Making Whoopie

by Erin Nicholas

  Her expression was hard to read. After a moment she asked, “Will you all help keep my ideas in line too?”

  “Do you mean will we let you throw out anything and everything and dream big and then make as much of it happen as we can and as makes sense, but will we also be honest with you about what won’t work and why?”

  She nodded, her bottom lip between her teeth.

  He smiled. “Yes. Absolutely.”

  She let out a breath.

  “Listen, without Ollie and Dax being big thinkers, none of us would be where we are today. I try to give them a long leash whenever I can. I like to think of myself as the guy who finds ways to let Ollie and Dax do their thing while keeping the company solvent and responsible.” He paused. “If you want to be one of the big thinkers, that’s awesome. The rest of us are here for… everything else. We’ll all make it happen together.”

  She looked touched by that, and she gave him a huge smile.

  That smile and the way she lit up made Grant think of Cam. His friend was still in love with this woman. He might not admit it, or hell, he might—he was Cam and was forever contrary and doing the opposite of what people expected—but it was true and Grant could see why in that moment.

  Whitney was gorgeous, but there was more than her long dark hair and her eyes and lips and curves. There was an intelligence behind her beauty. She wasn’t as bold as Zoe or as down to earth as Jane or as sweet as Jocelyn. Whitney had a classy, sophisticated polish to her, but there seemed to be a lot of passion just underneath.

  It was interesting that this was the woman who’d stolen Cam’s heart. Cam was a fighter. He liked to push buttons. He was downright crass when he wanted to be. He could read a room—not that it always meant he pulled punches—but polished and classy were not adjectives anyone would use for Camden McCaffery.

  Maybe that was the draw. The opposites-attract thing, Grant mused. That seemed the case with him and Jocelyn to a degree. They had very different backgrounds and upbringings.

  But he couldn’t shake the way she’d talked about his seminars. Even what he did for a living with the guys. He made it possible for them to shine. He helped other people recognize their potential and helped encourage them to see themselves as capable of more.

  Jocelyn did that too. She made Buttered Up better than it would have been without her. She encouraged Zoe to try new things. He knew the recent addition of cake pops to the menu had been Jocelyn’s idea. That seemed small, but he knew that with Zoe it took a while to get new ideas through. Jocelyn had done that. The cobblers and cookies she did for the busy women of Appleby seemed like a small thing, but it was an important piece to a much bigger picture.

  And Jocelyn was fine being behind the scenes and helping other people have those moments of happiness. The graduation cake for Mr. Milford had been important, even those pussy cupcakes. Those had all been her using her baking to make moments for other people.

  Grant was starting to see that small, simple, sweet things could add up to big, important things. Literally and figuratively.

  Damn, he was in love with her.

  He was married to her.

  He wanted to stay married to her.

  “Sorry I’m late.”

  Grant looked over his shoulder to find Cam striding into the room. Grant glanced back at Whitney.

  She sat up straighter and gave Cam a little frown. “How can you be late to a meeting you weren’t invited to?”

  “Interesting point. Guess I’m right on time, then,” he said, handing two white envelopes to Grant.

  “For a meeting you still weren’t invited to?” Whitney asked.

  Cam dropped into the chair next to Grant and propped one ankle on his opposite knee. “Yep. What’s up?”

  “Maybe something you don’t need to know about,” she said.

  “I’m the company attorney, darlin’,” he said with a slow smile. “I need to know about everything.”

  Whitney sighed. She couldn’t really argue with that.

  “What’s this?” Grant asked, taking Cam’s focus off his ex for a moment.

  “One is the insurance papers. All the bills have come through and are paid in full. The other is the divorce papers.”

  Grant lifted a brow.

  Cam glanced at Whitney. “Oh yeah. Don’t say anything to anyone about that.”

  Whitney looked back and forth between them. “Divorce papers?”

  “Thanks, Cam,” Grant said with a sigh.

  “It’s Whitney,” Cam said with a shrug. “She’s a great secret keeper. Aren’t you?”

  Whitney opened her mouth, her cheeks suddenly pink. Then she snapped her mouth shut.

  Cam looked at Grant, but his expression was less playful now. “Don’t worry. Whitney has secrets about me that she still hasn’t told anyone.”

  Grant did not want to get in the middle of this. “I don’t want to know.”

  “No, you probably don’t,” Cam agreed. “It’s just stupid shit like her being madly in love with me and wanting to spend the rest of her life with me and her giving that all up to be fucked by her family’s company instead.”

  Whitney gasped and narrowed her eyes. “Cam,” she said through gritted teeth.

  Grant let his eyes slide closed and took a deep breath. He really didn’t want to get in the middle of this. “Okay, enough,” Grant said firmly, leveling Cam with a look. “If you’re going to be an ass, you need to leave.”

  Cam just relaxed farther into the chair. “Nah, I’ll be good.”

  He wouldn’t. Cam didn’t know how to be good. But if he’d stop poking at Whitney, then it was easier to let him stay than make a big deal out of forcing him out. The other option was to tell him the meeting was already over. But Grant did want to hash out some of these details of the new product, and it wouldn’t hurt to have their lawyer here for that.

