That was a relief.
I grabbed one of the jars and turned it over in my hands. The label was handwritten in slightly wobbly letters. Wildflower Honey, Small Batch. Dated…yesterday.
Damn, they were efficient.
There was a phone number on my invoice, so I sighed from annoyance and dialed it, leaning against the doorframe while I waited for someone to pick up.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end was breathless like the person had just run to grab the phone. There was a clattering and some background noise. “Sorry. Hold on. Okay, I’m here.”
"Oh, hey.” I looked for the order number in case he asked for it. “I just got a delivery from your farm, and I think there’s been a mistake." I glanced at the crates again and rolled my eyes. "I ordered three bottles, but I've got three full crates here."
There was a sharp intake of breath. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. Are you the bakery on Fifth Street?"
"Yup, that's me." Technically, we faced Murray Street, but the mailing address was Fifth.
"I’m so sorry. I must have mixed up the shipping labels. The crates were supposed to go to be shipped, and you were supposed to get the bottles." He sounded genuinely distressed as his voice rose higher with each word. "I can't believe I did that. I triple-check everything, I always triple-check, but I was distracted and..."
Something about that voice tickled at the back of my mind. The cadence, the slight breathlessness. An instinct to make things better kicked in.
"Hey, now, it's okay." I tried to sound reassuring even though my brain was doing weird things. "Mistakes happen. No harm done."
He scoffed. "Well, some harm done to the manufacturer in Nebraska waiting for those crates. I need to get them to FedEx as soon as possible. Can I come pick them up?” He rustled around with something and then inhaled into the phone. “I can be there in like twenty minutes. Again, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience."
"Yeah, sure. That works. I'll be here all day."
"Thanks. I'll see you soon."
The line went dead, and I stared at my phone for a long moment.
That voice sounded so familiar.
Okay, now I was being ridiculous. Just because I couldn't stop thinking about Allen didn't mean the random stranger on the phone was him.
I grabbed one of the bottles from the crate and headed back to my work station. The honey was a deep amber that caught the light when I held it up. I twisted off the lid and dipped a clean spoon in to taste it.
Sweet. Floral. Complex. Exactly what I needed for the perfect cookies.
Already running slightly behind, I got back to work. Baking was second nature to me and usually helped clear my head, but today it just gave my mind more room to wander.
And it headed straight toward Allen.
Fuck, I wanted to see him again.
A little daydream quickly turned into a full-blown fantasy of me going back to the bar and seeing him again. This time, I’d ask him out for a proper date. We’d have dinner and talk about ourinterests. Without the urgency of wanting to feel his hot channel around my dick, I’d have the freedom to get to know him.
Not only that, but I wanted to know what made him smile. No detail would be too small. Everything from his line of work to how he liked to spend his weekends to whether he preferred coffee or tea in the morning.
Most of all, I wanted to know if he'd let me take care of him.
Because that was the thing I wanted most. And the feeling that Allen wanted someone to look after him was more than just a hunch. I caught him looking at me in a way that made me wonder if maybe he was picturing me doing things for him. Not because he couldn't do them himself, but because he deserved to have someone who wanted to take care of him.
My Daddy radar had been screaming at me from the moment he looked up at me with those big eyes. And when he melted into me like he needed the comfort as much as the release, every protective impulse I had went into overdrive.
Still, I let him walk away.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear Mia come back until she cleared her throat. "You okay, boss? You've been staring at that bowl for like five minutes."
I looked down and noticed the butter had cooled and the honey was perfectly incorporated, but I didn't remember doing it. So much for being focused. "Yeah, I'm good. Just thinking."
