made it through that month’s supply of gummy bears I sent you and you need some more?” Dax asked Grant with a grin.
Grant lifted a brow.
“He donated them to the Candy Apple,” Aiden said, referring to the candy and ice cream shop in town. “They’re making some special sundae with gummy bears on top. What’s it called again?” He directed the question at Grant. Aiden wore a grin that said he knew the answer, and he was enjoying this immensely.
Dax turned interested eyes on the more serious of his two friends. “Yes, what’s it called, Grant?”
Grant shook his head. “I don’t remember.”
“The Gooey Gummy Grant,” Henry piped up.
Everyone looked at him. The little boy had been so quiet Josie had almost forgotten he was there. Okay, she’d probably almost forgotten because she’d been too distracted by Grant tonight to remember much of anything. Like to keep her heart beating steadily, for instance.
“No they’re not!” Dax crowed, clearly delighted.
“Seriously,” Henry said. “It’s strawberry ice cream and marshmallow fluff with gummy bears and whipped cream and sprinkles. They sell it for twenty-five percent off the price of the other sundaes because the gummy bears are free because of Grant.”
Dax’s mouth was hanging open in obvious glee when he looked back to Grant. “I. Love. Everything. About. That.”
“That was not what was supposed to happen,” Grant said. “I went back in and asked them to not call it that but they insisted.”
“You mean Betty insisted,” Aiden said. “No one says no to Betty.”
It was true. Betty Andrews was the owner of the Candy Apple and was the sweetest woman on the planet. She had a way of making the people around her feel like they had brought such joy and sunshine into her life just by being there, and no one ever had the heart to say or do anything that might disappoint her.
Josie found herself fighting a smile as she watched Grant. He was clearly uncomfortable with being associated with something gooey and gummy.
And now she wanted to cover him in marshmallow fluff.
Which was a vast improvement over cheesy potatoes, so there was that.
“You gave Grant a month’s supply of gummy bears?” Zoe asked, going back to the previous point. “Question one, how many is that? And question two, why?”
“Well, assuming that a guy would need about four to five ounces of gummy bears a day,” Dax said seriously. “Rounding up, of course, to be safe, that comes out to about nine and a half pounds of gummy bears for a month.”
Zoe’s eyes widened. “Nine and a half pounds?”
“Roughly,” Dax said with a nod.
Aiden was laughing out loud now.
“And to answer your second question,” Dax said, glancing at Grant, “because Grant needs a little sweetness in his life, and if I’m not there for him every day, that is going to be sorely lacking.”
Zoe laughed and Grant rolled his eyes. But his expression was one of resigned affection.
That did something funny to Josie’s stomach.
It was one thing to see him every morning just looking good—confident and sophisticated and powerful in his suit and tie. It was something else to see him charming and friendly with Zoe’s parents and then goofing around with his friends. Not that Grant was goofing around. There was definitely something about him that made Josie certain Grant Lorre didn’t goof. But the way he rolled with the punches from Dax and Aiden—and yes, the way it was clear he cared about his friends, even if he and Dax were night and day in personality—made her like him.
Dammit. First romanticizing the way he’d caught her in his arms, then lusting after him, and now liking him too? Great. That wasn’t the way to get over a crush.
“I don’t know,” Zoe said, looking from Dax to Grant to Josie. “Grant’s been coming into the bakery really regularly. Maybe he’s found another way of getting a little sweetness in his day.”
“Has he now?” Dax asked, arching a brow at Grant.
“I need to get going,” Grant said. He started for the front door.
Which meant he started in Josie’s direction. For a minute there she’d become a simple observer of the scene playing out in front of her. But she was still standing here, and he was now coming toward her, and pretty soon he was going to be right in front of her and…
She suddenly straightened, her heart pounding as he drew near.
“I’ll walk you out.”
Her eyes widened at his words. It wasn’t really a question. Or even an offer. It sounded