Page 15 of Suddenly Yours

“Right. Of course.”

He hesitated like he wanted to say something else, then didn’t. Just gave a short nod and walked out.

The sound of the door shutting echoed.

I stood in the middle of the bakery, hands on my head, groaning into the stillness.

“What is wrong with you?” I whispered to myself. “You kissed him? You just launched at him like some hormonal animal?”

I paced around the kitchen.

I argued with myself.

I replayed the scene until I wanted to rewind my entire existence.

Then, exhausted, I put the cake in the fridge, locked up, and headed home as a light spring rain started falling.

The next morning, the bakery hummed with morning traffic.

Cade didn’t show.

Not for his coffee. Not for his breakfast.

By 10 a.m., I was convinced that I’d ruined everything—our friendship, the easy bond we had through all our twenty-four years together, all of it.

Suddenly pissed that something so small as a kiss could ruin the strong bond we had, I grabbed my phone and typed:

“The kiss meant nothing. Just impulse. Don’t make it weird.”

My thumb hovered before I hit send.

He didn’t respond.

Not a single bubble appeared.

Nothing.

By noon, my stomach had dropped so low I wasn’t sure it existed anymore. One moment I was pissed, the next I was in full panic mode.

What had I done?

I was serving a customer when the front bell chimed. I didn’t even bother looking up. I knew he was here. I could sense him.

I turned my head and slowly laid my eyes on him.

Cade stood there just inside the doorway in one of those flannel shirts he always wore. His hair was damp from the rain that was continuing to fall outside in a steady stream. He had a sheepish look on his face. One that for some reason I had never seen before.

My breath hitched.

“I, uh, think I left my phone here,” he said, stepping forward.

I blinked. “You… did?”

Suddenly, the last messages I had sent him, the ones where I was angry at him for letting a stupid kiss ruin our friendship, had my gut twisting.

He nodded. “I’ll just head back and check under the sink.”

My heart skipped. “No! I’ll go look,” I said, quickly retreating to the back.