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My emotions are all over the place and so are my hormones. I want him. There’s no reason to deny it and no shame in it either. He may be a stranger but technically I’m his wife. Maybe that’s the problem? It scares me. Yes, I agreed to this arrangement to protect myself from retaliation from Xander. To protect my father from whatever it is that has him in such a bind. I agreed to share Dominic’s bed and have his children, but I didn’t agree to these feelings. That’s what scares me the most. What do you even call it? I can’t possibly love him. I don’t even know him.
This is the kind of thing a girl should be able to talk to her mother about. A sadness washes over me. I spent my formative years without a mother. Without any female role model at all. No wonder I’m so messed up over this. I shake these thoughts away when I see Collin waiting just up ahead for me. I’m being a little dramatic, I tell myself.
He’s shifting side to side on the balls of his feet like an anxious child waiting for the toy store to open. “What’s got you so excited?” I ask when I get closer.
“Why aren’t you more excited?” He’s giddier than I’ve ever seen him.
“About what?” My sour mood is hard to hide. So why bother to try.
He spins around and points at the sign on the bakery door. Sold. Disappointment tugs at me. Now that’s a feeling I’m all too familiar with. So why is he so damn excited? “I don’t understand.”
“I underestimated you girl. You must give fantastic head.”
“Collin!” I blurt out, slapping my hand on his chest. “I’m not in the mood for games, just tell me what the hell you're talking about.”
His right brow arches, “Your new husband just bought it. You didn’t know?”
“Are you on drugs?” I laugh still as confused as hell.
“Here.” He reaches out his hand and drops a key in the palm of mine. “You literally just missed him. I was sitting in the same booth we shared yesterday enjoying my fat free mocha with just a drizzle of caramel. You know how I like it.”
My eyes drift up and down the street scanning the faces in the crowd. Dominic was just here? How is that even possible? “Stop rambling Collin and just explain. Fast.”
He lets out a frustrated sigh. We’ve been best friends our entire lives, nobody can follow his manic ramblings like I do but this is one I can’t decipher.
“Dominic Delgado, your husband,” he emphasizes, “was just here. He slapped a large wad of cash on the counter and the woman behind it handed him the key. She scribbled that sign on the back of a menu and ordered us all out. Ok it was just me here, but she threw that note up and left. Dominic locked the door and told me to give that to you.” He gestures to the key in my hand to make sure I’m following along. “He said it’s yours, but he was running late for something, so I was to give it to you.”
I blink rapidly trying to process what Collin is telling me. I just mentioned it to Dominic this morning.
“It’s yours, Cals. He bought it for you. Underhandedly, sure but it’s still yours.”
There are those damn butterflies again. I’m speechless. The smile on my face is so wide, it feels like my cheeks might split up the side of my face.
“Do you know anything about this?” I ask Lanah.
“No.” She seems just as surprised as I am.
I take the key between my sweaty fingers and turn it in the lock. Collin isn’t messing with me. The door unlocks. My smile reaches so high it’s now making the corners of my eyes sting. I told Dominic about my dream. I mentioned this very place and within hours I’m standing in the middle of it. It’s mine. Just like that? I swallow hard. Surely, he expects me to do something for this but damn if I care right now.
I move quickly into the kitchen in the back letting my fingers trail along the shiny steel countertops. My gaze flows effortlessly across the well thought out setup. Everything I need is here and calling for me to use them. Without a second thought I get to work mixing together my favorite recipes I’ve committed to memory.
I spent years working alongside the pastry chef at Alejandro’s Restaurant after school, soaking in everything he had to teach me. I loved every moment of the time we spent together, and I could tell he enjoyed imparting his knowledge on me as much as I relished in his teaching. After the death of my mother, I worked to keep my mind occupied. It’s not that I wasn’t a good student, I was smart enough, but college didn’t appeal to me. As much as my father and grandfather loved me, they didn’t support my dream. They both expected me to come to work at the family business but Hawk Transport International held nothing for me. I tried it one summer to appease them, but I found it droll. I found an escape in the kitchen and that’s where I want to be. After my grandfather died it was easy to walk away from the idea of what was expected of me. I put my focus on learning my way around the kitchen until I could cook half as well as the master chef at Alejandro’s Restaurant while still baking. That’s where my real talent lies.
I’ve been saving since I was fifteen years old, albeit only more steadily in the last few years, it would have taken me a lifetime to raise the capital to open my own bakery and be successful. I can’t believe Dominic gave me such a gift. The key to my own paradise lies on the counter and my success surrounds me in the flour and sugar tossed about the kitchen.
“Where’s your head, Cals?” Collin interrupts my runaway thoughts, recognizing them immediately like only a best friend can.
“Is it possible I love him?” I whisper, feeling silly about the idea.
Collin pauses with a lemon square halfway to his mouth. “Look around you, he made your dream come true, maybe he loves you too. Crazier things have been known to happen.”
I glance around me at the mess of flour and sugar and tray after tray of desserts I lost myself in over the course of the day. I never even flipped the open sign. “It’s crazy. I’m crazy. I don’t even know him.”
Maniacal laughter rips from my lips and it only takes a minute for Collin to join in. When the laughter finally dies down, I press back against the double sink I expected to be piled high with dirty mixing bowls and baking trays but it’s spotless. Of course, Collin has been right here with me all day, keeping up with my breakdown. Everything is as clean and spotless as it was when we got here this morning. We make a good team. Always have.
“This whole thing is crazy but it’s right out of a fairytale. If you want him, go get him.”
“I wouldn’t even know how.” I sigh.
