Page 7 of Bad Boy Bakers, Vol. 2

Chapter Four

Cash stood beside the fire pit, one point of a semi-circle with the other guys as they listened to the sizzle of the grill.

They each had a beer in hand as they split their attention between the flames and the two little girls playing with the dogs in the yard beyond.

Cheerful shrieks and laughter reached them as they rolled on the grass, wrestling and being bathed in ecstatic canine kisses.

“She’s come a long way,” Holt observed.

Brax released a slow exhale. “There is nothing better than the sound of that laugh. Dakota was so damned scared when the social worker brought them to us. I didn’t think she’d ever even talk, let alone smile again.

” He tipped back another swallow of his beer.

“I don’t want to think about the things she probably saw, because I know from personal experience exactly how bad it can be. ”

Cash knew Brax and his wife had both been foster kids themselves, and he recognized by the look in the other man’s eyes that his situation had been even worse than what he, Holt, and Hadley had experienced. It made him grateful for the family they’d made together.

“She and Duncan are actual siblings?”

“Yeah.” Eyes on his foster daughter to make sure she was out of earshot, Brax continued. “When social services was finally able to take them, their mother had ODed, and the man she was living with had locked them both in a closet. They’d been in there for three days.”

“Fuckers,” Jonah growled.

Hands and jaws clenched, all of them inherently frustrated at not being able to go back in time and protect these kids from the horrors they’d endured. Not a man among them could tolerate the endangerment of innocents.

Holt clapped a hand on his buddy’s shoulder. “They’re out now, man. That matters.”

“Is the father in the picture?” Cash asked.

“No. Well, Duncan’s father is in prison.

Dakota doesn’t even have one listed on her birth certificate.

They don’t think it was the same father.

Either way, it doesn’t seem like there’s gonna be anybody to fight the adoption proceedings.

We’re just waiting on the requisite observation period to count down. ”

These kids would be safe now. Cash knew Brax and Mia would walk through fire to make sure of it. It was good to know those kinds of people existed in the world. He lifted his longneck. “A toast. To your official, impending parenthood.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Brax clinked his bottle to everyone else’s. “It’s been a hell of a year. Reconciling with my wife, opening a new business with all of you, renovating the house, and now taking on two kids. Never knew I’d want this so damn much.”

“To settling down and finding the one,” Jonah added.

Holt grinned. “Wedding planning is making you a sap.”

“Wedding planning is making my fiancée a sap, which is very, very good for me.” He waggled his dark brows before turning sharp green eyes to Cash. “What about you?”

Years of training were the only thing keeping him from jolting. “Me?”

“Yeah. You’ve been out of the Army for a while, too, right? When are you gonna work on finding your forever girl?”

Was there something else in the tone? The expression? Cash held Jonah’s gaze, wondering if his bride-to-be had gone back on her word and told him. But he saw nothing there but good-humored teasing.

To buy himself time, he took another pull on his beer and resisted the urge to look toward the house.

He knew Hadley had arrived a little while ago.

She hadn’t been out to see him. Of course she hadn’t.

They were still keeping things on the down low.

There was absolutely no reason for him to feel disappointed when he’d seen her at the inn right before he drove over.

He just wanted this over and done so he could stop squashing all his urges to touch and claim her.

Maybe this conversational gambit was an opening.

An opportunity to prime Holt for the idea that he was seriously involved with someone and thinking about forever.

But if he did, Holt probably wouldn’t rest until he’d ferreted out who, and that circled back to the whole issue of him getting blindsided in front of a group. Not the best tactic.

Holt lifted the top off the grill. “Cash is too busy snapping up government contracts and recruiting operatives for his private security business.”

He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t right, either.

The firm was doing just fine. Cash had certainly still found time to fall for Hadley.

And if he’d pulled back to more of a directorial role so he stayed closer to home and to her, well, he was the fucking head of Vigilans.

It was his company. Others were more interested in continuing to be out in the field than he was.

He was happy to be the brains behind the operation and let them.

Holt’s remark and the chicken coming off the grill seemed to turn interest away from his love life.

