“You don’t want to be financially secure?”
Ah, well, of course that’s what this was about. “That is a lot of money.”
“It is. And it’s guaranteed. You can use your talents to make yourself financially independent.”
She crossed her arms. “Strange coincidence that the guy who is obsessed with me being financially independent also co-owns the company offering me this contract.”
He shrugged. “It wouldn’t work if we weren’t already looking for a new product and you weren’t already a talented baker.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It was Cam’s idea,” he said.
“Really.” She didn’t believe that.
Grant nodded. “We were going to have a contest for people to enter recipes and a big town taste testing and… a whole event. But when I talked to Cam and Whitney, Cam suggested we just hire you.”
Josie felt herself frown. That sounded a little easier to believe. “You’re still setting this up for me.”
“Every time I do a seminar, I set things up for women,” he said. “I advise them on good investments, help them get those started, help them with how to expand what they’re already doing if that applies. This is no different.”
This is no different.
Right. That was the thing she had to remember. She was just another woman who had needed his help financially. This was Grant’s passion. This was what gave him purpose and happiness. There had been sex—and a wedding—involved in this particular circumstance, where he didn’t usually sleep with, or marry, the women he counseled, but truly, at the end of the day, she was just another woman who had gotten into trouble financially, and he’d stepped in to bail out.
He’d gotten in over his head, sure, but that other set of papers would get him out of that.
She pulled in a breath. “Well, I appreciate the option, but I’m not comfortable with it.”
“You’re not comfortable making ten thousand dollars and then a percentage of sales of your snack cake every month?” he asked.
She wanted to ask how much he thought that would be, she couldn’t deny. But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t doing this. She wasn’t a charity case. She hated that all he really saw was another woman who needed his help.
“I guess you still don’t believe that I’m really very happy with how things are,” she said. That was true. The health insurance thing aside, she was happy. “I don’t need millions of dollars. Yes, I loved the private plane and the fancy restaurant and the amazing hotel suite, but I don’t need them.” She pressed her hands against her stomach willing it to stop flipping. “I loved the popcorn on the couch, sitting with you reading while you worked, learning about spreadsheets just as much.” She swallowed hard. “The best part of the dinner at the restaurant was talking to you and hearing your stories. The best part of the hotel suite was sleeping in your arms. I don’t need the city lights or expensive wine or high thread-count sheets. And I was hoping that you would realize that and… maybe feel the same way.”
“Jocelyn, I do want you to be happy. I just want you to stop hiding your talent and taking less than you deserve.” His voice was gruff, and he looked surprised and pained at the same time. “You hide your side-baking. You stay in the kitchen at the bakery. Even though everyone knows you do all the major decorating, Zoe still keeps the majority of the profits, and the recognition all goes to the bakery. She needs you more than you need her, yet you keep working there, making her business a success, while she can’t even provide you with health insurance.”
Josie felt a jab of protectiveness in the middle of her chest. “Zoe is my best friend, Grant. She gives me so much more than money. We’re family. She’s someone I can laugh with and cry with. Someone who will always be honest with me. Who wants me to be happy. Who…” She trailed off as that hit her.
She’d been keeping secrets—big secrets—from someone who had always loved her no matter what. Zoe was someone who would decorate her living room to look like Rome and figure out how to make—or cater in—Italian food and desserts, and find Italian music and watch Josie’s favorite Rome-set films with her even if she couldn’t take Josie to Rome for her birthday. Zoe could make movie night on the couch fun and comfortable. Zoe would listen to her hopes and dreams and would want them to come true.
It wasn’t romantic love, but it was love. And Josie had been ignoring that. She’d been keeping secrets, not telling Zoe all of her dreams and what she wanted and how she was feeling. Even the bad feelings. The scared feelings about having her gall bladder out without health insurance. Zoe would feel terrible. As her boss—but as her friend—she would have been there comforting her and making her soup and watching a hundred back-to-back episodes of Gilmore Girls.
Josie had really liked having Grant there. Really liked it. Loved it, even.
But if he didn’t want to be the one next time, if he wasn’t going to stick around for it, then she’d still be okay. She had her friends. Her family. She didn’t need Grant.
And that hit her right in the heart.
That was what he wanted.
He wanted her to not need him. He wanted her to just want him.
Well, she was there.
“I’m fine,” she said to Grant. “I’m more than fine. I’m good. I don’t need to work for Hot Cakes. And I don’t need to be married. But I do need to go.” She turned and twisted the doorknob. “I’m going to be late for work. At the bakery. With my best friend.”
She swept through the door leaving the love of her life standing in her kitchen next to a plate of whoopie pies. And their signed divorce papers.
“You know that showing up for the end stretching and relaxation sequence and then cuddling cats doesn’t really count as attending a yoga class. Even here,” Paige said, coming to lie next to Josie on the mat.
Josie had needed to make one stop on her way to the bakery. She’d snuck into the end of Paige’s early class and was now lying on her back with a white-and-gray cat named Grace curled up on her stomach.
