by Kira Archer
He sighed. “All right.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
Her smile shattered the last of his reservations. Nothing that could create a smile like that could be wrong. Right?
Jill looked between them, her fake smile warming a few degrees. “You two are definitely meant for each other. How many sets do you need?”
“Actually,” Eric said, “we won’t need the whole setting, just the plate and the salad plate. As many as you’ve got.”
Jill’s eyes widened at that. She glanced down at the inventory sheet in her hand. “Looks like between all the designs there we’ve got thirty-seven settings.”
“Is it possible to just get the plates and salad plates instead of the whole setting?” Nat asked.
“I believe so.”
“Great, we’ll take all thirty-seven plates and salad plates then,” Eric said. “We can come back for them later. Is four o’clock good?”
“No, wait. We just need thirty-six. Thanks,” Nat said.
Eric frowned at her. Jill looked back and forth between them and Eric shrugged. “Just thirty-six then, I guess. Four o’clock okay?”
Jill nodded. “That should be fine.”
“Great. Thanks.” Eric grabbed Nat’s hand and pulled her out before she could say anything else.
He was surprised when she didn’t pull away once they left the store.
Nat laughed suddenly, an odd little sound that reminded him of an old cat wheezing for breath. “That poor saleswoman. I think we confused her.”
“Well, she’s probably not used to her customers ordering three dozen place settings at a time.”
Nat laughed again. “Probably.”
“Speaking of which. Why just the thirty-six settings? We could have used another one and now the store just has one place setting.”
Nat shrugged. “Thirty-six just sounded better.”
Eric’s eyebrow rose. That didn’t sound better. Leaving one place setting behind was beyond odd.
Nat suddenly pulled short. Just up ahead was the glaring pink and green truck. Gina was already hanging out of the truck window waving at them. Nat quietly slipped her hand from his and glanced up at him.
“Better go over and say hi.”
Eric didn’t say anything but followed her over to the truck. Gina glanced back and forth between them, an appraising eyebrow raised.
“How are you two doing today?” she asked.
“Fine,” Nat said. “How’s business going?”
Gina waved at a handful of people munching on cupcakes nearby. “Good, as always. What have you guys been up to?”
“We were just out shopping for things for the bakery.”
“I can see that. Getting much done, are you?”
Eric frowned. She wasn’t saying anything untoward, but her tone implied she suspected something other than retail therapy was going on. Of course, it probably only bothered him because he both hoped and feared she was right.
“Yeah,” he said. “Natalie’s dragged me from one end of this town to the other. The bakery should be fully stocked and loaded by the end of the night, the way we’re going. Just stopped off and got some plates. Though she’d only let me buy thirty-six of the thirty-seven settings they had.”
Natalie shot him a dirty look and stepped a little farther from him. Eric frowned again, not liking the distance she put between them.
Gina snorted. “Yeah, Nat doesn’t like odd numbers.”
Eric’s eyes widened and he turned to Nat with a grin. “What?”
She tried to wave him off, but Gina jumped back in. “Oh yeah. Follow her around the grocery store sometime. It’s fascinating. She’ll never buy an odd number of apples. She usually goes for six because four is too few and eight is too many and she’d never, ever buy five or seven.”
Eric chuckled. “So does this only apply to apples or anything?”
“Anything. Everything.”
“Wait, though, we bought nine table and chair sets at the antique store. That’s an odd number.”
Gina’s eyebrow went up again, her lips pinched together to keep from full-on smiling. She looked at Nat, so Eric turned to her as well, waiting for her to answer.
“It’s divisible by three,” she murmured, so low he almost didn’t hear her.
“What?” Eric said, laughing.
Nat sighed. “Nine doesn’t bother me. I don’t know why, though I assume it’s because it’s divisible by three so it doesn’t feel so…odd.”
That had to be the most adorable thing Eric had ever heard. It took all the self-control he had not to burst out laughing. But Nat was blushing so hot he was afraid she’d melt on the spot. Though he did detect a little smile. Good to know she didn’t take herself too seriously.
“All right, leave me and my weird little issues alone,” she said, giving him a playful push.
“So,” Gina said, “do you guys need a little sugar?”
Natalie looked at him. He shrugged his shoulders. “What’s good here?”
“Everything,” Nat said with a laugh.
Eric looked over the menu. “What is a build-your-own cupcake?”
“That’s our most popular option,” Nat said. “We’ve lots of premade cupcakes but you can also order a custom cupcake just how you like it. You pick the flavor of cake you want, what kind of filling, what kind of frosting, and what toppings you’d like.”
“Really? That’s…pretty cool, actually.”
“We think so.”
“So, what do you want?” Gina asked.
Eric glanced at the menu options one more time before answering. “I’ll take a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache filling, chocolate butter cream frosting, and chocolate sprinkles.”
This time both girls’ eyebrows shot up. “That’s a lot of chocolate,” Gina said.
Eric shrugged. “What can I say? I love chocolate.”
