Macarons at Midnight
Page 1
Readers love M.J. O’SHEA
Moonlight Becomes You
With Piper Vaughn
“The writing was top-notch—I’m talking brilliant collaboration! I truly adored the voices coming through.
—Boys in Our Books
“Moonlight Becomes You is a story of young love gone wrong, making up for childish mistakes, and the growth of a man. … I would highly recommend this book and the others to come in the series.”
—The Novel Approach
Impractical Magic
Sequel to Newton’s Laws of Attraction
“M.J. O’Shea has always been an author I’ve enjoyed due to her characters and the realistic storylines. She creates some of the best slightly flawed, kind of nerdy/dorky, or even socially inept characters.”
—Wicked Faeries Reviews
“…an easy to read, well written romantic tale. It left me feeling all warm and fuzzy. I have never read any of M.J. O’Shea’s solo books, but after this, I am going to investigate more of her works.”
—Prism Book Alliance
“Impractical Magic is mostly all about camaraderie, connection, and love. And the ending is perfection wrapped in phyllo dough (like all the best things are).”
—My Fiction Nook
By M.J. O’SHEA
Catch My Breath
Cross Bones (Dreamspinner Anthology)
With Anna Martin: Macarons at Midnight
Newton’s Laws of Attraction • Impractical Magic
Stroke!
LUCKY MOON SERIES (WITH PIPER VAUGHN)
Moonlight Becomes You
The Luckiest
ROCK BAY SERIES
Coming Home
Letting Go
Finding Shelter
ONE THING SERIES (WITH PIPER VAUGHN)
One Small Thing
One True Thing
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
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Readers love ANNA MARTIN
Summer Son
“Ellis and Zane are sexy and romantic together. Zane is adorable with Harrison and they all three fit together so nicely. This story just made me happy and I really enjoyed it.”
—Joyfully Jay
Jurassic Heart
“I loved this book, connecting with it instantly and enjoyed the ride the whole way through. The characters were loveable and charming, the story impeccable and the outcome was glorious.”
—The Novel Approach
“I just loved this one. It hit so many high points for me. Fascinating heroes that I loved, a sexy romance, great enemies-to-lovers tension, and some good old fashioned geekery.”
—Joyfully Jay
Cricket
“What a lovely read. Cricket is the perfect book for after something heavier; but, that’s not to say that it’s fluff. Far from it. There is plenty of substance here.”
—Mrs. Condit & Friends Read Books
“I highly recommend this wonderful story, but warn you you’ll want to book a flight to the British Isles when you finish!”
—MM Good Book Reviews
By ANNA MARTIN
Cricket
Cuddling (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Dr. Feelgood (Dreamspinner Anthology)
Jurassic Heart
Kid Gloves
With M.J. O’Shea: Macarons at Midnight
With Tia Fielding: Solitude
Summer Son
Tattoos & Teacups
Two Tickets to Paradise (Dreamspinner Anthology)
ANOTHER WAY SERIES
Another Way
Of Being Yours
To Say I Love You
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Copyright
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Macarons at Midnight
© 2014 M.J. O’Shea & Anna Martin.
Cover Art
© 2014 L.C. Chase.
www.lcchase.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.
ISBN: 978-1-63216-410-0
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63216-411-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014945932
First Edition October 2014
Printed in the United States of America
This paper meets the requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
This is for all the baking fans out there. :)
Chapter 1
DON’T DROP it… don’t drop it… oh no, no, no.
“Son of a freaking bitch! Ow!”
The bag in Henry Livingston’s hand slipped, like he’d known it would all along. That’s what you get for being lazy, isn’t it?
He’d been running late and trying to do too many things at the same time. Of course, he’d tripped on the one uneven tile he knew was there, which had always been there, and poof went a twenty-pound bag of flour everywhere. He’d tried to grasp the heavy bag with his fingernails and nearly pulled one out in the process, but no luck. There was a thick, squishy thump, and then the sound of industrial paper ripping on the corner of the worktop.
Anyone who didn’t know exactly how much flour a twenty-pound bag could hold probably didn’t want to find out. The mess turned his kitchen into something like the aftermath of a disaster movie, spread out all over the black and white floor tiles. White powder floated through the air, slow, and in a weird way, enchanting, catching the rays of light and dusting every surface in Henry’s pristine kitchen. His pristine kitchen he’d just wiped down only minutes before. Of course. The whole place looked like some kind of coke bust gone awry, the nail bed of his left index finger throbbed like the devil, and he was still late. As usual.
Wasn’t disaster the rule for those sorts of situations? It was for Henry. Disaster seemed to follow him everywhere he went—at least where messes could be made.
“What have you done this time, twinkle toes?” his assistant, Millie, called from the front room.
