Chapter 22
EMILY
“Now comes the fun part.” I pulled the electric mixer from the cabinet, both girls watching me avidly. “We’re going to mix everything together. But fair warning, it might get a little messy.”
“How messy?” Audrey asked, her eyes lighting up.
“Let’s find out.”
I plugged in the mixer and turned it on low. The beaters whirred to life, slowly incorporating the dry ingredients.
“Okay, great. Now let’s pour the milk in. Audrey, you can do that.”
Audrey carefully tipped the milk in and I turned the mixer up a smidge.
Everything was going smoothly until Alice leaned in too close and the mixer kicked up a splat of cake batter that hit her square in the face.
She sputtered, stumbling backward, and her elbow caught the edge of the cocoa powder container. It tipped, spilling brown powder across the counter.
“Oops.” Alice’s eyes went wide.
“It’s okay. Accidents happen.” I turned off the mixer and grabbed some paper towel. “Here, let me...”
But before I could wipe her face, she dipped her finger into the spilled cocoa powder and bopped Audrey on the nose.
“Hey!” Audrey laughed, then retaliated by dipping her finger in the cake batter, flicking it at her sister.
“Girls, girls.” I tried to sound stern, but I was trying not to laugh. “We’re supposed to be baking a cake, not making a mess.”
Alice grinned up at me, that mischievous glint in her eyes that I was starting to recognize. Then she very deliberately dipped her whole hand into the mixing bowl.
“Alice, don’t you dare...”
She flung it.
The mix hit me right in the chest, exploding across my t-shirt.
“Oh, you are so in trouble now.” I grabbed a handful of batter and tossed it back at her, catching her in the shoulder.
Audrey squealed and dove for the cocoa powder, tossing a handful that mostly missed me but decorated the cabinet behind my head.
“That’s it!” I grabbed the bag of flour, scooping out a generous handful and flinging it at both of them. “Cake fight!”
What followed was absolute chaos.
Flour flew through the air like snow. Cocoa powder left brown streaks across counters and faces. Someone knocked over the sugar, sending granules skittering across the floor. The eggs that Audrey had so carefully cracked ended up splattered on the tile.
I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. The girls were shrieking and giggling, their faces covered in various shades of brown and white. Alice had cake mix in her hair. Audrey had cocoa powder smeared across her cheek like war paint.
The sound of the front door opening echoed through the house.
We all froze.
“Hello?” Cam’s voice carried down the hallway. “I’m home!”
As he approached the kitchen, I had exactly three seconds to register the state of absolute destruction around us before he appeared in the doorway.
His eyes went wide.
The kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off in a bakery.
Flour covered every surface. Cocoa powder streaked the cabinets.
Egg yolk dripped down the front of the dishwasher.
Cake batter was smeared all over the counter.
The three of us stood in the middle of it all, covered head to toe in baking ingredients, frozen like we’d been caught robbing a bank.
Cam’s gaze traveled slowly from the mess to his daughters to me, then back to the mess.
“We were baking a cake,” Alice offered helpfully, her voice small.
“Were you now?” His tone was carefully neutral, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
“It was an accident,” Audrey added.
“Several accidents,” I corrected. “In rapid succession.”
His eyes met mine and something sparked there. Amusement, maybe. Or exasperation. Hard to tell.
“Girls.” He crossed his arms, and both of them immediately straightened up. “Go wash up. Now.”
They didn’t need to be told twice. They bolted from the kitchen, leaving dusty flour footprints in their wake. Their giggles echoed down the hallway as they raced each other to the bathroom.
And then it was just the two of us.
Me, covered in cake mix, flour and cocoa powder, standing in the middle of his destroyed kitchen. Him, leaning against the doorframe in his work clothes, looking far to put together compared to my current state.
“So.” I gestured vaguely at the mess. “This happened.”
“I can see that.”
“In my defense, Alice started it.”
“Throwing a five-year-old under the bus. Classy.”
“I’m just saying, she threw the first punch.”
He pushed off the doorframe and moved closer, his boots crunching on spilled sugar. “And you, being the responsible adult, obviously tried to stop her.”
“I tried very hard.”
“Uh huh.” His eyes were glowing with amusement when he stopped right in front of me, so close I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. “You have flour in your hair.”
“You should see the rest of me.”
His gaze dropped, traveling slowly down, and my breath caught. When his eyes came back to mine, they were darker than before.
The air between us shifted, pulsed.
I don’t know what possessed me. Maybe it was the adrenaline from the food fight. Maybe it was the way he was looking at me, like he wanted to both laugh and do something else entirely. Maybe I’d just temporarily lost my mind.
