by Holly Renee
“I guess you’re right. I could do anything, huh?”
“Exactly. You could become a dentist.” He winced. “Or an acrobat.”
He chuckled. “I’m not sure you would want to see me in those tight ass outfits flying around in the air.”
I waved him off. “I’m sure you could pull it off.”
“You think too highly of me.”
I looked him over from head to just where his torso disappeared behind the table. “I don’t think so.”
Luckily the dating gods were looking down on me and our server showed up with our food before I could embarrass myself further.
David continued to ask me questions about myself as we ate, and I was shocked by how differently this date was going from our last.
By the time David dropped me back off at the bakery, I was far less concerned about whether or not he was going to make a move on me. Was I still nervous as hell? Absolutely. But it wasn’t nerves because I didn’t want him to do it. It was that nervous build up. That delicious feeling of starting to like someone and it being clear that they seem to be into you too. It was the butterflies that were unsure whether he was going to kiss me or not and whether or not it would be the best kiss of my life.
No pressure.
But when we pulled up outside the bakery, those butterflies turned to lead in my stomach. Brandon and Parker stood outside of the tattoo shop talking, and there was no way in hell I was going to have my first kiss with David in front of Brandon.
Especially after last night. I wasn’t one hundred percent positive that Brandon was trying to kiss me last night, but I was sure enough that it made me feel one hundred percent awkward in front of him.
I was making myself sound like some two-timing harlot, but I knew, I knew exactly what Brandon wanted from me. Even his friends made it perfectly clear that he was nothing but a player.
And I wasn’t looking to get played.
Regardless of how well he played the game. Because God knew that he was an expert.
But I didn’t need an expert, I needed someone who wanted something more.
David could be that someone.
He opened the door for me, and I tried my hardest not to look over at Brandon as I climbed out.
“I had a great time,” I said to David as he smiled down at me.
“Me too.” He tucked a stray curl behind my ear and a bit of those butterflies started to take off again.
I could see the debate in his eyes over whether he was going to take a chance and kiss me or not, and I wished that Brandon wasn’t standing right there. If he wasn’t, I would have shown David with my eyes how badly I wanted him to kiss me. I may have even reached forward and gripped his t-shirt in my hand to pull him toward me, but I didn’t do any of that. Instead, I looked up at him and waited for him to make the decision without me.
When his head lowered slightly, my breath caught in my throat. The smell of his cologne surrounded me, and I breathed it in and tried to let it drown out everything else. It was just me and him.
The guy who had been clouding my head since the day I met him wasn’t standing only about fifteen feet away from us, and I sure as hell wasn’t thinking about him as I was preparing for my first kiss with David.
His hand touched my jaw, and I knew it was coming. I licked my bottom lip, and I leaned forward just a hair. His breath caressed my skin, and hearing, “David, what’s up, man?” was not what I was hoping for next.
David turned toward the sound of Brandon’s voice, and I swear I wanted to shake him for letting Brandon getting in between us.
“Hey, guys,” David called out as his hand dropped from my face. “You all still working?”
“We’re just finishing up,” Parker said as he locked the front door.
I walked out from the side of David’s truck, and I watched Brandon assess me from head to toe. It was a look that was intimidating and sexy all in one.
“Shit, Freckles. I didn’t realize you were over there.”
He was such a damn liar.
I almost said it to. I almost called him on his shit, but he knew I wouldn’t. I could tell by the smirk on his face that he was trying to hide.
“I’m here.” I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
“What have you all been up to?” His stance matched mine, and he didn’t take his gaze off me.
“We went out to dinner,” I quickly answered before David could. Brandon didn’t need any more information than I was willing to give him.
“That sounds nice. I don’t know how you ate though. I’m still stuffed from all those sweets you fed me last night.” His gaze finally bounced over to David, to gauge his reaction I was sure. “I’m pretty sure I left my jacket over there by the way.”
I felt David tense slightly beside me. “You weren’t wearing a jacket.”
“Are you sure?” Brandon scratched his chin. “I could have sworn I was wearing one, but it was late. Maybe I left it in my car or something.”
I had never wanted to punch someone so much in my entire life. I narrowed my eyes at him then turned toward David. “I’m going to head home.” I hitched my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of my car. “I had an amazing time tonight.”
“Me too.” He pulled his attention off Brandon long enough to smile down at me.
“I’ll talk to you later?” I asked, almost hopeful. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted nothing to do with me after the display that Brandon just put on.
“Yeah.”
He walked me to my car, and I didn’t glance back at Brandon one time as I climbed in my car and started my engine. I could feel him watching me though.
But I didn’t care.
I was making myself not care.
I also didn’t care that David walked back to where Brandon and Parker stood as I was driving off. Brandon was being an asshole. Plain and simple. He could say what he wanted to David, but it wouldn’t matter.
I sent a quick text to Livy before trying to force the whole situation from my mind. I had a bakery to open. I didn’t have time for all this man drama.
