Page 23 of Bound By Temptation

Tanner’s cake along with the few other orders came first. Blaine was wonderful, but time was too precious at the moment. Each tick of the clock was one second I didn’t have to complete the project. Needless to say, I wanted it to be perfect, and I’d bust my ass to get it that way.

“You sure?” He tried once more.

I sighed deep, hating that I was brushing him off but needing to do so all the same. “I’m sorry, Blaine. Once I get caught up we can.”

“It makes me happy that you love what you do.”

The comment made me stop for a moment. “Umm … thank you?” I really didn’t know what to say to this. I guessed it was because it had been a long time since anyone had said it.

“You’ll text me later?” he responded, the edge of hope in his voice.

“I will. I’ve gotta run.”

“Bye, Indie.” My eyes closed at the disappointment in his tone.

“Bye.” I dropped the phone with a clatter to the table and used my knuckle to hang it up.

Turning back to the cake, I put my entire focus on this sixteen-year-old’s birthday. It was a bit bigger than I thought it would be, and I had to ponder how I was going to get this inside the clubhouse. There was no way I’d be able to pick it up myself which, was something I should’ve thought about before going nuts.

I wanted to impress Bella. Stupid, sure, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.

Diving back into it, I was in the zone once again.

So much so that when my sister, Meadow, touched my shoulder, I jumped and gasped at the same time.

Inspecting the cake instantly, I didn’t see any damage. Thank God. Time wasn’t on my side and if she… “You’re lucky you didn’t hurt the cake!” I might have yelled that. Okay, I did. Too many hours went into putting this cake together to have it ruined now. There was already enough stress on getting to the clubhouse.

“It’s fine, but you’re not,” she said, lifting her brows in that knowing way she did with her kids all the time. The mom brow. It wasn’t sexy or fun. It was a “get your fucking shit together” way.

This grabbed my attention from evaluating every inch of the cake just in case. “What?”

It was then that I looked around the bakery only to find no one and utter silence. No light came through the windows either.

“It’s after ten. You haven’t eaten much today, and you’re exhausted.” And there was the mom tone to match the mom brow. Great.

“Ten? Where did the day go?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.

“Yes. It’s time to go home, Indie,” my sister ordered. I really didn’t like being bossed around, but my stomach took that chance to grumble. She was right. The fatigue caught up to me like my sister flipped a switch inside me saying, “It’s time to collapse now, Indie.”

Wiping my hand on a towel, I responded, “Fine. Let me clean up.”

Meadow grabbed my shoulders, halting my actions, and I stilled. “I’ll clean up. You go home.”

“Who has the kids?” I asked, knowing she had to be home for her family.

“Their father.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home?”

We both burst out laughing. Her husband Devon tried so hard, but with those two kiddos he was a pushover. “Yes.”

“Thank you, baby sister,” I said, wrapping my arms around my sister and feeling it returned.

When we pulled away, I smiled wide. “Now when you go home you’ll be sweet.”

“Working here is killer on my clothes,” she responded, looking down at her shirt. She wasn’t wrong. Pretty much everything I wore always had some type of baked good on me at one time or another.

“Shout it out!” I responded to Meadow’s laugh.

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