Sugar, Ice, and Everything Nice (Meet-Cute Match-Ups #2)

Chapter 1

ONE

My day-three hair was piled on top of my head in a gigantic messy bun that looked suspiciously like I’d slept in it the night before. If anyone had bothered to ask as I marched down the sidewalk, I’d have simply replied, “No comment.”

I was on a mini-vacation, and I guess my idea of living it up was letting myself go.

Man, did it ever feel nice to walk around in a city I had zero connection to and not care what anyone thought.

It was worlds apart from the buttoned-up life I lived at home.

I was as free as a bird here and flying just as high in my yoga pants and oversized sweater—bonus points for the boujee way it fell off my shoulder, exposing my cute tank beneath.

Okay, so maybe I cared a little bit about my appearance.

“Come along, Lord Percival,” I said to all one hundred and fifty pounds of furry Newfoundland love plodding along beside me, “I could use a drink after that drive.”

Percy panted in reply and followed me into Sweet ‘N’ Smooth. The pictures in the windows promised all the smoothie goodness I could handle and enough treats to satisfy even my elephant-sized dog.

The place was hopping and packed to the gills with customers taking too long to order their specialty smoothies with extra this, none of that, and just a hint of the other.

Fancy drinks weren’t my speed. Wren Penrose was a simple woman with simple needs.

One glance at the menu told me everything I needed to know.

I was walking out of there with a strawberry banana blast.

Simple.

My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when my bulging eyes landed on the face of a celebrity—well, a man who was a celebrity in the bookish world I called home. My breath hitched in my throat as I fumbled in my bag, feeling around for Daphne Rose Love’s hot new romance novel.

The man at the front of the line was a dead ringer for Daphne’s go-to cover model, Dash Rapture. Now, I’d never been the silly type of person to go weak in the knees over a pretty face and chiseled jawline, but I’d consider making an exception if I were to ever run into Dash in the flesh.

My fingers tingled when they found the slick, glossy cover. As nonchalantly as a woman with burning cheeks and a dog drooling enough to create a slipping hazard could manage, I eased the book out just far enough to compare the two mesmerizing faces in front of me.

If only that guy in line would stand still! But how was he supposed to do that with the way my fellow customers fawned all over him? Anyone would think he was royalty or something with the way these people were acting.

All hail the Smoothie King. I snickered at the poor guy’s expense.

But seriously, I needed these people to back up a little. I couldn’t get a clear view of His Majesty’s face with them catching his attention every five seconds, slapping his back, and telling him they couldn’t wait to see him that night. Were they all going to the same party?

I didn’t know, and I didn’t really care. All I wanted was to figure out if I was looking at the back of Dash Rapture’s head, or that of an imposter.

Then he did it. The guy turned around and smiled at someone else in line. My shoulders slumped. He was an imposter. I dropped my book back into the deep recesses of my bag without taking my eyes off that Dash-wanna-be, instinctively noting all the differences between the two faces.

Honestly, each difference in this mystery man’s face was an improvement over Dash’s, though I could never admit that to the girls at the indie bookstore where I worked back home.

Everything, from his icy-blue eyes to the thick, chocolate-brown waves on the top of his head, was a notch above.

And I didn’t think even Dash could fill out a hoodie the way the Smoothie King up there could.

Satisfied that I was in fact not in the presence of literary nobility, I let my gaze wander around the shop. That’s when I spotted it. A self-serve case just feet away. It was home to the best cupcakes in the city.

I assumed they must have been the best, at least; why else would there only be one left?

Change of plans. I’d be walking out of there with a strawberry banana blast and whatever kind of cupcake that was. I didn’t have to tell Percy twice to step out of line with me to go get that cupcake. His food radar was already on high alert, and he led the way.

I opened the plexiglass door and snatched my sweet vacation treat.

“Cupcake thief!” A deep voice came through the case and sent a shockwave through me—the kind of shockwave I wouldn’t mind feeling every day.

I bent down and peered into the case and into the same icy-blue eyes I’d been admiring not long ago. “Excuse you?”

The man shut his little door on the other side of the case and straightened his back, standing to an impressive height I’m sure Dash Rapture couldn’t hope to rival.

“I called you a cupcake thief.” He shot a pointed look at the humongous cupcake in my hand, topped with an extra helping of lavender-colored icing. “That’s my cupcake.”

“You’ve got to move fast if you want to win the prize,” I said, holding up the cupcake like a trophy.

One of the guy’s brows flicked and his chest inflated with a deep breath. The hint of a smile played at the corner of his mouth. I swallowed hard at the impressive span of his shoulders.

“I’ll have to remember that next time.” He held up his green smoothie in salute before rounding the case and brushing past me. Leaning toward me as he went, he said, “Until we meet again.” His voice rumbled with just enough gravel to awaken every butterfly in any red-blooded woman’s stomach.

I snorted a tiny laugh because that was what I did—awkward stuff. Two could play at the flirting game. “Yes,” I said, with a sultry pucker of my lips, “until then.”

He looked back at me over his shoulder and swallowed me whole with his gaze, smiling like somebody who knew a secret they weren’t about to share.

My heart thudded against my ribs as the chime on the door announced that the king had left the building.

Wow, who knew flirting could be so fun? It was easy to let it all hang out when there was no possibility of consequences.

