Semi-Sweet On You (a Second Chance Small Town Rom Com) (Hot Cakes Book 5)

by Erin Nicholas

  This voice Cam knew though. It was Piper.

  He found her standing a few people back. She was easy to spot. She was wearing bright yellow today. As always, she stood out. In a very good way. Piper Barry wasn’t like the other girls in Appleby. She was funny and smart and blunt as well as incredibly capable and organized, keeping them all in line with barely an effort. Seemingly, anyway. Yet she had this high-maintenance way of putting herself together and an I-know-who-I-am-and-what-I-want air about her that kept her just shy of being completely down to earth.

  Right now, her hands were propped on her hips and she was frowning at Ollie.

  Cam and the rest of the guys suspected Piper had feelings for Ollie that went beyond employer-employee, but their friend was oblivious. Even while Ollie found himself jealous over Piper at times. For instance, he really didn’t like Drew Ryan, the alpaca farmer. And everyone liked Drew. But Drew flirted unabashedly with Piper, in front of Ollie, and that apparently rubbed the genius the wrong way. He just wasn’t genius enough to figure out why.

  Ollie sighed. “I guess I’m making these bars,” he said dryly. “Though calling them stupid probably doesn’t help from a marketing perspective.”

  The crowd laughed.

  Piper’s eye roll was big enough to be seen from several feet away.

  Ollie took his pan, dumped the contents into the sink, and sighed loudly into his mic. He turned back to the crowd and put on a truly excellent “sweet puppy” expression. “I will remake the bars, but I’m just going to warn whoever bids on me… you might have to do the baking. I, however, can bring plenty of other… talents… to our time together.”

  There was a collective oooh from the front row and Cam shook his head with a grin. Ollie could bring the flirty-sexy when he had to. Nice.

  Ollie went back to the top of his recipe and Cam and Max continued to banter as they finished theirs. But Cam couldn’t stop looking in Whitney’s direction.

  She had now moved down the fence and was talking to another alpaca. No one was that into alpacas. She was plainly avoiding. He just didn’t know if it was the entire spectacle over here—which had all been her idea to start with—or him in particular.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a timer on this event so he couldn’t stomp over to the alpaca pen and demand to know what Whitney was thinking.

  The no-time-limit thing was good for Ollie though, who was mixing and muttering into his mic. Whenever they were all finished, the auction would commence, and then Didi Lancaster would sample each dessert and determine the winner. Then they’d meet up with their date for the evening and head to their preselected location.

  Max was going to take his date—who would certainly be Elliot—to the picnic area on the other side of the park.

  Ollie was going to be bid on by Paige Asher and Cam wasn’t even sure if they were actually going to go on their “date.” Paige was a set up so that Ollie didn’t have to deal with an actual date. The guy got plenty of women, but most of them were hot, fun, very short-term hookups. He didn’t really do relationships. Mostly because Ollie sucked at things like remembering birthdays, or even showing up for dinner sometimes. Ollie was a great guy and a good friend, but he was also fortunate that he’d met the four men that were his best friends and partners. None of them ever took it personally that he forgot things like one of them having their appendix removed or one of their birthday parties.

  Women, on the other hand, would get tired quickly of having their birthdays forgotten or him not showing up at the hospital. In his defense, he never would have been offended if they’d blown off his birthday or hadn’t brought him balloons to the hospital either.

  Last year, Piper had reminded Ollie it was his birthday, in fact.

  So it was better that he hang out with women who wanted to talk about Warriors of Easton—yes, their fanbase included women—and were happy with a one-night stand with one of the creators.

  Their groupies were kind of like the girls who wanted to hook up with a member of their favorite rock band just to say they’d done it. The Warriors of Easton groupies just happened to often dress up as elves and stuff.

  Cam had decided to take his date to Buttered Up. Well, outside of Buttered Up. His sister’s bakery had little tables set up in front of the huge windows in a sidewalk-café style. The dessert they’d be eating wasn’t from Buttered Up, but he’d get coffee from inside and he wanted the people who would be following the date on social media to remember that he was a McCaffery and that Buttered Up was his family’s business.

