Semi-Sweet On You (Hot Cakes #4) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,69
important. If she wasn’t at a meeting, it didn’t make a difference. She didn’t have deadlines. So she could sleep late with Didi after being up grilling burgers by the pool at 3 a.m. and watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—one of Didi’s favorites—on a huge movie projector from their chaise lounge chairs until five.
Now she couldn’t do that. Not only would the guys notice—something she actually appreciated—but she now did have work to do. Work she wanted to do. Work she wanted to do well.
Work she couldn’t do while a little hung over from 3 a.m. hard root beers that Didi insisted went with the burgers—she wasn’t wrong—or the heartburn that went with eating the french fries dipped in spicy aioli—that Didi also insisted went with the burgers and that she also wasn’t wrong about—at 3 a.m.
Whitney let herself into the house, wondering what shenanigans Didi had been up to today and how Cam had handled it. Because Whitney was sure there had been shenanigans. Of course, the way Didi had talked him into this crazy plan of moving in here in the first place had Whitney pretty sure that Didi was getting her way with Camden McCaffery. The big, tough bad-boy lawyer was probably wrapped around Didi’s little finger.
Then again, Didi had a thing for muscles and tattoos—something Whitney had found out watching movies with her grandmother and hadn’t particularly needed or wanted to know. So Whitney wouldn’t be surprised to find out Cam had charmed Didi into doing whatever he told her to do.
Either way, honestly, it had been nice to not feel the need to rush home and to be able to focus at work until she got through what she’d determined to be the top things on her to-do list.
The house was quiet. Surprisingly so.
Lights were on and she heard the sounds of water running and a hand mixer from the kitchen. She glanced up the stairs. The upper hallway light was on, as it was once Didi went to bed so that when she inevitably got up in the night, she wouldn’t stumble in the dark.
It was likely Cam in the kitchen.
Whitney’s heart thumped at the realization. She also realized she’d been anticipating seeing him.
She shouldn’t.
She shouldn’t get used to him being here. She shouldn’t like him being here. It was nice that he was here helping if Didi really did want him here. Whitney definitely wanted her grandmother to be happy, of course. And it was only for the month. That made it not one-hundred percent crazy. Maybe only eighty percent.
But the strongest emotion Whitney should feel was gratitude. Gratitude that she could work late. And that Didi was happy. And that her house hadn’t been on fire at any point in the hours since she’d left it that morning.
As far as she knew.
If there had been a fire, it had been taken care of and the house was still standing. That was fine in Whitney’s book. As long as she didn’t have to deal with it.
She stopped in the doorway to the kitchen.
Cam was at the stove, his back to her. He was stirring something in a bowl on the counter next to the stove. There was a pan of something on the stove and she noticed a cake pan next to him as well. It smelled heavenly. Chocolatey. Rich.
He was wearing one of her grandmother’s aprons too. Over a dark gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans. The t-shirt fit snugly to his shoulders and back which tapered to his waist and tight ass. His muscles bunched as he stirred, drawing her attention, as always, to his tattoos.
Yeah, her grandma wasn’t the only one who liked muscles and tattoos.
Whitney sighed.
Gratitude was not the only thing she felt about him being here.
She felt hot and like there were bees buzzing around in her stomach. Not butterflies. Nothing as gentle and sweet as that. The sensation was a lot more insistent and absolutely not sweet.
She also felt conflicted.
So Cam wasn’t really her boss in the way that she might have to worry if she was the VP of Marketing and Sales in any other company. The owners of the company, including Cam, trusted her and needed her. They didn’t treat her like a subordinate. She didn’t actually think they’d fire her if she and Cam slept together. Even if it ended badly and she threw one of Zoe’s muffins at him during a meeting. Or something.