He pressed the screen, held it to his ear. “Hey, sweetie.” It was noisy in the bar, it was Saturday night after all, and Dex covered his phone with his hand. “I’ve got to take this,” he said, suddenly different, the flirtatious tone gone and a serious shadow on his face.
Cady watched him walk away, out the front door of The Drop Zone, and into the night.
Well. That was it. She fought the urge to call Hugh over and ask him to pour her another whiskey. One was enough. She was going home.
Chapter Ten
“How are you doin, Miss Lila?” Dex would never, ever regret taking a call from Lila whenever she called. But tonight? Her timing was…
“Uncle Dex. Will you come over and watch Frozen with me? Daddy made popcorn and everything.”
There was such excitement and happiness in her voice he couldn’t help but smile. “Popcorn, huh? That’s an offer way too good to refuse.”
“Mommy won’t let me put butter on, like going to the movies, but it’s still crunchy and good.”
“I agree with your mom on this one. She is very smart.”
“So, can you come? Daddy made a fire and everything.”
Dex was putty when it came to his niece. No argument. Every time.
Behind him, the door to The Drop Zone swung open and a wave of noise and laughter and clinking glasses came at him. He moved out of the way so whoever it was could pass on the narrow steps. When he realised it was Cady, he reached out a hand to grab her. He couldn’t let her go without talking to her. She held the strap of her purse determinedly over her shoulder, and she was standing tall, trying to be tough.
“Wait,” he said softly.
She paused. Thank God. He had another chance.
“We are waiting,” Lila’s voice trilled down the phone. Then he heard, “Mommy, mommy. He’s coming!”
He let go of Cady’s arm, reluctantly, slowly. He’d been hoping the night might have ended a little differently with Cady. A whole lot differently. That kiss had ignited something in him for her that no fire retardant could put out. The only thing to douse the flames would be sex.
“I’ll see you round, Dex.” There was an edge to her voice, as if she was holding something in, as if she’d wrapped a protective wall around her.
“See you, Cady.” And he watched her cross the parking lot, her red boots kicking up dust in her wake.
Another voice down the line. “You talking to Cady?” It was his sister-in-law.
“Hey, Sarah. Yep, I was.”
“You got a date? Mitch! Dex has a date.”
“Not possible. I have a hot date with Lila tonight, remember? A movie and popcorn date. Listen, Sarah, hasn’t she worn out that damn movie yet? We must have watched it, what, twenty-five times by now? I can almost sing that song in my sleep.”
“I can tell her that something came up, if you like. Really, Dex, you don’t have to come. You should have a life, too, you know. Go have a drink with Cady.”
That would be impossible. For tonight anyway. Cady had driven off in a cloud of dust.
“No, no, it’s all good. Tell Lila I’m on my way.”
*
Lila fell asleep as soon as the movie credits began to roll, after she’d sung her heart out to every song and insisted her daddy and Dex join in. Mitch lifted her into his arms and carried her off to bed in her Elsa costume and Dex helped Sarah clean up. As he passed bowls and glasses to her for stacking in the dishwasher, she said quietly, kindly, “She’s so excited about her date with Uncle Dex.”
“Me, too. Two weeks from today I’ll pick her up at nine-thirty. That way I can get her back by lunchtime in case she gets tired. You know…” Dex chuckled. “I think she asked me eight times what kind of cakes Cady has in her place.”
“Knowing Lila, she’ll probably want them all. Dex…” Sarah paused and her bottom lip trembled.
“Sarah, don’t worry. I’ve got this. I’ll have her back.”
“Yeah, I know you will. I don’t know what we would have done without you, you know, since her accident.”
