by Erin Wright
Mumbles she’d chosen to ignore, of course.
As they walked, her hand brushed against her belly and like a flash flood, the roundness of it brought all of her panic and worry back, but ten times worse. “Adam, are you sure you want to claim me in public?” she exclaimed, seemingly apropos of absolutely nothing, but she knew that she was right to ask, to doubt what Adam was doing for her. “We don’t have to hold hands while walking down the street. We can just be employer and employee in public, I promise. I won’t be offended.” Oh, but I’ll be heartbroken…
She pushed that thought away. She couldn’t guilt Adam into a relationship with her, especially one that hurt him financially.
He pulled her into the shade of the awning over the hardware store. “Darlin’, I’m not going to pretend that this,” he ran his hands lightly over her baby bump, “doesn’t make me want to panic a little inside. I still haven’t told you about helping Chloe give birth to Tommy in the middle of a blizzard. Human births are scary. But if you’ll have me, I want to be there for you every step of the way. You are not just my employee, you are my girlfriend, and I love you very much. I don’t care what the Plossys or the Tiffanys of the world have to say on the topic. They don’t matter to me. You do.”
She rubbed her hands over the curve of her belly unconsciously as she listened. A part of her wanted to protest – but, but, but – but she swallowed that down. She couldn’t turn into a needy girlfriend who spent her days asking her boyfriend to reassure her over and over again that he loved her. That also wasn’t fair to Adam.
“All right, let’s go get fat,” she said finally, grabbing his hand and tugging him back down the street with her.
He let out a roar of approval. “Now that’s a plan I can get behind.”
Chapter 35
Adam
Adam draped his arm around Kylie as they walked down the street. It was hot today, even in the shade, but he didn’t want to be any further away from her than absolutely necessary.
It was funny, Kylie’s concerns. It wasn’t that they weren’t legit – having a baby changed a person’s life forever, and being in love with someone who was having a baby meant that his life changed almost as much – but he was surprised no one seemed to care about the age difference between them. He never would’ve guessed that someone who was 16 years younger than him would make him so damn happy. He would’ve dismissed the idea out of hand…if it’d been anyone else but Kylie.
She completed him in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Looking back on Chloe, he wondered if a bit of his infatuation with her wasn’t actually based on the fact that they never went anywhere. It was easy to be in love with someone if you never got into an argument with them or walked into a bathroom after they’d really let one loose or had never spent an entire dinner arguing about which was better – Star Trek or Star Wars. (Star Trek, of course. Not even worthy of a discussion, as anyone in their right mind would know).
But when he put Chloe up on a pedestal and never saw the negative side to her – never saw her with her hair unbrushed or with sleep lines running across her face – well, it was easy for him to think of her as perfect.
Theirs was a friendship, which meant that he didn’t see the hidden sides to her.
Was love based on superficiality still love? Or had it just been a really long infatuation – a nine-year infatuation?
Before he could properly debate that out in his mind, they got to the bakery, Adam pulling the door open for Kylie and jangling the bell overhead.
Walking into the cool of the air-conditioned bakery was paradise. They both sucked in deep breaths of cold air, trying to bring down their internal body temperatures. And this is up in the mountains. I can’t imagine trying to live in Death Valley or something…
He’d never been meant to live in a desert, that was for damn sure. Give him snow over heat waves any day of the week.
Sugar Stonemyer, soon to be Anderson, looked up from the counter and shot them both a big smile. “It’s nice in here, isn’t it?” she called out. “After the heat of outside, it’s lovely to breathe in air that isn’t trying to bake you alive.”
“Bake? Really? In a bakery?” Adam teased Sugar. “That’s a pretty bad pun right there.”
Sugar laughed, her dark brown eyes lighting up. “I hadn’t even thought about it, honestly,” she protested. “Although now that I have…”
Gage came walking up from the back. “Are you flipping our best customers shit?”
