Sugared (Misfit Brides #4) (12 page)

This Josh—he was real.

He held up a finger. A silent
wait a minute
command.

“No,” Kimmie said again.

“Fifty grand and a business plan.”

Kimmie pulled herself off the wall and poked him in the chest. “I
knew
it. You—you—you can’t have Heaven’s Bakery. I’ll leave. I’ll walk out. I’ll—I’ll go become a professional belly dancer in Vegas before I’ll work for you. And I don’t know how to belly dance, so I’ll be a homeless belly dancer in Vegas, but I’ll be quite happy to not be working for you.”

He stopped with another hand fisted in his hair, mouth ajar. But he snapped it shut, his eyes blazing with something else new. “A business plan for
you
,” he said. “To buy your mother out of the bakery.”

It was Kimmie’s turn to open her mouth, but only one of those unfortunate squeaks came out.

Josh held his hands up, but they wobbled as though he were trying not to grab her and shake her. “I stay out of your business; you stay out of mine. You take the fifty grand and the business plan, and you send your mother into retirement and get her the hell out of everyone’s lives. I take the cupcake recipes, launch a gourmet line at Sweet Dreams, and we both get what we want.”

She couldn’t stop staring at him. Nor could she find her voice.

“Putting your name on the line at Sweet Dreams would be at your discretion,” Josh said.

That would be an obvious
no
.

If Kimmie agreed to it.

He hunched against the sink, and he suddenly looked ten years older. And a hundred times hotter. “Please, Kimmie.”

She needed to think.

Alone.

Without
this
version of the Joshanova and his puppy-dog eyes. They weren’t blatant puppy-dog eyes, the kind she saw on grooms who wanted approval for distasteful groom’s cakes or banana flavoring in their buttercream. Instead, Josh wore a reluctant I-need-
you
, I’m-risking-my-pride, honest plea for help.

She ducked her head and skittered to the door. She needed space. Time. Coconut.

Josh was too quick, though. He slid between her and her escape. Heat radiated through her skin where his hands gripped her arms. “I went through a hell of a lot of trouble to find you. And I’ll find you again. You can face me now, or you can face me later, but I won’t give up, Kimmie.”

He’d taken off his tie. His top button was undone on his white dress shirt, but he was still in his suit coat. Lemon and silk tickled her nose. She stared at his chin. He’d shaved recently, maybe this morning, maybe yesterday, but despite his blond hair, she could see evidence of a five o’clock shadow. “What if I want your share of Heaven’s Bakery too?”

“You’ll have to earn it.”

She blinked.

“It’s Birdie’s. And I don’t like you as much as I liked her.”

That shouldn’t have stung, but she felt like someone had poured vinegar on a paper cut in her heart. “What are we, fifth-graders?” she scoffed.

“I spent the last part of my fifth-grade year scrounging for food in the streets.”

Kimmie sucked in a surprised breath.

His lip curled, and he let her go. “Go on. Run away. I found you here. I’ll find you again. But more important, I swear to God, I will stand between you and your mother as long as it takes to get her the hell out of both of our lives.”

He stepped away from the door and made a sweeping,
there it is, go for it
gesture.

But Kimmie didn’t move.

She couldn’t.

General Mom’s files said he’d been in foster care.

Not homeless.

But Josh made it sound as if…

She stared at him. And waited. For what, she couldn’t say. But she didn’t want to run.

She wanted to know more. About
him
. About the Josh under the swagger. The man under the suit.

The man who, she was beginning to suspect, didn’t use his heart not because he didn’t have one, but because he was terrified of being weak over anything.

Even his heart.

Especially
his heart.

A swaggery eyebrow lifted. “Don’t tell me you ran out of dreams,” he said dryly.

Ooh
, he was irritating. “You’re a pucker-drop,” she snapped.

A corner of his mouth hitched. “A pucker-drop you’re engaged to, sugar, as of ten minutes ago. And
that
won’t go away until we reach a business arrangement and your mother’s been sent packing.”

“I can deny it,” she said.

“But you won’t. Your mother would… frost your snack cakes if you dump me before you get the bakery out of me.”

Yep. Warm fuzzies all gone. “You’re a glass-wipe.” She did grab the handle then, and she charged into the suite.

The baseball game went on beyond the window, but Lindsey, Arthur, and Will were huddled together at the high-top table, watching Kimmie with nearly identical grim expressions.

She froze. Her pulse zinged as if it were on a straight hit of syrup.

A solid hand settled on her shoulder, and then scorching lips pressed her cheek. “Thanks for that, sugar,” Josh said.

Kimmie’s cheeks went so hot they almost exploded.

“See you this weekend,” he added.

Then he sauntered out of the room as if he owned the whole dang baseball stadium.