  He decided to divert the conversation. And the best topic for that was, unfortunately, him.

  “Jocelyn and I got married in Chicago,” Grant told Whitney.

  Her eyes widened. “Congratulations.”

  He shook his head. “It was… purely practical.”

  That’s a lie, a voice in his head protested. It was that word purely that was tripping him up, he realized. Because they had gotten married for a very practical reason. It just hadn’t been the only reason he’d been happy to be saying I do to her in that judge’s chamber.

  “She needed health insurance to cover her gall bladder surgery,” Grant explained. “It was the easiest way take care of that.”

  Whitney nodded. “Okay.”

  Grant looked at her closely. She seemed to be accepting it all easily enough. “Really?”

  “It’s none of my business,” Whitney said. “And even if it was, it makes sense.”

  Grant nodded. Okay. See, this was what it was like to deal with commonsense, practical people who understood black and white. Whitney wasn’t just a big thinker and dreamer. “Thank you.”

  “And now you’re getting divorced?” she asked, glancing at Cam.

  Cam lifted a shoulder. “As soon as they sign the papers anyway. Everything’s taken care of. No reason to stay married.”

  “The bills are already paid?” Grant asked, looking down at the envelope in his hand.

  “I encouraged them to rush it,” Cam said.

  “How?”

  “I’m very good at my job, and I have a lot of connections,” Cam said as if it was the most obvious thing.

  Both of those things were true, and Grant had no reason or way to argue them. “Why did you think they had to go through so fast?”

  Now that the bills were paid, there wasn’t really a practical reason for him and Jocelyn to stay married. He had figured that it would take at least thirty days for the hospital to file everything and for it to go through. Thirty days was a great amount of time for him to be sure the she was fully healed and back to normal.

  It had now been three weekdays.

  “Why not?” C
am gave him an assessing look. “I figured you’d want it taken care of. And that’s what I do. I take care of stuff.”

  “They won’t think that’s suspect? When we end up divorced so quickly?” Grant asked.

  Cam shrugged again. “I’m not sure it matters if they think it’s suspect. You were actually married at the time we filed the claim. She actually had a medical need for the procedure. The claims were filed properly, albeit quickly. They paid the claim. It went through a little faster than usual, but it wasn’t fudged in any way. There’s nothing illegal about it.” He grinned. “They can try to deny it. I’d be happy to discuss it with them further.”

  Grant sighed. Cam had probably pushed the insurance claim through extra fast in the hope that they’d come back and want to fight about it. He was probably bored. There hadn’t been as much legal work to do with Hot Cakes since the purchase had gone through.

  Hell, it was very likely why Cam had come into Whitney’s office. He’d probably asked Piper where Grant was and as soon as she’d said he was in with Whitney, Cam’s eyes had probably lit up.

  He was such an ass. But such a loyal, good-guy ass. He loved to fight, but he fought for the right things. And if he cared about you, he’d fight for you to the death.

  That was the problem with a guy like Cam falling in love. Once he fell, he never got over it. It was very possible that he’d never get over Whitney and he’d die an old bachelor. A cantankerous old bachelor.

  Okay, fine, so now the bills for Jocelyn’s gall bladder surgery were taken care of. “These are the divorce papers?” Grant asked, holding up the other envelope.

  “Yep.” Cam gave him that thoughtful look again. “Do with them what you will.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Once you both sign, the divorce will go through quickly. You don’t have any mutual assets and no one’s contesting anything. There’re no kids. I’ve made it very simple,” Cam said. “But, of course, you’re married until you both sign.”

  Grant looked down at the envelope. Right. They had to actually sign the papers to end the marriage. Regardless of the hospital bills. “Is there a time limit on it?” Grant asked.

  Cam shot Whitney a look. Grant looked at her too. She looked surprised, but she was pressing her lips together as if to keep from saying anything.

  “Not really,” Cam said. “I’ll work it out whenever you sign. But the longer you play at husband and wife, the harder it might be to keep this simple.”

  Grant wanted to protest the use of the word playing. Which was the first red flag.

  The fact that he thought it’s already not simple was red flag number two.

  The fact that he asked his next question was red flag number three.

  “You think we might develop real feelings for each other if we keep this going?”

  Cam looked at Whitney again. Then he nodded. “I think it’s possible. Yeah.”

  The fact that Grant liked the idea that Jocelyn’s feelings could grow was red flag number four.

  “Grant,” Cam said.

  “Yeah?” He looked up at his friend.

  “Are you going to sign those papers tonight?”

  Grant already knew the answer to that question. “No.”

  “I see.” Cam shifted on his chair, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his thighs, pinning Grant with a direct look. “Why not?”

  “I need to be sure she’ll be okay first.”

  “Is she not feeling well?” Whitney asked. “Having trouble with her recovery?”

  “She’s feeling great. Doctor said everything turned out perfectly.”

  “Then why are you concerned?” Whitney asked.

  “She needs to be okay financially,” Grant said. “That’s why we had to do this in the first place.” He looked at Cam. “Can you put something in the divorce papers that she gets part of my money?”

