Semi-Sweet On You (Hot Cakes #4) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,14

absolutely get and hold his attention. It was fascinating.

Whitney blew out a breath. “That doesn’t make this better now. Why didn’t you stop him from having goats here?”

They were having a baking contest. On a stage. In the middle of the town square. Three handsome men were going to make three different desserts, cooking-show style, then the final judge was going to choose the winner. That winning recipe would become Hot Cakes’ newest product.

This was Whitney’s first big project for Hot Cakes since she’d gotten new bosses. The first big project she’d pitched to someone other than a family member. Ever.

The first big project that someone had said, “Wow. Yes. Let’s do that.” Ever.

And now she felt like she was going to throw up.

Hot Cakes had never added a new product. The products that made the company millions of dollars every year had been the same for over fifty years. But now with new owners it was the perfect time to launch something fresh.

Or so Whitney had told Aiden, Grant, Ollie, Dax, and Cam during her pitch last month.

And they’d bought it. They loved the idea. They thought it was brilliant. Well, four of them had anyway. Cam had seemed… determined to make her squirm.

She shifted her weight and shot a glance in his direction. He was standing off to the side of the stage with Ollie and one of the Hot Cakes employees, Max.

This was a terrible idea.

Cam had been making her squirm since he’d gotten back to Appleby and walked into that meeting last month and then volunteered himself as one of the bakers for this event.

But that had been nothing compared to the jumpy, jittery heat that had been plaguing her since last night and their little showdown in her office.

He wanted to date her? As in really date her? What? That made no sense.

Except that everything he’d laid out made a lot of sense.

Anyone who knew anything about their history—basically his four best friends and his entire family—would be wondering how things stood between them.

The only reason her family wasn’t wondering was because all of them except Didi were now living in Dallas where their new company was based. Didi’s dementia made it so that she would likely be unaware of Cam’s involvement in Hot Cakes, and even if she did hear his name in connection, it would surely be difficult for her to put him together with Whitney’s boyfriend from a decade ago.

But, yes, everyone who was aware of the fact that Cam now owned part of Hot Cakes and therefore worked with Whitney, would likely wonder how that was going.

Couldn’t they just be friends?

Just then he tipped his head back and laughed at something Max had said and her stomach clenched. Hard.

No, they probably couldn’t just be friends.

Not when she wanted to jump into his arms, wrap her arms and legs around him, and kiss him until he was squeezing her ass and groaning her name. Like she had done probably a hundred times in the past.

Ugh.

It had already been difficult to keep her composure around him, but now she knew he wanted her too. How was she supposed to ignore that? How was she supposed to walk into the conference room for a meeting and not immediately flush or stammer or trip over her feet?

Damn him for stirring all of that up. She wanted to be composed, totally professional, brilliant and organized and impressive and capable, so that the guys would offer her a partnership. Or so they would at least say yes when she asked to buy in.

But now she was going to have to deal with personal feelings for Cam the whole time? The composed part was out the window, probably. And if she couldn’t handle working with him, why would the guys think she was partner material?

On top of that, she couldn’t quite shake the idea that Cam had done it on purpose. Was he testing her? Maybe not to fire her. She believed his sincerity when he said he wanted her right there watching him and his friends make her family’s company into a huge success. But maybe he was testing to see just how not over him she was and if he could get her to admit that she’d been wrong to let him go.

Well, the thing about that was… she hadn’t been wrong.

He’d had an amazing college football career. He had a law degree. He’d met three of his four best friends who would be in his