Chapter 5
FIVE
CHLOE
I was never one to be superstitious or anything like that. I genuinely believed hard work would pay off.
And it had.
But to some degree, I used to think I had a bit of good luck on my side as well.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
Because of all the days it had to downpour, of course it would be today. Today, when I left home ahead of schedule, so I could get to my cake shop early to take care of putting some frosting on a cake I’d baked last night at my mom’s request.
My mom was completely capable of making her own cake—she was the whole reason I’d pursued this career path—but ever since I opened my own business, she contacted me whenever she wanted a cake.
And she always insisted on paying me for it.
It was ridiculous.
But I’d quickly learned that there was no sense fighting with her about it. She was going to do it anyway, and I’d save us both a lot of hassle if I simply accepted it.
So, I’d made the cake at home last night and figured I’d put the finishing touches on it this morning before I got my normal day started.
Now, I had to contend with the rain.
With my wipers on the highest setting, I pulled up directly in front of the shop. Normally, I’d never park here—wanting to leave the space for my customers—but I needed the quickest path into the store with everything I had to get inside. I could move the car later.
After parking, I reached down to the floor behind the passenger seat to grab my umbrella. I’d considered waiting out the worst of the storm, thinking it might ease up, but as I listened to and watched the rain hitting my vehicle, I recognized it’d be a waste of time.
On that thought, I pushed open my door, hit the button on the umbrella, and got it over my head as I stepped out of the car.
Moving to the back, I opened the hatch on my SUV and loaded up my arms with my purse and the bag of supplies I needed.
Just as I was about to reach in for the box carrying the cake, a vehicle pulled up behind me.
Spinning around, I peered through the windshield and was shocked to see Hawk sitting behind the wheel. No sooner had I smiled at him and prepared myself to walk over to see what he needed, Hawk stepped out. Without an umbrella. And he made his way over to me.
I remained frozen to the spot as he made his approach, clearly unfazed by the downpour. When he came to a stop in front of me, I raised my umbrella a little bit higher so he could avoid continuing to get wet.
“Looks like you could use a hand, Cunningham.”
My heart skipped a beat. It was working. Everything I’d done to put myself in Hawk’s space had led to him feeling confident and comfortable enough to approach me for once.
I couldn’t contain my smile.
“That’s very sweet of you. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
Diverting his eyes to the ground, he shook his head. “I don’t mind.”
I stared, feeling so overjoyed and dumbfounded for a couple of reasons.
First, that he was even here, offering to help.
And second, he seemed a touch bashful. I still hadn’t been able to work out whatever it was that led him to be the way he was.
But I found it endearing that a man as strong and tall and handsome as him would feel anything less than wildly confident.
When too much time passed without any action from me, Hawk asked, “Would you like me to carry something for you?”
I shook off the thoughts clouding my mind. “Right. Sorry. Um, yes, if you could grab this box with the cake and frosting, I can take care of the rest.”
Hawk reached inside and grabbed the box as I slung the bags and my purse over my shoulders. I did my best to keep the umbrella over both of us as we made our way to the front door of my shop.
A minute later, we were both safely inside.
Since I wasn’t open yet, I locked the door behind us, and Hawk asked, “Where would you like me to put this?”
“If you wouldn’t mind carrying it around the display cases and setting it behind the counter, that would be a huge help.”
While he took off in that direction, I crammed the umbrella inside the holder at the entryway and scurried to catch up to him.
Once he set the box down, Hawk turned toward me and said, “I’ve never seen you here this early before.”
My belly dipped at the confirmation he’d noticed I wasn’t normally here at this hour. I yanked my bags off my shoulders, figuring that doing something with my hands would stop me from jumping into his arms and wrapping my legs around his waist.
“Yeah, I got a call from my mom last night. She and my dad are getting together with their friends tonight, and she wanted to take one of my cakes. So, I baked the cake and prepared the frosting at home last night, but I decided to frost and decorate it here this morning.”
He lifted his chin in understanding. “Ah, that makes sense.”