Brandon is the devil.
It only took a couple of seconds before I got a response from her.
But he’s a handsome devil. Huh?
CHAPTER 8
MRS. WALTERS
Brandon
If there was a way for someone to screw everything up two nights in a row, I just became the king of it.
I knew the moment when Livy text me after Charlie had only been gone for five minutes that I was in trouble. When I read her words, I realized just how badly I was screwing things up.
Why do you even have a wing woman? Do you want Charlie to ever talk to you again? I don’t know what you’ve done, but I know you’re an idiot. Tell Parker to hurry. I’m hungry.
I just replied back with two words.
Yes, ma’am.
I was smart enough not to fuck with Livy when she was hangry, but apparently, I wasn’t smart enough not to be a complete ass when it came to Charlie.
I didn’t know what it was about her that turned me into some sort of caveman. I swear I didn’t normally act like this. I had no intentions of acting like this with her, but when I looked over and saw David’s truck and saw him lowering his mouth toward hers, I just reacted.
Was it my best moment?
No.
But I panicked.
She was pushing me away from trying to kiss her the night before, but here she was about to kiss David fucking Hall.
The thought infuriated me.
It more than infuriated me. It drove me fucking insane.
I thought that maybe I was just moving too fast for her, but maybe it was the fact that I was making a move at all.
Maybe Charlie just wasn’t into me.
That was a pill I wasn’t used to swallowing.
It wasn’t that I was God’s gift to women, but it was the reason I didn’t date.
/> I hated that damn feeling. I didn’t have time for women to fuck with my head and my emotions and my game. But Charlie walked in and stomped over them all. Then put a fucking cherry on top.
When I woke up this morning, I knew exactly what I needed to do. First, I needed to make sure that Livy was still on my side then I needed to apologize to Charlie. There was no way in hell she was going to ever be interested in me if she just thought I was an asshole most of the time.
It was time to lay on the charm.
I didn’t just pull it out for anyone. Hell, I was going to have to dust it off before I could even use it, but Charlie was worth it. She was the first woman in for as long as I could remember that had truly caught my attention.
She was the first woman that I had truly wanted to date.
Shit, I wanted to date her.
Date.
I had no damn clue what the hell I was doing. Woo a woman for a night? Done. I had that one in the bag.
But convincing the most gorgeous girl I had ever seen to actually consider dating me? That was a whole new ball game. My ass wasn’t even warming the bench in this game.
The first step was definitely getting Livy back on my side and getting her advice. She would know exactly what I should do. But I would need cupcakes. It almost felt like I was cheating on Charlie to go grab Livy some cupcakes from another bakery, but if I knew nothing else, I was sure she wasn’t interested in making me some cupcakes to help convince Livy to help me win her over.
Second-rate cupcakes it was.
I had no damn clue what type of food I needed to get to use as my apology to Charlie. Livy and Staci were easy as hell. All I had to do was throw some sweets their way and those two would cave before they even got a taste.
But I didn’t know Charlie’s weaknesses.
Hell, the more I thought about it, I really didn’t know much about her at all. But I was absolutely certain that I wanted to.
Even though Livy forgave me, she wasn’t much help either. She didn’t know Charlie enough either to give me any real advice. She just lectured me on how I needed to keep my head out of my ass and how most women didn’t care for the whole “caveman” act. Her words, not mine.
But I wasn’t acting like a caveman, I was just not willing to let David Hall put his hands all over her. Especially not in front of me. I told Livy as much, but she only replied with “Her mine” before beating on her chest like a lunatic.
So, I walked out of the shop empty handed.
But then the stars aligned and before the door could close behind me, I saw a flash of red curls that I knew would be my saving grace.
Charlie’s mama.
“Good morning, Mrs. Walters. How are you?”
“Lord have mercy. Call me Maggie,” she said before she readjusted the box in her hands.
I quickly made my way over to her and grabbed the box before she could refuse.
“Handsome and a gentleman, huh?” She put her hands on her hips, and I knew that I absolutely adored this woman. I knew it from the moment I first met her.
“I don’t know that your daughter would say the same.” I shrugged my shoulders as much as I could with the heavy as hell box in my hands and listened to her laugh.
“So, you must be the reason why she’s been up baking since seven this morning and she called me in a panic that she can’t get the recipe right.”
“Shit,” I said the word under my breath, but when her eyebrow cocked, I knew she had heard me. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
When she didn’t immediately answer, I rephrased. “What I mean is there anything I can do to make her forgive me?”
I pulled out my megawatt smile for her, and she grinned before she patted my cheek.
“You think I’d just give out my daughter’s secrets so easily?”
I started following her to the door.
“No, but I was hoping since I’m a gentleman and you find me so handsome.”
She laughed then. So hard that she had to bend over and grab her stomach.
