty good to me,” Dex said with a sexy smile as he pulled her close.
Amelia felt the familiar pull of attraction she had felt every time she’d been near Dex, going back to their chance encounter at the airport. Her mind traveled back to the way it had felt to have him in her bed. Attraction didn’t begin to cover that experience. If she looked too closely at her feelings, she would realize the idea of never feeling like that again made her heart ache with loneliness. And that ache felt a lot like the one she felt when she thought about leaving Barefoot Bay, and going back to her life in Alaska.
Whoa.
Dex wasn’t talking about where she should live, or what her life plan was supposed to be.
He was talking about sex.
Confirming her suspicions, he pulled her even closer and tilted her head up at the perfect angle to meet his mouth. A groan vibrated through his chest and Amelia felt the flames begin to roar to life inside her. She threaded her fingers in his hair, and met his tongue with her own. He tasted sweet; in fact, he tasted exactly like the chocolate cupcakes she had taken to his family just the other day. Pulling back, she smiled at him.
“You’ve been eating chocolate cupcakes.”
“I told you I have a weakness for sweets.” He smiled and she felt her heart flip over inside her chest. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“A walk?” She asked in surprise. She definitely hadn’t thought he wanted to go for a walk. She had thought the only place he wanted to go was down the hall to her bedroom.
“I want to talk, and if we stay here there won’t be much talking.”
“No, I suppose there wouldn’t.” She blushed. “Let me grab some shoes.”
“You don’t need shoes. This is Barefoot Bay.” He laughed.
“True.” She accepted his outstretched hand and followed him out the door. It was just before twilight and the beach was sprinkled with couples walking, holding hands, and enjoying the romantic stretch of beach Casa Blanca boasted. “This is exactly why I came here.” She gestured with her hand to indicate the beach.
“I thought you came to clear your head and figure out your new life plan,” he teased.
“Well, I did, but I could have done that anywhere that wasn’t the lodge. There was a write up about Casa Blanca and Barefoot Bay in a bridal magazine my friend had sent me. It was actually open on my desk when the email came with pictures of Jeffery’s affair.”
“Have you heard from the cheating jackass since you got here?” Dex asked.
“He’s called and texted, but I haven’t answered. Really whoever sent me that email did me a favor. I was never in love with Jeffery. He was just another part of my life that had gotten completely off the rails.” She watched the waves roll in to the beach as she spoke, deliberately avoiding Dex’s eyes. Dex seemed so in control it was embarrassing to admit how out of control her own life had gotten.
He tugged her hand gently, pulling her attention back to him. “I’m glad you came here.”
“Me too.” She smiled at him and accepted his kiss. “I know you came for your Mom’s wedding, but you mentioned that you haven’t been in contact with your family lately, so that seems a little odd.”
“My boss forced me to take time off.” His jaw was tense and he didn’t elaborate which only peaked her curiosity. “A few weeks ago I was driving a car with a young punk riding in the passenger seat. I was driving fast, because that’s what the guys I’m investigating are looking for—guys who can drive fast—and the car flipped. The kid, his name was Zack, was killed. My leg was pinned under the steering wheel.”
“Oh, my God,” Amelia exclaimed and squeezed his hand. She hadn’t meant to interrupt and she didn’t want him to stop talking because she sensed he wasn’t to the important part yet.
“This kid, Zack…he was such a punk. He was running with these guys I’m investigating, but I thought I could get him out. I was so close. He hadn’t done anything yet that couldn’t be undone. He’d sold some drugs. He’d delivered some drugs to buyers. I was sure I could get him a deal and get him out.”
Dex stopped walking, the pain evident on his face as he turned to look at her.
“The next day I had planned to tell him I was a cop and get him to turn state’s evidence on the big guns involved. We could get him in witness protection maybe, and he could have a shot at a regular life.”
“But you didn’t get a chance,” Amelia finished for him.
“I didn’t even know he was dead until I woke up two days later.”
“Two days?” Amelia gasped.
“He wasn’t a bad kid. He’d just had a bad life and made the wrong choices.”
“A bad life like you had?” Amelia suddenly felt the pieces click together.
“His dad left when he was a baby, his mom had a handful of kids, and there was never enough to go around. He’d started running for one of the smaller guys in the network and made a few bucks. That led to running more and making more. The kid was just hungry. He wanted to make some cash and get out, but those guys, they don’t ever let anyone out. Not the easy way anyway.”
Amelia suppressed a shudder at what that might mean.
“So your boss made you take some time off because the kid was killed in the accident?” She asked.
“Not directly. He said I was burned out. He said if I didn’t take some time off he was going to fire me. He was bluffing, but I also knew he was right. I’d been playing a bad guy for so long I didn’t know the difference between the guy I pretended to be and the guy I really was anymore.” Dex ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “There were some signs my cover was in danger, that they might be onto me or getting suspicious.”
“Sounds scary.” She placed her hand on his chest, felt his heartbeat strong and fast.
“It’s scary to lose who you are.” He said, looking deep into her eyes as he said it, letting her know he understood how she felt. How sometimes things happen slowly without you realizing it until you stop and look behind you at where you started and where you are now.