By tacit agreement, they began organizing for the rest of the meal.

Brax called Dakota and Maddie. Jonah let the women know the chicken was done.

They all fell into a rhythm, corralling dogs, getting little kid hands washed, seeing that the side dishes were brought out to the big picnic table and secondary card table set up for the overflow.

Cash turned on the outdoor heater. For all that Tennessee days were still pretty warm in November, now that the sun was well down, the night was more than chilly.

Everyone found a seat. Hadley didn’t acknowledge him at all beyond the jerk of her chin as she moved to take a seat at the card table by Maddie.

He knew she adored her niece, but it felt almost like a slight, as if she were aiming for the farthest seat away from him.

Plates were passed and filled, and conversation began anew around the feeding of kids and fending off of dogs.

“I can’t wait for the wedding to be over,” Rachel sighed.

“When is it?” Hadley asked.

“In January, after the holidays. God willing, Otis will be fully house-trained by then, since Rebecca volunteered to take him while we’re on our honeymoon.”

Jonah tweaked the ends of Rachel’s long blonde hair. “You and I both know she’s eager to do anything that facilitates the production of another grandchild.”

“I’d just as soon not think about your mother thinking about our love life.” But the look of heat they exchanged made it clear that the idea of starting a family was high on their priority list. And with both of them in their mid-thirties, that made sense. Ticking biological clocks and all that.

“I think these two granted you at least a little reprieve.” Mia dropped a kiss to Duncan’s head as she fed him more roasted potatoes. He’d been a total Velcro-Boy the whole night, and Mia seemed entirely content with that state of affairs. “She’s loving the role of adopted grandma.”

Cash already knew Holt was enthusiastic about expanding his brood.

Everybody here was settling down into this new kind of life.

He felt weird about it. Not like he wanted to be out there on missions anymore, doing crazy shit.

He had teams for that. But this odd little slice of domesticity was worlds away from his reality in Baltimore.

Yeah, he wanted a life and a marriage with Hadley, but was this what it would look like?

Kids and pets and weeknight cookouts? He couldn’t quite wrap his brain around it.

As conversation continued on around him, he glanced toward Hadley.

She’d barely touched her food, and though she’d engaged in the chit-chat—mostly focused on the two girls at her table—something felt off.

Was she feeling sick again? She’d seemed totally fine, if still a little groggy, when she woke from her nap.

That made total sense after the spa treatments he’d talked her into this afternoon, while he caught up on work that couldn’t wait.

The whole point had been relaxation. But she didn’t seem relaxed now.

He recognized a vibrating tension in her movements.

Maybe it was just anxiety, worried about the prospective confrontation with her brother.

She was as eager as he to get it over with.

It was almost enough to make him throw caution to the wind and blurt everything out.

Almost.

But that wasn’t the way. He’d bide his time. And when they got back to the inn, he’d do whatever he could to reassure her that everything was all going to be okay.

Dinner was, blessedly, nearly over. Hadley had managed to finish her meal without a repeat of the nausea.

She’d kept most of her interactions focused on Maddie and Dakota.

Sweet and engaging little girls, neither of them were old enough to pick up that something was wrong.

Everyone else seemed too focused on talk of wedding and adoptions and family to pay much attention to her.

Except for Cash, who was being… Cash. Nothing in his neutral expression gave anything away.

She only knew that he knew something was off because she’d had a lifetime to learn how to read him.

He hadn’t missed the fact that she was avoiding him, but it couldn’t be helped.

Her capacity to deal with disasters was completely maxed out at the moment.

She didn’t know what the hell she was going to say when they got back to the inn, but that was a problem for Future Hadley. Present Hadley was living minute-to-minute. Present Hadley was probably going to be in control for a while.

Cayla clapped her hands. “Okay, everybody grab your plates. We’re gonna get everything cleaned up.”

The rest of the group moved as one, clearly accustomed to this routine.

Hadley instinctively wanted to stick to the rear, but that might give Cash an opportunity to corner her.

Instead, she herded the girls into the house and toward the waiting garbage can.

They each tossed their paper plate into the trash.