“Can I go home
now
?” Kimmie whispered.

Lindsey slid off her stool. “I’ll drive you.”

She and Will shared a couple look that could’ve meant anything from
love you
to
you’re a good person for taking care of your idiot friend
. Then they shared a happy-couple kiss that made Kimmie feel dirty for having had Josh’s lips on her. Lindsey and Will’s kiss wasn’t long or disgusting, but it was
real
. With Lindsey’s fingers brushing Will’s whiskers and Will’s hand on Lindsey’s hip. That perfect mix of sweet, possessive, and intimate.

All the things Kimmie was too weird to ever find.

She’d once hoped Lindsey could work her matchmaker magic to find Kimmie a decent guy. And she knew General Mom had wanted Lindsey to do the same.

But if relationships were anything like the fake one she had with Josh, Kimmie preferred being single.

Very, very single.

“I hate him,” she said to Lindsey as they walked out of the suite. “And I’m sorry I wrecked your day.”

Lindsey looped an arm through Kimmie’s. “I miss you. Seeing you
made
my day.”

“Why isn’t there a guy who will say things like that to me?”

“Because men are inherently stupid.”

Kimmie forced a laugh.

It was better than crying.

J
osh and Aiden
were in Josh’s office at lunchtime Thursday, testing a round of cupcakes Aiden had smuggled in from home this morning. And while Aiden’s cupcakes weren’t anything to brag about, they were comparatively superior to anything else in this building.

Ralph had created some horrific concoctions here, especially in the last few years.

“It’s good,” Josh said over a German chocolate cupcake.

Not as flavorful or moist as Kimmie’s, but a step in the right direction.

“Shove it, shithead,” Aiden said. “Blind taste test, you’d love it.”

“I said they’re good.”

“But not as good as your girlfriend’s. Oh, excuse me,
fiancée
’s.”

“You being a girl about me having a girl?” Josh said.

Aiden hit him in the arm. “I’m pissed about you being an idiot,” Aiden said. “Billy Brenton was on the morning show. Said you proposed to his fiancée’s best friend at the game yesterday.”

The fucker.

“You playing, or is this for real?” Aiden said.

“It’s… complicated.”

“Dude, we’re dudes. We don’t do complicated. You knock her up?”

“
Jesus
. No.”

“Knock, knock!” A familiar feminine voice rang out, and then Josh’s door opened. “Oh, look, it’s my favorite boys.”

Josh and Aiden jumped up, forming a wall between his mom and the cupcake samples.

“Oh, quit hiding those cupcakes. I sneak one or two from the bakery down the street too when Clayton’s away.” She winked. “Now. Where are my hugs?”

The bruise on her cheek matched her purple patterned blouse. With her hair pulled away from her face, the injury was obvious. Aiden let out a low whistle. “Mama Esme, I don’t want to know what you did to the other guy.”

“Oh, that.” Mom gingerly touched her bruise. “Tennis accident. I’m fine. And so is the other guy.”

“Gotta work on that story.” Aiden pecked her cheek. “Heard you saved a baby from a mugger. Looks like it hurts like a mother, though.”

“I’m
fine
.” She tucked her arms at her sides and gave Aiden her old
there are cookies in the kitchen
smile. “Will you do me a favor and run upstairs and tell Mr. Kincaid I’m heading up when I’m done talking to Josh?”

“Absolutely, Mama Esme.” Aiden offered her a plate. “Have some cupcake. Want to know if that place is worth the money.”

Mom took a cupcake with an indulgent smile.

“Email me and let me know, yeah?” Aiden said.

He ducked out of the office, and Mom’s smile faded. “Have you spoken with Kimmie today?”

Josh’s ears went unusually warm. “She got home safely last night and had a busy day at work today.” He assumed. He hadn’t heard otherwise.

“That poor girl. I’ve never met anyone so nervous in my life. She sent me apology flowers this morning. And the card was the rambliest thing I’ve ever read. Is everyone in Bliss like her? I hear it’s an odd town, but
goodness
.”

“Kimmie’s… special,” Josh said.

Mom’s eyes narrowed.

“All things considered, she’s remarkably normal,” Josh said. “She’s exceptionally talented, but her mother is a bridal dictator who probably raised Kimmie to do push-ups if she didn’t get the dishes washed to specifications.”

“But she’s not the
normal
you generally prefer.”

Esme Kincaid hadn’t given birth to him, but she saw through him as though she had.

“People change,” Josh said.

“Joshua Nathaniel Kincaid, what
exactly
are your intentions toward Kimmie?”

“I just hope I can do half as much for her as she’s done for me,” Josh said.

Mom crossed her arms. Her bruise glared at him. “I love you dearly, but I will be severely disappointed in you if you hurt that girl.”

