She leaned around Jake for a better view of the other tables and noticed several patrons noshing on cupcakes. And not just any cupcakes, but exceptionally beautiful ones.
“Hey,” she called to a goateed man who was about to take his first bite of what looked quite a bit like a key lime creation. “Where’d you get that?”
He paused with the treat halfway to his mouth. “Some guy’s giving ’em away from a van parked outside.”
Buzzing. In her head. But the excited kind, not the destructive one. She shoved Jake’s muscly shoulder and ordered, “Move it.”
As soon as he complied, she slid across the bench and darted for the exit. She had no idea if her friends were following her, nor did she care. She needed to find out for herself whether she’d let her imagination run away with her. On her way through the crowd, she saw a raspberry cupcake and another that looked like a chocolate ganache, and her heart started to beat harder. Those were the flavors Erik had planned to serve at the grand opening.
She finally made her way to the door and burst onto the sidewalk. And there it was, double-parked on the street directly across from the bar: a white van with a huge caricature of the man she loved affixed to the side. And there was the man himself, standing at the back next to… Richard? Handing out cupcakes to an enthusiastic crowd alongside Byron and Gina?
As if he sensed her presence, Erik’s head snapped up, and his eyes sought hers out. He immediately handed off his tray to Byron so that by the time she made it across the street, her best, favorite person in the world was standing in front of the magnetic logo, waiting for her.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly. “Is this legal?”
“Not even a little.” His beautiful mouth twisted in amusement. “But I had to do something to get the attention of a woman inside that bar.”
“Oh yeah?” She shifted closer to him. “Did it work?”
He leaned a shoulder against the van and crossed one ankle over the other. “So far, so good.”
She was so overwhelmingly happy to see him that the tears she’d struggled to hold back all night started to leak out of the corner of her eyes. “Erik, I’m so sorry about everything. The logo, the TV thing, all of it. I swear I’m not a fame-obsessed monster. I’ll never push you again.”
She drank up the heat in his eyes when he said, “Keep pushing. It’s good for me. And I’ll be better about saying no when I need to.”
He wanted her to keep pushing? Did that mean he wantedher?
As if he’d seen the question float through her mind, he said, “Since you asked,you need to know that when I said I didn’t want to want you, what I meant was that I wasn’t prepared for you. I never thought someone like you would be interested in someone like me.”
She stiffened and wrapped her arms around her midsection, braced for the insult, the dismissal, the gentle letdown. But instead, he gripped her arms and rubbed his thumbs above her elbows. “All this energy, this life.” He reached up and ran a hand along her hair. “How would I even know what to do with you?”
She took a leap of faith and whispered, “You could love me.” Hope pulsed through her body with every beat of her heart as she waited for his answer.
His smile bloomed, that perfect smile he kept only for her. “I do. It turns out what I thought I wanted doesn’t matter. You’re what I need.”
He’d pulled her into his arms and leaned down, a hairbreadth from kissing her, when a voice intruded on their moment.
“You da ones widda cupcakes?”
Josie whipped around to confront the source of the thick Chicago accent. “Does it look like we have cupcakes?” she snapped. “God! Read the room!”
“Step around the back,” Erik calmly told the ruddy-faced man in the Bears shirt. “My folks’ll take care of you.”
Once the interloper was gone, he chucked her under the chin. “Looks like I’ll be spending the rest of my life finishing the fights my girl starts.” Then he pulled back, his brow creased. “Assuming that’s what you want too?”
The vulnerability in his voice melted the last of her doubts, and she twined her arms around his waist. “I want that. So much.” Her words chased the last of the doubts from his face, and he pulled her close and pinned her to the side of the van, kissing her until the whistles and cheers of the people in the cupcake line penetrated their little bubble.
Once their breathing had slowed a tick, Josie realized he’d pressed her against the logo magnet. And yeah, it was a little weird to be kissing the real man when she was plastered against the cartoon one. “Please don’t keep using this for my sake! I know how much it bothers you.”
“Honestly, it’s grown on me.” And then he shocked the hell out of her by moving directly in front of the huge caricature and striking an identical pose.
The easy way he joked about it was the last proof she needed that this was real. “You love it.” She lifted her chin and shot him a triumphant grin.
“Damn right I do.” His lips sought out hers again, and this time no amount of cheering from the cupcake line could get them to stop.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
