No Matter What (The Billionaires of Sawgrass #4) - Delaney Cameron Page 0,72
lost. It was only the urgent need for oxygen that forced him to pull away. His glance instinctively shifted to the house.
“We’re safe,” she told him. “Owen does his spying at the end of the evening.”
“In that case, I’ll make sure we’re well out of visual range tonight.”
“Counting your chickens, aren’t you?” she asked with a teasing grin.
“There’s a decent amount of evidence to prove I’m not going out on a limb.”
When he joined her inside, Robin was reapplying the lip gloss he’d had a hand in removing. The one she was using today had an orangey tint and tasted like peaches.
“You’ll soon have another customer wanting a wedding cake,” he said. “Sylvie and my mechanic got themselves engaged last night. I’m not used to seeing her so out of it. Every time I walked by her office, she was either staring into space or lost in admiration of her ring.”
“That’s understandable. Getting engaged doesn’t happen every day. As for her wedding cake, I hope she lets Truly Scrumptious make it.”
Reece drew up to the stoplight at the end of the street. “I can’t imagine her going anywhere else. What was your day like?”
“It started off really nice. This sweet guy sent me flowers. Then I got to the shop and reality set in. One of the ovens stopped working halfway through a batch of cupcakes. I was able to get a repairman out to fix it, but until he did, I had to use the oven at my house. It wasn’t very efficient, but it got the job done. The afternoon went much smoother. I had a cake tasting. Those are always fun.”
“It sounds like it. Can I sign up for one?”
A gurgle of laughter escaped her. “No, but Sylvie and her fiancé can. Cake tastings are for engaged couples. We provide samples of cake flavors, fillings and icings for the bride and groom to try. Deciding on a wedding cake is a big deal. It’s the most expensive cake a couple will ever purchase, not to mention the most photographed.”
“I didn’t realize so much went into it.”
“I recently did a cake with seven tiers. Between baking, icing, and decorating, I spent nearly thirty hours on it.”
“Thirty hours? There’s a lot I have to learn about the cake business. How do you transport something that big?”
“Very carefully. We use dowel rods to hold the tiers together and pack them in boxes we made ourselves. Then we drive at a snail’s pace and hope we don’t have to come to any sudden stops. If there is any damage, it’s usually minor and can be fixed on-site.”
“Have you had any more mothers of the bride trying to interfere?”
“No.” Robin shifted in the seat to look at him. “You really were paying attention that night in Savannah.”
“Like I told you this morning, I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. I went as a favor, and ended up having my socks blown off by my stepbrother’s knock-out girlfriend.”
She smiled at his colorful expression. “I’ve never been called a knock-out before. What do you mean you went as a favor?”
“Wade invited me. He thought it would be less stressful for you if someone else was there to distract Maxine. It didn’t take long for him to regret that decision. I got an earful about my underhanded efforts to steal you away when I ran into him at Maxine’s birthday party. He stopped short of blaming me for your breakup, so that’s something I guess.”
“Wade was looking for something to complain about, and you were an easy target. As I told him several times, you never did anything out of line. Until yesterday, I had no idea you thought of me as anything but a friend. Owen was Wade’s other target. He wasn’t happy about me being a guardian, and he was even more upset when I refused to send Owen to live with Daniel’s sister Barb. He compared my decision to keep my promise to Piper and Daniel as unnecessary and falling on a sword.”
“I wondered if Owen might be part of the reason you broke up.”
“He was the tip of the iceberg. The real issue was Wade not wanting kids. He says his life isn’t built for them. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a personal choice, but it’s not one I could go along with.”
Reece chalked another one up to Sylvie. She’d been in the right ballpark when she said Wade was all about his career. “Me, either, but to each his