Heat: A Werebear + BBW Paranormal Romance (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 1) Page 6

  Annabeth swallowed hard and tried to draw comfort from Dane's solid presence at her back. He hadn't said much, but he was there, and his silent support meant a lot to her.

  "And how much do you think that will cost?" she asked Fred, dreading his answer.

  She had already spent most of her savings on the down payment and start-up costs. She was going to have to put this emergency repair on her credit card and then try to find a way to pay it off quickly.

  Fred looked at her for a long moment, and she wondered if her panic showed. Then he smiled gently. "Annabeth, you know, I've been looking at that cake on display in that case over there."

  He jerked a thumb at the sample wedding cake she had decorated with fondant and royal icing over stacked foam rounds of graduated diameters, from eighteen inches for the base layer to six inches for the top layer.

  "So I'm guessing you do wedding cakes?"

  Annabeth nodded. She hadn't received any orders yet in the short time that her bakery had been open, but they had been a staple of her weekly work at Cacao. And decorating cakes had been one of her favorite tasks when she worked for Maggie. It was fun, and the results made her customers happy.

  "And how much does one of those cakes go for?"

  "That would depend on the number of guests," she answered, puzzled by the turn the conversation had taken. "Bakeries usually charge by the number of servings."

  "Say, 500 guests, give or take twenty or thirty?" He was still smiling, the crow's feet deeply carved into the corners of his gray eyes.

  She did a quick calculation in her head and gave him the price range.

  His eyes widened at the quote.

  "It really depends on the decorating scheme," she explained. "Some brides want a relatively plain cake, because they plan to put fresh flowers on each tier and as the topper. Other brides choose something more labor-intensive, like the design on my model cake. That took about two full days to decorate, including making all the rose petals one by one from gum paste and then painting them with pearlescent food coloring."

  Bill nodded slowly. "I can see that." He looked at the model cake for a moment longer. Then he seemed to come to decision. "Annabeth, I'll tell you what. My daughter Lisa is getting married mid-July, and her mother and I promised to pay for the wedding cake. So how about a trade? I'll rewire your bakery, and you make and deliver the cake for my daughter's wedding at the Bearpaw Springs Resort on the second Saturday in July. That sound fair to you?"

  Annabeth stared at him in shocked gratitude. She couldn't believe her luck—or how kind he was being. She suspected that he was offering her a very generous deal. Maybe he'd guessed that she couldn't really afford an expensive repair right now.

  "Mr. Barker, uh, Fred, you have a deal." She extended her hand. "Give me your daughter's phone number or email, and I'll call her tomorrow or the day after to set up an appointment to discuss flavors and what kind of decorations she'd like. I'll make sure that she—and you and your wife—are happy with your cake. And I'll bake the bride and groom a fresh cake for their first anniversary, so that they don't have to save the top layer and put it in the freezer."

  "Deal, then." He shook her hand, firmly. "And thank you."

  "No, thank you!" she countered, smiling.

  And included Dane in that smile. He winked at her.

  "Well, that's a weight off my shoulders," Fred admitted. "My wife and I thought we'd have to go to one of the bakeries in Missoula—there's only one other bakery that does wedding cakes in this area, and well, we tried one of their cakes at someone else's wedding, and it tasted like one of those supermarket cake mixes. And it wasn't nearly as pretty as that cake." He indicated her model with his chin.

  "I can't tell you how grateful I am, Mr. uh, Fred," Annabeth said. "From now on, there's a free cup of coffee and a pastry for you anytime you stop in. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

  His weathered cheeks flushed a little. "It's no problem, really. There are a lot of people in town who would really miss your cinnamon rolls if you had to close down your bakery, Annabeth."

  "And thank you, Dane," she said, turning to the big man standing quietly at her shoulder. "Once again, you've saved the day."

  Dane looked embarrassed. "It was just a phone call, Annabeth. Fred here is going to be doing the actual work."

  "Still," Annabeth insisted firmly. "I wouldn't have known who to call."

  "My boys and I will get started on the rewiring project next week," Fred offered. "We can do it in the evenings, so that you won't have to close shop."

