CHAPTER 1
Keisha
“What kind of person orders three hundred specialty cookies, and wants them in two days?” Keisha Love questioned her assistant, April. Keisha was flustered and sweating, and working way too hard for this to be after her busiest time of the year.
April shrugged her shoulders, “Beats me… but we can’t complain. Normally, we are twiddling our thumbs until the Valentine’s Day rush.”
Keisha wiped her brow with the back of her hand and nodded. After Christmas and the new year, specialty orders were very slow until February, so to have such a large order was a blessing.
“And you know you can’t turn down the substantial amount of money the customer is willing to pay because it’s on such short notice,” April added with a smile.
Keisha knew that April was right. They had charged an obscene amount of money for the specialty order, and the customer had agreed. Now Keisha was hit with the task of making hundreds of her “healthy” cookies.
Since Keisha opened her bakery Hot Stuff two years ago, April had been an invaluable asset. She was more than just Keisha’s assistant, she was one of her best friends, an awesome baker, and a genius at advertising. When Keisha thought of the idea of doing a healthier dessert option for her diabetic aunt, April had made it into a marketing promotion for the New Year’s resolution folks. It was a big hit, so they continued with the promotion again this year. And now someone had ordered three hundred of her healthy option cookies.
“I’m definitely thankful for the order. I just can’t believe they want so many. Three hundred is a whole lot of cookies. Especially for the low-fat version.” Keisha’s heart-shaped face was marred with a frown.
“It’s for a gym or something,” April responded. “You can’t very well serve people that are going to a gym to lose weight lots of sugar, now can you?” April chuckled.
“True, but a few regular cookies wouldn’t hurt. I mean, it could’ve been a cheat day or something.” Keisha huffed but amusement sparkled in her eyes.
April chuckled again. “You can’t be mad that people are taking advantage of our healthy options that you advertised.”
“Yeah, but it was your idea.” Keisha pointed at her friend, but there was no real bite to her words. Keisha was proud that her healthy cookies were popular, and that someone wanted so many of them.
“Uh, Keish, we have a problem.” April’s brown face was flushed as she bent her long legs to search through the cupboards of the industrial kitchen. April began to fidget with her light brown hair as she bit her nails nervously.
“Oh no, what’s wrong now?” Keisha asked, still mixing a batch of cookies. Her morning had been filled with mishaps.
First, her alarm had been set to PM instead of AM so she overslept. After that, she realized she didn’t have any cash on her, and she had left her debit card at home. When she was driving back home to get her card, she was given a speeding ticket. Then, she spilled coffee down her white blouse on the way to work. To top it all off, her douche of an ex-husband had left her several scathing messages about something she had no control over. And all of this happened before lunch, so to say she was having a bad morning was an understatement.
“We are out of the gluten free baking powder and the gluten free vanilla. We are also running low on the semisweet chocolate chips.”
“Well geez.” Keisha exhaled a deep breath. She was doing her best to have her usual positive attitude, but the devil was busy today.
Keisha knew that it wasn’t April’s fault they ran out of supplies in the middle of an order. This was an unusual request and it was almost a third of the inventory they normally kept for the gluten free option.
“If you can watch the batch of cookies I just put in the oven, I will run to Organic Foods grocery, and buy some. But make sure you put in an order to our supplier, so this doesn’t happen again.”
April nodded in response, a smile returning to her face.
After all of the craziness of her morning, Keisha was glad there was an easy fix for this particular problem. Maybe my day will get better.
****
Keisha rushed through the aisles of the grocery store as she did her best to gather up her much needed supplies. She was a baker who loved to cook with pure sugar and good ole’ butter. Kroger and Walmart were good enough for her, so being in an organic store, Keisha was completely out of her element.
She carried an arm full of supplies when she finally found the semisweet chocolate chips that she had been searching high and low for. She was able to shift the gluten free items to one arm as she reached to get the chocolate chips. Keisha managed to get them off the high shelf without dropping her other items.
She smiled in triumph. “Maybe my day is beginning to turn around.” She did a little celebratory shimmy, wiggling her behind and dancing to the beat of her own drum. Then she turned smack into a wall.
“Dang it!” Keisha dropped all of her supplies on the floor, and she looked up into the bright blue eyes of the human wall she had just run into. Well, hot damn!
Keisha smiled at the man before she crouched down to gather her things. She couldn’t be sure just how tall the man standing in front of her was, but he was damn near a giant.
“Sorry about that.” Keisha’s bright smile died on her lips, and she shifted her gaze to her scattered groceries, but the giant man just stood there with a frown covering his handsome face.
Keisha looked up again, and although the scowl was intimidating, it didn’t take away from his gorgeousness. His dark brown hair fell to his shoulders in luxurious waves that any woman would be jealous of. He had thick, dark brows that slashed over his crystal blue eyes, an aquiline nose with pouty lips, and a clean shaven chiseled jaw. He was an Adonis in every sense of the word.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Keisha apologized again, but the man just continued to stare at her, his frown growing deeper by the second.
After a few more seconds of staring, the man grunted. Keisha frowned. The least he could do is help me. Geez.
When the man started to walk away without saying anything, or helping her, Keisha lost her normal cool demeanor.
“You could at the very least help me you know?!” She fumed. “I didn’t see you because my back was turned, but clearly you weren’t watching where the hell you were going to bump into me. I’m small, but I definitely can’t be missed.”
The man eyed her with a thick, cocked brow and his frown turned into a sexy smirk. Both served to make Keisha mad.
“You know what… people like you piss me off. Manners are free, and excuse me goes a long way. There’s no need to be such a freakin’ caveman, grunting and staring at folks.” Keisha normally wouldn’t be so vocal about her displeasure of people, but today was just one of those days.
The man just continued to stare at her through her rant.
“Still nothing to say?” Keisha shook her head in exasperation. “So freakin’ rude!” Keisha finished gathering her things and headed to the check-out. The sooner she was back at her bakery the better.
As she got in her car, she tried to calm down. She was still fuming over the rude caveman. Why do the bastards all have to be so damn fine?
Keisha took a deep breath, and backed out of her space, and right into a large Chevy Silverado.
“Well, shit!”