Page 78 of Sugar Coated Secrets

“I’ll look into it,” he says, but I don’t believe him. “He didn’t do it,” he adds. “That I can assure you.”

“He exposed himself to Dulce and Katie and mocked them. Isn’t that enough to bring him in? Or how about the fact that he doesn’t live too far from where Dulce was attacked?”

His jaw hardens. “I said I’ll look into it.” I move to get up, and I’m almost to the door when he calls out, “Ford?” I turn around. He wipes his mouth. “I’m in love with her.”

I snort. “You have a funny way of showing her.”

I wanted to tell him she didn’t feel the same way. She isn’t his to love, and if he so much as touches her, he’ll end up worse than Trent, but why tell him? It doesn't matter because he will never have her. I’ll make sure of it.

24

DULCE

The courier hands me a clipboard. “Sign here?”

As the other two men take the table through the back door toward the kitchen, I accept it and sign my name, struggling to comprehend that I have a new prep table I didn't purchase. I scan the packing slip, but it doesn't say who it’s from.

“Who ordered this?” I ask.

The man takes the clipboard, tears the top copy of the invoice, and hands it to me. “I don’t know. Some company.” He strolls to the kitchen to watch the other guys set up.

Katie walks over and smiles. “Why do you bother asking?” She rubs her lips together, trying not to laugh. “You know who bought it.”

I do. Only one man in my life right now has money to throw around. I’m sure he owns a pair of sunglasses that cost just as much.

“You’re right. I was hoping it wasn’t so I wouldn’t feel like I owed him.”

“He did it because he likes you and?—”

“Feels sorry for me?”

“No,” she says with a determined look. “No,” she repeats. “I think he always had a thing for you but was too chickenshit to do anything about it. Scared or immature. But right now, he is all man, and he has his sights set on you. What he did to Trent is borderline crazy, but I would have done the same if I felt the way he did.”

“Like what?” I ask, confused.

I don’t know what to feel except that I’m afraid to feel the same way I used to about Ford because look how I ended up. Fucked up and miserable.

“Crazy.”

“Crazy?”

She gives me a half shrug and straightens the chair, placing it under the table. “All I can think of is the way he looks at you. He’s crazy about you. I know you can’t see it, but anyone in the same room with you two can see it.” The man is batshit crazy about you.”

“I’m not used to it. Besides, a man like Ford doesn’t stick around one woman,” I admit more to myself than to her. But his smile and good looks were already implanted. The feel of his lips and fingers between my thighs destroyed me for anyone else.

“Crazier things have happened.”

Shit isn’t wrong, but I don’t plan on sticking around, and wherever I go, there is no reason he would follow.

“They have,” I say, going along with her way of thinking.

There was no point in telling her differently. There was no point in thinking there would be more between Ford and me. Instead of going against his flirtation or his offer to help me, I was going to enjoy his company.

“Are you sure you’re going to be fine here all by yourself?” she asks, snapping me back from my thoughts.

“It’s just a couple of hours. I let Mary leave early yesterday, and she told me she would stay so I could catch up.”

I hadn’t had the time to bake, and since the prep space was limited, I only made the usual items I sell daily. It’s like I’m opening the bakery for the first time. Fortunately, I bake all the items fresh daily, but I have orders to fulfill. Like Ford’s cookies.

---