“Yes!” Adam said just as Sugar protested, “No!”
Gage looked back and forth between them, and then turned to Kylie. “Okay, you’re the tie-breaker.”
“I’m just here for the donuts!” Kylie said, holding her hands up in mock surrender. Even as she spoke, she didn’t tear her eyes away from the display case in front of her. For all of her protestations about how processed sugar wasn’t good for a body, she sure was excited about picking out a donut.
Adam turned back to Gage. “So, how’s the remodel coming along? If you’re serving up your whole menu again, does that mean that everything is wrapped up?”
Gage nodded, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Pretty much. We still have painting left to do, but that’s just about it. I can’t wait to have everything back to normal. All of that chaos – the saws and hammers and yelling back and forth…Much more of that and I was gonna go insane.” He pushed his glasses back up his nose again.
Which was when Adam finally realized why Gage looked so different. “Hold on, did you used to wear glasses?” he asked.
“Observant,” Sugar said dryly.
“Hey, I at least picked up on your puns,” Adam tossed back.
“I began wearing them when the construction started,” Gage put in, ignoring them both. “All of the sawdust in the air was irritating my eyes and I was constantly having to rinse off my contact lenses. And then…” He shrugged. “I just got lazy. No flour dust underneath my contacts anymore, no more sticking myself in the eye with my finger; it’s pretty nice, really. I’ve been trying to remember why I ever started wearing contacts to begin with, and I’m coming up with a big fat ‘Hell if I know.’ Hey, do you guys want to tour the back and see the new kitchen?”
“Sure!” Adam said, grabbing Kylie’s hand and tugging her away from the cheesecake display case. She muttered something about how he should never get between a pregnant woman and her sugar, but he pretended a sudden case of deafness, just like he’d ignored her comment earlier about his love for donuts.
Sometimes, it was convenient to be deaf.
Gage pushed through the swinging doors and into the kitchen, with Adam and Kylie following on his heels. Adam had only been in the back once or twice before the fire, but from what he remembered, it was a lot brighter and whiter now than it had been previously. He listened with half an ear as Gage showed off every pot, pan, and appliance in the joint. Kylie was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement as they compared baking secrets and shortcuts.
As Adam enjoyed watching Kylie’s tits bounce around under her flowing pregnancy top, the actual words they were saying flowed around him like the meaningless babble of a creek rushing by. He was in the middle of trying to decide what color her bra was when he heard Kylie say, “Right, Adam?”
He jerked his head up from her delectable chest, his cheeks flushing. “Yeah, of course,” he stammered.
Kylie and Gage went back to discussing the intricacies of baking flour versus…Adam zoned out, not even keeping up with the discussion long enough to know what they were comparing. He realized as he was enjoying Kylie’s dramatic gestures, especially the ones that stretched her top across her delicious breasts, that his smug laughter the other day when Kylie told him that she didn’t want to learn how a car ran…well, it wasn’t warranted.
Thinking about it now, he ought to apologize to her for it, even though it had been internal smug laughter and she hadn’t realized he was doing it.
&nb
sp; Did he love donuts? Yes.
Did he actually want to learn how to make donuts? Not even a little bit.
It was totally possible to love an end result without having the slightest desire to learn how to follow the process yourself.
Huh.
“Are you ready?” Kylie asked, jerking out him out of his ruminations.
“Sure, sure,” Adam said, and grabbed her hand as they headed towards the front. If he wasn’t going to be able to ogle her breasts, he could at least hold her hand.
When they got back up to the main area, Adam spotted Mike from the mechanic’s shop, busy buying some donuts up at the cash register. He reluctantly let go of Kylie, knowing that it was only polite to go shoot the breeze with the mechanic for a minute or two.
“Hi, Mike,” he said, walking over and putting his hand out to shake.
Mike’s leathery face broke out into a big grin as he gave him a hearty handshake. “Hey, Adam! How’s life treatin’ you?”