“Does it really count as a yoga class when it’s you and three other people?” Josie teased.
She’d been shocked to see two of the attendees of Paige’s early class actually. Piper was on a bright yellow mat at the front. And Cam was by the window on a dark purple mat.
“It does,” Paige said with a smile. “I’m here for whoever needs me.”
“You basically come in to do your own practice, and if others wander in you let them stay?” Josie said.
Paige nodded. “Yeah.”
“How long has Cam been coming?”
“Oh, he’s been in a few times when he’s been home in the past. When he’s home over Christmas for instance,” Paige said, tipping her head to look over to where Cam was gathering his stuff. “But he makes it in about three days a week at least, now that he’s been in town more full time.”
“No kidding.” That did not seem like Cam.
“Yeah. But I’m sure he was practicing in Chicago. He’s really good. Keeps right up with me,” Paige said, admiration clear in her tone.
Josie frowned slightly. “Is there something going on with you two?”
Paige laughed at that. “Oh, Lord, no. I do not go for the growly, fighter types.”
Yeah, that’s what Josie would have thought.
“He’s a very contrary spirit,” Paige said, folding her hands on her flat stomach and closing her eyes. “I’m happy to help him quiet some of that, but no, I have no interest in having that in my personal life. I want quiet, peace, mindfulness, calm.”
Josie nodded. “Okay. Good.”
“But I don’t mind watching him bend and stretch first thing in the morning,” Paige added.
Josie snorted softly. She could imagine. She was in love with Grant, and Cam was like a big brother to her, but she wasn’t blind. He was a good-looking guy, with a lot of muscles and some very hot tattoos. “You’re the tattoo type?” she asked Paige. She wouldn’t have guessed that actually. Paige seem
ed the type to go for the nerdy professor or a tortured artist. But come to think of it, Paige had been asked out a lot and had gone to school dances and things like that, but she’d never had a serious, long-term boyfriend.
That was interesting. Her sister was gorgeous, intelligent, confident, and kind. But she wasn’t interested in dating, it seemed. Growing up, Paige hadn’t been all that social in general, actually. She’d stayed home a lot reading, knitting, cooking, drawing. She’d had friends and had always been well liked. She’d been invited to social events and out to movies and parties. She’d just said no thank you more often than she’d accepted. She’d liked doing her own thing and had been content at home in her own company. Content. That was a very good word for Paige. She was comfortable in her own skin, happy with her situation, satisfied with her world just as she’d made it.
Josie had always kind of envied that. She suspected most people would envy that. To know who you were and to be happy with where you were in life at such a young age was amazing. Their grandmother said Paige was an old soul. That seemed to fit.
“So what are you doing here so early?”
“I need you to cover at the bakery this morning,” Josie told her.
Paige rolled her head to look at Josie. “Ugh, really?”
Josie smiled. “Please? I have some baking I need to do at home.”
“You’re baking at home but I have to cover at Buttered Up? That’s weird.”
“I’m making things for… well, for Zoe. But not for the bakery.” She frowned. That sounded confusing. “I need to make some things, like gluten-free zucchini muffins and whoopie pies and some strawberries and cream cereal mix and some chocolate chip cookie dough popcorn and pussy cupcakes…” She looked up to realize she’d been rattling those off as she thought about what she wanted to show off. “I need to make some stuff before I have Zoe over for a talk,” Josie admitted.
Paige rolled to her side to face Josie, propping her head on her hand. She looked very interested. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been doing this side business,” Josie admitted. “Zoe doesn’t know about it. And I need to tell her. Especially because I want to expand.” That was the first time she’d said that out loud. She took a deep breath. “I want to do more with it. It’s all things that we don’t do at the bakery. Like the whoopie pies and all the healthier muffins you were talking about yesterday and some naughty cupcakes and cookies for bachelorette parties… just things that I think would be fun to create and do on the side. Maybe even an online store. Things Zoe doesn’t really want to get into. But I don’t want to do it behind her back.”
“You’re going to start your own business,” Paige said with a grin. “That’s so great.”
“Just something small. On the side. I want to keep working with Zoe.”
“Of course. But this is great. You will love that.”
“Do you think so?” Josie felt butterflies in her stomach, but she wasn’t sure if they were nerves or excitement. Probably both.
Earlier in her kitchen when she’d been talking to Grant and he’d mentioned that she deserved to have the recognition of one of her cakes being mass produced and sold to hundreds of thousands of people, her heart had pounded.
She didn’t want that. She didn’t want her creations mass produced and sitting on shelves. But she’d had a flash of making more of what she was doing now. Having more people ordering and enjoying her treats. And having everyone talking about it and telling her, and their friends, how much they loved them. She didn’t need recognition in the form of advertisements or logos or checks. But she did love the idea of not having to be a secret. That had been the reason for her heart pounding.
She wanted people to enjoy her stuff and know it was hers.
“I know that you’ll enjoy it,” Paige said. “You’ve always loved feeding people. You especially like making desserts. I think it’s because you can make them pretty and make people happy with them.”
