make it colorful?”
She nodded. “Kind of.” She took a breath. “I realized that what I love about baking is seeing people react to what I make. I love watching them get immediately happy when they see or taste something I made.” She pressed her lips together, then bracketed his face with her hands. “I’m your cake, Grant.”
He felt his chest tighten and had a hard time taking a deep breath.
“The look on your face when you walk in and see me is how people look at my cakes. When people come into the bakery and first see a cake I’ve made for them or are perusing the bakery case and see the perfect thing, they get this look that says that they’ve found something even better than they imagined and they’re just… delighted.” She nodded her head. “I delight you.”
She did. She so fucking did. He would have never picked that word to describe him, but it was absolutely perfect.
She wet her lips and continued, “I got Zoe a t-shirt once that said I want someone to look at me the way I look at chocolate cake. She found him. Aiden looks at her that way. Dax looks at Jane that way. And… you look at me that way. And that is why we should keep dating, and eventually, after my business is up and running, and you’re used to living here in a little town and everything, why we should get married again.”
He just stared at her. She was absolutely right. When he looked at her, when he heard her voice, when he kissed her, when he knew he was about to see her, he lit up. He could feel it. She made him happy and content and excited and like the day had gotten a little more special. She delighted him. She made him feel like all of her customers looked when they saw her cakes.
He felt a grin curving his lips. Then he thought about what else she’d said, “Your business?”
“I have a lot to tell you,” she said.
“I can’t wait.”
She gave him a happy, excited grin. Then she glanced at the cake on the table again. “Okay, confession,” she said.
“Okay.”
“I was actually going to make the cake into a spreadsheet,” she said, looking back up at him with a sheepish smile. “But I didn’t have time to pull it up on my computer, and I couldn’t remember what a spreadsheet looks like in enough detail to decorate a cake like one.”
Grant chuckled. Then he laughed a little louder. Then even louder. He hugged her to him, relishing the feel of her in his arms, surrounded by the smell of vanilla and sugar. If love had a smell, that’s what it would be for him.
“I love you, Jocelyn.”
“I love you too, Grant,” she said, tipping her head back to look up at him.
His phone dinged with a text. He ignored it.
“I’d be very happy to reacquaint you with spreadsheets. Just like the lessons last night,” he told her, his voice gruff.
She grinned. “Deal. And since I’m not really wearing anything that I can strip off, how about every time you teach me something and I get it right, you can smear frosting from that cake on a part of my body and lick it off.”
His body heated and he growled, “Deal.”
The phone dinged again. He sighed.
“You can answer it,” she said. “We’re both business owners. I get that we’re kind of on the clock all the time.”
He smiled down at her. “Fine. But we agree right now that when we’re both naked, the phones can wait.”
She grinned. “I agree.”
He pulled his phone from his back pocket and swiped the screen with his thumb. It was a text from Cam.
Grant frowned and read the text out loud, “I should probably tell you now that you’re not actually divorced.”
“But we both signed them,” Jocelyn said.
Grant nodded and typed back What are you talking about?
As your attorney I feel obligated to say you should always read every single word in any document you are signing.
Grant sighed. What are you talking about? he asked again.
The divorce papers you both signed are actually cat adoption papers from Cores and Catnips. So congrats. You’re still married, and you can now go to Paige’s place and pick out any three cats.
Grant blinked at the message. He read it out loud to Jocelyn. Her eyes widened, and then she started laughing.
“Three?” she asked. “Not even just one?”
Grant shook his head. “I suppose you love cats as much as your sister does?”
“Oh, no one loves cats as much as my sister does,” Jocelyn said. “But yeah… I wouldn’t mind having a cat. Or three.”
Grant looked down at the love of his life realizing that there was nothing he wouldn’t do or put up with for her. “A small town, a woman who doesn’t like spreadsheets, another business partner who thinks way outside the box, and now three cats. How did my life get so crazy all of a sudden?”
Jocelyn grinned. “You fell in love.”
Everything in him softened. He smiled. “Yeah, I did.”
“And oh my God! We’re not divorced?” Jocelyn suddenly exclaimed.
“I guess not.” He had to admit, that was pretty fucking great. They’d figured out how they truly felt, and if they had been divorced, they would have ended up together—for all the right reasons—anyway. But now… she was still his. In every single way.
“So…” She was clearly thinking it all through. “Can we still date? I mean, I feel like we still need to date each other for a while.”
“We can absolutely still date,” he said. “For the rest of our lives.”
Her expression softened, and she gave him a sweet smile. “Okay. Then we’ll still date. For…” She was clearly thinking something through. “Maybe six or seven months?”
“What happens in six or seven months?” he asked.
“We’ll have our wedding.”
He blinked at her. “A wedding? We did that.”
“No. We got legally married by a judge,” Jocelyn corrected him. “Now we’ll have a wedding. Here in Appleby. With all our friends and family.”
“All of your friends?” he repeated. “So the entire town?”
She grinned, practically glowing. “Yes.”
Grant felt himself nodding. “Okay. Let’s do it. Let’s have a huge blowout dream wedding. After we date for a few months.”
Jocelyn threw her arms around him. “Thank you!”
Maybe she didn’t realize that he’d do anything for her yet, but he was sure she was going to figure it out quickly.
“And now, about this frosting and those spreadsheets…” He started to reach for the cake.
But she stopped him. “Oh, first, cheesy potatoes.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Before frosting?”
“Well, they’re symbolic too.”
“Symbolic cheesy potatoes?”
She nodded, grinning. “Turns out, people can fall in love over cheesy potatoes after all.”
Thank you so much for reading Making Whoopie! I hope you loved Josie and Grant’s story!
Next up is Cam and Whitney’s story in
Semi-Sweet On You!
She broke his heart ten years ago.
Now he's back -- and her new boss.
And she might still be semi in love with him.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Hot Cakes Series
Sugarcoated
Forking Around
Making Whoopie
Semi-Sweet On You
Oh, Fudge (Christmas)
Gimme S’more
If you love sexy, funny, small town romance and, well, hot kitchens and baked goods ;) you should also check out my Billionaires in Blue Jeans series!
Triplet billionaire sisters find themselves in small town Kansas for a year running a pie shop…and falling in love!
Diamonds and Dirt Roads
High Heels and Haystacks
Cashmere and Camo
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About Erin
Erin Nicholas is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty sexy contemporary romances. Her stories have been described as toe-curling, enchanting, steamy and fun. She loves to write about reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines and happily ever afters. She lives in the Midwest with her husband who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books, her kids who will never read the sex scenes in her books, and family and friends who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).
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