He knew Sarah wasn’t talking about coming over and singing with Lila at the top of his lungs. She was talking about all the money and support and time he’d given them. They didn’t have to thank him. He got so much more out of spending time with Lila than he was sure she received in return. Being with her taught him that everyone had their different strengths. So she walked with a limp and her right arm was permanently tensed and crooked at the elbow. She was super smart, could do math sums in her head that baffled him, and she also happened to be able to sing like the prettiest bird in all of Montana. And him? Well, he could ride a bucking horse and jump out of a plane with a parachute strapped to his back, but he couldn’t sing. Lila’s giggles at his attempts made his heart pound with pride for that little girl.
Dex passed the last bowl to Sarah and she found a place for it in the top rack of dishwasher.
“She happens to have two pretty awesome parents who’ve devoted their lives to her.”
“Exactly.” Sarah lifted the door of the dishwasher and pushed it firmly closed with a shove of her hip. “Which means it’s time for you to go and ask Cady Adams out on a date.”
“Did I just hear that right?” Mitch walked back into the room, his socked feet soft on the tiled floor. “You still haven’t asked Cady out? You’ve had a thing for her since high school. Man, you’re losing your touch.”
“Am not,” Dex said and punched Mitch on the shoulder.
“Are too.” Mitch flicked his brother with a tea towel.
“Brothers.” Sarah sighed.
“Buddy,” Mitch said. “We’ve got this. Lila’s doing better than we thought. Dad’s settled in the aged care facility. He really likes it.”
“I know, you idiot. I visit him too, remember?”
“Did you know he’s got himself a sweetheart?”
“You’re freaking kidding me,” Dex said.
“Not kidding. This is the guy who waited until he was almost fifty to marry mom.”
“ ‘I just never found the right gal, until your mom came along.’ How many times did we hear that growing up?”
“And she’s a younger woman, too.” Mitch laughed. “Seventy-nine. Apparently they have hot dates in the communal dining room and he lets her beat him at Monopoly.”
All three laughed uproariously at the idea. So his old man had found love again, after being alone for so many years. Dex rubbed a hand over his spiky hair. Elsa’s words from the movie were ringing in his ears, reminding him to let it go. Fuck. So he was getting advice on his love life from animated movies now? Turned out that Elsa character was pretty smart, too.
Dex grabbed his keys, phone, and wallet from the kitchen bench where he’d dropped them when he’d arrived.
“I’ll see you round.”
“Where you going?” Mitch asked with a big old grin.
“To see a girl about a date.”
As he walked to the door, he heard Sarah whisper. “About damn time.”
Dex looked back with a smirk. “Not another word.”
He left with the image in his head of Mitch and Sarah in each other’s arms, looking into each other’s eyes with such love and, for the first time in his life, he realised he wanted what they had. A family, a life with someone. A kid maybe. Or four.
And he was reminded once again that Cady Adams was the only woman he’d ever wanted that with.
*
A giant swarm of bees was buzzing around Cady’s head. Smudges of black and yellow, wings the size of the DC-3 that took the smokejumpers into the sky. They were so loud in her ears, behind her eyelids, and there were thousands of them, carrying a jar of golden honey through the air towards her, wings flapping, and she suddenly saw honey almond cookies, freshly baked, on a silver baking tray flying towards her, too, sliding off and tumbling in the air as if they were weightless.
Cady blinked her eyes open. It wasn’t bees. There was no giant jar of honey or flying cookies. It was h
er front door buzzer, insistent, determined. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa again. The TV was still murmuring softly, the movie she was watching still running. Damn. She’d never find out what happened in Paris. Then she had a flash of fear. The buzzer. Ringing so loudly it was as if someone was leaning on it. Please not her shop. She couldn’t smell smoke. Maybe it was the police? Had there been a break in? She jumped to her feet and stumbled to her stairs which led to the front door at the street below. As she jerked open the heavy wooden door, it wasn’t police officers she found standing there but Dex McCoy.
Chapter Eleven
“What’s with the doorbell?” she demanded, still shaking with nerves from her dream and the thought of her shop being robbed and the police. And seeing Dex wasn’t making her feel relieved at all. Not one damn bit.