She wandered back, fanning herself with her hand and laugh-coughing at the floury mess. Millie’s intense cherry red hair had flown out of her bun, humidity and the heat from the bakery turning her bright, wiry curls into a dandelion puff around her head. Henry had to smile. Even if she was laughing at him. She giggled some more while she pointed at Henry, covered in powder, staring at the explosion as if he could somehow make it disappear with his mind. No respect. None. He didn’t figure he’d ever get any from Millie. She was more like a second older sister than an employee, and as much as they might bitc
h at each other, Henry wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve only been out front for five minutes! How’d you already manage to turn your kitchen into a coke raid?”
He snorted out a frustrated laugh. “I was trying to get ahead for once, mix the dough for the Schwartz bat mitzvah cookies tonight so I only had to bake and decorate them tomorrow, but instead of getting ahead, I have a half an hour of cleaning to do, no dough, and I’m already running late for dinner at my parents’ place.”
“When are you supposed to be there?”
Henry gave Millie a sheepish smile. “Twenty minutes.” Not a chance he was going to make it. Punctuality had never been Henry’s strong suit.
Millie shook her head. “Someday you’ll be on time to something that doesn’t have to do with this damn bakery.”
“Probably not.”
“Shoo with you, then.” She waved him off. “I don’t have any plans. I’ll clean it up.” She cocked an eyebrow. “But this is coming out of your holiday bonus.”
Henry grinned at her. He might be the owner of Honeyfly Cakes and Cookies, but they both knew who was really in charge. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, though. I owe you.”
“Give Trix a kiss for me,” she said. Despite never quite understanding each other’s lives, Millie and his real sister had always gotten along. Sometimes, when they ganged up on him especially, Henry regretted introducing them. It was a disaster when they got together and decided what was best for him. Like James. Or that lavender V-neck sweater from Dsquared2 that made him feel like the Easter bunny. Still, he was glad he had both of them. And sometimes glad they had each other.
“I’ll tell her. You do have a phone, though.”
Millie snorted. “Why bother when she’s in here all the time? Besides, it looks like I have some work cut out for me with all this.” She gestured at the piles of freshly sifted flour all over the floor. Henry winced.
“Okay, I’m out.”
HENRY HAD walked to work that morning instead of taking his bike since the early predawn had been so warm and lovely, slowly turning from black to a blushy lavender and coating the West Village with a rosy glow. It was his favorite part of living in the neighborhood, and Henry hadn’t wanted to miss it. Of course, nothing was quite as picturesque while jogging in long pants, with his heavy messenger bag hitting him on the back in sweltering six o’clock late-summer heat. He needed a long, cold shower, but that was going to have to wait until he got home from dinner.
He barely had time to change, but somehow didn’t think his mom would appreciate Converse, a T-shirt, and some ratty old jeans with a sticky dusting of flour and sweat. At least he had an excuse not to stay long. That dough wasn’t going to mix itself, and he had a two-hundred-cookie special order to get out the door by the time the shop closed tomorrow. Henry had a super early morning in his near future. Like the kind that started after he got home from dinner and took a two- or three-hour nap.
He rinsed off quickly when he finally made it, sweaty and still coated with flour, to his fourth-floor apartment. More thorough showering could wait, but he had to look like a human, at least, and not the abominable snowman. Or Pablo Escobar. He dressed in loafers and khakis, a pale blue button-up, and a summer-weight jacket before he shoved his wallet in his pocket and grabbed his keys. Good enough? Probably not, since he’d gotten it at Banana Republic and not right off the runway. Too bad. It had to be.
A large black vintage Rolls Royce Phantom was waiting on the street when he pulled open the front door to his building. Henry rolled his eyes but smiled. Of course. His dad had a thing for the old cars, and the Phantom was one of his favorites. He typically had Ollie get it out when he had a point to make—like how much Henry was missing by living downtown instead of where he belonged. Henry usually ignored his father’s rather heavy-handed points. Pointedly.
“Hey, Ollie,” Henry said. He felt his face split with a genuine smile.
The family’s driver had been with them since Henry was a little boy. He was family to Henry, who’d spent more time with him on the trips back and forth to school than he’d ever spent with his actual parents growing up. Ollie’s hair had slowly turned from black to salt-and-pepper to nearly white, and his skin sagged a bit around the edges, but other than that, nothing had changed. He was familiar and comforting.
Ollie opened the back door for Henry. “Your father thought you might need a car,” Ollie told him.
The same thing happened every time. Henry had been planning to take the subway like he did whenever he wanted to get anywhere and walking or biking wouldn’t work, but his parents weren’t fans of the thought of him getting on the train. When had the subway ever been good enough for a Livingston? According to them, never. Besides, if he got to their house on his own steam, how would they have the chance to remind him of what he was missing so dearly?