  He would have taken his date inside but Zoe had forbidden it. Even after he’d pointed out what great publicity this would be showing how the McCafferys were now heading up all of the major dessert making in Appleby and that the two businesses, that were long-time rivals, were now coming together.

  She’d said that if he brought a Hot Cakes product, even a future one, into her store, she’d cut him off from all Buttered Up desserts for six months.

  The whole we’re-not-rivals-anymore thing was a work in progress.

  Cam also suspected that Aiden had brought Hot Cakes products into her bakery on at least a couple of occasions, but also figured they had been used in ways that Cam didn’t want to associate with his sister and best friend, so he hadn’t pointed that out.

  Aiden could likely get away with a lot of things Cam couldn’t.

  That was probably as it should be.

  When you fell in love with someone, you gave them more slack.

  Again, he glanced over at Whitney. Her back was to the entire baking-show-slash-auction setup. If she was avoiding him, why? Because he’d made her uncomfortable last night? Or because she couldn’t stop thinking about last night? Or because she wanted everything he’d offered last night but she really did think it was a bad idea and avoiding him was easier than facing it?

  He hadn’t made her uncomfortable. He knew her. She had been surprised, and turned on—which also might have surprised her—but she hadn’t been upset or nervous.

  He liked the idea that she had been thinking about it nonstop. He certainly had. He also liked the idea that she wanted it, but thought she shouldn’t, and the only way to avoid giving in to everything was to avoid him.

  She couldn’t avoid him indefinitely.

  And they were going to figure this out.

  Their history and their feelings for one another now was a huge-assed elephant in the room any time they were, well, in a room together. If she wasn’t on board with outright dating and figuring it out, there were other ways for him to spend time with her, get to know her again, see how she reacted to him. They saw each other every day at work. Obviously, he could find some alone time with her.

  And he already liked the reaction from her to that alone time.

  Seeing her outside of the office might take some doing. Apparently, her high school friends had moved away and she wasn’t very social now. This came from Jane and Piper. Yes, he’d asked. He had no qualms about getting his friends and coworkers involved in this.

  She lived with her grandmother, Didi, now, so he couldn’t just show up at her house and say, “Hey, I want to date your granddaughter again. But it’s okay because it probably won’t work out.”

  Because, one, Didi hated his family and had likely been a part of Whitney breaking up with him before. And two, because he wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t work out.

  That’s what he needed to find out.

  He needed to know if they were going to be friends or more. At this point, those two things were the only options. He didn’t hate her. The past ten years might have been easier on him if he had. He could have just moved on. But he hadn’t. And he thought he might still be in love with her.

  The only way to get over that was to get to know her.

  He was in love with the Whitney from ten years ago. He needed to know this Whitney to figure out how he felt. And she needed to know him.

  Finally, Ollie was finished and his bars looked a lot more like lemon bars
this time. Cam wasn’t so sure he’d be willing to take a big bite of one though.

  Dax took center stage again and kicked off the auction portion of the event.

  “Okay, here we go, everybody! You’ve had a chance to see what the guys have to offer—”

  “Part of what we have to offer,” Max interjected.

  Dax grinned. “Right. Of course.” He turned back to the crowd. “You’ve seen some of their talents and you know what happens when they get their hands on some… sweet ingredients—"

  Could a crowd collectively giggle? Because this one just had.

  “And that they’re not afraid to get a little… sticky,” Dax went on.

  Dax could certainly bring the innuendo as well.

  There was more laughter and the front row moved closer to the stage, almost as one. Cam braced his hands on the countertop in front of him and just watched his friend with a grin. Dax loved the spotlight and loved helping people have a good time.

  “And then you add a little heat, and, well, I’m guessing some of you can’t wait to get your mouths full of some of the stuff up here on this stage.”

  Cam laughed along with everyone else.

  “So without further ado, let’s get this auction started,” Dax said.

