Sugarcoated Read online

  “I will,” Zoe promised.

  “Okay.” Josie still didn’t sound sure.

  “She’ll be fine,” Aiden called.

  “I’ll hunt you down if she’s not!” Josie called back.

  He believed her. It should be funny. Jocelyn Asher was a tiny woman too. She was at least three inches shorter than Zoe, and though she had bigger boobs, she was very petite.

  But he knew the protective streak in these women for one another was wide and intense. He didn’t really want to test Josie’s temper. Plus he liked her. And having Zoe’s best friend on his side would be a very good thing.

  Getting Zoe on his side might be a challenge, but he was up for it. He was a very successful guy. Things had always come a little easy to him—sports and grades and business achievements—but hey, he’d lost his mom as a fourteen-year-old kid. His dad had sunk into a workaholic daze afterward. It wasn’t like everything had always been a piece of cake for him.

  His gaze landed on the cake pops Zoe had been working on.

  She might not be a piece of cake for him, either, but she’d be worth whatever work he had to put in.

  Finally, Zoe turned back to him. She gave him a long look. Then she said, “Can you take those trays into the back?” she asked, pointing to the trays of cake balls and the already finished cake pops.

  “Sure.” He started around the edge of the counter.

  She passed him on her way to the front door of the bakery. He lifted the first big tray as she turned the sign that hung on the big glass door from Top of the Muffin To You! to Bake Later! and locked the door. She flipped off the main overhead light, leaving just the lights in the display cases on. Anyone walking by would still be able to look in and appreciate the homemade pastries, cupcakes, and muffins Buttered Up had to offer.

  Aiden took the tray into the back, setting it on the massive worktable in the middle of the kitchen. Over the fifty years of existing, they’d had to upgrade the appliances a couple of times, of course. The stainless steel, state-of-the art refrigerator and ovens were clearly high end. But the wood flooring was original, just like it was out in the front. The exposed brick walls were, of course, original, as was the worktable in the middle of the room. Zoe’s grandmother had made cakes and pies and cookies on that worktable just like her daughter and now granddaughter. There were other little touches that spoke of the bakery’s history. The light fixtures on the walls were the same. They’d added bright, overhead lighting at some point, but the sconces with their softer light made the kitchen feel cozy in spite of the overhead illumination, and even that came from a long, multi-bulb brass chandelier that matched the sconces pretty closely.

  The oven mitts and hot pads and aprons hung on the wall were not fifty years old, but they were the same style and color Letty McCaffery had used, and bore Buttered Up’s logo that had been the same from day one.

  Aiden would also bet that several of the pots and pans hanging from the rack suspended over the center island were also Letty’s.

  It was an interesting space, a nice fusion of new and old, and he knew it took Zoe a lot to replace anything. Things had to wear out or break down before she’d get new. Her fierce protectiveness of the family business and Buttered Up’s reputation was one of the things he admired most about her.

  Zoe came into the kitchen with the other tray of cake pops that needed to be finished. “Okay, if we’re going to talk, you’re going to help me work so that we can get these done, and I can storm out of here when you piss me off,” she told him.

  He laughed. “Fair enough. I guess it doesn’t matter that I’m staying at the house with you?”

  “If I storm out of here mad, then you need to take your time coming to the house,” she told him.

  “I can always detour past your mom’s house.”

  “You could also stay there.”

  Zoe set the bowl of cake pop coating—whatever it was—in the microwave to reheat.

  “But you won’t be there,” he said.

  “Exactly.”

  She still wasn’t really making eye contact, but she was in here with him. The doors were locked. There was no countertop between them. They were alone, together. Something they hadn’t been in five months. Something he’d wanted most out of this trip to Appleby.

  Yes, the factory was important. A several-million-dollar investment was not a tiny, by-the-way kind of thing.

  But Zoe was the reason he was here.

  The microwave beeped, and she retrieved the bowl of pink liquid without saying anything.

  She turned toward him, crossing the worktable. She set it down and braced her hands on the tabletop. Finally, she lifted her gaze to his. “Let’s get this done.”

  “The cake pops?”

  “The awkward conversation.”

  “You definitely want to talk here?”

  “Definitely. As soon as my mom finds out you’re here—which will be three minutes after you park your car in the driveway—she’ll be over. She’ll be flustered she didn’t know you were coming. She’ll want to clean everything and cook dinner and fuss over you.”

  Aiden grinned. He loved all that about Maggie. She was the best. And Zoe was right. His childhood home was on the block over from the McCafferys’ house. Maggie could see the driveway from her kitchen window. She spent easily 80 percent of her time at home in the kitchen. He was certain she loved keeping track of Zoe that way, and it would take no time for her to notice his car.

  “And, of course, Henry will want to come see you,” Zoe said. “Then Dad will come too because he won’t want to miss anything.” She sighed. “If we want to have a honest conversation about why you don’t want to have sex with me—and I’m not sure we want to have that conversation, but I know you’re very used to getting your way so you won’t let it drop—then we should do it here. On my turf.”