  He waved off Annabeth's further attempts to thank him.

  "Just save one of those cinnamon rolls for me tomorrow morning," he said cheerfully as he left the bakery.

  When Annabeth called Diane a few minutes later and told her that everything was up and running again, the inspector said, "That's great!" She paused. "Look, I know you probably want to reopen first thing tomorrow morning, so why don't I come by when I finish up here…say, in an hour?"

  "Thank you, I'd really appreciate that, Diane," said Annabeth, with a fresh spurt of stress, remembering the state of the mixers.

  Only an hour to get ready for an inspection!

  Diane had been very kind, but still, Annabeth wanted to make sure that her bakery passed inspection with flying colors this time.

  "Do you want me to tell Kayla to come back tomorrow for her interview?" asked Dane when Annabeth had finished her call.

  "Oh God, Kayla," Annabeth exclaimed, mortified. "I forgot all about her!"

  Then an idea struck her.

  Tailed by Dane, she hurried to the front of the bakery. Kayla was still sitting at one of the tables in the now-deserted café area, her thumbs flying over the keyboard of her phone.

  "Kayla, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. My mornings aren't usually this, um, interesting."

  "Hey, no problem," Kayla said, quickly tucking her phone into the pocket of her bright blue hoodie.

  "I have a proposal for you," Annabeth said. "Diane is coming back to finish her inspection now that the power's back on. She'll be here in an hour."

  Annabeth had to take a deep, calming breath at the thought of everything she wanted to do before Diane returned.

  "If you're willing to help me get this place ready for round two of the inspection, I'll hire you on the spot. Minimum wage plus tips."

  She waited for Kayla's answer, hoping that Dane's cousin wouldn't turn her nose up at the "minimum wage" part.

  But Kayla only grinned and stood. She was tall and athletic-looking, with a tanned, healthy complexion, hazel eyes, and a freckled nose.

  "I'd love to work here, Annabeth. Once that espresso machine is running again, I'll be raking in the tips," she said confidently. "What would you like me to do first?"

  Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief. "If you could start by sweeping up all the flour in the back, especially around the Hobart, that would be great. Brooms and mops and cleaning supplies are kept in the storage closet next to my office, all the way in the back."

  "I'll help too," Dane offered. "It's my day off, and I was going to ask if you wanted to go out for lunch." He quirked a smile, waving off her attempt at thanks. "The sooner we can get Diane's inspection over and done with, the sooner I can introduce you to the wonder that is a Dancing Cow burger."

  Kayla stopped in her tracks. "If he's taking you to Dancing Cow, make him buy you a milkshake too. The Salted Caramel and Speculoos one with the Belgian cookie crumbs is my favorite."

  "Actually, I was going to recommend the huckleberry shake, since that's a real local treat," Dane said.

  "Huckleberry's good, too," Kayla agreed. "But the Speculoos one is amazing."

  Chapter 8 – Supported

  "I didn't have any doubts that Diane would give you a passing grade once we got the power back on," Dane said two hours later.

  The bakery had been scrubbed from top to bottom, and Diane had come and gone.

  To Annabeth's relief, the bakery had easily pa
ssed the reinspection, and she was cleared to reopen in the morning.

  While Kayla had swept up all of the spilled flour and crumbs, then mopped the linoleum floor, Dane had helped Annabeth clean the mixer bowls and attachments. Then they had wiped down all of the stainless steel countertops.

  "Are you ready for lunch?" he asked.

  "Am I ever!" she answered.

  After the nonstop crises so far today, she felt completely wrung out. And ravenous.

  She added, "And please let me treat you both. After all the help you've given me today, it's the least I can do."

  Dane looked dismayed, and Annabeth realized that he had meant to ask her out on a date.

  I am such an idiot!

  But it was too late to withdraw her invitation to Kayla.

  Kayla threw Dane a meaningful look, then said, "That's really nice of you, Annabeth, but I can't. I told some of my friends I'd meet up with them after my interview here. You and Dane go ahead, and I'll see you in the morning. What time would you like me here?"

