Page 2 of Bad Boy Bakers, Vol. 2

Hadley Steele hated being wrong. She hated admitting it even more.

But she’d been taught by her mule-headed big brother to own up to her mistakes.

If she’d chosen to do that in her own way, on her own terms, rather than accepting any of Cash’s calls, well, all three of them knew she was the most stubborn of their trio.

So she’d gotten on the road at an entirely unreasonable hour this morning, to drive down to Tennessee and talk to Holt herself.

If he lost his shit over her involvement with his best friend, he wouldn’t hit her.

She didn’t have the same confidence about his restraint when it came to Cash.

What was it about brothers and their friends when it came to little sisters?

That protectiveness made sense when she’d been young, but she was a grown-ass woman who made her own decisions about who she let into her bed.

She had plenty of choice arguments to make about the subject, and she was prepared to deliver them at top volume if necessary.

She just hoped she got to him before Cash did.

Obstinate, honorable, sexy man.

Was it any wonder she was totally gone over him?

Not wanting to confront Holt at work, she’d timed her arrival, hoping to catch him at home.

She knew that most days he picked up his adopted daughter Maddie from school when he finished up at the bakery.

With luck, they’d be smack dab in the middle of snack time and homework.

Was she hoping her niece would be an inadvertent buffer?

Hell yes. Hadley knew how to work her brother, and she wasn’t above taking every potential advantage she could to minimize the inevitable explosion.

Pulling up to the curb several houses down from the little bungalow her brother called home, she took a moment to wipe damp palms on her jeans.

It would be fine. Holt would probably be upset to start, for all the reasons Cash had outlined yesterday morning.

He was likely to see their subterfuge as a betrayal.

She didn’t think her reasons for not telling him were bad ones, but Cash had a point about not wanting to sneak around for the long haul.

Which implied he also believed there would be a long haul.

She wanted that more than she could admit, so no matter what Holt thought about it, she’d make him see reason.

She absolutely would not allow him to end his friendship with Cash over this.

Not when she knew how much that relationship meant to Cash.

Hadley climbed out of her car, pausing for a moment to strike a power pose, hands on hips, shoulders thrown back.

She could do this. She was a badass. With a deep breath, she strode down the street and up the walk, past the bright-faced pansies in the neat little beds that provided a pop of color in the late autumn landscape, and on up to the cheerful blue front door.

Her knock was greeted by a volley of frenetic barking from Banana Bread, the family mutt.

Moments later, the door was yanked open, and a pint-sized blonde dervish shrieked, “Aunt Hadley!”

Maddie leapt, wrapping her little arms and legs around Hadley with all the excited joy a six-year-old could muster.

Delighted, Hadley hugged her back, inhaling the scents of bubble gum and… was that popcorn? “Hey, Pipsqueak.”

Maddie’s mother, Cayla, appeared in the doorway, her smile spreading wide. “Hadley! What are you doing here?” Any possible censure in the question was erased by the warm side hug she wrapped around Hadley’s shoulders.

“Well, I did promise I’d come back. I thought I’d pop down for a surprise visit.”

“That’s wonderful. Holt will be so happy to see you.”

Hadley shifted Maddie to one hip. “Is he home?”

“Not just yet. He’s staying late to work on a cake, but he’ll be home by dinner.”

So she’d be getting a little reprieve. That was fine. It would give her the opportunity to get the lay of the land before she had to face him.

Cayla glanced back at the street and frowned. “Where’s your car?”

“Down the street. The better to surprise him.”

“Fair enough. Come in! Come in!”

“Come play with me!” Maddie demanded.

“Homework first,” her mother ordered. “You only have one more worksheet left.”

As her niece’s bottom lip began to roll out, Hadley rushed to intervene. “Finish your homework, and I’ll give you a marker tattoo before dinner. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah!” When she squirmed, Hadley let her down, and she went racing off to the kitchen.

Cayla shook her head, a fond smile curving her lips. “Oh, to have that level of energy.”

“No kidding.” After the seven-hour drive, Hadley was dragging.

She’d slept like shit last night, not in Cash’s bed.

It annoyed her she’d gotten so comfortable there.

She’d more or less moved in over the past couple of months, and now the tidy little studio apartment above her shop just wasn’t the same.

“Want coffee?”

“That would be awesome.”

Hadley trailed her sister-in-law into the kitchen and slid onto one of the barstools at the counter. “So, how is everybody?”

Cayla began puttering around, putting on a pot. “Busy as all get out, but good. I’m up to my eyeballs planning a bunch of holiday weddings. The guys are doing really well. They’re looking at expanding into some mail-order business after the first of the year.”

