Love on the Sweet Side, page 20
As they pulled up to her shop, Colton put the truck in park and turned to face her.
“How about I come by after you close and help you pack up a few things to bring to the ranch?”
Most of her clothes had already ended up there over the past week, but if she was going to be staying full time she needed to bring the rest and a few things like her laptop and cooking supplies. The stuff at the ranch was okay, but her utensils were higher quality.
“You don’t have to, Colt. Besides, I have to get my car out there somehow.”
He leaned over to place a soft kiss to her lips. Heat rushed through her body from that small touch. Would his touch affect her like this forever? She’d bet all the cupcakes in the world it would.
“You can drive your car back, but my truck has a lot more room. We can fill it with whatever you want to bring over, and then I’ll follow you home.”
Home. It sounded so wonderful coming from his lips.
“Okay.”
His arm snaked around her waist, pulling her closer so he could nuzzle his lips across that sensitive spot that drove her wild.
“Mmmmm, you’re being so agreeable today. I like it.”
A shiver ran up and down her spine. One corner of her mouth quirked. “Yeah, well, don’t get too use to it.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” His words were muffled as he gave her a small love bite on her neck. “You know I love it when you get all feisty on me.”
There he went using the L word again. It was so strange to hear coming from his lips. Strange, but wonderful.
“Okay, cowboy. Cool your jets.” She pulled back, giving him a small push. “I have a business to open, and you have chores to do.”
“There’s that feistiness. Love it. And I love you.”
His sky blue eyes gazed into hers with such raw emotions she had no doubt of his words. As much as she wanted to return them, though, there was still a small part of her that held on to her past and doubted, feared saying them out loud. Instead, she placed a hand on his whiskered cheek, leaning in to deliver one scorching hot kiss.
“Now who needs to cool their jets?” he chuckled as she pulled away.
She shook her head, opening the door and hopping out of the truck. “Goodbye, Colt.”
“See ya later, Magpie.”
He waited until she unlocked the door and was secure in her shop before waving and driving away. After a morning like today, she needed two things: cupcakes and a gleeful, tell-all call to her best friend.
The cupcakes she got started on right away because she had to. She started baking the morning batch and before she knew it, time to open.
The day was busy. Everyone had found out about her visit from the blogger and wanted to know how it had gone. Jamie had the day off, so Maggie was busy baking and answering questions. She barely had time to think about Colton, but he was always there in the back of her mind.
By closing time, she was exhausted, but the thought of him coming to help her pack up her stuff to move in with him put a bounce in her step.
She’d just finished her end of day cleaning when her cell phone vibrated. Pulling it from her pocket she smiled, reading the incoming caller’s name.
“Boy, you must be psychic. I was just about to call you.”
“Call it best friend intuition.” Lizzy chuckled. “So tell me, how was the blogger? Did she just die from fantastiliciousness after eating your cupcakes?”
A laugh bubbled out of her chest. “That’s not a word.”
“Well, it should be. Come on, give me some good news.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
She might be riding on cloud nine at the moment, but she could hear the dejection in her best friend’s voice. Lizzy was never dejected; sarcastic sure, but never dejected.
“No. I called to talk about your rousing success, not my descent into destitution.”
There was that sarcasm, but there was something real behind it. Elation momentarily forgotten, she pushed her friend. “Lizzy?”
“Oh fine! Things aren’t going great at the restaurant at the moment. Bill is pissy as hell, but not like that’s anything new.”
Bill Collins, owner of Le Central, was a high stress kind of guy. Some of the wait staff had a running pool on when the tyrannical owner was going to keel over from a heart attack. It seemed cruel, but the guy was an ass. He screamed at everyone, especially Lizzy. Every little thing seemed to set him off, even when nothing was wrong. Maggie always figured the guy got off on making people cry. It was one of the reasons she’d been willing to move to Peak Town and take over her grandmother’s shop.
A horrible thought sparked her mind. “Oh no. It’s not because of me is it? Because I left and the new guy isn’t quite up to par yet?”
A very indelicate, but Lizzy-like, snort came across the line. “First of all, I fired the new guy two days ago. The man couldn’t reach the par of a cake maker for a kiddie party place, let alone achieve your culinary status. Second, Bill always has a bug up his butt about something. You leaving was just another thing he could complain about. If you hadn’t left, he would have blamed me for the dishwasher quitting or the hostess getting poached by Antoine’s. Seriously Maggie, the guy will use any excuse to call me a shitty manager.”
“He said what!” If she wasn’t four states away, she’d go kick Bill’s pompous butt. “You should quit. He doesn’t deserve you.”
Her best friend laughed sadly. “I know, but we can’t all inherit the family business. Some of us have to take what we can get.”
Lizzy could get better, but the job market was hard. Quitting a good paying job without another on the horizon was career suicide. And there was no way the proud woman would take money from her parents. It would inevitably come with strings. Lizzy hated strings.
“Aren’t we a pair.” She let out a sad sigh. “You dealing with a jackass of a boss and me being too chicken to say—”
She cut herself off, but not fast enough.
