Page 16 of Hot Pursuit (Love To The Rescue #1)

Ron Jimenez

I run my fingers through my hair a split second before I walked into the bakery my buddy, Logan asked me to stop by to pick up a secret engagement party cake at.

Secret engagement cake. I shook my head.

Never in a million years would I have guessed Logan, the most non-relationship guy I knew, would be doing this.

To say he has it bad for Vi is an understatement.

I’d never do something like this. Not now. Not anymore. Not after… I shook the thought away not about to get in my head about what could have been. I’d had a great thing. The most perfect love. I knew no one or any other relationship would ever measure up to. So, I don’t even try.

Sara and I shared the kind of love that if you were lucky, you found once in a lifetime.

And we’d had it for hers. It’d been too short but that didn’t make it any less beautiful.

My jaw clenched as I reached for the door and tried to bat away the memories that tried to inundate my head.

Sara. For some reason I stopped and looked over my shoulder and looked up at the sky.

It had been a while since I’d done it. I glanced up, soaking in the perfect morning.

Clear, baby blue skies with puffy white clouds.

Give me a sign Sara. My mind asked before I shut my eyes.

A sign of what I wasn’t sure. That she was still out there in some way or form.

A sign that I was living in a way she’d want.

But like usual, nothing happened.

I opened the door and the scent on vanilla and sugar drifted into my nose, filling my lungs and making my mouth water. Damn, it smelled good. I stayed away from sugar, but this place had the potential of making me break my no sugar rule and I hadn’t even tasted anything.

A cute girl at the counter smiled as I told her I was there to pick up a cake.

An even prettier one stepped out with a tray of cookies.

She took the order slip Logan had given me and went to look for the cake but came out a little worried.

Suddenly it was like time stopped along with my regularly beating heart.

From the back a short but seriously gorgeous woman stepped out.

All curves radiating a beauty like I’d never seen.

Her dark eyes connected with mine and something happened.

I wasn’t sure what, I’d never felt this way before.

Not even close. She was talking to me but I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of my heart pounding and blood rushing in tidal waves in my ears.

Fuck she was beautiful. Suddenly not only was my body going haywire but my skin felt too tight, too warm.

Shit was I coming down with something? Was I about to stroke out?

“Sir?” she called snapping me out of my thoughts and with that small three letter word my cock stood up in attention. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Sorry.” I shook my head trying to focus on something more than how pretty she was and wondering how she would feel in my arms. What the fuck was wrong with me?

I didn’t do this! I might have an occasional hookup or fling nothing serious to burn off excess energy, but I didn’t do feelings. As I stared at her, that’s all I had.

A tsunami of feelings.

“Long morning?” She asked, her eyes glittered, shining brightly in a way I wanted just for myself. My brows bunched together as a jolt of betrayal washed through me. I wasn’t supposed to feel this kind of shit. Not again.

“Something like that.” I mumbled. It wasn’t a lie. I had just come off my shift with one too many heavy calls. Maybe I was sleep deprived? “If I could get the cake?—"

“That’s what I was explaining.” She winced. “We had a little bit of a problem.” She said and I blinked.

“A problem?” I repeated and she looked at me like she thought I might be slow. Fuck, she must think I’m an idiot.

“Like I was explaining, the frosting was a little damaged. Nothing too bad that can’t be fixed.

I promise you won’t even know there was a problem.

If you don’t mind waiting a couple minutes?

Have an apple fritter and coffee, on us and we should have it all ready to go, better than ever, in less than twenty.

” I wanted to tell her no. A big red flag of self-preservation waved in my frontal lobe, but I like a stupid, stupid man ignored it.

Anything to spend a little more time around her.

“Only if you sit and have one with me.” The smooth words tumbled past my lips in a flirty tone I didn’t know I had in me anymore. Her eyes widened and suddenly a pink tinge bloomed on the apples of her cheeks and even the tops of her cute little ears.

“You want me to have coffee with you?” she asked, her brow rose challenging me to back down but something in me felt alive for the first time in, hell, a long time.

“Yeah. You know keep me company for the inconvenience?” Jesus, was I flirting or just sounding like a creep? How the hell was I this bad at it?

“Wow!” she crossed her arms over her chest and my eyes dropped taking in the more than a handful globes and for some reason my hands ached to touch them hold them, find out what exact shade her nipples were.

“Who do you think you are?” she asked, and my eyes rose to hers.

If looks could kill, I’d be six feet under with the aggers she glared in my direction.

“Excuse me?”

“Such a guy.” She breathed under her breath and my lips twitched.

Fuck, why did I think she was so damn cute!

“You’re getting married, literally picking up a cake for your engagement party and you’re asking me to have coffee with you!

? What is wrong with you?” I could have sworn actual smoke was coming out of her ears.

“Whoa!” I put my arms out in self-defense, all while trying to calm my quickly hardening dick down. “Let’s clear something up. First, I’m not the one engaged. I’m just his friend who happens to work at the station down the street and was asked to pick it up after his shift.”

“Station down the… you’re a paramedic?” she asked, and I nodded.

“I am.” I confirmed watching the way her shoulders started to relax, “Now, let’s be really clear, if I was engaged, there would be no way I would look at any other woman much less ask her to coffee.”

“Oh.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I’m sorry!” She winced. “I don’t know why… I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions and gone off on you.”

“I’ve had a long morning and I’m guessing you have… trust issues?” I asked probably a lot bolder and intrusive than I should have but I knew I was safe when her pretty, red stained lips started to twitch like she was trying to hold back a smile.

“You could say that.” She repeated my words back at her and cracked a smile. “Mind if we start over?”

“Not at all.”

“Hi, my name is Evelyn.” She introduced herself extending her delicate but strong hand out.

Without thinking, I took it. My eyes felt like they widened with how her hand felt against mine.

Calloused palm to softer palm, there was a hint of recognition I felt.

Her hand in mine almost felt familiar. Right.

“Ron.” I rasped, taking my hand away in a hurry as if hers burned me, before clearing my throat, “I’ll take that apple fritter and an iced coffee.”

“Cool. I’ll get that made up for you. Why don’t you take a seat. The cake will be ready soon.”

“Right. Thanks.” I turned and headed to a table and sat down. I took my phone out, mindlessly scrolling through apps while I urged my body to settle the fuck down. Not that it would. I felt like I was amped up on adrenaline that simply wouldn’t go away.

She personally dropped off the iced coffee and apple fritter. Her soft feminine scent rose above all the sweet smells of the pastries in the shop, making it uniquely her and my mouth water but I simply nodded, jutting my chin in a silent thanks before my attention drifted back to my phone.

I’d walked in here to do a favor for a friend and I had a sinking feeling I was royally screwed.

I might have asked for a sign when I’d walked in but this hadn’t been what I’d thought I’d get.

There was no way Sara would have sent me to someone else, would she have.

All she would have wanted for you is to be happy.

Her mom, Tiffany’s voice drifted into my head, the words she’d told me just a month ago after my visit drifted back into my head for the first time since she’d said that. She wouldn’t want you alone.

I hadn’t put much thought into Tiffany’s words. She always said that. But sitting in a bakery that felt so warm and welcoming, almost more comfortable than my own home, I had a feeling this would be far from my last time in the bakery.

And I wasn’t sure what to do about it.