Mere moments ago, I thought I was unlucky because of the rain, and now I wasn’t so convinced. Surely, there had to be some luck on my side to be fortunate enough to hear that voice first thing in the morning.
Still feeling the overwhelming need to do something with my hands, I reached into the box and pulled out the cakes as I asked, “What about you? The furniture store doesn’t open for a while yet. Do you always get to work this early?”
Hawk shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “It’s something to do. Especially if I’m already awake.”
Tipping my head to the side, I studied him. The mere thought that this man might’ve had trouble sleeping made me want to wrap my arms around him. “Are you an early riser?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t pushing for too much.
“You could say that.”
With no additional explanation from him, I thought it might be best to avoid pushing that topic.
Instead, I opened the frosting and gave it a mix with a spatula as I said, “You know, I still find it unbelievable that you’ve been working there with Joyce and Dale for a year and a half, and I only just met you.
In fact, when my sister called me a few days ago to do some brainstorming, I mentioned you. ”
He cocked a brow, silently questioning me, but there was something else in his gaze that looked a lot like worry.
My goal hadn’t been to make him uncomfortable.
I simply wanted him to know that I thought about him beyond whatever specific encounters we had with one another.
I thought that if he knew I spoke freely about him with my sister, he might be more at ease with me. That he’d see I was harmless.
Despite what I saw in his stare, Hawk didn’t address whatever concerns he had. “Brainstorming?”
Shit.
I couldn’t tell him I’d told my sister to write a story about him with me being the woman he fell in love with. I wasn’t interested in lying, but I refused to do anything to ruin the progress we were making.
I placed a heaping spoonful of frosting on the first layer of the round cake and spread it over the layer.
As I placed the second layer on top and did the same, I explained, “Mia’s a romance author, and she calls me from time to time to talk through things if she gets stuck.
At some point, I might’ve mentioned something about giving her male character a bunch of tattoos. ”
He pulled his hands out of his pockets and glanced at his arms. I was certain I saw a pink tinge on his cheeks. Had I just embarrassed him?
“I do have a lot of them, don’t I?”
“They’re stunning,” I remarked, wanting to put his mind at ease as I smoothed out the frosting.
“Most people seem to be intimidated by them. By me.”
“I guess I’m not most people.” That couldn’t be the reason he maintained distance between himself and others.
Was he worried they wouldn’t want to be around him, so he figured it was best to just be standoffish from the start?
“Anyway, like I said, I just think it’s crazy I’ve stopped in at the store on multiple occasions over the time you’ve been working there, and it took this long for us to meet. ”
“Well, I don’t exactly spend much time on the sales floor, so that’s likely why,” he reasoned.
With the thin layer of frosting completed on the cake, I moved to grab my piping bags and decorating tips and asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you do at the furniture store?”
Something flashed in his expression, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. Resignation, maybe? “Mostly, I assemble the furniture. On very rare occasions, especially if the other guys are slammed, I’ll do a delivery. But assembling everything is usually what I’m doing.”
I suddenly had the urge to order a lot of furniture for my place. If I did, I suspected Joyce would do whatever was necessary to make sure Hawk was the one who delivered it.
Yanking on the problem drawer, I said, “I’m envious. I might be able to assemble and decorate a cake, but that’s where my manual dexterity skills end.”
Hawk’s gaze had dipped to my hands, but I was certain it wasn’t because he was thinking about how they might feel against his skin. I had both of them gripped on the handle of the drawer, attempting to open it.
When concern washed over him, I stopped pulling on the handle and laughed.
“This drawer is a little testy sometimes. My employee, Kara, keeps telling me to fix it, but I prefer baking instead. So, I just walk her through how to open it without too much hassle and ease her frustration with a sweet treat afterward.”
Hawk looked at my face again, disbelief etched onto every feature. “And is what you’re doing now the way you open it with the least amount of hassle?”
I grimaced and bit my lip. Then I did what I told Kara to do every time she got overwhelmed by the drawer. It opened without a hitch.
Beaming at Hawk, I said, “See? Up and to the left, and it opens right up.”
His lips twitched. “And you said you had no manual dexterity.”