Josie thought about that. Paige had something there.
“Let’s face it, you could definitely make people happy with your lasagna or your chicken casserole. Those are amazing. But the cakes and cookies and stuff are also pretty.”
“The strawberries and cream cereal mix is pink,” Josie said. “And I put little sparkly sugar in too. Just to make it fun. And I’m thinking that I could do banana cream flavored cereal mix. Or a mix that tastes like a seven-layer bar. With coconut and—”
“Okay,” Paige cut in with a laugh. “What about those healthy ones?”
“Oh! If I do some of those, would you offer them here? I figure your clients might grab them after a class.”
Paige nodded. “Yeah, I think we could work something out.”
“Wonderful,” Josie felt a surge of excitement. “So you’ll fill in for me so I can get prepped to show this all to Zoe?”
“I will,” Paige agreed. “But I get all the zucchini muffins you make in exchange.”
“Deal.”
“And the strawberry cereal mix,” Paige added.
Josie laughed. “Okay.”
Paige shrugged. “I eat gluten-free because it’s healthier and I feel better with it, but I can eat gluten, and that stuff sounds delicious.”
“I can make snickerdoodle cereal mix too,” Josie said.
Paige’s eyes widened.
“’Mornin’.”
Josie looked up to find Cam standing over them. “Hi.”
“Never seen you here before,” he said.
“Yoga at this time of day is only for crazy people,” Josie told him.
He chuckled. “You might be right.” He looked at Paige. “Thanks for the practice today.”
“My pleasure.” Paige pushed herself up from the mat. “I better go get ready for the bakery.”
“Love you,” Josie told her.
“I can see why,” Paige said with a nod. She headed for the room at the back of the building that functioned as her dressing room and office.
“You couldn’t drag Grant down here?” Cam asked Josie.
Josie shrugged. “Well, I mean, once we got divorced, I kind of figured I couldn’t really drag him anywhere.”
Cam paused and then nodded. “How long have you been divorced?”
Josie glanced at the clock. “About an hour.”
“You okay?”
“With that? No. In general, yes.”
“You didn’t want the divorce?” Cam asked.
“Let’s see, would I rather be married to the guy I’m madly in love with or not married to the guy I’m madly in love with? I’d say married,” she said, pushing up from the mat.
Cam nodded. “That would have been one of the fastest courtships and engagements ever.”
“So?”
He chuckled. “I guess I was just pointing that out.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. We both signed the papers so it’s over.”
“It’s over?”
She shrugged. “Obviously.”
“I did not get the impression that Grant wanted things to be over, Josie,” Cam said with a frown.
“Well, maybe he shouldn’t have divorced me, then,” she shot back.
Cam held up his hands. “Fair enough. But…”
She narrowed her eyes. “But?”
“He’s never done this before.”
“Gotten divorced or been married?”
“Been in love.”
That made the air rush out of her lungs. She swallowed. “Me neither.”
“But you’ve seen a hell of a lot of love. And marriage. And romance. Your family. My family.”
She nodded.
“So show him what it’s about,” Cam said.
Josie felt her stomach flip. “You make it sound like that’s easy.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“He…” But then she really thought about Cam’s question. Why wouldn’t it be?
Grant had good reasons for thinking that coupling up was less than ide
al. But she had great counterarguments. She agreed that women should be independent and happy on their own and able to take care of themselves. But wanting a marriage and a family and to be with someone who made them feel all the things Grant made her feel wasn’t bad or wrong. That didn’t make her weak. It actually made her stronger.
She wasn’t going to expand her baking business to impress Grant or to win him over or to convince him she could be independent. She was going to do it because over this time with Grant, she’d realized something important—she really loved baking. She was really good at it, and she loved how her food made other people feel. She’d always known that she liked it and was good at it. Basically. But it had always been a part of something bigger—Buttered Up. And her relationship with Zoe. Her baking had blended into the bigger picture.
Since Grant had started talking about how she should let people know more about what she did and had made her aware of how her baking made others happy—because he’d been noticing that—it had been at the back of her mind. Plus, Grant loved her baked goods. And that wasn’t a euphemism. He’d gotten her really thinking about what she did and how she felt about it and how it affected others.
She was going to expand because she wanted more of that in her life. She wanted more of helping people make their special occasions perfect and fun, whether it was a birthday party with a huge elaborate cake, or a potluck at the office with cookie bars that made people smile in the middle of their workday, or movie night with fun popcorns and cereal mixes. She wanted to do more, and yes, she wanted to do some things that were hers. Not a McCaffery family recipe that she just followed, but something she created, something that, when people gushed over it, they were truly gushing over something she had done completely on her own.
She loved Zoe and the bakery. She wanted to keep working there. But yes, she wanted to branch out. Because of the things that Grant had gotten her thinking about.
Josie realized she’d been staring at Cam.
“You’re giving me relationship advice?” she asked. “You’re no expert.”
Making Whoopie Page 27