“It is.” Her eyelashes were suddenly wet, so she blinked hard to clear her eyes and tried to smile at him.
“When my sister brought you my phone the other day, I had several texts from my boss letting me know some of those guys that I worked for a year and a half to try and put behind bars have followed me here to Florida.”
“Oh my God, Dex!” She exclaimed looking around her frantically like the dangerous drug dealers would be just standing out in the open for her to see. “We have to tell someone. Who should we tell?”
“Calm down, I have things under control.” He pulled her back around to focus on him instead of frantically looking up and down the beach for drug dealers.
* * *
Dex pulled Amelia in for a kiss, even though he knew he had brought her here to tell her he had to keep his distance and to explain why she wouldn’t be seeing him again. He knew he owed her that, but he couldn’t seem to keep his hands to himself. He wanted her, and no matter what his brain told his body, that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. He lifted his head and took a deep breath before saying what he knew he had to say next.
“These guys, they’re not like the drug dealers you see on TV. They’re not like anything you’ve ever seen before. They’re here and they know I’m a cop, so they’re pissed off. They came to kill me, so anyone else who is with me or close to me is in danger too.”
Amelia was a smart woman. She knew exactly where he was headed and tried to cut him o
ff. “I’m safer with you than I am by myself.” She clutched at him, and not just with her hands; her words pulled at his heart.
“Amelia, I can’t keep you and me both safe. I have to get these guys this time. I have to do it for Zack, and I have to do it to protect my family.” Dex struggled to find the words to explain to her so she’d understand. “If I’m with you, then my head isn’t on straight. I can’t focus and do my job while I’m thinking about those sounds you make when you come, or how you taste when I kiss you.”
Again Amelia was glancing around the beach, but this time it was to make sure no one could overhear what he had just said. “Dex, keep your voice down!”
Dex laughed and pulled her in for another kiss, further proving that what he had said was right. He couldn’t keep his focus on the job when he was near her.
“I’m making your mother’s wedding cake,” she blurted out, sufficiently distracting him with that bit of news.
“What? How did that happen?”
“Willow, from the wedding planners, was at the bungalow one day and mentioned their regular baker had flaked out on them. I kind of jumped at the chance to do some baking again and volunteered.” Her smile was infectious. The idea of baking at all, but especially this cake, had made her very happy.
“That sounds like a lot of work. Are you sure you want to do all of that? How are you going to do that in your bungalow? Don’t you need…I don’t know, stuff?” He had absolutely no idea what went into baking anything, let alone a wedding cake. A wedding cake seemed to him like something that would be fancier, or more involved than your regular cake. Not that he’d know; he’d never even seen one in person before. He wasn’t even sure he’d ever even looked closely at a photograph of a wedding cake now that he thought about it.
Amelia just laughed at him, and he realized he absolutely loved the sound of her laughing. He probably loved a lot of things she did, but he wasn’t going to think about any of that right now. Especially not the L-word. That was more terrifying than facing a gang of armed drug dealers.
“Yeah, I need some stuff. I need a kitchen and I found one, thanks to Willow. So you don’t have to worry about me being underfoot or being distracting. I’m not one of those clingy women who isn’t okay being on her own for a little while.” Amelia paused and gave him a penetrating glare. “But I am also not one of those women who will be content if you just walk out of my life. I am not finished with you yet, Blake Dexter. Not by a long shot.”
Dex pulled her right up off her feet and hauled her up against him. Kissing her was far superior to thinking right now. His tongue demanded entrance to her mouth and he didn’t have to wait. Her kiss was as desperate as his was demanding. He told himself to slow down, to savor this. He was trying, he really was, but half of him wanted to just take her right here on the sand.
“Let’s go inside,” she whispered against his mouth. Damn, she still had enough presence of mind to know they needed to get off this beach. He was supposed to be protecting her, and she was the one reminding him they were out in the open.
Dex set her down, and looked around. Relieved to see the setting sun had driven most of the rest of the beachgoers inside, he took her hand and pulled her firmly against his side as he turned them back towards her bungalow. Luckily his baggy board shorts gave him a little room below the belt, otherwise his raging hard-on might have been a little uncomfortable. Well, more uncomfortable than it was.
“Tell me about the bakery,” he said, desperate for any topic that was dull and mundane, that would distract him from the urgent need he felt to get her back to her bedroom.
“It’s a kitschy little doughnut shop on Center Street, right down from the police station so you know I’ll be safe there, and the owner apparently retired and moved away not too long ago. Its name was The Donut Hole, if that’s not the cutesiest thing you’ve ever heard.” Amelia’s happiness was infectious. He found himself smiling at her, something he did way more with her than he could remember doing in a long, long time.
They passed a small group of guys, laughing and shoving each other as they ran down the beach with a ball in their hands. Dex glanced at them and then back at Amelia’s beautiful smile, her lips slightly puffy from his kiss and her chin a little pinker than normal from his five o’clock shadow. He should have shaved before he came to find her, but after stopping by his family’s bungalow and getting a promise from them they’d lay low and stay together, he hadn’t wanted to waste any more time.
