Cupcakes and Christmas - R.J. Scott Page 0,58
have my mom, Maggie. She is a PTA dragon, involved in everything, always busy and alive and running through life at speed. My dad, James, is a used car salesman. He owns a Ford dealership, and my brother Joe works with him. Dad and I have been in a weird standoff since the Marc thing happened.”
“He didn’t like you marrying a man?”
“Huh? No, not at all, he pulled Marc into the family, gave him a job selling cars, only when it all imploded it became clear that Marc had been skimming the sales, doing deals, and pocketing the difference. So it made it awkward, even though I paid him back. He blames me, and he’s right because I should have known what Marc was doing.”
“Did you see him do it?”
“No, but I had suspicions about where he was sometimes… with other men.”
“But you didn’t know he was stealing from your dad as well?”
“No.”
“Then how is it your fault?”
“I should have known.”
He kissed me hard and whispered, “Idiot,” with affection. “So tell me about the rest of your family.”
“Adam is my twin. Joe is my older brother, works with my dad and is a sculptor in his spare time, and Lacey is the youngest.”
“She’s the one who works with you.”
“Yep, she’s a genius with flavor profiles, and she’s holding the fort and working on a separate business that we can combine so she has her own thing. She’s more into pastries and so on. I’m the cake side, it’s symbiotic.” That was a good word. “No one taught me to bake either. I learned from my nan’s copy of Alma Norman Bakes.”
He looked at me in surprise. “So we both started with the same book. Do you remember the lemon drizzle on twenty-three?”
“Yep, and the shortbread on twenty—”
“Did you ever try the flambéed cognac flan at the back?”
“So many times I could recite the warning in my sleep.”
Justin laughed and as he said it, he air-quoted, “Not for beginners so stay away unless you know how to play.”
I laughed as well, not just because we shared memories, but because he was smiling and genuinely happy. Somehow we’d taken on family history, and even though his had been hell compared to my walk in the park, he’d come out the other side, whole and sexy and mine.
Mine?
Well, there you go, seemed as if my brain was in on the whole attraction thing.
“Hey, you want to go check on Jeremy?” I asked, even though I’d already done it tonight.
He abruptly looked serious. “We should. I can’t believe I forgot.”
Wrapped in our coats, beanies pulled low over our ears, and gloves on our hands, we headed out into the frigid mountain air, our breath puffs of white in front of us. If he spotted my previous footprints near Jeremy or that the snowman was looking okay, he didn’t say anything. Instead, we scouted around for more twigs to make his arms better and laughed and joked about recipes from that old book, voting on each one out of ten and concluding that lemon drizzle was where it was at.
Finally, we’d done all we could and stood back to examine Jeremy in all his glory.
“Abigail would be pleased.”
We walked the entire path holding hands as new white stuff had fallen on packed snow and the walkway was slippery.
“So, I have something to say,” I began as we neared the lamps that lit the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel patio, I didn’t even give him a chance to wonder what it was. “I’m really attracted to you.” There. I’d said it. We were under the cover of the trees, and he tugged us to a stop. Nerves bit at me as I wondered what he was going to say.
“And I’m attracted to you.” He leaned into me and we kissed softly, flakes of snow falling onto us, and the cocoon of quietness was utterly perfect. “That sounds so Victorian, maybe I should say that I want you so much it hurts.” His voice dropped as he said it, and damn the man but I was hard again. However, I needed him to know that I wasn’t ready to launch myself into another search for happily ever after.
“I want to go slow.”
“So no blowjobs?” He blinked at me innocently, but I could see the smile he was trying to hold back.
“No, that doesn’t mean no to blowjobs.”
He smirked and punched me on the arm. “See, it’s never a no to blowjobs.”
I forged ahead. “But I’m just coming out