“Whoa, what was that?”
Dammit it. She hadn’t meant to say anything. Yes, she had been going to call later and relay her giddy excitement over Colton and her stupidity at not being able to say three little words, but now it didn’t feel right. She didn’t want to brag about her amazing morning when her best friend was obviously struggling with problems. What kind of shitty friend would that make her?
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“I don’t think so, Maggie Marleen Evans.”
Why had she told Lizzy her middle name? It made her feel all of six years old when someone used it. As her friend intended, she was sure.
“You were too chicken to say what to whom?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up. You called to talk about your problems.”
“Bill is a jackass! There, my problems are done. Your turn.”
No bullshitting with her bestie.
When she remained silent her friend prompted. “Does this chickenness have anything to do with a certain cowboy?”
She rolled her eyes. “Chickenness isn’t a word.”
“Stop avoiding the question.”
There was no stopping Lizzy when she wanted answers. It was better for everyone just to give in. “Yes, it has to do with Colton.”
“Hold on. Let me grab some ice cream. I feel this is going to be an ice cream type of conversation.”
It so was.
She heard some shuffling on the line, a freezer door open and shut. Then her friend was back.
“Okay. I’m ready. Go.”
“Elizabeth Audrey Hayworth, are you eating out of the carton?” Two could play the whole name game.
“Yes, and stop changing the subject. You, Colton, chickenness. Go!”
She sat in her desk chair and proceeded to reveal the morning that should have ended in tears, but instead made her heart soar in the clouds.
****
She stared across the street at Cupcakes Above the Clouds. Never before in her life had she been so angry. That bitch, Maggie Evans, had accused the wrong person. It was just one more thing to add to the list of why Maggie had to go. Time to force the bitch cupcake maker to leave.
Slipping her hand into the deep pocket of her coat, she fingered the .44 magnum revolver. It had been her husband’s. The only useful thing that bastard had left her after he died.
Now, it was going to fix her problems. Maggie would be leaving town tonight…one way or another.
She’d watched the shop from across the street all afternoon. The young woman had locked the door about an hour and a half ago. Not that it mattered. She’d stolen a spare key to the bakery from the upstairs apartment when she trashed it. The stupid whore never even noticed.
The streets were quiet. Everyone was heading home for the night.
It was time.
Crossing the deserted street, she kept one hand in her pocket firmly gripping her gun.
This ends tonight.
Maggie Evans had been a thorn in her side for too long. Time for that cupcake-making slut to leave. She was going to give the bitch two choices: leave Peak Town forever or stay forever.
Six feet under the town.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“So, let me get this straight. Natalie was the one attacking your shop because she hates you for dating Colton, who is her ex, but he’s totally in love with you. And now you’re moving in with him, but you didn’t say ‘I love you’ back?” Lizzy spouted off the facts like a bullet point list.
A large sigh escaped Maggie’s lips. “I wanted to, but I just couldn’t get the words out.”
“I’m going to start calling you Chicken Little.”
Her grip tightened on the phone. “Don’t you dare.”
“I think it’s clever. You’re only five three, and you don’t even have the balls to say ‘I love you’ to a man who protected you, poured his heart out, and basically worships the ground you walk on.” Her friend paused before adding. “Which he should do, by the way.”
“I don’t have balls at all, Lizzy.” But her friend was right. She was being a coward by not responding to Colton’s declaration. There was still a tiny part of her too afraid to believe it.
“Fine, ovaries then. They’re way tougher anyway. Considering what we go through every month.”
She couldn’t hold in the laughter at her friend’s apt analogy. “Be serious.”
A shuffle came over the phone, sounding much like an ice cream carton being placed on a table. Uh oh, Lizzy was putting down her food. Things were about to get real.
“Okay, you want my honest opinion?”
That’s what best friends were for.
“I think you love this guy, but you’re too scared to say it out loud because that makes it real.”
Duh, she figured that out all herself.
“You’ve been hurt by almost every guy who’s ever been in your life, starting with your dad and ending with Miles. This Colton guy sounds like the real deal. He loves you, which makes him smart, and he’s been good to you. Right?”
She thought over the last few weeks. The cabin, her gas leak, the many times he came rushing to her side. Then there was all the encouragement and support he had given her. He believed in her. Always told her how amazing he found her. Last, but definitely not least, the sex. No. Scratch that. The love making. Because that’s what it was. Every time he touched her, she could feel Colton’s love pouring out of his body into hers. Even in the simplest of kisses, it was there.
“He’s been more than good to me.” A warmth spread over her, and her lips tilted in a smile. “I’ve never felt more loved in my life.” She let out a long groan. “So, why can’t I just say it?”
“That you love him, too?”
“Yes.”
“Because you’re scared that the moment you admit your feelings, this whole thing will come crashing down on you.”
Leave it to Lizzy to hit the nail on the head.
“If you don’t say it, you can pretend it’s not real. But sweetie, it is real. Even I can see how much you love this guy, and I’m a thousand miles away. Now, put on your big girl panties, stop being such a chicken, and tell the poor cowboy you love him.”
