How could her mama think Kelsey would agree to helping her at the bakery while her own business was slipping through her fingers? Maybe because she’d always helped her mama out of her jams. She’d always been the reliable daughter.
Maybe not anymore.
“Thanks again for the treats,” Kelsey said as she and the children shuffled out the door and into the chilly fall day.
She had zero intention of managing the bakery. She didn’t need to think about it. In fact, she had no intention of working at the bakery ever again. For years, Kelsey had been there, cleaning up her mama’s messes. Filling in for her when she’d been too drunk to complete orders, too hung over to open the bakery, too sick to order inventory.
While Kelsey’s own life was rocked to the core and she’d lost her husband, her mama couldn’t even pull herself together enough to get sober to help her. Instead, she’d slipped deeper into her addiction, forcing Kelsey to juggle her time between the bar and the bakery. Not to mention she’d had to shuffle the kids back and forth between her in-laws and the bar.
That last thought had her heart aching as she pulled her van into the driveway at her in-laws. As the days passed, and she found herself nowhere closer to saving the restaurant, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was a lost cause. Maybe the O’Henrys were right. Maybe letting the bar go was her best option. There would be no more shuffling the kids around. No more late nights.
But as much as Kelsey let the idea permeate in her mind, the more the pit in her stomach grew. Losing the restaurant didn’t feel like an option. Even if everyone else around her thought it was her only one.
She’d find a way to prove them wrong.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
DAVIS
If he thoughtabout it too long, he’d screw it up. But Davis couldn’t get over the fact that Kelsey was in his bed. It was the first time she’d spent the night at his place. And he could really get used to it.
There was no better feeling than waking up next to her. If he’d known life with her could be this good, he would’ve asked her out years ago. Instead, after Isabella had left for college in New York, Davis knew Kelsey needed a friend. So that’s what he’d been to her. He’d never regretted that decision.
Okay, that was a lie.
There was one time, after they’d been friends for a few years and before Ricky entered the equation. In reality though, he supposed Ricky had always been in the equation. In high school he’d hung out with Kelsey and Isabella and Leo. It was surprising the two hadn’t gotten together then. But Kelsey had said they argued like crazy.
Tracing a finger up the bare skin of her arm, he pushed thoughts of the past, of Ricky to the back of his mind. He wanted to live in the present. Because the present day was like a dream. No, better than a dream. It was like heaven.
The only thing looming over his head was the offer he still hadn’t presented to her. He planned on doing so. Soon. But it was a delicate subject and he’d have to do it at just the right moment. And the morning after an epic night of sex was probably not the right moment.
Kelsey’s eyes fluttered open and a sleepy smile drew on her lips. He hoped it was a satisfied smile. After their night spent exploring every single inch of one another’s bodies, he felt confident it was.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
Unintentionally, he was instantly aroused. That’s what she did to him. With a look, a smile, a single word spoken. He was crazed. He felt greedy for her.
“Morning,” he growled, gripping her hip and tugging her against him.
She snorted a laugh. “Well, someone woke up eager,” she teased, setting a hand on his chest.
“Nah, just happy.”
She peered into his eyes and it sent an electrifying hunger for her. He leaned in and kissed her hard, ravenously, his hand guiding down to her naked backside.
He broke the kiss, pressing his lips to her jawline, then her neck. She twirled her fingers through his hair.
“Are you?” she asked.
He withdrew, gazing down at her, his hand running up her back. “Am I what?”
“Happy?”
Davis’s eyes took her in for a long moment, his palm sliding onto her face, stroking her jawline. He admired the slight bump in the bridge of her nose and the near invisible freckles sweeping across her cheekbones leftover from summer. Dragging the pad of his thumb over her lower lip, he inspected the faint scar just beneath, a result of a tooth laceration after falling at a concert she had attended with him years ago.
“Deliriously,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.
Her own smile appeared, her eyes shining, and she snuggled in closer to him.