  Maggie had run the bakery with her best friend, his mom, for nearly fifteen years. They’d hired another woman, Alicia, after Julie had died, until Zoe was old enough to take over. Then Maggie had gone part time. Now Maggie only came in a couple of days a week. The bakery was definitely Zoe’s turf. Even if most everything inside had barely changed and Zoe ran things much the way it always had been, she was still definitely the one in charge.

  “The house you live in isn’t your turf?” he asked. He maybe should have started with correcting her assumption that he didn’t want to have sex with her, but they’d get to that. For sure. She would have no doubt about that soon enough.

  “The house is…” She shrugged. “Still kind of feels like your house.”

  He liked that. The house had been where he’d spent all fourteen years he’d had with his mom. The memories in the last couple of years there weren’t very happy, but they were mostly overshadowed by the ones that had been. That house was where he’d celebrated birthdays, Christmases, many of those home runs and touchdowns Josie had mentioned. The house was mostly full of great memories for him, and he loved that Zoe felt he and his family were still a part of the house.

  “I love that you’re living there,” he told her, honestly. It was an aside to what he really wanted to talk about, but it was true, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever said that. “It felt weird thinking about other people living there. I like knowing that it’s still in the family.”

  She was watching him closely. “We are pretty much family,” she said. “Is that why you don’t want to have sex with me?”

  “That is not…” He thought about that. “Okay, maybe a little of it.”

  She rolled her eyes and reached for a cake ball. She dipped the tip of a stick in the pink goo and then pushed it about an inch into the cake. She just let it sit like that.

  “It’s not what you think,” Aiden said. “It’s not because I think of you as a sister or something.”

  Zoe picked the cake pop up by the stick and dipped the whole ball into the coating. She twirled it, covering all sides, then she tapped the stick gently on the side of the bowl, getting rid of t
he excess coating.

  “We know each other really well,” he went on when she still didn’t say anything. “But I’m definitely attracted to you.”

  She moved the ball to the plate of pale pink sugar next to her and rolled it, covering it with sparkling pink. Then she stuck it into a square of Styrofoam with the other completed cake pops so the coating could set up and harden.

  “That’s why I picked you,” she finally said. She handed him a stick and gestured toward the bowl of pink goo. Clearly she thought he should know what to do now.

  “You picked me for sex because I’m like a big brother to you?” He inserted the stick the way she had.

  “Ew, of course not,” she snapped. “But I picked you because I know you. Almost too well.” She muttered the last three words.

  “Almost too well?” he asked. He dipped the ball into the coating and swirled it to cover all sides.

  She stood with her hip propped against the counter, watching him. “Make sure you tap it a little to get the extra off. You want the coating to be thin but to totally cover the cake.”

  He did as she asked, but tapped way too hard. The cake ball fell off into the goo. Zoe sighed.

  “Yeah, see, I knew that was going to happen.”

  He frowned and started to reach for the ball.

  She slapped his hand. “Don’t stick your hand in there!” She grabbed a spoon to fish the cake ball out. “You always go hard. You just assume you’ll be good at whatever you do. You believe everything will just work out. You don’t think it through.”

  Aiden’s frown deepened. “That is not true. I think things through. I manage our business by thinking through how everyone else is going to react to things and what they would be best at handling. I make sure everyone on our team is doing what they’re best at.”

  Hell, thinking things through was most of what he did. He prided himself on reading the people and situations around him and making adjustments as things developed. He was the most thoughtful one, in fact.

  He was the head of the company, the first contact, because Ollie would get in over his head saying yes to everything. Dax would get distracted in the midst of a project with something else. Grant would say no to everything right away. Camden would piss everyone off before they got anywhere just because he had to push buttons.

  So no, Aiden didn’t think things just worked out.

  Much.

  Zoe set the cake ball to the side and looked up at him. “Okay, then, maybe it’s just with us. My family. This town. But you expect things here to always fall into line.”

  “Do I?”

  “Don’t you?” she shot back. “You think you can just walk back in here after five months, and I’ll just forget what happened and forgive you and sit with you across the table at my mom’s and sleep down the hall from you and share the coffeepot in the morning and everything just like it’s always been? No awkwardness? No embarrassment?”

  “No,” he said honestly. “I don’t think you’ll forget what happened. And I want you sitting across your mom’s table thinking about it. I want you sleeping down the hall thinking about it. I want you having coffee in the kitchen in the morning thinking about it. Because I sure as hell will be.”

  Something flickered in her eyes. But she shook her head. “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  She blinked at him. Then frowned. Then blinked again. “What?”

  Aiden braced his hands on the countertop and leaned in. “You. I want you. I’m here. To stay. I couldn’t say that five months ago. But now I can.”

  “That’s… I…” She took a deep breath. “That’s not what I wanted you to say. I wanted sex, Aiden. Not a commitment. Oh my God.” Her eyes widened that all seemed to sink in. “Is that what you thought? You thought I expected a relationship? No. Wow. No, that is not what I wanted.”

  Okay, she didn’t have to be so adamant about it. “But that’s how it would have to be with us, Zoe,” he said. “I don’t do casual and temporary.”