  "At 4:45, so that you can get the coffee going for the Airpots," Annabeth said, relieved that Kayla had offered her a graceful way out. "We open at 5:00, and there are always at least a few people waiting in front of the door by then."

  "Okay, see you bright and early tomorrow," Kayla said cheerily and left with a wave.

  "I'll drive," Dane offered as Annabeth turned off the bakery's lights.

    

  As promised, the burgers were delicious, and the milkshakes even more so.

  Best of all was the company.

  If Annabeth had been nursing a crush on her gorgeous cowboy before, his actions today, which could have easily been one of the worst days of her life, had made her fall in love with him.

  He made her feel good. Like someone genuinely cared about her. Like she wasn't completely on her own in this new place.

  "So about this Roger guy…" Dane began when they had ordered their burgers and shakes and were seated outdoors on the Dancing Cow's patio.

  Annabeth was still dressed in her chef's pants and a short-sleeved, tunic-like chef's coat. She wished she had thought about going upstairs to her apartment to change clothes before they left for lunch. But Dane didn't seem to mind, so she tried not to worry about her attire.

  It was a beautiful late spring afternoon, sunny and warm, with just a few fluffy white clouds over the mountains that surrounded Bearpaw Ridge.

  Dancing Cow Burgers was located by the side of the highway on the outskirts of town, which meant that diners on the patio were often treated to the sight of grazing deer or elk in a nearby meadow.

  Today, a flock of sandhill cranes, tall and elegant in fawn brown plumage with long necks and scarlet caps on their heads, stalked slowly through the meadow.

  Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "Do we have to talk about him?"

  Dane leaned forward on his elbows, and Annabeth covertly admired the play of muscles in his thick forearms. "I just want to know—was he always that much of an asshole?"

  "Not at first. And he can be really charming when he wants to be, so it took me a while to figure that part out," Annabeth replied unhappily. "Also, everyone I knew—except Maggie—thought he was a great catch, so looking back, I just sort of ignored a lot of the early warning signs, because I didn't want them to be true."

  She sighed and met Dane's eyes. "Look, Dane, you have no idea how much I appreciate what you did for me today—and all the help you've given me over the past few weeks. I'm—I'm not used to getting help. But you make me feel like you've got my back, and I can't describe what a great feeling that is."

  Dane's face flushed under his tan. He reached across the table to take her hand, and she felt the same exciting jolt of desire that she had felt before.

  "Why wouldn't I help you out?" he asked, sounding puzzled. "And it's all been little stuff, anyway."

  He wasn't just good-looking, he was thoughtful, kind, and protective.

  And she wanted him so badly that it was taking every ounce of her self-control not to get up and go sit on his lap.

  Annabeth shook her head. "It wasn't little stuff, not to me. You know, while we were driving here, I was thinking about how amazed I was when you just jumped in to help me as soon as you saw I was in trouble."

  Dane scrutinized her, then heaved a sigh. His fingers tightened around her hand. "Annabeth, you're talking like no one's ever taken care of you before."

  She shrugged. "My mom encouraged independence. She had to, because she was usually working two jobs after my dad left. I've always taken care of myself."

  "And what about Roger? Didn't he take care of you?" Dane demanded.

  He had a funny look on his face as he asked it, though, as if something tasted bad.

  "Well, he paid for a lot of things," Annabeth admitted. "Because he earned more money than I did."

  Dane's oh-so-kissable lips thinned at her answer. "So if he'd been here today instead of me, what would he have done?"

  Annabeth considered the answer and sighed. She didn't really want to talk about Roger while she was having a nice lunch out with Dane.

  Roger would have expected her to fend for herself no matter what happened, and she would have had to make sure that his needs were taken care of, no matter how stressful or exhausting her own day had been.

  "He would have paid for the rewiring," she said finally. "But he would have blamed me for not realizing that there was a problem during the prepurchase inspection before I made the down payment on the bakery. And it was stupid of me not to know that." Annabeth sighed. "He probably would have insisted that I demand a refund on the inspection fee."