Gina looked back and forth between Eric and Natalie again.
“What?” Eric asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “Nat, you want your usual?” she asked with a smile.
Natalie glared at her. “I think I’ll stick with plain vanilla today, thanks,” Nat said.
“Whatever.” Gina turned her back to get their cupcakes ready.
“What’s your usual?” Eric asked.
Natalie’s cheeks flushed again. “Pretty much the cupcake you ordered. Only I usually top it with Hershey bar shavings or M&M’s or Heath bar or…well you get the point.”
Eric laughed. “So I guess we’ve got at least one thing in common.”
“More than that, I thought.”
Eric stared at Nat, then took a step closer. “Yes, definitely more than that. I wasn’t sure you wanted to remember that.”
“I wasn’t sure either. I don’t seem to have a choice about it, though.”
He brushed a stray curl off her cheek, letting his hand rest against her face for a moment. He wished this whole bakery business wasn’t between them. He had no idea how to act around her. In usual circumstances he’d be turning on the charm, wining and dining her, making any excuse he could to touch her. He’d grab a hold of her and never let go. But that wasn’t something he could do just now. And if he got his way and got his hands on her garage, he’d probably never get the chance.
He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, “Mamma Mia” interrupted him. He silenced the phone, but he wouldn’t be able to ignore her indefinitely. The longer he did, the more she’d call.
“I better get going,” he said, both saddened and thrilled when Nat’s face fell. She wasn’t happy he was leaving. Neither was he. Hopefully that was a good thing.
“More errands for your mom?”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Always.”
Before he could say anything else Gina cleared her throat. “Order up!”
Eric took his cupcake and glanced back at Natalie, not sure what to say.
“Well,” she said.
“Well.” They stared at each other a moment, not saying a word. “Well. I guess I’ll get going for now. I’ll go get my car, pick up the plates, and see you back at the shop tomorrow.”
“Okay. Sounds great.”
“Gina,” Eric said, lifting his cupcake in a mock salute. He turned on his heel, whistling the oompa loompa song from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as he walked away. He had no clue what he was going to do about his growing interest in Natalie Moran. But for the moment, he’d call his mother before she drove him nuts. And then he was going to go home, enjoy his chocolate, and then, go get the plates.
Chapter Ten
Nat watched Eric walking away and suppressed a sigh. His mother, or rather his inclination for running whenever Mommy Dearest called, was a bit annoying.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Gina asked.
Natalie looked up at her in surprise, licking a bit of vanilla frosting off her lip. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t give me that. I saw you two walking down the street holding hands looking like some happy couple fresh off their white picket fence farm. You must be out of your mind.”
“I don’t know what you mean. We were just goofing off with this salesgirl in the store and we’d just left the shop. He was still holding my hand. I didn’t want to be rude and just yank it away.”
“Sure. You didn’t want to be rude. That’s why you let him hold your hand. That’s the excuse you want to go with?”
“It’s the truth. I don’t know what you think is going on.”
“Oh, I can see what’s going on. The problem is, you can’t.”
“I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you don’t. That’s the problem.”
“What’s the problem? I’ve slept with the guy. I can’t just pretend like I barely know him. Besides, even if I did like him, a little, maybe, it’s not that big a deal.”
“Of course it’s a big deal. He’s only being nice to you because he wants to get his hands on that parking spot of yours. And I’m not talking about the one he already got his hands on,” Gina said, her gaze flicking to Nat’s nether region.
Nat gasped in mock shock and flicked some frosting at Gina. “You did not just go there.”
“Oh yeah. I did. But focus, please. He needs you to help him get the bakery running, he needs your garage, and until he gets what he wants, of course he’s going to be nice to you and flirt a little, buddy up to you real nice so when he goes in for the swoop, you don’t put up a fight.”
“Sure, because there’s no other reason a good-looking, successful man would want me except for what he can get out of me, right?”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Nat took a deep breath. Yeah, she did know that. But still she couldn’t help thinking it.
“That is not what’s going on,” Natalie said. “First of all, he’s not buttering me up. The man is aggravating in the extreme. All we do is argue about everything. We have nothing in common. We can’t agree on anything. You just happened to see the one moment where we were playing around a little. But believe me, this has not been one big flirt-fest. The man is a Class A-I pain in the ass.”
“That you’ve already slept with.”
Nat opened her mouth, then shut it again. Gina’s eyebrow went up. Nat sighed. “That was a onetime deal.”
“If you say so. All I’m saying is you should be careful. Men are hard enough to trust as it is. But when you’ve got one that wants something from you, it’s especially dangerous. You’ve already learned that the hard way.”
Nat frowned, her blood running cold at the memory of her asshat of an ex. She hadn’t thought anything of doing all the work on their cookbook. After all, those might have been her recipes, but he had tested them out for her and he had the connections who were helping get the book published. And they had been engaged. She had figured the money they would earn on the book would go to both of them. Until he’d fallen in love with someone else and had taken the manuscript, along with just about everything else they had co-owned, and left.
