Page 30 of Cupcake
It was, but I would never tell my other boss that. Not when I’d made out with her best friend and business partner in the cooler when I was supposed to be working.
“I wish I could believe the words coming out of your mouth, but the look in your eye is a dead giveaway, Brady. If you think she didn’t tell me about the kiss, then you don’t know two women who are as close as sisters. We share everything. She’s scared, and I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t piss me off.”
I held up my hands in front of me and took a step backward into the bakery. “I didn’t do anything to scare Haylee. Don’t be pissed at me.”
Amber took a step forward and lowered a brow, her gaze raking me with an uncomfortable honesty I didn’t like. “You didn’t do it intentionally, but kissing her in the cooler produced the same result. Don’t get me wrong. It was way past time the two of you stopped pussyfooting around each other and made out. The problem was where you chose to do it.”
My hands fell to my side, and I nodded in agreement. “You’re right, that’s what I wanted to talk to her about.” My hand went to my hair and lodged there while I searched for the right words to say. “She’s scared because I kissed her in the cooler?”
“She’s scared because you kissed her here, and that’s a huge risk if you claim sexual harassment.”
I couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled up from my chest. “Me? I’m going to claim sexual harassment.”
Amber shrugged. “He said, she said. You won’t win, but you can still do damage to this business.”
“The business I’m a huge part of maintaining? The same business that has offered me new opportunities at every turn over the last seven years? That business?”
“I told her it was ridiculous, but you know Hay-Hay,” she said on a shrug.
My head nodded before I thought about it. “I do. I also know it’s a defense mechanism.”
“Which she earned the right to have,” Amber pointed out. “I’m sure you of all people understand that.”
“While Haylee and I both grew up in the foster system, the difference is I had foster parents who loved me. Adoption wasn’t a thing they did back then like it is now, and they were already old by the time I went to live with them, but they loved me like a son. They both passed shortly before I turned eighteen, but I knew they loved me. Haylee didn’t have that.”
“She lived with a lot of foster families around the area for the first ten years of her life. After that, she was placed with old Mrs. McNally. The social workers were always looking for a kid desperate enough for a stable place to live that they were willing to be Cinderella and take care of Mrs. McNally.”
“At ten,” I said in disbelief.
“Hay-Hay did the work, and Mrs. McNally supplemented her social security. Not exactly win-win, but Haylee did have a place to live. My parents were her relief foster home, which meant she stayed with us one weekend a month. You know how that worked. It was supposed to be to give Mrs. McNally a break, but it was always to give Haylee one. We loved her, but it wasn’t until my oldest sibling graduated when Hay-Hay was fifteen that we could take her in completely. It was a good thing because Mrs. McNally keeled over a month after Haylee moved out. She probably would have had to leave Lake Pendle if she couldn’t live with us.”
“I’m glad she has you and your family. Haylee’s got grit, and while I know she comes by it naturally, someone still fostered the belief that she could be whatever she wanted to be. I have no doubt that was you.”
“She has made something of herself despite the knocks against her,” Amber agreed. “I don’t want to see that ruined for her.”
“That’s why I came to apologize,” I explained.
“You’re going to apologize for kissing her?”
“Nope. I’m going to apologize for kissing her here, and then I’m going to kiss her again to prove to her I want to kiss her no matter where we are. Hopefully, I don’t get slapped.”
“Do we have a problem regarding the business, Brady?” Amber asked with one brow in the air.
I paused and thought out my answer. There was a right one and a wrong one, depending on what side of the bakery you were standing on. “The only problem we have regarding the business is how long it takes me to convince the other owner of it that I’m the guy she can trust to have her back—both in the bakery and her bed.”
“That won’t be easy. Hay-Hay doesn’t let her guard down often.”
The laughter that bubbled up inside me escaped at her words. “Do you think? I’ve been working here for a few weeks shy of seven years, and actively trying to get her to date me for six of those. The only reason I kissed her today was that the opportunity presented itself. If it hadn’t, I’d still be wondering if she was ever going to notice me standing here day after day.” My hand fell from my hair to my side with fatigue.
“Staring at her with so much devotion that’s so obvious to the rest of us, you mean?” Amber finished, but I shook my head.
“Not devotion, no. Yes, devotion,” I said on a sigh. “But not just devotion. Reverence, trust, belief in her and what she does for all of us. I don’t know.”
Amber pushed herself off the counter and walked toward me. “I think you do know. You know plenty. The person who doesn’t know is upstairs. Even after you stuck your tongue down her throat with more passion than she’s ever experienced, she still doesn’t believe the hot guy wants to be with the thick chick.”
The matching sigh we both let out was equally frustrated and sad. “Did Haylee say that? In that many words?”
“In those exact words. I’ve known Hay-Hay forever, and she hasn’t changed since the day she moved into my family’s home. She has always been the thick chick, and in my opinion, she’s drop-dead gorgeous. If you think anything different, don’t walk up those stairs. She’s never going to look any different than she does today.”