“You didn’t answer. You car’s here and I saw the light on upstairs so I thought something might have been wrong. You okay?” Dex took a step closer to her and dipped his head to look into her eyes.
“I’m fine.” She huffed. “I was asleep.”
“At nine o’clock on a Saturday night?”
“Yeah. Sad, isn’t it? You think there might be one man in this town who might want to show a gal a good time on the only night of the week when she can stay up late, but no. What are you doing here? What happened to your hot date?”
“She drove away from The Drop Zone before I could buy her a drink.”
“You mean I was your hot date?”
“Yes, I mean you. Who else would I be talking about, Cady?”
Cady held her chin in the air. “The woman on the phone.”
“That ‘woman’ is eight years old and she’s my niece, Lila.”
“Oh, shit.” That deflated balloon feeling was back.
How had Cady forgotten about Mitch and Sarah’s daughter? The whole town had felt their anguish after the accident and had worried even more for them when they turned in on themselves, hidden away out on North Fork in the year and a half since.
“How’s she doing?”
Dex’s face almost split in a smile. “She’s great. Exhausting but great.”
It was about that moment that Dex was smiling about his niece that Cady’s defences dropped. She took a deep breath. “So you want to come up? I’ve got cupcakes. Oops, I know you wouldn’t possibly want one of those.”
Cady’s breath hitched when Dex stepped up into the hallway, right into her personal space. She stumbled backwards and he closed the door behind them. It became dim, the lights from the street blocked now. Cady pressed herself against the wall as he moved in close. She knew what was going to happen and it had been a long time coming. All those years of waiting, of longing, of pushing the idea away were compressing into this night, this minute, this second.
“This is what I want.” His hands found hers and he entwined their fingers.
Then his lips were a breath away from hers and she didn’t wait for his mouth. Since the kiss at his apartment, she’d wanted him. Dreamed about him. Wondered when they would kiss again. She teased, pressed her lips to his, withdrew them, nibbled at his lower lip, ran her tongue along its softness. She tasted whiskey and something else, something more recent.
“Saltiness,” she murmured against his mouth.
His fingers tightened around hers. “Sweetness,” he replied as her took her mouth fiercely.
She tore her fingers from his and slipped them in the tight space between his chest and her breasts, feeling the hard muscles of his pecs, smoothing down to his stomach and his hips. When she reached around and slipped her hands into the back pockets of his jeans, he reached around her, tight, pulling her to him, his tongue finding hers, joining with hers in a kiss so long in coming that Cady wanted time to stand still so it would never end.
She tore her lips from his. Her breathing, fast and urgent, matched his. She pinched his butt inside his pockets and then withdrew her hands. When he reached for her, she slipped away and took a couple of steps up the staircase. When she stopped, looked back over her shoulder, he was watching her, his chest rising and falling.
“You coming?”
And she raced him to the top of the stairs, across her apartment, to the open door of her bedroom.
She reached the bed first, turned around, and he was right there, his arms around her, pulling her close, kissing her again. She didn’t have to say the words—I want to fuck you—because she’d led him to her bed. Judging by the way he was kissing her, he understood.
“Cady.” He moaned.
Something inside her weakened and quivered at the sound of him saying her name. And when he dragged his lips from hers, he was reaching for the buttons on her shirt, opening them skilfully and quickly. He slipped it off her shoulders and then tugged at the hem of her T-shirt, lifting it slowly as he kissed her, seducing her with his lips and the touch of his fingertips on the skin of her belly. Every touch left tingles in its wake and Cady felt her nipples tighten and ache, so hard and fast she wanted to push herself against him, sate the desire to press against him, feel his skin against hers. When her T-shirt was on the floor, she reached behind her and unclipped her bra, freeing her breasts and, oh, my, Dex smoothed his hands up her hips, her ribs, and then cupped each one in his big, strong hands, his thumb and forefinger rolling her nipples into even harder buds.