I was only here for a few days for a wedding.

I had no reputation to worry about. No fear of running into anyone here ever again.

My life was more than three hours away, over the hills, across the river, and on the other side of an oblong lake locals claimed was the birthplace of hockey.

I didn’t care about hockey, but I did care that here in this city, I could be a completely different version of myself.

And that was fun!

Once the smoothie king was gone, the place cleared out pretty quickly.

A couple of minutes later, Percy and I were out the door and on our way back to the car.

Juggling a smoothie, a cupcake, a purse, and a leash was already borderline manic—and just to keep things interesting, my keys had staged a full-blown game of hide-and-seek at the very bottom of the purse.

Thankful for Percy’s crumb obsession, which kept him occupied as I continued my hunt for the keys, I led him absently through the outdoor seating area.

Percy licked up every crumb he could find while I focused on the hard-to-reach corners of my purse.

By the time I found my keychain, we were next to the last table and Percy had wound his leash around my legs and a couple of chairs.

“Hold on, Bud. Let’s get untangled,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to free myself from Percy’s accidental booby trap. I set my things on the table and lost my balance as I tried to pull my leg free.

“Whoa, there,” a deep and familiar voice said from behind. “Want a hand?” Fireworks went off in my stomach as a hot hand came to rest on the small of my back. I scooted away, shocked at the way my skin sizzled at his touch. How was that even possible? I was wearing two layers of clothing.

I mulled over his question about hands. Um, yes. I wanted to take his hand and put it right back where it had been to see if the first time had been a fluke. I needed to prove that there was no way one hand could hold so much magic inside it.

“Nah, I think I’ve got it.” Wriggling around to face my new acquaintance, I stood on one foot and worked to untangle my ankle from Percy’s web-like leash trap.

My flamingo stance proved useless when Percy decided to lunge for a discarded cupcake paper some sloppy patron had left behind on one of the tables.

The leash tightened, dragging two chairs with it and slamming them into the table beside me.

The jolt was enough to knock me off balance. Again.

Fortunately for me, the smoothie king was there to break my fall.

Unfortunately for him, I knocked into his extra-tall green smoothie just about as hard as the chairs had knocked into the table, splattering it down the front of his hoodie.

I gasped, equal parts mortified for ruining his shirt and amazed at the way his steadying arm fit around my waist so perfectly.

“I am so sorry,” I said, taking a hobbling step backward and still working to free myself from Percy’s mess.

“I mean, green looks good on you, but I think your shirt has seen better days.”

“Hmm, give up a team hoodie for a chance to help a lovely lady?” He said with a lopsided smile. “I’d say I just traded up.” The spark in his eye hit me right in the gut, sending tingles all the way to the tips of my toes.

Don’t you wobble. Don’t you wobble! I demanded of my knees.

“I think I know how to help,” he said, looking down at the leash, which was tangled more than ever around legs of various kinds: table, chair, and my own. He reached into the pocket on the front of his hoodie and pulled out a bag of beef jerky. “What’s his name?”

“Lord Percival Pennybone the First. But you can call him Percy.”

The crinkling bag was enough to recall Percy from scavenging for crumbs at the end of his leash. “I’m Zane, by the way.”

“Wren,” I said, shivering when his hand brushed mine as he reached for Percy’s leash.

“You can let go. He’s not going anywhere.” Percy’s nose was all over Zane’s hand holding the jerky.

I dropped the leash, releasing the tension keeping me bound up. It was simple enough to reel it in with Zane keeping Percy distracted.

“Thanks,” I said. “I owe you one.”

“Oh, yeah?” The glint in his eye told me he was thinking of ways to collect.

“This should settle the score.” I picked up the cupcake.

“So, you’re going to pay me back by giving me my own cupcake?”

“No, I’m going to pay you back by giving you half of my cupcake.” I took off the paper and broke the cupcake in half. He took his half like a good sport, and I held mine up as if giving a toast. “Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

We pretend-clinked our cupcake halves and then took a bite. Zane’s face scrunched before motioning for me to follow him to a nearby trash can, both of us groaning with disgust. We both had mercy on our taste buds and spit out our bites.

“What kind of sick joke was that?” Zane said.

“I don’t know,” I said, hurrying back to my smoothie to wash the taste out of my mouth. “It tasted like grass clippings.” I picked up the cupcake paper and read the label on the side. “Lavender cornmeal with wheat grass.”

Zane burst into a wholesome laugh that soaked into me like sweet, warm honey. “It was grass clippings.”

Our laughter died down, and I turned my attention back to his hoodie. “Your poor shirt.”

He shrugged. “Hoodies are a dime a dozen. You, on the other hand…” He paused, taking his lower lip between his teeth. “Like I said, I traded up.”

Heat rushed into my cheeks. Flirty Wren loved his flirty ways. Bookstore Wren told me to tuck my tail and run—this guy was so out of my league. I ignored Bookstore Wren.

“Follow me.” Taking Percy’s leash from Zane, I spun on my heels and marched down the sidewalk. Flirty Wren would be taking the wheel for the duration of this mini-vacay. I shot a glance over my shoulder to make sure Smoothie King was following along in my wake.

My pulse danced a little jig when our eyes met.

He was there. He was following.

This was going to be fun.