Nine

Sutton

“Why don’t you go open up the shop? I can finish up here,” Kimber said. With her back still to me, she pulled a selection of cupcakes out of the oven.

I carefully washed my hands and tried to smudge off a stray bit of flour from my cheek before making my way up to the front.

The weekend had been…quiet. After my breakdown with Jenny, I’d recovered and felt a smidgen better. Guilt still crept through me when I thought about what I’d done with David, but it had been nice. It had felt nice.

I shook my head as thoughts of David ran through my mind on repeat. We’d spoken a few times through text, but it was clear that he was giving me space to breathe. I appreciated it. Wrestling with my thoughts alone was hard enough.

Baking helped though. I had weekends off at Kimber’s, but I’d come in bright and early Monday morning to get started. When I started baking, everything would shut off. It was blissful.

My mind was so far gone already that I didn’t even notice that someone was standing outside the glass window until I flipped the Open sign over and unlocked the front door. Annie’s smiling face appeared as the bell dinged overhead, announcing her presence.

“Hey, Annie. Coming to get some treats for the office?”

Annie had been working as a receptionist for a dentist for the last year while applying to medical school. I was going to miss having her around all the time when she started at Texas Tech this fall.

“Yeah. Do you have any of those little cinnamon-sugar doughnuts? And coffee. Dear God, coffee.” Annie walked with me to the counter and propped her elbows on it to stare up at me. “I cannot wait to fucking quit.”

“Another month?” I asked as I poured her a coffee and passed it over before getting to work on the doughnuts.

“The longest month of my life.”

“Still going to be hooking up with your boss after this?”

She snorted. “Not bloody likely.” She blew on her coffee and then downed it like a life force. “I’ll probably get tired of him when he isn’t an authority figure over me.”

“You have such a problem with authority.”

“Duh. Daddy problems.”

I laughed. Because, by daddy problems, she meant she liked to date men old enough to be her father. Or really anyone she wasn’t supposed to date.

Annie set the coffee on the counter. “Okay. I’ve waited long enough. A little birdie told me you had a date. I waited all weekend, and no call, Sut.”

I blushed. Right. Of course Jenny had told her about it.

“It wasn’t a date.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay…it might have been a sort of date.”

“Spill.”

“Nothing. We went to the movies.”

“And…” Annie said, reaching across the counter to snag a doughnut.

“There was some hand-holding and one chaste kiss.”

Annie squealed. “A kiss! I’m so happy for you, Sutton.”

A smile grew on my face at her excitement. My stomach had been in such knots all weekend. Especially since Maverick’s parents had called.

“Wait…why do you suddenly look sad?”

“Maverick’s parents want to see me. I saw them after the anniversary, but I’ve kind of put them off since. I needed some separation.”

“Let’s not think about them right now. Let’s think about the fact that you went on a date and it went well and you’re happy about it. Is it going to happen again?”

“I don’t know,” I murmured.

“Well…do you want it to?”

I glanced down at the baked goods in my hands. My stomach fluttered at the thought of going on another date with David. With all the problems in my life, it was nice to think of having something that wasn’t tied to that. Maybe it was selfish to want that for myself. But I couldn’t deny that I did.

“Yes.”

Annie grinned wide. “Then, do it. I’m sure he’s nervous. If you want this, go for it. It’ll be good for you to at least try again.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “That’s what I told Maverick anyway. I want to try again. No one can fault me for that.”

“They really can’t.”

I pushed the box of doughnuts over to her. “Mission accomplished, Donoghue. Now, get out of here, and go see that hot dentist of yours.”

“He just loves my sweet tooth,” she said with a wink as she hoisted the box in the air.

I laughed and shook my head at her. She was my best friend and nuts, but I loved her. I was glad to have someone to talk this out with because the ball was in my court. And I was ready to make a move.

My move had felt a lot stronger this morning when it was just a spark in my mind. Now that I was actually going through with it…I wasn’t sure about this whole thing. I held a mint-green box of Death by Chocolate pastries in my hand and stared up at the Wright Construction building.

Sure, it held my namesake on the building, and I’d been there a million times before, but that didn’t make it any easier. There were a million possibilities of someone I knew seeing me taking these upstairs. And I was suddenly nervous and self-conscious. Not about me or David, but about what other people would think. I wished I could tie up other people’s expectations in a bow, hide them away, and never consider them again, but that wasn’t me.

With a deep breath, I pushed through the front door. My black Nikes squeaked across the recently waxed floor as I moved toward the elevators. One was mercifully empty when it dinged open for me. I pressed the button for the second to top floor, as the top floor was occupied by a fancy restaurant Wright used for parties, and zipped upward.