“Dex.” She whispered and when he bent down and sucked a nipple into his mouth, flicking it with his tongue, she had to hold on to him for strength.
She gripped his T-shirt, tugged it over his head when she had the chance and pressed herself against him, so strong and smooth, so male and everything she’d imagined. She tugged off her jeans and so did he and then they were naked, standing before each other, taking in the details, breathing hard, wanting each other, desperate for each other, knowing that they were on the brink.
“God, you’re amazing,” Dex said as his gaze burned across her body.
Cady backed herself up to the edge of the bed and fell slowly backwards. Dex pulled a condom from his wallet, which she’d laughed about and, after he’d sheathed himself, Dex was on top of her, his hard length pressing against her, another indication, as if she needed it, of how much he wanted her.
And when she opened up to him, spread her legs wide and took him inside her, she knew her world would never be the same again.
*
Cady really, really wanted one of her white frosted, vanilla cupcakes. Desperately. Sex did that to her. Always had. It made her ravenously hungry. There was something sensual and primal about treating her tastebuds after satiating her body. At the culinary institute, she’d dated one guy who’d liked to eat spicy pork ribs after sex—naked, at the kitchen table—and another who always brushed his teeth right after kissing her. He was into wine and she figured he wanted to keep his palate pure or something. He was able to keep the rest of him pure as well, because she dumped him after only a couple of months. The teeth brushing thing had become way too weird.
And now Dex was in her apartment, and her whole body was thrumming with that glorious post sex feeling and she wanted a cupcake. She doubted Dex would. How on earth was it possible that the owner of a bakery had just slept with someone who didn’t like baked goods?
She heard his footsteps in the hall and he appeared at the doorway to her bedroom. She turned her head and took in every detail, visible in the light spilling into her room from behind him. His no-cake thing was clearly working in his favor. He really was cut. Not like a bodybuilder, but leaner, defined but not inflated. There were nice muscles across his chest and strength in his biceps. She’d always had a thing about tall guys with wide shoulders.
Who was she kidding? She’d always had a thing about Dex.
He stopped in the doorway, rummaged a hand through his still spiky hair. A deep, low chuckle and then… “Looking for my jeans.”
Before she could stop herself, the words rushed out of her mouth. “You going?”
“Yeah, I should. Let you get some sleep.”
/> “Right. Sure. Okay.” Cady leaned across and switched on her bedside lamp. Her precarious pile of books had somehow gotten in the way and tumbled on the floor with multiple thuds. “Oh, damn.” She flicked back the covers and planted her feet on the floor. She hated when the spines were split, when covers became dog-eared or creased. Why hadn’t she moved her to be read pile? Why hadn’t she read more of the books that had been sitting there for, what, a year already? Why did she work so many hours and have to go to bed so early? No wonder she didn’t have a social life that included men. And now she’d had one, a living breathing, poster boy for sex and masculinity, and he was already looking to escape.
Dex was at her feet, reaching for the books. He picked up a couple, looked at the covers. “You sure do like this Nora Roberts.”
“She’s a genius.” Cady all but snatched the books from his hand and restacked them. “And by the way, your jeans are over there. By your boots.”
“Cady.”
Cady didn’t look up from the latest Nora Roberts cover. “What?”
“Look at me.”
“Why?”
“Will you just look at me?” There was a laugh in his voice, a chuckle, as if he was amused by her rather than annoyed.
She glared at his face. He was still naked, perched on the side of her mattress. “Yes?”
His eyes searched her face. There was a kindness and a concern in his look that made her feel less annoyed. “You work hard at Cady’s Cakes, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. It’s my business. It’s got my name on it. And people like my cakes.” She couldn’t help but smile. “Well, normal people like my cakes.”
He chuckled. “What time do you get up in the mornings?”
He wanted to know about that? “Four thirty.” And just saying the words had her yawning.
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“It would be four if I had a commute, which I clearly don’t.”
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