This—Afternoon Delight—is exactly why I need to stop messing around with basting brushes, and thieving underwear, and taking towels just to get a whiff of her.
Because this bakery is her happy place, and I don’t want to mess it up by pouring out this overwhelming bucketful of feelings in my chest. This pride. This admiration. This fondness. This lust. This wanting. Better to stop it.
I will. I really will.
As closing time nears, there’s a commotion outside the bakery, and I spot a head of frizzy hair. Pretty sure that’s Joni. She stands shoulder to shoulder with a guy with a shiny bald head. Something about him looks terribly familiar.
It clicks.
HerDid you hear…?yesterday makes sense as I see her smiling and snapping a photo.
Did we hear that Ronnie Legend was coming to Cozy Valley? Because he’s here.
And no way will I let him ruin Mabel’s moment. I will do whatever it takes for her.
26
THE SMASH-CAKE QUEEN
MABEL
I’d have been more surprised if Jonas had shown up. Or even Dax.
But Ronnie? The man who wanted me to beon my wayafter ruining his event with mysong-and-dance routine? He might have talked down to me then, but this is my turf, and I’m going to defend it.
Although it looks like Corbin already has that covered from the way he squares his shoulders and crosses his arms, lasering a dark stare Ronnie’s way when the celebrity chef steps inside Afternoon Delight. “What can I do for you?”
It’s adon’t fuck with my womanvoice.
It’s hot as hell. Unfair.
The British celebrity chef is flanked by two women I judge to be in their early twenties. A pretty redhead with a pert nose and a pretty brunette with a freckled nose. Joni has already waved goodbye and left, and now it’s just Corbin and me behind the counter with Ronnie and his entourage in front of it.
Ronnie strides toward us, a smug look on his face as he sizes me up. “Look what you’ve done. This is just really brilliant.”
Is he mocking me?
“Thank you,” I say, keeping my guard up.
He waves a hand from the redhead to the brunette.
“Tiffany and Brittany told me I simply had to make an appearance,” he says, gesturing from one to the other with obvious affection for them.
Tiffany’s the redhead, and she hugs Ronnie’s right arm. Brittany clutches the other. They both lift phones and snap pictures of themselves with him.
Wow, okay, so that’s what we’re dealing with.
“And we were right, sweetie,” Tiffany says.
“We had to make sure he came here,” Brittany tells me.
Are they groupies? Girlfriends? It’s hard to tell. But it doesn’t really matter. He’s the cake king, and I need to be polite even if he wasn’t entirely polite to me.
“I’m so glad you stopped by,” I say.
Tiffany gives a cutesy little wave to me. “We heard about it on the socials.”
Brittany clutches Ronnie tighter and chimes in, “It was all over.”
