“But you can’t cut me off indefinitely,” Aiden said. “Wedding planning goes especially well with spaghetti and meatballs, and I’m sure your grandkids will love your lasagna.”
Zoe saw her mother’s face first register shock and then soften into a mix of emotions. Her eyes actually filled with tears. “Grandkids,” she said softly. Then she shook her head. “I never could stay mad at you anyway,” she told Aiden. “But that’s a pretty potent argument.”
He grinned. “I was always your favorite. Imagine once I’m the father of your grandchildren.”
Zoe’s breath caught in her chest. She honestly couldn’t have responded to that if she wanted to. She had no air. But damn, grandkids? Her kids. With Aiden. Wow.
Maggie swiped at her eyes. “You’re so much trouble,” she told him, but her loving smile told them how she really felt. She looked at Zoe. “I’m so happy for you both.”
Yeah, Zoe was feeling pretty… happy. Or something. Dang. This was going so damned fast. But it felt so good. Right.
Maggie headed back out through the kitchen, and Zoe watched the door swing back and forth behind her three times before it stopped.
Then she looked up at Aiden.
He was watching her. Probably waiting for her reaction. Him walking back into the bakery yesterday had gotten a reaction. Him declaring they were going to be together had gotten a reaction. Him kissing her in the bakery in front of everyone had gotten a reaction. This…
“We definitely need to save lots of pink frosting,” she said.
“Yeah?” He lifted a brow.
“I think you might look good with some pink in some sweet spots too.”
His eyes heated. “Let’s get to work.”
He let her go just like that and turned to the worktable.
She watched as he started decorating the cookie. Her heart was pounding from, just, everything. He was suddenly here, back in her life, and when she thought in her life, she realized really, really in. Her head kept telling her it should feel crazy, but it didn’t.
That was the crazy part.
Her eyes widened as she watched him place perfect frosting embellishments on the petals, then switch tubes to apply green piping down the stem and leaves the way she’d been doing.
He stepped back, and she glanced up to find him looking at it with satisfaction.
“Wow,” she said simply.
Aiden grinned, his eyes meeting hers. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
She knew he wasn’t talking about the cookies. She knew he knew she wasn’t talking about the cookies.
And her heart fluttered again. Much harder and for much longer this time.
12
Dax Marshall drove a 1960 MGA roadster in Old English White with black leather interior and classic silver wire wheels. He also wore a dark gray felt fedora when he did it. But not just any dark gray felt fedora. This was the dark gray felt fedora that Frank Sinatra had worn in his last starring movie role as Edward Delaney in The First Deadly Sin. As he would explain. Ad nauseam.
He’d bought the hat at an auction with a winning bid of over five thousand dollars. Dax considered that a bargain. Wearing a hat that had once graced the head of one of his personal idols—fifth on the list behind Fred Rogers, Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, and Derek Jeter, in that order—was a true privilege worth any price. That he looked “fucking dashing as hell”—his words, not Aiden’s—was simply a bonus.
Aiden was less enamored with the hat, but he had to admit the car was awesome. Classy, distinctive, extremely cool, the car turned heads.
Especially in a small town in Iowa that mostly saw pickups and SUVs. Practical vehicles. Vehicles that were used for work and hauling things and getting people from one place to another. Did the guys in Appleby pick out their favorite colors for their F-150s? Sure, sometimes. If their favorite color was black, white, silver, red, or blue. Did they take a little time over things like adding satellite radio and lining the truck bed and matching floor mats? Maybe. But that was as flashy as things got.
No one drove around in classic convertibles that seated two and had only enough trunk space to hold a spare tire and nothing else.
It wasn’t practical. Iowans, especially those in Appleby, were nothing if not practical.
So when a white 1960 MGA roadster rolled past the Buttered Up bakery driven by a young guy in a dark gray felt fedora like Frank Sinatra would have worn, Aiden groaned.
Dax honestly didn’t know the meaning of inconspicuous.
Dax believed in fun, living in the moment, and making the best of everything. In fact, he believed in making everything better. It was one of his best traits and the main thing that had drawn Aiden and Dax together initially. Aiden believed in doing big things, leaving the world better than he’d found it, making his life count. They’d seen that all very similarly, and Aiden still appreciated that about his friend.
Except, of course, when Aiden wanted to keep a low profile in his hometown regarding Hot Cakes.
A young guy cruising into town in a shiny, classic convertible with a fedora was going to stand out among the pickups and seed company caps, and people were going to want to know who he was and what he was doing here.
Which was fine. As long as Dax didn’t mention Aiden. Yet, anyway.
Aiden kept from lunging out of his chair, barely, but he stood and frowned at his phone as if he’d just gotten an important text. Which he should have. One from Dax saying he was on his way and he’d meet Aiden at the hotel. In the next town. Where Aiden had specifically asked Piper to make reservations for both Dax and Ollie.
“Hey, I need to head over to Dubuque for a meeting,” he said to Zoe.
She was the behind the main counter now, decorating cupcakes. They’d finished the cookies, and Mrs. Murphy had been thrilled with how they’d turned out. Josie was in back manning the ovens and sculpting a cake into a kangaroo. He hadn’t asked why. And Zoe was doing the basic cupcakes frosting and watching the front.