  The crowd cheered and Cam shot Max a grin. Max was enjoying this.

  On his other side, Ollie looked resigned. At best. That made Cam grin too. Paige would be fine. She could talk to anyone. Maybe she’d take him over to meet the cats at the yoga studio. It was also a cat café. It was also an adoption center. Except that the forms and interview process Paige put people through was intense and very few people passed it. So it was, actually, just a way for Paige to collect cats and not have anyone call her a crazy cat lady. To her face anyway.

  “Okay, first up, Max!” Dax gestured toward the big guy with the caramel crunch bars.

  Max played it up even though he knew Elliot was there and Max very much wanted the date with Elliot.

  The bidding actually climbed past three-hundred dollars while Max watched amused and surprised. Elliot was bidding, but so was another guy… and three girls.

  “Hey ladies,” Max interrupted at one point. “I’m flattered, but you do know that caramel crunch bars are the most I’ve got to offer you, right?”

  One of them called out, “And lots of laughs and a ride on your motorcycle, right?”

  Max grinned and nodded. “Can do.”

  “I just need a selfie with you to send to my ex,” another called. “He’ll be totally scared of you.”

  Max nodded again but added, “You need me to make a phone call or a visit to someone’s apartment with a warning?”

  Cam’s eyebrows lifted. Having Max show up to tell some creepy ex-boyfriend to back-off might be something they should talk about having him do regardless of the auction.

  “Nah, the photo will be enough,” the cute brunette told him.

  “Let’s do that anyway, then,” Max told her.

  Cam liked Max. They thought alike.

  “Great,” the girl gave him a big smile. “And maybe a ride on your motorcycle?”

  Max laughed. “Sure.”

  “I’m totally in this for a ride on your… motorcycle,” the other guy said, moving in next to the girls right in front of the stage.

  Max lifted a brow. “That right? You from out of town?”

  “Yep.”

  Max glanced at Elliot. “Huh.”

  Elliot held up a wad of cash. “One thousand dollars.”

  There was a beat of silence, then the three other bidders turned toward Elliot.

  “Seriously?” one of the girls demanded.

  “Dammit,” the other said. But she was going to get the selfie and maybe a ride anyway.

  “One thousand and one dol—” the guy started.

  But Elliot pulled more money out of his pocket. “Fifteen hundred.”

  Max’s laugh boomed over the mic. “He came all the way from Chicago for this… motorcycle ride,” he said to the guy.

  The guy frowned at Elliot and then turned to Max. “Well, how about my two hundred bucks for your number. For after “Chicago” here goes home.”

  Elliot had pushed his way to the front of the stage now too. “Two thousand for the dessert date and for you to not give him your number.”

  Max looked over at Cam, clearly feeling cocky now. “Hot Cakes is matching this bid, right?”

  “If it’s the highest,” Cam told him mildly.

  Max laughed. “You think you’ll go for more?”

  Cam lifted a shoulder. “I think we should find out.”

  Dax pointed at the guy next to Elliot. “You going higher than two thousand?”

  The guy sighed. “No.”

  Dax looked at the girls. “How about you?”

  The brunette shook her head. “We even talked about putting our money together and… nope.”

  “Selfie right after this though,” Max told her.

  “Okay.” She gave him a grateful smile.

  “Okay then, the caramel crunch bars and an hour with Max go to Elliot Even!” Dax pointed toward Piper. “You can settle up with Piper.”

  The crowd applauded, Elliot grinned widely, and turned toward Piper.

  “Now it’s Oliver’s turn,” Dax said. “Lemon bars and an hour with the brilliant creator of Warriors of Easton and one of the new owners of our beloved Hot Cakes!”

  The group of women down front moved closer to the stage. Seemed it didn’t matter that his lemon bars probably tasted like shit. Cam grinned and turned, settling his hip against his kitchen station, to watch.

  “Who will start the bidding at fifty dollars?” Dax asked.

  Ten hands, nine females and the one guy who had lost Max to Elliot, went up.

