Chapter 20
SEXY BUNS
Dean finished behind the bar and went to his office two days later. It wasn’t busy right now, being a little after eight on a Wednesday. He knew Molly would still be up and thought he’d sneak back and call her.
She answered on the first ring. “Are you watching TV?” he asked.
“Just reading a book,” she said. “The TV is background noise.”
She’d texted him yesterday. Nothing major, but just reaching out. Even made a joke about it.
Like she wasn’t going to wait for him.
He appreciated it more than he could have said.
He didn’t want to be the one who always took the first step.
Even though she had the first time.
Sort of.
He’d asked her out.
Though she’d come back in to see him.
In his mind, they were kind of even on it now.
“How was your day?”
“Good. I talked to my sister, Erika, yesterday about you. The last two days I’ve been working on a few new recipes. Cupcakes. They weren’t as good as the ones I made on Monday.”
“Back up to Erika.”
She laughed. “I figured you want to know that. First, are you home?”
He didn’t really tell her his schedule. They hadn’t gotten that far.
“I’ll be leaving in a few minutes. I’m in my office and figured it’d be easier to call now than wait until my house was quiet. I didn’t know when you went to bed.”
“Around nine I’m in bed watching TV.”
“About the same if I’m not working.”
“So Erika. I told her everything. Even that we had sex on the first date. It was hard for me to confess that.”
“And what was her reaction?”
She hummed in her throat. “Not sure I want to share.”
“Oh, now you’ve got to after that sound.”
“Well, she said she was happy for me. Then I told her the rest.”
“That I blew you off and you had a year's worth of calories in chocolate in a week?”
“Hey. Don’t pick on me about that. Many would say I could use the weight, but I never seem to gain much.”
“Don’t say that too loudly around women,” he said. “Even I know that.”
“Trust me, I get it. Anyway, she laughed and said welcome to the scorned woman’s club.”
“Ouch.”
That burned more than he thought it would.
“I know. But it’s all good. I told her about our date on Monday and how well it went and that we are starting over. Even no sex.”
“Ah, but the waiting for it again is the best part.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
He heard the humor in her voice and wouldn’t let it distract him.
He looked around his office, making sure the door was shut. “What are you wearing?”
“Oh, no,” she said. “Let’s not be typical. We know you’re not.”
“Fine. I will tell you that Jonah loved the frosting, but not the cupcake. I found out last night when I got home. Carly told me. Now she loved them though.”
“Yeah, probably not the best flavor for a four-year-old.”
“That’s fine.”
“Did you tell Carly where you got them?”
“It didn’t come up. I think she just assumed I brought them home from work. Marcus does things like that now and again. It’s not the first I’ve brought things home.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.
“Next time, maybe I’ll tell her.”
“I’ll make sure I make something Jonah likes next time. You tell me what that is.”
He smiled. He didn’t think it’d be this easy to date someone having a child.
But he hadn’t tried either.
“Chocolate chip cookies are always great, and yours are wonderful.”
“I’ll make another batch when I know I’ll see you again.”
“We’ll work it out,” he said. He didn’t want to jump just yet. He was looking at his schedule and trying to figure it out in his mind.
No reason to come off needy, even if he couldn’t get Molly out of his mind.
“So I told someone at work to check out Pulse.”
“You did? Thanks for the business.”
“It was last week. They went. Said the food was out of this world and not what they expected. His wife is a nurse. She loved all the different hospital paraphernalia everywhere. She hadn’t realized that was the theme with the name.
I guess I just take it for granted that I know what a lot of the things are, but the truth is, I don’t know as much as I thought. What made you want to work there?”
It was the first time this came up and he had to decide if he wanted to be honest or not. He had no intention of letting anyone know about his family history. At least not anytime soon. Nor could he say that he decorated the bar himself. She didn’t know he owned it.
“There were some in my family who felt I should go into medicine. That wanted me to be a doctor. It’s not what I wanted. I guess part of it is my middle finger to them to be surrounded by what they wanted and I didn’t.”
She burst out laughing. “That is hilarious. I wish I had the guts to do that.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d made a comment about wishing she had the courage to do something. He couldn’t figure it out though. Sometimes she didn’t seem like the angry woman who came in one night and needed a shot to calm her down.
“What is it you’d like to do? Being a food scientist isn’t what you wanted?”
“No. I mean yes, this is the career I always wanted. I know it’s not for everyone and most in my family thought it was odd, but I’ve always been fascinated with learning and research. I like food. I like to eat. I like to cook, but I didn’t see myself being a chef.”
She definitely wasn’t shy about her food. That was one thing he liked about her. She wasn’t afraid to throw back a plate of food with him.
“So what is it you wish you could stand up to?”
“Just mean people,” she said. “I guess it comes from my father. I wish I had said more back than rather than letting it bring me down. We all are who we are. Sometimes we try to change, but it doesn’t matter.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he said. “Especially if that change is for them and not you. You shouldn’t change anything about yourself for other people. You’ll never be happy then.”
“I’m learning that,” she said so quietly that he almost didn’t hear her. “I should probably let you get back to work.”
“Yeah. I came back here to finish up paperwork.”
“Is that the excuse you give to yourself to talk to me?”
“I don’t need an excuse to talk to you. I wanted to. I wish we could have more time together and I guess I’m sorry about that.”
“I understand,” she said. “I’m used to being alone so you’re adding a little bit of spice to my life even with the limited time we’ve got.”
Just another statement that made little sense. It seemed the more he talked with her, the more questions he had. But it still didn’t bother him because he enjoyed being around her.
She’d been more open than him about her life and he knew his time was running out.
That maybe he had to share some about Corinda. If he did that, it might prevent other questions.
She hadn’t asked much about Willow and he was thankful for that.
For not putting him in a position to lie.
And he had to remind himself that he couldn’t keep asking questions all the time because that would make her do it to him when he didn’t know how much of his life he wanted to expose.
He did what he always did and cracked a joke. “So what spice is that? Something you’re going to add to an experiment?”
“I think I might. Maybe I’ll call it sexy buns.”
He rolled his eyes. “Hot buns with dinner, or sweet buns, like a dessert?”
“Which is it you want?” she asked, her voice gone husky. This happened a lot too. Sexy flirting or texts that were just testing his control and making him wonder why he was holding out when he’d already had a taste of her.
He knew why. He didn’t want to say or do anything to see that hurt look in her eyes again. He was trying not to be the douche that she would want to ditch.
He was trying to be a man who maybe she wanted to learn more about.
Yet didn’t he keep telling himself he didn’t want to let anyone know about his past?
He was more confused about Molly than anything else he’d ever been in his life.
“I’d take both from you,” he said.
“Then maybe I’ll just have to have some as a surprise the next time we are together.”
“Monday,” he said. “It seems to be our standing date.”
Which slipped out easier than he thought it would when he just said he had to figure out his schedule.
“Maybe I’ll take Monday off of work and we can spend the day together. What do you think?”
“I think I’d like that.”
Because then he wouldn’t have to say much at all. She was working with him.
He’d drop off Jonah to Pre-K and have six hours with Molly without Carly being the wiser.
“Then that is what I’ll do. Now I’ll really let you go. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye,” he said and hung up, looking forward to the next time he could see her and hoping he could wait five more days.
He was right, the anticipation was half the fun.