“Fine, fine. How’s Kimber and Rex’s little one doing?”
“Oh, she’s just beautiful,” Mike gushed. It was a little funny to see a man who could be his father get all mushy over a baby, but Adam could already tell that this little girl had him wrapped around her pinky. “She’s two months today, so I said I’d grab a box of sweets to celebrate. She’s not quite big enough to eat one of these yet, but the way she’s growin’…” He shook his head in bemusement. “I can’t believe she’s two months old already. She’s got a mop of hair on her like you wouldn’t believe.”
He turned back to Sugar, grabbing the box of donuts from the counter. “Thanks, Sugar,” he said. Turning back to Adam, he said, “I better get to it. Rex’s parents are up from California visiting, here to celebrate her birthday so I best be on my way.” He headed out the door, his limp a little more pronounced than normal as he hurried for his truck.
Sugar turned back to him. “You two know what you want?” she asked. As Kylie picked out two for herself, Sugar sliding them into paper sleeves, Adam couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic for a dad he never knew. Would his father have been that excited over Kylie’s pregnancy? He liked to think he would have.
“And what for you, Adam?” Sugar asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“Chocolate icing with sprinkles and a jelly donut,” he said without hesitation.
“I don’t even know why I asked,” Sugar teased him with a wink.
“Chocolate? Sprinkles? Were you deprived of sugar as a child and now you’re trying to make up for it?” Kylie asked, laughing.
“Hey, I don’t think bear claws and maple bars are all that much better,” he pointed out.
Before Kylie could come up with an adequate response – he could almost see the wheels turning in her head – Sugar began ringing up their donuts. “So, are you two coming to the wedding this weekend?” she asked as her hands flew over the cash register.
Kylie and Adam both asked in unison, “Which wedding?”
“Mine, of course.” She laughed, tossing her braid over her shoulder. “It’s nothing big or fancy, but Jaxson and I thought it’d be fun to just throw a huge party. We’re skimping on things like wedding invitations and just putting everything up on Facebook. We’re using these cut corners to be able to afford a real throwdown.”
“We’d love to come!” he told Sugar, and then turned towards Kylie. “You don’t have anything going on on Saturday, do you?”
Kylie shook her head. “No, nothing in particular.” Something passed across her face and then it was gone. Adam cocked an eyebrow at her questioningly, but Kylie just smiled back and then turned towards Sugar. “It’ll be fun! Where are you getting married?”
“The Methodist Church – the ceremony starts at 11 a.m., but the party starts here that evening at 5.”
“Here at the bakery?” Adam asked.
“Yeah. We thought it’d be a fun grand reopening for the bakery and a great wedding celebration for Jaxson and me. At first, I was just going to have Gage cater the wedding, but then I decided oh hell, why not just have it here? People can wander up and down Main Street, we’ll have a street dance, and I’ve even talked a couple of local bands into coming and playing.”
“Wow,” Kylie said. “If I ever get married, I think I want to do exactly that. It sounds like a blast and a half.” She took a bite of her bear claw and moaned with enjoyment, a little flake of sugar stuck to the corner of her mouth. Adam’s gaze fixated on the tempting morsel, and he began having fantasies of licking it off. Sugar wouldn’t mind, right? She and Jaxson probably did that sort of thing all the time.
Kylie’s tongue darted out, pink and cute, and snagged the sugary goodness. Dammit! “We better get going,” she told Sugar. “We closed up the clinic to come down here, so we should probably head back. Good luck with the wedding!”
They headed back outside, the oppressive July heat beating down on them as they began meandering back towards the clinic.
“So,” he said mildly, taking a small bite of his jelly donut, trying to extend the sugar rush for as long as possible, “what’s wrong with going to Jaxson and Sugar’s wedding?”