“Thanks, Ollie. It will be nice not to have to go down into the subways. It’s hot today.” Henry slid into the cool, dark interior of his father’s favorite toy.
Ollie smiled and closed the door behind him.
Henry did whatever it was people always did when they girded their loins. He put his armor on, got his witty banter ready and his excuses for the last few dinners he’d missed. Loins were girded. Henry was ready. Dinner with the folks. Always relaxing.
OLLIE PULLED up to the front entrance of Henry’s family home, a stuffy sandstone townhouse on east Eighty-Second Street. He’d never liked it there, even when he was little. He’d spent hours in his bedroom that he’d plastered with band posters and travel photographs to try to make it look like home and not like the rest of the stuffy stone monsters that marched up and down the street. He’d escaped to the park and the museums when he was old enough to go alone. His sister had blended perfectly into Upper East Side life, into society and the right clothes at the best events, but it had never been for him. He’d been ecstatic when he was finally old enough to move away other than a visit or two a month.
Ollie got out and opened the door for Henry.
“Have a good night, sir,” Ollie said.
“Ollie. It’s Henry. I’m really not ‘sir’ material.” He’d always hated being called “sir” instead of his name. It’d started somewhere around his eighteenth birthday, and he’d been trying to get Ollie to knock it off ever since.
“Of course. Have a good night.”
The door opened as soon as Henry put his first foot on the stairs that lead to a thick-windowed oak door.
“Evening, sir.” His parents’ butler guided Henry into the foyer. Here we go again. It was silent as usual. Heavy in its pristine quiet. Thick Persian carpet covered the marble-tiled floor. The walls were tall covered in heavy floral wallpaper and dark cherry-stained wainscoting. Stiff. Formal. Cold.
Welcome home.
“Hey, Hudson.” Henry knew it drove Hudson insane when he was so casual, just like Ollie refused to call him by his name. It was part of the reason why he did it. He smiled to himself. The little rebellions felt so good, and really, everyone needed to loosen the hell up.
It had been weeks since Henry had made it back to his family’s house. He’d grown good at excuse making, and the old place made him itch. He started toward the sitting room, where his family was sure to be enjoying heavily poured before-dinner cocktails, before Hudson had a chance to close the door and lead him in. It was another tiny rebellion. It felt as good as the first one.
“Sir, if you’ll follow me,” Hudson said, walking quickly to get in the appropriate and proper position to escort Henry to the sitting room. They’d probably all been waiting for him for at least half an hour. He did feel a little guilty about that.
Henry succumbed to politeness and let Hudson do his job, even if Henry’d lived in this house until he turned eighteen and he knew damn well where he was going. He found his family exactly where he’d expected them to be, seated with cocktails in the peacock blue sitting room, waiting for their perpetually late and infuriatingly quirky son.
Their words. Not his.
“Sorry I’m late, guys. Bit of a disaster at the bakery.”
He saw his mother flinch when he used the word “guys.” Henry smiled. His mother and sister got up to hug him. They’d both long since learned there was no point in trying to get him to close the bakery and move back uptown where he “belonged.” Veiled reminders aside, they no longer put much effort into trying.
“Hello, darling. You look well.” His mother’s voice was welcoming. Social. Not exactly maternal. They liked each other in small to medium doses, and he supposed they loved each other as well, in a way, but he didn’t know his mother much better than he knew any of the other socialites in her circle. He might as well have been greeting any of them. She was dressed immaculately, as usual. Champagne-colored Chanel pantsuit, beige patent pumps, gold jewelry, chignon without a single flyaway strand. Perfect.
“Hey, Mom.” Henry leaned forward and kissed her cheek. He was pretty sure he didn’t imagine her momentary flash of distaste for the use of “hey.” It was probably similar to “guys.” Once he’d asked his mother “What’s up?” and she’d nearly passed out. Henry had to hold back a grin. It wasn’t that he hated it here; he just had fun trying to loosen them up a little. They could use it.
Well, except for his sister, of course. Trixie came bounding over when he was finished with his mother and smacked a cheery kiss on his cheek. “What happened? Is Millie going to kill you when she finds out? Did this have to do with a boy?”
“No. No boy.” Henry rolled his eyes. “And someday, the two of you are finally going to realize she works for me, not the other way around. I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to come to terms with that.”
Trixie rolled her own eyes just as hard as Henry. Even if it weren’t for the dark hair and matching big, dark eyes, there was not a single question they were siblings. “So what was this big disaster?”
“A bag of flour fell and exploded all over the kitchen. But it’s okay. Millie offered to clean it for me.”