  Cam’s eyebrows shot up. “Alimony?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve been married for five days.”

  “So?”

  “I’m not doing that, Grant,” Cam said firmly.

  “You should if I want you to.”

  “As your attorney, and even more as your friend, I am telling you that’s a bad idea,” Cam said. “I’m not doing it.”

  “She needs to be taken care of,” Grant insisted.

  His stomach was tightening, and his heart was pounding. He had no reason to keep Jocelyn married to him. He’d married her because she’d needed taking care of. She’d agreed to it because she’d needed taking care of. It was exactly what he taught other women not to do. He had to let her go, let her out of it. He couldn’t keep her legally or financially tied to him.

  But he also couldn’t just turn her loose. She needed to be financially independent so she didn’t end up in another situation where she was putting off taking care of something because she didn’t have the money, jeopardizing her health or safety.

  Grant felt his gut twist. No, he couldn’t let her go completely until he knew she’d be okay.

  “Okay, well, I understand where you’re coming from,” Cam said.

  He was using his calm, reasonable voice—which irritated the fuck out of Grant because it sounded condescending as hell since Grant was supposed to be the calm, reasonable one.

  He suddenly wasn’t feeling calm or reasonable.

  “Josie will never go for it,” Cam said.

  “She will,” Grant told him. “I’ll talk to her.”

  Cam lifted a brow. “I’ve known Josie most of her life. There is no way she’s going to take money from you, ongoing, into perpetuity, just because you were married—a marriage of convenience, I might add—for five days.”

  She hadn’t even wanted to take money from him for the surgery, Grant acknowledged. To himself only, of course. But she hadn’t even wanted him to help her with that.

  Fuck.

  Grant shoved a hand through his hair. “I want her taken care of.”

  Cam looked at him for a long moment. Then he sat back in his chair. “You could stay married.”

  “No.”

  Cam looked at Whitney again. Whitney’s eyebrows were up.

  “Why not?” Cam asked. “You like her. She seems to like you.”

  “Because I…” Grant swallowed. “I don’t want her to need me. I don’t want her with me just because she needs money or health insurance. I want her to want to be with me. To choose me when she has every single other fucking option.”

  Whitney’s eyes widened slightly but she nodded. “Do you have any reason to think that she doesn’t want you?”

  “No. But… we’ve fucked this up.”

  Grant was not used to being vulnerable. He just wasn’t. He made fantastic decisions based on facts and data. He was the one who other people came to for advice and when they needed to be bailed out.

  But—he looked from Cam to Whitney and back—if he was going to get an opinion on something from someone, these two would be two of his picks. They were both practical. They dealt with the real world, they made tough decisions, and they knew things didn’t always work out just because you wanted them to. Hell, they both dealt with assholes on a daily basis. Cam in the field of law and Whitney inside her own family.

  “We screwed this up by getting married first. For money. And then”—he blew out a breath and tipped his head up to look at the ceiling—“and then falling in love.”

  “You’re in love with her?” Whitney asked.

  “Probably. Very likely. I’d be stupid not to be,” Grant said.

  “Is she in love with you?” This came from Cam.

  Grant looked over at his friend. “I think that Jocelyn Asher, the most romantic person I’ve ever met, would like nothing more than to be in love with her husband.”

  Cam cocked a brow. “That is not what I asked you.”

  No. It wasn’t. “I don’t know,” Grant admitted. “But I think maybe.”

  “So there’s only one thing to do,” Cam said.
<
br />   “There is?” Whitney asked.

  “We hire Josie to make the new cake,” Cam said.

  “Hire her?” Whitney repeated. Then her eyes widened. “You mean instead of the crazy contest?” She looked excited.

  Cam nodded, and Whitney blew out what could only be described as a relieved breath.

  “The winner was going to get ten thousand dollars and then five percent royalties on sales of that cake each month, right?” Cam asked. “So that’s what we’ll offer Josie. She’d be getting a monthly check. I mean, it wouldn’t be millions, but it would be a decent chunk. Maybe enough to buy some health insurance on the side of her regular job.”

  “But—” Whitney started.

  “Whit,” Cam said, cutting her off. “Don’t you think that someone who’s truly in love should have the chance to really make it work? That they should have the people who love them and care about them do whatever they can to support them? That we, as their friends, should really want them to be happy?”

  Grant looked at Whitney. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes narrow, her lips pressed together.

  “Of course I do,” she said. “I think if we can take away some of these barriers between Grant and Josie, we should do that.” She looked at Grant. “And if I don’t have to run that contest and bachelor auction, I will be your loyal and grateful employee forever.”

  He smiled at that, but he needed to focus on Josie. “What about the contestants?” he asked. “Is it fair to just let Josie do this?”

  “You mean the contestants for the contest we haven’t even announced yet?” Whitney said. “No one even knows about this. There’s no one to be disappointed. Except maybe Ollie.”

  Oh, Ollie would definitely be disappointed. “You’ll just hire her because she’s my… wife?” Grant hesitated over that word. He’d never said it out loud to anyone other than Jocelyn.

  “Of course,” Cam said. “She’s part of the family.”

  That made Grant’s heart thump hard against his sternum.