She’d put up enough of a fuss that he agreed to pay her half of the advance he’d received if she gave up any further claim to the book. And the only reason she’d taken that crappy deal was to get him out of her life, once and for all. It had given her enough capital to start a new life without him. But being completely used and tossed away by the one person who should have loved her the most had left her extremely wary of trusting anyone again.
But, Eric was nothing like him. Though, granted, Eric had more of a reason to get on her good side than her ex ever had. Which gave him more of an opportunity to betray her.
Suddenly, all the little flirtatious moments that had happened since they’d met seemed less playful. She had been getting more comfortable with him. And she had really enjoyed holding his hand, letting herself touch him. Her body seemed to crave contact with him and giving in to that need, even for a moment, had been heavenly.
Every other word out of his mouth was a sexual innuendo of some kind and it had been fun to play along. But it was one thing to play. It was another thing entirely to get played. She didn’t think that’s what he was doing, but Eric did want that parking garage and he did need her to get his bakery started. So did that mean the little moments they’d shared were all some part of his grand master plan? The thought depressed Natalie more than she wanted to admit.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I might’ve been playing around a little but I have no intention of letting him seduce my future out from underneath me.”
“Good. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Under normal circumstances, I’d tell you to go for it in a heartbeat. That man has got a seriously rocking body. And if you were me, it wouldn’t be an issue. Hook up as much as you want and then walk away. But you aren’t me so…” Gina shrugged.
“So what?”
“So, you aren’t capable of just sleeping with a guy without getting attached. And that’s not a bad thing. But I don’t want you setting yourself up for a lot of heartache. So just be careful.”
Natalie wanted to argue with her but knew she was right. It didn’t make it easier to swallow, but still. She sighed. “I will be.”
“Good. Now go eat your cupcake. Some of us have to work.”
Natalie chucked a chunk of cupcake at her and Gina ducked before winking at Nat and going back to work.
“All right, contain yourself!” Gina said to the guy standing impatiently at the truck window.
Nat laughed and shook her head. Her smile faded though, with Gina’s warnings echoing in her head. She knew her friend had a good point. And experience had taught her to be careful. Most of the men she’d dated had used her, cheated on her, or lied to her, with Steve being the crowning glory of them all. She’d given up after him. Eric seemed so different, though. Maybe he was. But, just in case, she’d be wise to keep her distance. If she could.
…
“You are out of your fucking mind,” Jared said, waving at the bartender to bring him another beer.
Eric took a swig of his own beer and looked at his friend in surprise. “What?”
“Don’t give me that look, man. I’ve known you since high school. You got it bad for this girl.”
“I do not. But we do have to work together, so I don’t see the point in being a jerk about it.”
“She’s using you, dude. She wants a piece of what you got and not in a good way.”
Eric’s eyebrow rose a notch.
“You know what I mean,” Jared said.
Eric shook his head. “I don’t think I have anything to worry about. She goes out of her way to make sure I know she’s not interested in me.”
“Whatever. She damn well is interested in you. She wants your business. You think she’s putting in all this work just out of the goodness of her heart? She wants you to make her a partner, at the very least. Why else is she working so hard? Just for a few hours in
the kitchen?”
Eric frowned. “I don’t think she’s like that.”
“Of course you don’t. That’s what she wants you to think. She wants you to think she’s nothing but a sweet little cupcake baker who’s just doing her good deed for the day. And then when she’s got you so dependent on her that you can’t run the place without her, that’s when she forces your hand.”
“Forces my hand on what?”
“She wants a piece of that bakery. She’s already got your parking garage. You let her be a partner and she pretty much owns two thirds of the place. And if she’s the one that gets things up and running, well then, there’s not much need for you, is there? At best, you’ll be a silent partner and at worst…”
“At worst, I won’t be there at all.”
“You said it, man.” Jared shrugged and took another swig of his beer.
Eric slowly drank his beer, his eyes on the screen in front of him, though he wasn’t watching the game at all. He didn’t think Natalie was that conniving. Sure, she did know how to get under his skin until he didn’t know what to do and he was always on the verge of either pulling his hair out or shoving her up against a wall and kissing her until she was breathless and begging for him. As for the control thing, she couldn’t seem to help herself. Organization was like her drug of choice.
But she did seem to change gears kind of quickly. One moment she would be arguing with him until she was blue in the face, and the next she was flirtatiously playing with him. He guessed Jared had a point. But the thought didn’t make him happy.
“I don’t know. She’s never said anything about becoming partners, never acted like she was more than helping me out. She knows I’m never going to give up the bakery.”
“Does she? Think about it, man. This is something you decided to do on the spur of the moment because someone handed the building to you. It’s not something you would have necessarily chosen to do. In her mind, it’s probably something you wouldn’t care about walking away from. So, if she gets her hooks in real deep, she probably figures maybe it’ll be easy for you to walk away. Face it, she is getting the short end of the stick in your little deal.”
“No she’s not. She’s getting everything she wanted.”