I reached up and dabbed a finger full of cake mix right on his nose.
He blinked. Once. Twice.
“Did you just...”
“Yep.” I tried not to smile. “You had a spot.”
Something dangerous flickered across his face. “A spot.”
“Mm hmm.”
He reached past me, his arm brushing mine, and when he pulled back his finger was coated in flour. Before I could react, he bopped my nose with it.
“Now you have a spot.”
“Oh, that’s how it’s going to be?” I grabbed more flour from the counter.
“Don’t you dare.”
I absolutely dared.
I smeared it across his cheek, and he retaliated immediately, getting flour in my hair. I went for the cocoa powder. He blocked me, laughing, and somehow we ended up wrestling over the container.
The cocoa powder won, exploding between us in a cloud of brown that coated us both.
We stopped.
Both of us breathing hard. Both of us covered in flour and cocoa powder and probably looking completely ridiculous.
His hand was still on my wrist from where he’d tried to stop me. My other hand was pressed against his chest. The steady beat of his heart thumped against my palm through his shirt.
We were so close. Flecks of gold shimmered in his green eyes. The clean scent of his soap cut through the sweetness of sugar and cocoa. When his gaze dropped to my mouth, my pulse stuttered.
I leaned in.
He leaned in.
We met in the middle.
His lips were soft against mine, tentative at first, like he was waiting for me to pull away. But I didn’t pull away. I kissed him back, my hand sliding up from his chest to his shoulder.
He made a sound low in his throat and deepened the kiss, his hand coming up to cup the back of my head, fingers tangling in my flour-covered hair.
I didn’t care. Didn’t care that we were covered in cake ingredients or that his kitchen was destroyed or that this was probably the worst idea I’d ever had.
All I cared about was the way he tasted. The way his other hand settled on my waist, pulling me closer. The way my whole body hummed, every nerve ending suddenly awake and screaming yes, this, more of this.
His tongue swept across my bottom lip and I opened for him, the kiss turning hungry, desperate. My fingers curled into his shirt, holding on like he might disappear if I let go.
Then footsteps.
Small footsteps thundering down the hallway.
We sprang apart so fast I stumbled backward into the counter. Cam’s hand shot out to steady me, then dropped away like I’d burned him.
We stared at each other, both breathing hard, both probably looking completely wild.
The footsteps got closer.
“I should go.” The words tumbled out of my mouth, high and breathless. “I should... yeah. Go.”
“Emily...”
But I was already moving, grabbing my purse from the chair by the door. “I’ll see you later. Tomorrow. Whenever. Bye!”
I practically ran out of the kitchen, nearly colliding with both girls in the hallway. Water dripped from their faces and Alice still had a streak of cake mix near her ear.
“Emily, where are you going?” Audrey called after me.
“Home! I just remembered I have... a thing!”
Not my smoothest exit.
I made it to my front door in record time, my hands shaking as I fumbled with my keys. Inside. I needed to get inside where I could think. Where I could process what the hell had just happened.
The door finally opened and I stumbled through, slamming it behind me and leaning against it.
My fingers came up to touch my lips. They were still tingling. Still warm from his kiss.
I slid down the door until I was sitting on the floor, my heart hammering against my ribs.
I’d kissed Cam Rockford.
No. We’d kissed each other.
“Oh god.” I dropped my head into my hands. “Oh god, oh god, oh god.”
This was bad. This was so bad.
But… if it was so bad, why had it felt so good? It had felt... amazing. Perfect. Like something clicking into place that I hadn’t even known was out of alignment.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. My fingers were sticky with drying batter and flour and I winced as I pulled it free.
Cam! My heart leaped and I frantically wiped my hands on my jeans before swiping to open the message.
Are you okay?
A small smile curved my lips.
Yes. I didn’t mean to run, but I kinda freaked when I heard the girls.
I feel like I should apologize, but that would be a lie. I’m not even a little bit sorry.
My smile widened.
Me either.
So, we’re good?
I stared at the blinking cursor. We were good. We were better than good. But admitting that felt dangerous. It made it real.
I typed three different responses before settling on the simple truth.
We’re good.
Great, because I wanted to say, if you were going to the baseball on Saturday, you could ride with us. Save you having to drive all that way by yourself.
He wanted me there. In public. With his kids. After what just happened.
I bit my lip. Giddiness warred with the panic in my gut. The giddiness won.
That would be lovely, thank you.
Does ten am sound good?
Ten am is perfect.
Okay, see you then
I dropped my phone to the floor and stared at it for a second, a warm glow spreading through me. We were going to the baseball game. Together. After that kiss.