I held my breath as I watched the numbers tick up steadily faster. And released it when it opened on David’s floor without a stop. Benefit of coming over before five. No one was trying to sneak out early quite yet.

David’s floor was reserved for senior faculty. Like Morgan and Austin. It was quieter than some of the lower floors, but I knew how much work got done up here. I scampered past Austin’s open office door. Then, I felt like an idiot when I realized it was empty. So was David’s and Morgan’s.

Oh…well, damn.

Guessed I should have called ahead to make sure he was even in the office. Though I didn’t know where else he would be. He was a workaholic, just like Morgan. They both stayed after hours and showed up on weekends and disappeared to offices all over the country to take care of matters. So…where were they now?

I heard voices from the conference room and braced myself for the disaster I was about to walk into. I should turn around. Just walk back out from where I’d come from. But I didn’t. I knocked.

The voices quieted, and then Morgan’s face appeared. “Hey, Sut!”

“Hey, Mor.”

Her eyes darted to my box. “Did you bring me treats?”

“Am I that nice?”

“Hmm…no,” she conceded.

She pushed the door all the way open to reveal the conference room beyond in which Jensen, Austin, Landon, and David were all congregated. Fucking wonderful.

“Secret family meeting, and I wasn’t invited?”

“You were working,” Morgan said. “Plus, it’s Wright shit. You don’t care.”

“Jensen and Landon don’t work for Wright anymore,” I pointed out.

“True. Why are you here?” Morgan asked with a smirk.

“I’m on the board,” Jensen offered with a shrug.

Landon rolled his eyes. “I didn’t want to be invited. I came over to talk about the golf course.”

“I wouldn’t have even brought it up, but I spoke with our lawyers about the Van Pelts. He thinks we might have to appear in New York if deliberations continue any longer,” Jensen said.

“Oh,” I said. “That’s shitty. Right before your wedding.”

“He’ll let them keep our money before he messes up his big day,” Morgan joked.

“Emery would murder me.”

“Fact,” Landon said under his breath.

“So…what are you doing here?” Morgan asked, batting her eyelashes at me, all innocent-like.

I dropped the box of sweets on the conference table. “I just came by to, uh…” I glanced around the room and then finally landed on David, who hadn’t said anything since I walked in. He dutifully stood by while my family did their own thing. “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.”

He pushed his chair out, and I hurried out of the conference room before my family could butt their noses in. For sure they would. It was a matter of when, not if. This was why Morgan hadn’t told anyone she was talking to Patrick in the first place. Having three older brothers in your business was anything but fun. Morgan at least was pretty good about it. Though she was cynical, and that sometimes made her…difficult. My whole family was, to be fair.

“What’s up?” David asked.

I’d moved down the hallway some, away from the conference room where I was sure someone was trying to listen in on our conversation.

“Well…I brought you a box of sweets.” I laughed. “Though…I guess…they’ll probably be gone before you get back in there.”

“That’s okay. Just means I have to come by the bakery again.”

“You should. I’ve been working on making these chocolate-and-strawberry cupcakes with Kimber, and I’m not bragging, but they might be the best thing I’ve ever made.”

“I’ll have to try them.”

“I didn’t really have a plan when I came over here and didn’t expect my entire family to be here either. Kind of threw me off.”

David smiled at my rambling. He looked the same way he had on Friday night right before he kissed me. My heart melted again.

“I missed you,” he said before I could open my mouth again.

My cheeks heated. “It was kind of a lonely weekend.”

“I wasn’t sure if I’d…overstepped.”

I shook my head and bit my bottom lip.

“Then, maybe we should do it again?” he suggested.

“I’d like that.”

“Friday again?”

“I’ll have to see if Jen is free.”

“I’ll plan for it then.”

“Oh, wait,” I said as it hit me. “I can’t.”

He laughed. “Are you already bailing? This is quicker than the last time.”

“Hey now! That was…unfortunate. Different circumstances. This is because my cousins are flying in from Vancouver for the weekend. They’re bringing my aunt, and I’ve never met her. We’re having a thing. You could come by.”

“Right. Morgan mentioned something about that. I kind of zoned out when she talked about it.”

He boldly reached out and took my hand in his. My body turned to Jell-O at his touch. My knees going weak and my brain short-circuiting.

“I’d like to do that.”

“Do…what?” I muttered, lost in his eyes, which were nearly green to match his button-up today.

“The party for your cousins.”

“Right…right,” I said, snapping out of it. “That sounds great.”

“But I still want that date.”

“Me, too,” I admitted.

I was uncertain of how I’d gotten to this place where I was comfortable with going on a date…yet I was happy that it was happening. The best I could do was not second-guess it. And, as I stared into David’s eyes, it was hard to feel anything other than sure about this.