Hadley listened as she talked and concluded that Holt didn’t know yet and had said nothing to his wife.

As an event planner, Cayla was too much a romantic not to comment on it if he had.

Instead, she prattled on about married and domestic things, clearly content.

It was so… normal. Or at least what Hadley imagined was normal.

Her brother deserved as much of that as he could get.

A few minutes later, Cayla settled on the next stool, sliding over a mug. “Now, tell me everything about what’s going on with you.”

Well, that was a tall order.

Hadley opened her mouth, intent on bringing Cayla into her confidence and asking for some assistance in managing her brother.

“Done!” Maddie threw up her hands, as if completing math worksheets was a competitive sport. “Marker tattoos!”

Chickening out, Hadley swallowed the words. “Go get your markers, then.”

Maddie scampered out of the room, the golden-furred BB on her heels.

“I should’ve asked first. Are you okay if I draw all over her?”

Cayla grinned. “As long as you’re not using permanent ink.”

“I can work with that. You’re such a good mom. Maddie’s lucky to have you.” Certainly, Hadley’s own mother hadn’t won any awards for her parenting skills. She’d been an unavoidable cautionary tale.

“She’s a great kid.”

Feeling far too exposed under Cayla’s empathetic gaze, Hadley cleared her throat and deflected. “So, are you and Holt planning on giving me a new niece or nephew anytime soon?”

Her sister-in-law’s cheeks heated, her eyes darting to the doorway her daughter had just exited. “We’re working on it.”

It was Hadley’s turn to grin. Holt was happy and settled here.

Family life suited him down to the ground, which had been a surprise to them both.

But having the choice, rather than being forced into it, as he had at far too young an age when he’d taken on the job of raising her, made all the difference.

Hadley loved the little family he’d stumbled into.

Loved that they were hers now, too, because he’d made that choice.

Family was everything to them both. The one they’d been born into hadn’t been worth a damn, so they’d made their own little unit.

Cash had been a part of that unit for so long, her memories of him went back almost as far as those of her brother.

He’d been another protector, another playmate, another friend.

Of course, once she’d hit adolescence, she’d had the world’s biggest crush on him.

That was part and parcel of growing up. But she’d never imagined doing anything about it.

Not until he’d strode into her shop earlier this year and asked her to design a half-sleeve tattoo to cover that magnificent shoulder and biceps.

She’d all but drowned in lust the moment she’d laid eyes on him again.

And—wonder of wonders—she’d seen the same reflected in his dark brown eyes.

They were explosive together. She’d known they would be.

But she’d thought the heat would burn itself out once their curiosity was satisfied, which was how she’d convinced him not to talk to Holt straight out of the gate.

She hadn’t meant for this to happen. Things had gotten out of hand and turned serious a lot faster than—well, she hadn’t expected them to turn serious at all.

Neither of them had been looking for serious, and they’d both been very careful not to talk about what came next.

Until yesterday, when suddenly Cash had hit his limit and declared them on a “pause” until her brother could be informed. As if their intimate relationship was any of his business.

Not that they’d clarified a damned thing about that relationship, beyond the fact that they didn’t intend to break things off. Never mind that she’d stormed out of Cash’s apartment in a snit. He knew she’d be back. So did she. Which meant she had to suck it up to do the hard thing. Damn it.

Maddie came running back in, a pack of markers in her hand.

Carrying her coffee to the table, Hadley sat and helped the child roll up her sleeve. “What would you like, kiddo?”

“A mermaid!”

Hadley nodded soberly. “A classic for a reason.” After checking to make sure the markers were washable, she took Maddie’s hand and turned it this way and that, taking in the shape of her canvas and letting her brain paint the image there.

Then she put marker to skin and began bringing the image to life.

Dimly, she was aware of Cayla moving around the kitchen, probably pulling out the beginnings of dinner.

Maddie kept up a steady stream of chatter that Hadley answered with half an ear.

Most of her focus was on the drawing, coaxing the colors into focus.

Markers wouldn’t allow her to achieve the detail of the true picture in her mind, but she figured Maddie would be happy with the end result.

The process relaxed her, getting her out of her head and away from the spinning anxiety of what was to come.

At least until Maddie yanked her hand free, shouting, “Daddy!” She leapt up, making a beeline for the garage door, where Holt scooped her up.

“Hey, Bumblebee.”

Maddie looped her arms around his neck. “Look who came to visit!”

“That’s what I was going to say.” Eyes on Hadley, he moved out of the doorway.

And there, standing behind him, was Cash.

Well, shit.