“Oh? Really? Why?” she asked, looking up.
He’d been settled at the table by the window on his computer working since finishing the cookies. Away from the smell of Zoe. And out of touching distance. Because neither of them had been getting much done—at least not very efficiently—when they were within touching distance.
But she’d told her mom they were together. That was productive.
Every time he thought of that, he felt like someone had sucked the oxygen out of his lungs. And he wanted to put Zoe up on that worktable and do all the naughty frosting things they’d teased about. He also wanted to add in sprinkles. He’d always loved sprinkles.
He also wanted to beat his chest like a caveman and take out a billboard down by the highway and maybe just stand in the town square with a bullhorn.
He wanted to buy a diamond ring.
Hearing her claim him, to her mother, and seeing Maggie’s face when she registered that, had caused an avalanche of emotions to crash through him he’d been unprepared for. He’d had five months to think about Zoe and how he felt about her and what he wanted from her. He’d had five months to mentally restructure his life around everything and to imagine what it would be like to be back in Appleby with Maggie and Steve and everyone. But he hadn’t given any thought to how it would feel to be on the receiving end of their words and emotions.
Or maybe he’d thought he knew what it would be like.
Zoe had come to him for sex. That had felt pretty damned good. After the shock, of course. But she’d wanted him. He’d thought a lot about how that had felt.
Maggie loved him. Steve loved him. Henry loved him. He’d figured there would just be, well, more of that.
He hadn’t been prepared, at all, for how it would feel to see Maggie’s absolute delight at the idea of him and Zoe together. To see her eyes well up with tears. To see her nearly overcome with the idea of grandkids.
Hell, he hadn’t even thought of kids.
But now he wanted that. Them
. Lots of them.
He also hadn’t been able to truly imagine how it would be starting his morning in the kitchen with Zoe. Because he couldn’t have imagined that. His attraction to her was real enough, but he couldn’t have been prepared for how touching her, kissing her, hearing her, and tasting her would seep into him and become an addiction the very first time.
Even more, he would have never been able to prepare for the way it would feel to have her looking at him with admiration. Or how it would feel to have something like their businesses in common. Or how natural it would feel to hear her sharing things about her business, and asking about his, and talking about real things like employees and how they both wanted to be good to the people who depended on them. Sharing something like that with her, something that was new to him and that already meant a lot to him, something that was already giving him a little anxiety, truth be told, had felt… good. Different. New for them. He and Zoe hadn’t talked about things like that before, but it had been effortless to slip into that conversation.
Now he wanted to talk to her about Hot Cakes. He wanted to tell her he was nervous about introducing new owners to a company that had belonged to the same family for over fifty years. He wanted to tell her how he wanted to find out what the employees needed and how he wanted to actually blow their minds with all the amazing things working for Hot Cakes would mean for them. He wanted her to look at him with admiration for his plans and goals and know they were about Hot Cakes.
But he was scared.
Of losing her.
More now than he had been before. Before he knew how much he really wanted her. Before he’d realized that, as much as he’d wanted to be with her, he hadn’t fully realized all their relationship could truly be. Laughing and teasing in the morning, flirting fun even when she was annoyed with him, him helping in the bakery, sharing their thoughts and feelings and plans about their work.
“Yeah. I’ve got a meeting with a guy about a new business venture in the area,” he told her. That was completely true.
She smiled. “You do?”
“Yeah.” He crossed to the counter.
“You really are planning to stay,” she said. “I mean, I know you said that. A few times. And I know you have plenty of money. You don’t have to work. But that just…” She sighed. But it sounded happy. Not like the exasperated ones she so often gave him. “That just makes it feel really real.”
He braced his hands on the counter between them and pinned her with a look. “It is really real, Zoe.”
“I’m starting to get that.”
Thank God.
He’d only been in town for two days. Really just short of twenty-four hours if they were being very technical. But there was no reason for them to tiptoe around here or take their time or be subtle. He was back in town. To stay. Because of her.
“Good. Because I’m way past starting to, and I’m pretty sure your mom is all in.” He gave her a grin.
She rolled her eyes. “She snuck up on me. I wasn’t prepared.”
“So the truth came out because you didn’t have time to cover.”
Zoe just looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded. “Yeah.”
Everything in him went hot and hard. But she was still working, and he needed to make sure Dax went to the hotel and they had a full plan for how to approach the Hot Cakes employees. And that he got a rental car. “I’ll be back around closing time.” His voice was a little gruff.
Her smile grew. “You’ll notice I’m not using any pink frosting on these.”
He had noticed. “Good girl.”
She bit her bottom lip. Right where he wanted to bite. And suck. He gave a little groan. “Lose the good girl thing by the time I get back,” he told her.
Her eyes widened.
He chuckled. “What?”
“I might regret admitting this, but… you’ve definitely been surprising me. The dirty talk in particular.”
He fucking liked that a lot.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Please do.”
Again, he had to resist rounding the counter and saying to hell with his meeting with Dax. And the big windows at the front of the bakery.