Chapter 36
Kylie
Adam’s question caught her off-guard, her maple-glazed bundle of goodness halfway to her mouth. Her eyes shot up to his. “What?” she sputtered. “Who says that there’s anything wrong with going to their wedding?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her as they walked. “I’m not gonna pretend that I’ve known you forever and thus can read you like a book,” he said bluntly, “only because I’ve only really known you for about two months now. I don’t count that time you listened to my ‘You can be a vet!’ presentation in the fifth grade. But, I will say that I can read you like a book because every thought you’ve ever had flashes across your face like you’re telegraphing it to the world. If you want to become sneakier about your thoughts, you’re gonna have to learn how to play poker ‘cause right now, you suck ass.”
Kylie laughed at that one. “Has anyone ever told you that you should start being more blunt?” she asked dryly. “I’d hate for you to be holding back on my account.”
He waved his donut around in the air dismissively, sugary crumbs flying everywhere. “When I asked you about going, you got a funny look on your face, like you’d just bit into a lemon but were trying to pretend that it was a lemon drop instead. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“Well…I mean…well, it’s one thing to walk down the street holding hands or whatever,” Kylie burst out. “This is Gossip Central and yeah, some tongues might wag over it. But actually showing up to a wedding together? That’s like…Seriousville. That’s what couples do who’ve been together for three years, and have adopted a dog from the pound, and have picked out curtains for their living room that match their couch. If you take me to this wedding, then people will know it’s real and you won’t be able to back down from it.”
“Huh. Strange that,” Adam said dryly. “Turns out, I don’t want to back down from it.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. “That’s because you haven’t seen all of the backlash from this yet. Tiffany and then Mrs. Plossy…who’s next? You could lose half of your business from this. I’m just not worth it.”
She clapped her non-donuted hand over her mouth. Shit. She hadn’t meant to say that. Not out loud.
“Not worth it? Maybe you’ve met a different Kylie than I have. To me, you’re worth all of this, and more.”
She just shook her head. He was wrong. Sweet and nice, but oh so very wrong. He was going to figure that out, sooner or later, and it just wasn’t fair for him to destroy his business in the meanwhile. She needed to be strong enough to save him from himself.
The thing was, she just wasn’t sure if she was that strong. To voluntarily give him up…it felt like someone was asking her to rip her right arm off.
Lost in her thoughts, Kylie was jerked back to the present when Adam announced, “Holiday today! We’re going to go home now
.” They’d apparently reached the clinic somewhere in there because there went Adam, dragging her over to his pickup, practically pushing her inside.
“We can’t just close up for the rest of the day!” Kylie protested when he’d walked around and climbed in on the driver’s side. “You’re supposed to check up on Mr. Miller’s piglets, you’ve got that castration to do out at the Cowell’s place, and then—”
One hand on the steering wheel, he clapped the other hand over her mouth. She squealed in surprise. “Sometimes, you’re too good at your job,” he said over her squeals. “If the boss says that it’s vacation day, then it’s vacation day. That’s how this whole self-employed thing works. If the boss is any good, he won’t say it very often, but when he does, you don’t ask questions.”
Tired of waiting for him to pull his hand away, she licked him right across the palm, causing him to jerk his hand away instinctively. “Hey!” he protested.
“You’re the one who put it there,” she said mildly. “I figured that just meant you wanted me to lick it.”
He rubbed his palm on his jeans. “I guess I deserved that,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, pretty much,” she said sweetly. “So anyway, when I get to work tomorrow, do you want me to call and reschedule all of your appointments from this afternoon?”
“Yes, please. Tell them…” He paused for a moment. “Tell them that something came up.”
She couldn’t help herself. Her eyes dropped down to his crotch and then back up to his face. “‘Something’? Usually guys have more creative names than that for their dicks.”
Adam almost drove off the road in surprise, and then the laughter started. “Oh Lordy!” he said around gasps of laughter. “Remind me to never think of you as some delicate flower who can’t handle vulgar language.”
“It’s because I’m so short,” she said, shrugging.