Then she pulled the box out of my arms and nodded her head toward the parking lot. “When you come back, you better have a bag full of watermelon Jolly Ranchers and a vase full of daisies.”
“I can do that.” I nodded my head.
“I hope so. My husband and I took bets last night, and I put my money down on you. Don’t you make me regret wasting my money on a pretty face.”
CHAPTER 9
BAKING DISASTER
Charlie
If this batch of lemon muffins didn’t turn out like I wanted them to, I was going to throw them across the room. I actually had half a mind to dig all of the other batches that tasted more like a Lemon Warhead then a delicious, sweet lemon muffin that I had made about a bazillion times and throwing them at something as well.
Preferably Brandon’s face.
I tossed and turned all dang night as I thought about how big of an asshole he was. When he insinuated to David that he had spent the evening in my bakery the night before, I could have killed him. It didn’t matter that he actually had been here. It only mattered that he made it sound like he was here sampling my sweets instead of actually helping me bake.
David probably thought I was a whore.
I wouldn’t blame him. I would think the same thing too. Especially if the girl I had just taken out was spending any time whatsoever with that, that, ugh… I didn’t even know what to call him.
Bad news.
Plain and simple.
He knew it too. I wanted to smack that cocky smirk right off his face as he spewed his crap to David. He thought he was clever, funny even, but he wasn’t.
He was just a manwhore who needed to be knocked down a few pegs.
Several actually.
The timer dinged and pulled me out of my own head. I pulled my oven mitts on far rougher than necessary, and I practically growled when I opened the oven and looked at my poor, deflated muffins.
I took them out of the oven and tossed the pan down on the counter which only caused them to sag more.
“Whoa now.” I didn’t even look away from those muffins that were ruining my entire day as I heard my mom’s voice.
“Slowly back away from the muffin pan.” I didn’t move. “I’m serious. Put your hands in the air and slowly back away and no one gets hurt.”
A smile tugged on my lips despite my mood.
I turned to face my mom and she stood on the tips of her toes to look over my shoulder at the disaster that sat behind me.
“What did those muffins ever do to you?” She cocked an eyebrow to me.
“You should see the ones in the trashcan.” I threw my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the trashcan that was overflowing with far too many variations of disastrous lemon muffins.
She jumped up on the counter and pushed a finger into the goopy muffins. “Take off those oven mitts and have a seat.”
This wasn’t why I called her here. I needed her to tell me what the heck I was doing wrong with my recipe. It had to be something that I was simply just overlooking. Some little detail that I was stupidly forgetting. Maybe I didn’t put in the baking powder?
“I need to start the next batch and for you to tell me what is going on with my muffins.” I threw the oven mitts on the counter and grabbed a clean mixing bowl. I didn’t trust the one I had been using.
“You need to sit your stubborn butt up on that counter.” She pointed to the counter directly across from her. “And tell me what is going on.”
“There is nothing going on.” I pushed some stray curls out of my face.
When she cocked an eyebrow and didn’t say anything else, I knew she wasn’t going to help me until I did what she said. So, I climbed up onto the counter and crossed my arms as I looked at my mother.
“Okay.” She swung her legs back and forth. “Am I going to have to pull this out of you or are you going to just tell me what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong except for these stup
id muffins.”
“Charlie Grace, I am your mother.” I rolled my eyes at her using my middle name. “I know when something is wrong with you. You know this lemon muffin recipe like the back of your hand.” She touched one of the muffins again, and I swear it shook like Jell-O. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”
“I went on a date with David last night,” I blurted out. I had no intentions on talking to her about any of this. My mom was nosy enough as it was. She didn’t need the encouragement.
“And it didn’t go well?” she asked.
“No. It was great actually.”
“Okay?” She looked me over. “Did he not kiss you at the end of the night? Did you not make it home before midnight, and he realized you weren’t really a princess?”
“Mom.” I gave her the evil eye before she continued with her ridiculous guesses.
“Fine. I give up. What happened?”
“Brandon happened.” I threw my arms out in the air as if that should have been obvious.
“I’m confused. Did you go on a date with David or Brandon? You didn’t go on two dates in one night, did you??”
“No.” I shook my head at her. “There is no way I would go on a date with Brandon.”
She grinned as if she knew a secret that I wasn’t privy to, and it just riled me up more.
“David brought me back here after my date to get my car.” She nodded her head as if to say ‘Okay. Get to the juicy stuff.’ “Brandon and Parker were outside their shop when we got back.”
“And?”
“And,” I was practically screeching now. “Brandon is an asshole.”
My mom’s eyes lit up, and I decided in that moment that the next time I needed advice on a recipe that I was going to call my dad.
“What did he do?”
“David was this close to kissing me.” I held up my fingers a fraction of an inch apart. “And of course, Brandon had to open his big mouth and interrupt us.”
“Did you really want your first kiss to be outside the bakery in front of other people?” My mom crossed her arms now to match mine.