Yeah, Zoe McCaffery had a few surprises as well.
She liked dirty talk? They were a better match every time they spent time together.
At least, until they got to talking about Hot Cakes.
With that not-so-pleasant thought in mind, he gathered up his stuff and headed for the Hilton in Dubuque. He put a video call in to Piper on the way.
“You need to get him a different car,” he told their assistant.
“He’s picking it up in about thirty minutes,” Piper said.
She was wearing her glasses, clearly still at work. She was only twenty-three, but she ran the office, and the guys’ lives—especially Ollie’s—like she was much older and wiser than any of them. Because she was. Wiser, anyway. More mature. More practical. More capable. The woman was like Mary Poppins, Martha Stewart, and Super Nanny all rolled into one. She knew everything, was always two steps ahead of the guys, took care of things efficiently and effectively. Interestingly, she ran the office and their schedules like a drill sergeant, but she did it while dressed in what she called “pinup-girl dresses” that were always in bright colors and patterns and emphasized her curves.
She looked twenty-three though. She had long, dark hair, streaked with blond and red highlights that hung nearly to her ass when she didn’t have it up in a curly, tight ponytail or bun—which was 90 percent of the time. She had huge brown eyes, made even larger behind the large-framed colored glasses—coordinated with her outfits, of course—she wore in the office. She was short so she wore heels. Or maybe she just wore them because she liked them. She dressed smart and professionally but also gave off a fun, confident vibe. Everyone loved her, and Fluke, and Oliver Caprinelli specifically, would fall apart without her.
“Really?”
“Of course, he can’t be driving that roadster around,” she said. “I told him he could drive it to Iowa, to the hotel and around Dubuque, but not in Appleby.”
Aiden really liked Piper. “Well, he just drove it down Main Street.”
She sighed. “Was he wearing the fedora?”
Aiden chuckled. “Of course.”
“He better not have stopped,” she muttered. “We had a long talk about how it might not go over so well if five rich, hot, young guys come strolling into town, taking over the factory that’s been there for so long and employs so many people, thinking they’re all that and doing everyone a favor.”
Aiden nodded even though he had to admit that he’d been feeling a little bit like he might have been doing Appleby a favor. He didn’t like admitting that. Especially now after hearing Jane say that things at the factory weren’t quite hunky dory. Now he wanted to fix it all. And he had no idea how to do that.
“Great, thank you,” Aiden told Piper. “Text me the hotel address?”
“Sure.” She paused, then Aiden heard his text notification ding. “Done.”
He grinned. “When will Ollie be here?”
“Tomorrow. He had to finish some things up for Grant before he could leave,” she said.
“I’ve got an in-office suspension until I get it done.”
Aiden heard Ollie’s voice but he was outside of the frame. Piper looked over to her right.
“Yes, you are. You’re staying right there until you’re finished. And no more meatballs until then.”
“He’s sitting by you so you can make sure he’s working?” Aiden asked. This wouldn’t be the first time.
“Yes. He’s on the couch with his laptop.”
They had a couch in the reception area outside of their main offices. Piper manned that desk. She was so much more than a receptionist, but all the other women they’d hired for the job had been too easily charmed by both Dax and Ollie. The guys’ schedules and to-do lists had gone out the window with just a grin and a wink. There wer
e also a number of girls who delivered from nearby restaurants, the printing place they worked with, and a couple of PR firms they outsourced to that would come by to talk to Dax, Ollie, and even Cam at times. When the other, equally charm-susceptible receptionists were at the desk, they let those girls past or called the guys to the front, and suddenly the guys were missing phone calls and meetings and not getting shit done.
None of that was a problem when Piper sat there. She’d taken that desk back about a year ago, and things had been smooth sailing ever since. Though Cam grumbled about not getting free extra egg rolls, and Dax made excuses to stroll down to the print shop himself on a regular basis, now.
“She made sweet-and-sour meatballs, Aiden,” Ollie called. “She gave me one and then told me the rest had to wait until I’m done. They’re sitting on the edge of her desk mocking me.”
Piper was a hell of a cook, and her meatballs were Ollie’s favorite.
“It’s Aiden’s fault.” She looked back at Aiden. “You got him all riled up about getting to Appleby to save the day. He’s got two conference calls and a packed inbox he needs to deal with before he can leave and get all wrapped up in this new project. You know he’ll totally lose track of everything else once he’s there.”
“Well, I do need him,” Aiden said. “We need a plan for this new company. We have a lot of files to go over, and we need to research benefits and—”
“I already went through the files you sent to Ollie and Dax,” Piper said. “I highlighted the things you should review first. I also sent you a few articles I think you’ll find interesting. And I set up a call for the three of you tomorrow afternoon with a Duncan Prestor. He’s going to talk you through some employee benefit plans and help you with an intake survey to help you get a better idea about what you’ll need.”
Aiden blinked. Piper was a force of nature.
“I don’t think we can do an intake survey yet. We need to talk to the employees.”
Piper was already clicking on her keyboard. “I’ll let him know that. Do you still want to do the initial call with him to go over some plan options?”
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