A snort of laughter burst out of her. “That easy is it?”
“That easy.”
Her best friend made it sound so simple, but…
“What if you’re wrong? What if he stops loving me?”
“First of all, I’m never wrong.”
She could almost see her friend ticking off points on her fingers.
“Second, not loving you is impossible. And finally, Maggie, there are no guarantees in life. Sometimes, you just gotta grab the bull by the horns and go for it.”
“Grab the bull by the horns?”
“Hey, you’re in Podunk Town. I thought the analogy would fit.”
She chuckled, but her friend was right. Time to stop being scared of what might happen and just go for it. She’d already agreed to move in and keep seeing Colton, how much more was she risking by saying she loved him?
Just my entire heart.
“It’s Peak Town. And…you’re right.”
Her friend yelped in victory. “Duh, didn’t I just tell you I’m always right?”
She started to laugh when a sound at the back door caught her attention. Was someone trying to get in? Only she and Jamie had a key for the store. Had Jamie forgotten something in the shop? No, she’d been off today.
“Maggie? Are you still there?”
“Hang on a second.”
She rose from her chair. There was definitely someone coming in the back door.
“Jamie, is that you?”
The sound of a key turning the lock tumblers echoed in the quiet air. The doorknob moved. She could hear Lizzy calling her name through the phone at her ear. A familiar person stepped though the back door, but it wasn’t her young employee.
“What are you doing here? How did you get a key?”
“Maggie! Answer me!”
Lizzy’s voice screamed through the phone, but she couldn’t respond. Fear had frozen her vocal chords when a large, very lethal looking, gun pointed right at her.
“Hang up the phone and toss it to me now, or I use this gun to make your insides, outsides.”
Ignoring her best friend’s frantic screams over the phone, Maggie pressed the end button on her cell and tossed it to the deceivingly sweet looking, older woman standing in front of her.
Chapter Thirty
Colton had been in an amazing mood all day. Like he won first prize at a bull riding competition. He’d never ridden a bull before, but according to his buddies who had—one a national bull riding champion—the high he was feeling came pretty damn close.
No, it’s better.
The woman he loved had agreed to move in with him. True, she hadn’t said those three little words back to him yet, but he was confident she would. She just needed to get there. Get over her fear. She loved him…
He hoped.
After dropping Maggie off at her place, he came back to the ranch to find Thunder, their prize-winning stud, had escaped his pen and run up into the hills. Trekking his ass all over the mountainside looking for a wayward horse was not the way he wanted to spend his day. He’d rather spend it with Maggie, but since he was a responsible adult—most of the time—and had a business to run, he put thoughts of the woman he loved to the back of his mind and concentrated on finding the wayward horse.
Molly and Thunder had a thing going on lately. The mare’s cold had gotten better, so he saddled up the cream colored Palomino and headed out.
The horse’s coloring reminded him of the panties he peeled off Maggie last night. He smiled as he thought of those undergarments soon joining his in his dressers. He still couldn’t believe she said yes. This morning, he’d wanted to toss everything of hers into his truck and drive back to the ranch. Get her moved in before she had a chance to change her mind. But he held off, knowing this evening was soon enough. Patience. He couldn’t push her or she might run scared. It was why he didn’t force the whole “I love you” issue. Though, he desperately wanted to hear those words.
The first fissures of doubt began to creep in. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she didn’t feel as deeply for him as he felt for her.
Wouldn’t that be ironic?
He finally got serious about a woman, and she wanted to keep it casual.
Life could be a cruel bitch sometimes.
Molly paused, raising her head; her ears flicked back and forth. Most people didn’t know horses had an excellent sense of smell. Colton did.
“What do you smell girl? Is it Thunder?”
That or a mountain lion.
He moved his right hand from the saddle horn to his rifle, tucked away in its hanging scabbard. He wasn’t a big hunter, but a loud shot in the air would scare away any wild beast. Unfortunately, it would also scare his horse. Bringing the rifle to his lap he sat and waited.
Movement stirred in the tree branches a dozen feet away. Colton tightened his grip on the gun, but didn’t raise it yet. The branches cracked as something moved through them. Something big, something dark, something that was not a mountain lion.
“Thunder, you great big pain in the ass!” He swore at the horse as the large animal came into view.
Thunder pranced up to Molly, as if he hadn’t wasted Colton’s entire morning, and touched his nose to the other horse’s. They did their sniffing routine, nuzzling necks before moving to smell each other’s flanks.
“All right, all right. You guys can sniff butts later. Whatever turns you on, I’m not gonna judge. But right now, we have to get back to the ranch.”
The horses were so close together it was easy for him to slip the extra halter onto Thunder. He kept a firm grip on the lead rope and gave Molly a little kick, turning her back toward the ranch. Thunder followed.
It was well past noon when Colton got back with the horses. He wasn’t particularly hungry, so he opted to skip lunch. After he got Thunder and Molly settled back in their pens, he went in search of his brother, but Dade was nowhere to be found. Eventually, he did find Juan. The ranch foreman told him that his brother was inside on the phone in his office. Talking with some lawyer.
