My smile grew, and I wrapped my arms around my knees to keep from touching her. God, how I wanted to, but I was smart enough to know she didn’t want me to.
“You know—it pays the bills.” I shrugged, and she bumped me in the shoulder with a smile on her face.
“If that’s all it does, you should probably find something more fulfilling.”
I bit back a groan at the thought she’d be more fulfilling if I were filling her. Dammit, man. You have got to get your libido under control. She’s your boss. You’ve devoted seven years to your craft at The Fluffy Cupcake. You can’t risk that stability to scratch an itch. “As it turns out, she’s slowly warming to my sourdoughs and rye.”
Haylee’s brow lifted when I handed her a second beer. She hesitated, but finally accepted it and took a drink. Her left hand patted her ample thigh. “I’ve loved your warm sourdough and rye since the first loaf came out of the oven. After seven years, I think that’s made obvious by my one size bigger work pants.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from thinking about her work pants. I wanted to take them off and discover what was underneath. As it was, keeping my eyes on the lake and not on the way she caressed her thigh was hard enough. Speaking of hard. I was.
“At the risk of overstepping work boundaries, let me assure you, your work pants are perfect.”
We sat in silence while the sun continued to set, tossing the lake into shades of orange, yellow, and pink. My mind drifted to the meeting this afternoon and the changes she suggested. They had taken me by surprise, and I needed a few hours to think about it before I could ask any questions. I was more than curious about why she was doing this now, though, when she’d been resistant to change for years.
“So, you’re serious about the new displays?” I asked, finishing the second beer and setting it back in the cardboard to take home with me.
“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t, Brady.”
“I guess it took me by surprise because you’ve always maintained that The Fluffy Cupcake was a cupcake shop, not a bread shop.”
“That may have been true when you first started at the bakery, but as with everything in life, things change. Your breads have added to the landscape of the business, and some days, we sell more bread than we do cupcakes. The new wicker and wire displays will showcase the beauty of them better than we can now by keeping them behind the counter. They make new wrapping to keep the bread crusty and still protect the loaves from germs and handling by the public. That was always my biggest hang-up. Now that I can protect the product, I think it’s a win to do it.”
I nodded, my gaze still on the lake. “You don’t mind giving up the tables you’ll need for the displays?”
Haylee’s hands weighed back and forth in front of her. “Everything is a tradeoff, Brady. While we’ll lose a couple of tables where people can sit and visit, I don’t think that will make a huge impact. I plan to put those few tables outside during the summer months for the tourists to use. We don’t have a ton of regulars who sit in the bakery during the winter, so I don’t see a problem with it. The benefit is, the customers can pick out their own loaves rather than the front worker always having to deal with it. It streamlines things, especially during the summer months.”
“All excellent points,” I agreed. “It also allows for impulse buys. People are more likely to buy a couple of loaves when they are in control of picking them out.”
She wore a smile on her beautiful face when she answered. “You’re right. We’ve seen that with the packaged goodies, too. The display cases are beautiful works of art, but when people can grab a couple of different pre-made packages of cupcakes and check out without waiting in line for help, they tend to buy twice as much as they otherwise would. I’m learning to make changes where I see they need to be made. It’s slow, but I’m learning.”
I couldn’t stop myself when my hand came down on her back to rub it up and down a few times. God, she was warm and soft. The longer we sat together, the more her jasmine perfume teased my senses into overdrive.
“I don’t know anything about how to run your business, Haylee, but I think you’re doing great. I can bake bread, but you do it all.”
She tossed her head back and laughed in a way I had heard only a few times in the seven years I worked at The Fluffy Cupcake. The first time I heard it was on the first anniversary of my hire when she brought out the nut roll cupcakes and saw my reaction. The sound went straight through me and lodged somewhere in my chest. I hated that she didn’t laugh like that more often, and I always wondered why. She was reserved and quiet most of the time. It was only on a few occasions that she let her guard down enough to show me little peeks of the real Haylee Davis.
“You underestimate yourself, Brady. I know we knock heads a lot in the bakery, but that’s because we both have strong personalities. We have strengths the other doesn’t, and that’s why we work together so well, even when we’re pelting each other with bread dough.”
“You’re saying I’m indispensable then?” I asked jokingly, and she immediately leaned into me, her laughter filling my head again.
“I’m saying that without your added talents over the last seven years, The Fluffy Cupcake wouldn’t be where it is today. Both Amber and I know that. We were nervous bringing someone on who was an unknown to us and the town, but over the years, you’ve proven yourself to be valuable and dedicated.” She stuck her finger in my chest and gazed at me from under her brows. “And if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it until my dying breath.”
I smirked but didn’t remove her finger from my chest. She was touching me, and I didn’t care where or how, as long as she was. “Mums the word,” I promised, zipping my lips and tossing the key into the water.
Haylee’s hand fell to the sand, and she sighed as she gazed out over the lake. “I suppose I should head home. I’m on for baking at four a.m. tomorrow.”
I pushed myself up off the sand and offered her my hand. “Me, too. My boss, I tell you,” I grumped, rolling my eyes.
That same laughter I loved so much filled the air again, and I bit back the moan of pleasure it shot through me, especially when she slipped her hand into mine. I hoisted her up, and she brushed the sand off her pants. It was innocent, but it shot a white-hot poker of desire to my groin.
I was going to need that cold shower sooner rather than later.
Five
I snapped the collar straight on my polo shirt and smoothed it down over my hips. I was already late for the date I didn’t want to go on, but Amber wouldn’t let me cancel. Okay, so technically, I was meeting him in fifteen minutes. Canceling would be rude, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to—especially after spending Sunday night drinking beer on the beach with Brady. I hated that I liked it as much as I did, but I also couldn’t deny it. There was no way a guy like Brady Pearson was interested in anything more than a business relationship with me. Maybe a friendship at the most. Besides, I didn’t want anything more from Brady Pearson, right?
I let out a loud ha and shook my head in disgust. I’d had to remind myself of that the entire time we worked at the bench together this week. He was always brushing by me and innocently caressing my shoulder or smiling that playboy smile of his when he thought I wasn’t looking. I was always looking, which I kind of think he knew and was using to his advantage.