  She wrinkled her nose, happy that she wouldn't have to do that. Or have to listen to Roger ranting about how incompetent Annabeth was and how she always let people take advantage of her.

  Bearpaw Ridge was a small town, and as a newcomer, the last thing she wanted to do was raise a stink about something that she should have known about, anyway.

  "I don't think you're stupid for assuming that since Frank was able to run all his bakery equipment, you'd be able to as well," Dane said, looking angry.

  "Well, I did buy those new KitchenAid mixers and a new refrigerator and oven, and the coffee delivery guy offered me a low-cost lease on that espresso machine that I couldn't resist," Annabeth argued. "I should have known it might be too much for the wiring in a building as old as this."

  That only made Dane shake his head in vigorous denial.

  She sighed. "Maybe Roger was right. I still have a long way to go before I'm any good at…well, anything."

  Dane's piercing hazel eyes widened. "What? Because you don't know much about wiring and electricity?" His mouth twisted wryly as he lowered his voice to a stage whisper. "This is the part where I confess that I don't know much about them either, but I think you're pretty much perfect, in all other ways."

  He sounded absolutely sincere. Annabeth stared at him. "But—there are so many things—I mean, I never managed to do everything on the list…"

  Her voice trailed off at Dane's look of confusion. "List? What list? Annabeth, what are you talking about?"

  Regretting that she'd blurted out that humiliating detail, she twiddled a cooling French fry between the fingers of her free hand rather than meet his gaze.

  "Yeah, well, Roger would—he used to email me lists of things I needed to do if I wanted to be an acceptable girlfriend."

  "What?" Dane exploded. "Jeez, he really is an asshole! No wonder you left him!"

  Annabeth's cheeks grew hot as she reduced the French fry to a flattened length of mush between her fingertips.

  "So tell me," Dane said, his tone not quite conversational. "What kind of things is a so-called acceptable girlfriend supposed to do?"

  Annabeth found it all too easy to remember. She ticked the points off on her fingers as she recited:

  "Before I left for work in the morning, I was supposed to send him a list of what chores I was going to do that day and then upd
ate him on my progress before he got home from work.

  "I wasn't supposed to make any noise in the mornings, because I had to get up at 2:30 a.m., but he didn't have to be at work until nine.

  "I had to let him know what I planned to cook for dinner, so that he could make sure it was something that he liked.

  "I had to hand over my paycheck to pay for my share of the household expenses. I wasn't allowed to spend more than $150.00 a month on stuff for myself, like clothes and makeup, and I had to keep a spreadsheet so he could track my spending."

  As she spoke, she noticed Dane's expression growing more and more outraged.

  "What kind of chores were you supposed to do, on top of a full day's work at your job?" he asked, his voice low now, with the edge of a growl.

  "But Roger's job was really stressful, and he worked long hours…" Annabeth began, yielding to her old need to justify his demands.

  With an effort, she stopped speaking. It hadn't been fair, and she knew it.

  Dane squeezed her hand comfortingly.

  Why had she mentioned those lists in the first place? It was stupid and in the past, and despite his self-control, she could tell that Dane was getting upset.

  "And what would happen if you forgot something on his list or didn't do it the way he liked?" Dane asked.

  Annabeth took a deep breath before answering. "He—he would break something that belonged to me, or he'd donate it to Goodwill. Last year, he took away the birthday present he'd given me…it was just a stupid pendant, but…" She stopped, fighting for control. After all this time, she hadn't expected that memory to hurt as much as it did. "I—I finally couldn't take it anymore, so when Maggie told me about the bakery here…"

  "Oh my God." Dane stared at her like she had just grown a second head.

  With an odd jolt halfway between terror and desire, she noticed that his hazel eyes had lightened to green-gold. They blazed with strong emotion.

  Deliberately, he took her other hand and leaned forward across the table.

  "Annabeth," he said, his voice even lower and hoarser than before. "You are amazing, and perfect just the way you are. I promise you I will never, ever make a list. And if I ever meet Roger, I'm going to tear his face off."