other something new.
And if all else failed with the spreadsheet cuddling, she could always mix up some chocolate cake batter.
17
“We need to rethink everything.”
Grant couldn’t agree more. Though he didn’t think Whitney was talking about the same thing he was. Namely his marriage to Jocelyn.
Whitney took the seat behind her desk and opened the folder she’d brought in with her.
Grant was seated in front of her desk. He’d been waiting for about five minutes, but Piper had told him Whitney was on her way. He’d arrived early, needing to get out of the house. That sounded terrible. But he’d wanted to leave Jocelyn’s house because he wanted nothing more than to stay in Jocelyn’s house. With her. Forever.
He was going a little crazy.
Especially since finding the plate of whoopie pies in the kitchen that morning.
Jocelyn had, apparently, gotten up either in the middle of the night or very early that morning to make them.
He’d made the mistake of tasting one.
The whoopie pie was the fifth best thing he’d ever had in his mouth.
Right after Jocelyn’s pussy and her nipples and her tongue and well, any other part of her body. In that order.
It had been killing him to not touch her, not kiss her. He’d been keeping his hands to himself as she recovered from the surgery, letting it be her choice when they were intimate again.
She hadn’t initiated anything yet.
That was also driving him crazy. Not only because he was dying to be with her again, but because he was afraid that she was pulling away. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. And he’d never been afraid about that with any other woman. Ever.
Needless to say, he’d been thrilled to get Whitney’s text last night that they needed to meet ASAP about the new snack cake they wanted to add to their product line.
He needed something to take his mind off the fact that he wanted to stay married to his wife. He was sure that would sound as stupid out loud as it did in his head. Which was why he hadn’t said it to anyone. Including his friends. Including his wife herself.
“Okay,” he said, trying to focus on Whitney and his job. “What specifically do we need to rethink?”
“This contest is completely nuts,” she said bluntly.
Grant grinned in spite of his tumultuous thoughts about his wife. His wife. Damn, he liked calling Josie that. “My understanding is that it’s nuts, at least in part, because of you.”
Whitney groaned and slumped back in her chair. “Oh my God, it is. I don’t know what happened. I go in to have a short conversation with Ollie about something, and two hours later we’re talking about food trucks and if you can hire acrobats for community events.”
“Acrobats?” Grant repeated. “Piper didn’t mention acrobats.”
Whitney nodded. “Ollie said we shouldn’t tell her.”
Oh damn. Ollie knew enough not to tell Piper every plan? What else was he keeping from her? From them? How much had he kept from them all over the nine years they’d been working together? Grant started to feel his head start to ache and knew he’d be heading for his top left desk drawer after this. That’s where he kept the bottle of antacids with DAX written on the side in Piper’s handwriting. OLLIE was written on the side of his bottle of ibuprofen.
“And can you hire acrobats for community events?” Grant asked.
“You can. But they can’t do tightrope or trapeze stuff, of course. They can just do tumbling and juggling and things like that.”
“So how many acrobats do we have coming?”
“None. If they can’t ride a unicycle across a tightrope then what’s the point?” Whitney asked. “That’s a direct quote from Ollie, by the way.”
Grant sighed. Partially in relief, for sure. “How did this circus theme happen anyway?”
“I made the mistake—in hindsight I realize it was a mistake anyway—of saying something about the whole thing turning into a circus,” Whitney said. “He just took off from there. But”—she hesitated and sighed—“I got caught up in it. It was fun. Just letting the ideas run wild, not having any restraints. I didn’t realize that he’s actually serious about everything he says.”
Grant chuckled. “He’s not. He depends on the rest of us to tell him no or that it’s getting crazy. I’m sure that when he saw you were on board, he figured he was on track and coming up with brilliant plans.”
Her eyes widened. “He was waiting for me to pull him back?”
“Yep.”
She chewed on her bottom lip.