Page 55 of All This Time

“Nonsense. It gives me a break too.” She motions for us to take a seat at one of the tables. “I’ll be right there with everything.”

Laney heads for the table, but I pull her chair out for her before she can sit down. “Thank you,” she says as she sits.

“And that’s number six.”

“God, you’re infuriating,” she mumbles, checking her phone before placing it in her purse and hanging it on the back of her chair.

“Infuriating but hot, right?”

Her eyes meet mine, but dart away after only one second. “I’m not even going to comment on that.”

Before I can give her shit about her lack of response, Carolina comes out from the back of the bakery with a notebook in hand. “Okay, let’s get started.” She flips the paper over on her notebook, scribbling something at the top of the blank page. “So, y’all are here to pick out your wedding cake, right?”

“Oh, no. The cake’s not for us,” Laney corrects her immediately.

Carolina winks at me, and that’s when I realize what she’s doing. “What? You’re kidding. When you called to schedule a cake tasting for you and Fletcher, I thought you two had finally figured out that you belong together?”

Laney’s eyes bug out so much that I have to twist my face away from her to cover up my smile. “You thought Fletcher and I…”

“Oh, heck yes. You two might have thought you concealed your crush on each other well, but I’ve been around a heck of a lot longer than you kids. Trust me, I know love when I see it.”

Laney clears her throat, but her cheeks are pink now and she’s practically squirming in her seat. “Well, uh…sorry to burst your bubble, but the cake is for Elliot and his fiancée. We’re the maid of honor and best man, and they asked us to do this for them since they’re both extremely busy.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I lean back in my chair. “Had to make sure to clear that up, didn’t you?”

The glare I get from her could slice right through my nipples. “Well, it’s the truth.”

Carolina looks at me. “Oh dear. I just assumed, but clearly I’ve misread the situation.”

“What?” Laney asks.

She waves her pen back and forth between us. “I’m sensing some tension here.”

Laney huffs. “There’s no tension.”

“Oh, there’s plenty of tension,” I say just as quickly, knowing it’s the sexual tension building between us that has my fucking stomach twisted up.

When I crowded her against the counter in her kitchen last night and told her what I thought about her ex, it was all I could do not to kiss her and show her how a real man would treat her. And her darkened eyes, hard nipples, and shaky breath all indicated that she probably would have let me.

Carolina pops her brows as she begins scribbling a few things on a piece of paper in front of her. “Okay then. Let’s just get down to business. How many people will there be?”

“One hundred.” Laney looks over to me and then back to Carolina.

“Three tiers should do it, then,” Carolina replies. “Do you want them all the same flavor, or different?”

I stare up at Carolina from my chair. “You can make them different flavors?”

“Oh yes. And we can add filling, different frostings…the list goes on and on.”

I look over at Laney. “We might be here a while.”

She blinks at me. “No, we won’t. I have a client at eleven, remember?”

Carolina smiles as she continues to write, clearly finding our interactions amusing. “Okay, well…let me go get the cake samples then so you can start to make some decisions.”

“Thank you, Carolina,” Laney says, watching her walk away before turning back to me. “I need you to take this seriously because I can’t be here for too long. I have a business to run, remember?”

“I’m well aware.”