Amused.
He was amused by me.
God, I didn’t want this to end.
“It’s not so much that as it is that I’m not interested in taking the time to figure out how to fix it,” I explained as I sorted through the tips to find the one that I needed.
Locating it, I assembled the bag and the tip and filled the bag with frosting.
“Honestly, I’d rather just deal with the drawer being the way it is if it means I can get back to doing what I love and what I’m good at. ”
“Speaking of which…”
I’d just been about to start piping the frosting onto the cake, but those words forced me to freeze. I looked up, intrigued. “What?”
Hawk hesitated, and he seemed to be waging a battle inside his head. Eventually, he said, “You are good at it.”
Was he saying…
“I’m not sure I’m following,” I admitted.
He crossed his inked arms over his chest, leaned his hip against the counter, and stared at me with his lips twitching. I loved seeing the confidence. “Those Neapolitan cupcakes were really good.”
My entire body went rigid. Even though I’d had a hunch he was going to say something about the cupcakes, his admission still caught me by surprise. “You mean, you actually tried them?”
“Well, you did give them to me as a peace offering. I figured it was the least I could do.”
The corners of my mouth tugged up in a smile. “And you liked them?”
With a slight nod, he said, “I did.”
I returned my focus to the cake and got to work on finishing the decorative touches. Even if it was a cake for my parents and their friends, I still wouldn’t allow it to look like anything less than the best of what I had to offer.
After making it halfway around the base, I shared, “They were time consuming, so that makes me happy to hear. Maybe I’ll add them to my seasonal menu for summer using that ice cream angle.”
“I can’t speak for others, but if you did that, I’d come in and buy one at least once a week.”
I’d made it around the entire cake, stopped, and smiled at him. “In that case, I’m definitely going to add them.”
It appeared to be Hawk’s turn to be surprised. His eyes roamed over my face, seemingly studying every inch. It was like he was searching for answers to questions he couldn’t bring himself to ask.
But since I got the feeling that I knew what he was thinking, I moved toward him and placed my hand on his arm.
He tensed as I said, “It’d be nice to see you more often, Hawk.
I was so frustrated this morning about the rain when I had all this stuff to carry in.
You showed up, offered to help me, and stuck around for a few minutes this morning to talk.
I’m finding, the more I do it, the more I enjoy talking to you. ”
He swallowed roughly and parted his lips to say something. But before he could get out a single word, noise came from the front door.
Kara had arrived for work, and she’d just shoved her key into the lock.
I didn’t even have the chance to memorize the feel of Hawk’s skin before he quickly pulled back and said, “I should get going.”
“That’s just my employee, Kara. You don’t have to run out right away.”
He shook his head, backing up. “No. No, I don’t want to be too late getting to work.”
There was such panic in his tone, his expression.
“Alright. Then I guess I’ll talk to you later. Thanks again for your help this morning.”
Hawk made his way around the counter to the opposite side just as Kara walked in and took in the scene. “No problem at all, Cunningham. Later.”
I didn’t have the chance to respond before he was out the door.
My focus remained on him as he made his way back to his car without a second glance back at me. I would’ve continued staring at him, but Kara stepped right into my direct line of sight to Hawk.
“Who the heck was that beautiful man?”
“He’s the man who’s going to be responsible for me ordering a whole bunch of new furniture for my place.”
Her brows shot up. “What does that mean?”
“He works with Joyce and Dale.”
“And does he earn commission for sales?”
I shook my head. “No. He assembles the furniture and occasionally delivers it.”
“I see. And you’re hoping he’ll bring you a new bed that he’ll then help you break in?”
“What? No!”
She squinted, her lips twitching. “Right. Well, sorry to say this, Chloe, but I don’t believe you.”
“Why not?”
Kara pointed at me. “Because you’re squeezing that bag so hard, there’s got to be enough frosting on the floor to decorate at least half of a cake.”
I looked down and realized I was squeezing the frosting out of the bag. “Shit.”
And after I’d given myself away, it was Kara’s laughter that filled the deafening silence brought on by Hawk’s absence.