  That was for sure. Casual and temporary didn’t really work in his life in general. When he dated, he did it for long periods and was always committed to the person for however long it lasted. Obviously, none of them had turned into forever yet, but he’d never had flings or one-night stands. He was a serial monogamist. And until Zoe had appeared in his bedroom like the Ghost of Christmas Fantasies last December, he hadn’t realized the reason none of those had worked out was because she was the one he was supposed to be with. When the time was right.

  Like it was now.

  Losing his mom so young had taught him early that life went fast. You couldn’t take things for granted. You couldn’t waste days and opportunities.

  Zoe took a deep breath. “Okay, I know you don’t do casual. I get that. But… I picked you because…” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and looked up at him for a long moment. She had a smear of pink icing on her chin, and her cheek sparkled with pink sugar.

  He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to lean across the worktable, cup the back of her head, and pull her in for a kiss. A kiss that would be surrounded by the scent of vanilla cake. He wanted to lick that icing and sugar off of her. And then keep licking.

  “I needed to know what sex was like before I had it for real with someone,” she finally said. “I picked you because I know you’ve done it—a lot—and I know you and trust you. I knew I’d be safe with you and you wouldn’t make fun of me, and I could get the first time over with and not have to worry about running into you repeatedly afterward at the café or grocery store.”

  There was a lot there, and Aiden wanted to respond to all of it. He wasn’t sure where to start. “What the hell do you mean you wanted to get it over with?”

  That may not have been the best place, but it was one of the things that stuck out.

  “And what do you mean before you had it for real with someone?” he asked before she could answer. It wouldn’t have been real with him? What the fuck was that?

  “I’m a twenty-five-year-old virgin,” she exclaimed. “I have no idea what I’m doing. The whole concept of sex makes me a little anxious. I don’t want to be awkward or do something wrong or stupid. So I wanted to get my first time out of the way, and I thought doing it with you was the best idea.” She shook her head. “And then that was a humiliating disaster.”

  “I was going to be your guinea pig?” he asked. He was a little amused. And a lot ticked off. Because she’d clearly intended for it to be a one-time thing before she moved on to other guys.

  And that was not okay with him.

  “Kind of.” She shrugged. “I figured you’d show me the basics, and I’d be able to get over the anxiety.”

  “The basics.” He intended to show her a hell of a lot more than that.

  “Yeah. I mean, I know the basics. In general. In my head. But I’ve never done them with another person.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “So yeah, I wanted to be prepared and figured you were a good person to help me with that.”

  He was momentarily distracted by the “with another person” thing filling his head with thoughts of the things she might have been doing alone. But he shook that off. He needed to focus. There was time for all that—and they would get to it—later. “Because you know me so well, you figured I’d be fine being your sex tutor.”

  The idea of that was a little hot, but he also ignored that. This was not a short-term, just-about-sex thing. Though tutoring her in sex seemed…

  Focus, dammit.

  “Look,” she said, bracing her feet and squaring her shoulders. “Being a virgin at sixteen and learning about sex with other sixteen-year-olds who are virgins too, or at least not very experienced, is one thing. Being a virgin at twenty-five is different. The guys my age are probably not virgins and definitely have some experience. I don’t want to be bad in bed, Aiden.” She frowned at him. “This is a small town. That kind of stuff gets around.”

  He just stared at her for a long moment.
“You’re worried about getting a reputation for being bad in bed?”

  “Yes.” She actually smiled at him as if relieved he was finally getting this.

  He could tell her there was no way she was going to be bad in bed. She was passionate and sweet and smart and self-deprecating and gorgeous. He could tell her that even when it was bad, sex was pretty damned good. He could tell her he was certain she was going to catch on right away.

  “There’s no recipe for it, Zoe. It’s different with everyone.”

  She was already shaking her head. The idea of something not having a recipe she could follow was the easiest way to make Zoe McCaffery nervous. “There is a basic recipe,” she said. “There’s a starting place.”

  “Right. Tab A into slot B,” he said dryly.

  “And I want to know what it’s like so I can be prepared.”

  She didn’t even smile at his quip. She was totally serious. “Really romantic and sexy, Zoe,” he told her.

  “That’s just it. I don’t need it to be romantic and sexy the first time. I just need the knowledge,” she told him. “That’s why I picked you. And because you wouldn’t talk about it around town after or make fun of me.” That part seemed very important to her. What the hell was she doing even thinking about sleeping with guy who might make fun of her in bed?

  But she’d picked him because she didn’t want her first time having sex to be romantic or sexy. Oh, this woman had a lot to learn.

  3

  “Well, I’m here now and very happy to help with the virginity thing,” Aiden said. “And I can fix all the rest too. I’ll happily walk you through every fucking thing you want to try. Repeatedly. Until we’re the best there’s ever been.” He gave her a wicked grin. He meant that to his soul. “There’s also no way in hell I’m telling anyone a single detail, and Sugar, there is no damned way you’re going to be bad at this. So no more worries about any of it.”

  She looked legitimately confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Everything is good now that I’m back,” he said with a little smile. “You don’t need to spend one more second thinking about or worrying about any other man ever again.”