The cupcakes he’d sampled gave him an extra kick in the gut. He’d gotten close to Kimmie for Mom. For Mom and Dad. They’d let him duck his head and say that Kimmie was special, but that he wasn’t ready to talk about it on his birthday. Mom didn’t seem to be willing to give him the same pass this time.

“Kimmie knows my track record in relationships,” he said. It was the truth. Though he had an odd feeling of disappointment in himself putting it out there for his mom. “We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t being honest with each other.”

Dad was right. He could package shit as sugar and sell it to a diabetic pig farmer.

Mom’s arms slowly uncrossed until she smiled at him. “Good. When the poor thing isn’t skittish, she’s a breath of fresh air. So funny and unique, such an interesting outlook. We all need a fresh perspective in our lives now and then, don’t you think?”

He did. More than Mom would ever know.

K
immie thought
she was doing a decent job of keeping up appearances the rest of the week, but Friday, after she’d delivered the day’s last wedding cake, General Mom met her at the door and gave her the
your presence is required in the office
finger wag.

Kimmie dutifully trailed her mother into the white room, Josh’s proposition tickling her brain.

“Kimberly,” General Mom said after taking her seat, “you’re
engaged
?”

It took a lot to raise General Mom’s eyebrows, but apparently the gossip section of the newspaper lying on the desk had done it. “Does this mean your feminine tricks are paying off, or is this a stall tactic?” she said.

Kimmie made eye contact with her mother’s nose. “I’m making progress.”

General Mom tapped her French-manicured fingertips on the newspaper. “You appear pale, and you’ve been grabbing your stomach. Have you been impregnated?”

“
Mom!
Josh and I are not having sex,” Kimmie hissed.

“As your mother, I’m relieved. As your employer, I do wonder if perhaps you might complete your mission sooner if you
did
sleep with him.”

This from the woman who had once insisted that a woman’s virginity was second only to her kitchen skills in the gifts she could offer to her future husband, and any daughter with the heritage and Bliss pedigree that Kimmie possessed would be as pristine as the Heaven’s Bakery windows on her wedding day.

“Josh has an advantage in using… dating techniques as negotiation tactics,” Kimmie said.

“Negotiation tactics? What exactly is the man asking for in exchange for Heaven’s Bakery?”

Pumplegunker
. Kimmie was too tired for this. “He… well… it’s just—”

“Kimberly, what does the man want?”

Kimmie squeezed her lips together. Her cheeks ignited naturally. She cast a glance toward the newspaper, then looked down at her feet.

“
You?
He wants you?” General Mom said.

Saved
. Thank the cake gods for Kimmie’s foresight in running her own private Mom Inquisition Level Four drills. “It’s, erm, a little awkward,” Kimmie said.

General Mom laughed her scary laugh, the one that meant she was happy. “Oh, this is delicious.”

More like ridiculous.

“He believes in this engagement?” General Mom said. “You’re sure?”

“Well, I wasn’t the one who proposed.” Neither was he, but General Mom didn’t need to know that. “Mom, speaking of relationships…”

“Yes?”

“How are, um, things with Arthur?”

“Delightful, of course. He’s quite pleased at the notion of my retirement. We’re discussing a trip, should all go well enough with the transition of Heaven’s Bakery, but I’ve informed him certain proprieties would have to be observed unless he concedes to marry me. Take this as a lesson, Kimberly. Feminine wiles are a powerful motivator.”

So was never having to hear her mother say that again. “Yes, Mom.”

General Mom smiled. “When are you seeing Mr. Kincaid next? And have you had your annual gynecological exam and visited Silken Secrets lately?”

“Mom!”

“A woman must do what a woman must do.” She gave a regal nod. “Go. Rest. Secure your future.”

Kimmie didn’t need to be told twice.

She barreled out of the office, snagged her purse, and headed for Suckers.

S
uckers was hopping
, as it always was on Friday nights, when Josh stopped by. The bartender had told him once it was because rehearsal dinners were wrapping up, and all the single men in town for weddings tended to flock here.

Tonight’s bartender was extra busy, though, and Josh’s waitress was new, which meant that when Kimmie barreled through the door shortly after Josh sat down, he was tucked safely into a booth with a clear view of her path through the bar and nobody to point out to her that he was here.

He started to get up when one of the women jumped off her stool at the bar close to Josh’s booth and hugged Kimmie.

“Congratulations! That was fast. It was the trench coat, wasn’t it?”

Pepper. Josh knew her by reputation. Worked at the dress shop next door to Heaven’s Bakery.

Kimmie waved to the bartender. “Kimmie colada. Double strength. And a whole coconut cream pie.”

“Whoa,” Natalie Blue said on Kimmie’s other side. Natalie, he’d met in person once or twice.