  Dax looked surprised. And amused. “You’re in again?” he asked the guy.

  The guy shrugged. “Love Warriors of Easton.”

  “Free game tokens for a year if you take these lemon bars and let me go home,” Ollie told him.

  The guy opened his mouth, but Dax cut him off. “Not how this works, Oliver.”

  Ollie rolled his eyes.

  Cam laughed.

  “How about free game tokens for a year, a selfie for my social media, and you give me Max’s phone number?” the guy asked.

  Everyone laughed. Ollie looked at Max. “Well…”

  “You have to bid,” Dax said. “How much you want to put up?”

  “Two hundred,” the guy answered.

  Several of the girls in front of him turned on him with scowls.

  “Ladies?” Dax asked. “Anyone going higher than two hundred?”

  Cam scanned the crowd but didn’t see Paige anywhere. He frowned and glanced over toward Whitney again. She should be over here making sure this went according to plan, shouldn’t she?

  Of course, Piper was here. And she didn’t seem concerned that Paige wasn’t one of the bidders. Maybe something had come up and they’d planted someone else. But whoever it was wasn’t bidding against this guy.

  “Two hundred and fifty,” one of the women finally said.

  Dax nodded. “Anyone got two hundred and sixty?”

  “Two hundred and sixty!” one called.

  “Two hundred and sixty-five,” the guy said.

  “Two hundred and sixty-six,” the first woman called.

  “Four thousand dollars!”

  Everyone turned toward the voice a couple of rows behind the bidders. Cam’s eyes widened. He knew that voice. That was his little brother.

  Henry and his friends pushed to the front of the crowd.

  “Four thousand?” Dax asked him.

  “No, not four thousand.” This came from Piper who moved in behind the boys. She leaned down and said something in Henry’s ear.

  “Four hundred,” Henry amended.

  Dax laughed. “Okay. You sure?”

  “Yep!”

  Cam frowned. Where the hell had Henry gotten four hundred dollars? He scanne
d the crowd for Zoe. Maybe she’d had something to do with it. But he didn’t see her.

  “Dude, where’d you get that?” Cam finally asked.

  Everyone in the crowd—or at least most of them—knew Henry was Cam’s younger brother.

  “No, no,” Ollie said. “You can’t talk him out of this now.”

  It made sense that Ollie liked the idea of an hour with three eleven-year-olds better than with any of the women. Ollie talked to eleven-year-olds all the time, both at cons and online. That was their target demographic. Even though their fans ranged anywhere from about eight to forty and were both male and female, their core was truly boys from about ten to twenty.

  “Well, he can’t use Monopoly money or something,” Cam said.

  “Sure he can,” Ollie said. “I’ll trade you your fake money for real.”

  “It’s real,” Henry said. Then he looked up at Piper. “Right?”

  She nodded. “Right.”

  “You’re giving him the money?” Cam asked. Yes, he still had his mic on and, yes, everyone could hear this. But it was all for fun. And charity. No one would actually care if Piper was giving money to kids to bid on time with Ollie, right?

  “Hey, he’s bidding for his mom? Does she get to go on the date too?” one of the women asked. “That’s not fair.”

  Okay, maybe someone would care.

  “I’m not his mom!” Piper said.

  “Much older sister?” the woman asked, then turned to Dax. “Just because he’s a cute kid, doesn’t mean I’m just going to let him have this. Four fifty.”

  Cam looked at Ollie. He did not look happy.

  “She’s not his sister,” Dax said. “Just a friend.”

  “Still, if he’s bidding then he’s the one that goes on the date. She doesn’t get to go along,” the woman insisted.

  “Well, I don’t want to go along,” Piper said. “If I want to eat lemon bars with Ollie, I can do that anytime.”

  “Oh really?” the woman said. “Well, maybe not after he’s spent an hour with me.”

  Piper’s mouth dropped open. Then she turned to Dax. “Three thousand dollars.”

  6

  The woman’s eyes went round. “Hey!”