“I’m going by there tomorrow for the delivery of everything I need and then I’ll be up to my elbows in frosting and sugar.” She seemed excited about the prospect. “I may even have to put a batch of bread in the oven just because there is nothing quite as heavenly as the smell of bread baking in your oven.”
“I like the mental picture of you covered in frosting and sugar. I may just have to stop by and see if I can distract you a little.” He was rewarded with a slight catch of her breath and the slightest of blush on her cheeks, but he could tell by the way her eyes dropped to his mouth she was every bit as turned on as he was. So help him, someday he would get to take this woman to bed with nothing but time to love her the way he wanted to, and she deserved to be loved.
There was that damn L-word again!
“If you love baking so much, and the idea of running that silly little bakery all by yourself makes you so happy, why not tell your brothers you’re not coming back?” The idea of her here in Barefoot Bay running a bakery in Mimosa Key made him oddly happy too.
“I don’t know. It’s complicated. They’re family. I can’t just leave them high and dry, can I?” Amelia asked, her beautiful face twisted up with worry. “Plus, I’d be here all by myself. You’re going to go back to being a cop. Your mom and sisters will leave after the wedding. Willow is the only other person I know here.” Amelia opened the door to her bungalow and he followed her inside. The door closing behind them shut them in the quiet comfort of her private bungalow, reminding him for now he really did have all the time he needed.
“I think the best way to find your way in life is to figure out what makes you happy. The rest will all fall into place.” He locked the door, set the deadbolt, and pulled her behind him towards the bedroom.
“And what makes you happy, Dex?” Amelia asked.
“You do,” he replied, not letting himself think at all. For once in his life, he was just acting on pure feeling.
* * *
“Excuse me?” A voice echoed from the front of the bakery, startling Amelia. Dex had told her to be on her guard, to keep her eyes open, and she had gone and left the door unlocked. She was definitely not meant to be looking over her shoulder for bad guys. She was too easily distracted by things like sugar, flour, and new cake pans.
“Hello?” Amelia called back. The fact the voice was female put her nerves at ease somewhat; whether that was right or wrong, she didn’t know.
“Hello?” The voice called back, getting closer. “Oh, there you are.” A young, petite brunette came around the corner into the kitchen just as Amelia reached the doorway to the front of the shop, causing them to nearly collide.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Amelia laughed. “Can I help you? I’m afraid the shop isn’t open. I’m just using the kitchen.”
“I heard you were using the kitchen from Willow Hershey. She mentioned you were making a wedding cake for them and thought you might need an extra set of hands. I used to work here when it was a doughnut shop. I was just part-time, but I really enjoyed it. So, I thought I’d offer my services if you can use them.” The brunette’s smile was charming, and even though Amelia had been cautioned to be wary of everyone and everything, she instinctively knew this stranger meant her no harm. She was a fellow lover of baking and there was nothing more to it than that.
“I’m Amelia Barton.” Amelia offered her hand in greeting.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Leslie Manning,” the brunette introduced herself and shook her hand. “Sorry to just burst in on you.�
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“No problem. I thought I had locked that door. I swear I would forget my head if it wasn’t attached most of the time. Especially when I get into a recipe.” Amelia gestured to the clutter assembled on the counter behind her.
“The doughnut shop was not exactly a high-end bakery, but every once and awhile we’d get a request for a birthday cake and I’d really get to do something fun.” Leslie looked wistfully at the bakery.
“I could definitely use an extra set of hands,” Amelia admitted.
“Well, I don’t expect you to just take my word for it I know what I’m doing at a bakery. Before Mrs. Riley moved away, she wrote me a letter of recommendation in case someone else opened up the bakery.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a letter in an envelope, handing it to Amelia.
Amelia slid the single folded piece of paper from inside the envelope and read what amounted to a glowing recommendation from the owner of the bakery for Leslie’s skills as a baker, cake decorator, and employee. “This all looks great. When can you start?”
After discussing the logistics like hours and pay, Leslie assured her she was fine to stay and get right to work. Amelia set Leslie up with the cake recipe she wanted to use and went back to piping the icing into the shapes of various flowers she’d seen on Mimosa Key. Her original design had just called for roses but after noticing how many beautiful and colorful flowers grew around the resort in Mimosa Key, Amelia decided it would be more appropriate to imitate those flowers with the decorations and make it as special as possible for Patrice and Marco.
“I just have to be home by six o’clock. My mother is watching my boys and she has to get to work this evening,” Leslie said as she washed her hands, slipped on an apron, and lined up her cake pans exactly the way Amelia would have done it herself.
“How old are your boys?” Amelia asked, happy to have someone to make conversation with. The potential of making another friend was making the idea of staying in Mimosa Key grow on her.
“They’re three and four. They’re a handful, but also the light of my life. They stay with my Mom when I’m at work. She works evenings waiting tables and sometimes tending bar at South of the Border, so since I work in the daytime and she works evenings, everything works out perfect. At least in theory.” Leslie laughed as if to say things rarely worked out as planned. “My husband died in a car accident when the youngest was just a baby, so it’s just me and them now.”
