“No, I would love to go. I need to pick up a few things for the house.”
He walked over where only I could hear him. “Annie insisted that you had to come with us. But I’m glad you said yes.”
“Me too.”
We loaded up in his SUV and headed out. Annie spent the hour-long drive to the city watching a show on her tablet. She bopped her head from side-to-side and sang along with some kids song that was playing. I chuckled and Devin glanced over at me. “What?” he asked.
“I was thinking how adorable she is.”
He grinned back at me. “She’s pretty damn cute, isn’t she?”
The rest of the drive we talked about the coffee shop and how to make it work with the bakery. “I don’t think there’s any rush to make the make it official, but it does look promising so far.”
“Well, when you’re ready, you let me know. I think you’re going to have more business than you know what to do with. Especially after people see the cake you’re making for the Kelly wedding. We should probably make an appointment with someone to see how to set everything up for you to have your own bakery.”
“You really think as a family they hold that much sway in the community?” I asked.
“No, well, I mean yeah, they do, but I meant because of the cake. I saw the pictures of what you’re planning, and that cake is going to be stunning.”
“Well, thank you. I’m excited to make it. I thought I would see if there were any wedding shows in the spring, and if so, if I could still get a spot. It isn’t that far for me to take a cake to the city, and if the big designers in the area were booked, maybe I can get a few cakes that way as well. I can bring cupcakes as samples to hand out. I would need to get business cards and a banner made.”
“You should make love bugs. Everybody loved the love bugs,” Annie said from the back seat, never looking up.
Devin shook his head and pointed to his ear. “Always listening.”
Shopping with a four-year-old was more tiring than I’d expected, so I didn’t take much time to shop for the house, but I did find a few things. And while Devin and I both looked beat, Annie was still a bundle of energy. We went to a pizza place for kids where we could eat and she could play. We hadn’t been there but ten minutes and she already had a group of four or five kids to play with. I watched for a minute as they ran up the slide and down into the ball pit, all of them laughing.
“Remember when it was that easy? You walked up to someone and said, ‘Hey want to play?’ And boom, you were friends.”
“Yeah, before you realize that you’re only supposed to like certain people.”
“Exactly.”
We sat there and watched Annie play for a few minutes; at least I thought we both were, but when I glanced his direction, he was looking at me. “What?” I asked.
“I was thinking about seeing if the guys wanted to go to the club this weekend. Do you want to go?”
“Sure, why not? If Ripley and Reed are going I can even catch a ride with them so I can drink,” I said.
“Well, I was thinking maybe you would go with me,” he said shyly.
“With you?” I asked. “You mean, like on a date with you?”
He blushed, which was adorable on such a big man, and said, “Yeah, I thought we could get food, and then meet everyone at the club. Annie is spending the night with my mom, so we would have all night.”
“All night?”
“If you want. You don’t have to come home with me or anything. I just thought…”
“Devin, I would love to go out with you, and to spend the night.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” I said, trying to sound casual. Truth was, I’d been thinking about him all week. We’d both said we didn’t want more than that one night, and I’d meant it at the time. It wasn’t like that was the first time I’d had a hook-up with someone I saw on a daily basis. I didn’t expect it to be an issue. But every time he entered the room I wanted to touch him, and seeing the way he was with Annie made me want to take care of him. He was giving so much of himself to make a home for that little girl, but he needed someone to take care of him as well. And I was starting to realize I wanted to be that person. Devin had given up his job to come back home to be here for his mother, then stayed for Annie. That was the kind of man he was, how could I not be smitten?
Chapter 15
Devin
I’d spent the last week arguing with myself about Frankie. I couldn’t stop thinking about our time stuck in the snow. Not only the sex, which had been mind-blowing, but the whole time. I hadn’t enjoyed spending time with anyone like that in forever. He was funny, sweet, and caring. Basically, he was everything I’d ever wanted.
But then I had Annie. She needed me to be there for her. I’d decided to stay single and focus on her for the next year or so to give her time to settle in, and that hadn’t sounded like that much of a sacrifice until I met Frankie. He wasn’t going to wait around for me, and it wasn’t fair to ask him to. But the more time I spent with him, the more I realized that I didn’t want to let him get away. At least not until we had a chance to get to know each other, and for sure, not until I had a chance to taste him again.
After dropping Annie off at Mom’s house, I drove to Frankie’s to pick him up. I bound up the steps and knocked on the door. It took long enough for him to answer to worry me, but finally he pulled it open. He stood there in a pair of pajama pants covered in a cupcake print and nothing else.
“Nice pants, but I’m not sure they’re appropriate for the restaurant we’re going to, though,” I teased.
“Ha, ha, aren’t you funny? I was playing with a new cupcake recipe and lost track of time. I’ll be ready in a second.”
“You bake in your pajamas?”
“Sometimes, but not this time. I threw these on to answer the door. I was about to hop in the shower. Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready. Help yourself to a cupcake, and feel free to turn on the television.” He went up on his toes and gave me a quick kiss, then turned and walked away. I stood there transfixed as I watched him go. I never would’ve thought cupcake pajamas could make an ass look so damn good. I was tempted to follow him, but we had all night for that. I wanted to take him out to dinner and have fun with our clothes on.
At what was closer to twenty-five minutes later, he came back out. “Sorry it took me a little over fifteen.”
I stood up and walked to him. He wore a pair of butter yellow skinny jeans and a brown sweater that matched his eyes and hugged his chest. He’d added an accent scarf with both brown and yellow, and carried both a blazer the same color as the sweater and a small duffel bag. “You look amazing, totally worth the extra ten minutes.”
“Yeah?”
“Totally,” I said leaning in for a kiss. “That your overnight bag?” I asked.
“It is. You did say for me to stay over, right?”
“Definitely. You want to tell me what you have on under those jeans?”
“Nope,” he said with a wink.
On the drive to the restaurant, we talked about our plans for the shop. He was so excited about the cake orders he had so far, and I was thrilled with how much business his pastries were bringing in.