“Oh, no,” Pepper said. “Are the papers wrong? What did he do? I’ll kick his ass.”

“I’m not authorized to serve you double-strength Kimmie coladas,” the cute but annoying redheaded bartender said. “I can get you the pie, though.”

Kimmie’s head dropped to the silver bar, and she muttered something Josh couldn’t hear.

“Give it to her,” Pepper said. “I’ll drive her home, and I’ll handle CJ if he gets mad.”

“He won’t get mad,” Natalie said. “I won’t let him. Get her the coconut.”

Kimmie wrapped an arm around each of them. “I love you both.”

Josh tucked his ball cap lower on his head and watched Kimmie.

He’d seen her talk to a few people in the last week, but he’d seen her duck out of Suckers—and several other places—more than he’d seen her in her natural element outside of Heaven’s Bakery.

“Did you really bean Josh’s mom with a tennis ball?” Natalie asked.

Kimmie’s face twisted in a grimace.

Pepper touched Kimmie’s head. “Oh, sweetie, you have frosting in your hairnet. And is that an earring, or did you drip chocolate on your ear?”

“Hush. I want to hear about the tennis smack-down.”

Kimmie’s cheeks flushed in her unique Kimmie way. “It was an accident. We were playing doubles against this snooty woman and this cougar who has a thing for Josh.”

Josh winced.

“And I sent her flowers,” Kimmie rambled, “and she’s amazingly nice and I’ll miss her when—”

“Wait, you sent the cougar flowers?” Nat said.

Pepper leaned closer. “Forget the flowers. You’ll miss who when?”

The bartender plunked an oversized martini glass with a pink-tinged liquid on the bar, then held her hands up. “I refuse to take responsibility for this. And I’m charging you double if you damage anything.”

A guy behind the bartender slid a whole pie onto the bar in front of Kimmie. “Special delivery for my favorite cupcake baker.”

“I love
all
of you,” Kimmie said.

“Shoo,” Nat said. “We’re gossiping.”

“Trying to, anyway,” Pepper agreed. She nudged Kimmie. “You don’t think he’s going to break up with you over the tennis accident, do you?”

“He owns half of Heaven’s Bakery,” Kimmie said.

Josh’s spine snapped straight.

The
only
terms he’d agreed to with Marilyn when he inherited half the bakery was that he’d keep quiet about it.

He hadn’t asked why she requested his silence, but Josh hadn’t minded having potential blackmail material against her. Plus, that had added a level of enjoyment to dropping in on the bakery.

He made Marilyn nervous.

One or two people had figured it out—including Natalie—but he knew Marilyn had kept his half-ownership tightly under wraps.

At the bar, Natalie said something quietly.

“Good idea.” Kimmie took another gulp. “It’s not the drink. It’s my life. It’s one big lie, and I hate big lies. I love pretend. I love my dreams. I love the fantasy of finding true love. But I hate lies, and I keep lying. And it keeps getting more complicated with the people who
know
it’s a lie, and I can’t keep them straight anymore, so I’m only telling the truth from now on.” She paused for a bite of pie. “Unless you’re General Mom. Then I’m going to lie to you. And I’m not going to feel bad about it, because Josh is right. She’s a bully.”

“Hey, how about a game night?” Natalie said.

“Definitely,” Pepper agreed. “Drunk Killer Bunnies?”

“Brilliant,” Natalie said. “Let’s go.”

Kimmie slapped a hand on the bar. “No. Josh is coming. And I’m going to sit
right here
and wait. Because he’ll find me. He found me at a private suite at Wrigley Field on Wednesday. Did Lindsey tell you that? He got through the gate, then he talked his way past the stadium security to get to the private suites, and
then
he convinced Will’s security detail to come inside and ask if I wanted to see him. How did he even know where I’d be?
I
didn’t know where I’d be, and then
poof!
There he was.”

It had been a lucky guess when he heard Billy Brenton was at Wrigley, and it had taken lots of balls to get to her, including having to promote her from girlfriend to fiancée.

“And he said he’s coming this weekend,” Kimmie continued. “And I’m happy on this stool, and if he wants to negotiate cupcakes and business and contracts, he can do it
here
.”

“Oh, lordy, she’s lost her marbles,” Pepper said.

“Spilled my sugar,” Kimmie said. “Pie bakers have marbles. Cake bakers spill our sugar. At least, that’s what everyone
should
say.”

Pepper shared a look with Natalie that seemed to say Kimmie had lost more than her marbles.

Josh needed to get her out of here.

Except what right did he have?
They
were her friends.

He
was the dumbass who hadn’t caught on until too late about why Kimmie had always disappeared when he was around.

Because she didn’t want her mother to hear that she’d been seen with him.

“We should get you home,” Natalie said.