style="font-size:15px;"> Colton thought about responding to Stacey, but he couldn’t find the right words. So he returned to his truck, swearing all the way as he hauled in the second load of pies. How could he explain himself? He wanted her, but he wanted to be sensible. With her history, he thought they should take their time. Plus, there was a baby involved. He didn’t want to mess things up.
“Hey, Colton, you sure you don’t want to share one of those pies with us while we wait out here in the cold?” a neighbor called from the crowd.
Colton paused only a half beat. “I don’t have a fork handy for you,” he said in return.
“I don’t need a fork. I’ll just eat with my hands. I love your mama’s pies,” the neighbor called back.
Colton chuckled despite his black mood and shook his head, walking to the dessert booth he would share with Stacey. His chuckle faded as he reentered the booth and set down the second haul of pies.
“You might want to put those on the table against the wall,” she said as she arranged the desserts on the front table. “We don’t want them to know we have a lot of them. They’ll buy faster if they’re afraid we’ll run out.”
“True,” he said, and moved half the pies to the back table. “Are the cupcakes okay?”
“The frosting on two of them got smashed, but the rest are okay,” she said.
“I can eat the damaged ones,” he offered.
She shot him a disapproving glance. “We may have someone desperate enough to buy them,” she said. “We’re trying to make money for the mobile library, not stuff our faces.”
“I wasn’t suggesting we stuff our faces,” Colton said. “I just wanted to stuff mine.”
Stacey rolled her eyes and turned away, but Piper craned her head around to look at him. He couldn’t deny she was cute. She batted her big eyes at him. Colton hid his face in a game of silent peekaboo.
After a few times of peekaboo, Piper let out a gurgling laugh. It was, Colton thought, one of the best sounds in the world. He played peekaboo again, and Piper let out a joyous shriek.
Stacey whipped around and glared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing.”
“Hmm,” she said in a short, disbelieving tone. “The attendees should be coming through soon.” She turned her back to him again.
Piper looked at Colton, and he wiggled his fingers and smiled at her. She smiled coyly, then giggled.
Stacey glanced over her shoulder at Colton.
“What?” he asked.
She made a huffing sound and turned away to arrange a display of cupcakes. Colton couldn’t help noticing Stacey’s backside. He couldn’t help remembering squeezing her curvy hips as he slid inside....
Colton felt his body instantly respond to the memory and visual. He shifted his stance and cleared his throat. “How have you been doing?”
Stacey immediately whipped around and stared at him with a wide-eyed gaze. “Since when?”
Colton shrugged. “Since last week.”
“Oh, you mean since the day we had sex twice in your bed and you rushed me out the door because you didn’t want your family asking questions and then chose not to call me. Even once.”
Colton’s gut twisted. Just in case he’d wondered, he now knew that Stacey had wanted him to call. He’d been unsure about how she’d felt since he’d taken her in his bed. Before, during and afterward, he’d wished that he could take her somewhere more private, but he’d been so hungry for her, and she’d seemed to feel the same way about him. Someone had to get control in this situation, although he was pretty sure he was nowhere near control. He didn’t know if he could trust Stacey’s feelings for him. To be honest, he wasn’t sure if he was a rebound man for her.
“I wasn’t sure you wanted me to call,” he admitted.
She screwed up her face in a confused expression. “Why would you think that?”
“Well, you left pretty fast,” he said.
“After you pushed me along,” she said.
“I was trying to protect you,” he said. “Did you really want to have to explain to anyone in my family why you were walking out of my bedroom with your hair all messed up and your coat on the floor in the hallway?”
Her hostility lowered a couple of notches. “I guess not,” she said and paused. “But that still doesn’t explain why you haven’t called,” she practically spat at him and turned around as the first attendees began to wander toward their booth.
After that, everything turned into a blur. It seemed that everyone who stopped at the booth wanted a pie or cupcake. The cupcakes went first because they were pretty and inexpensive. Every time Colton sold one of those cupcakes, he had to resist the urge to eat it. Red velvet with cream cheese frosting. His mouth watered. He kept hoping he could persuade Stacey to give him one of the defective cupcakes, but they were moving so quickly that he was losing hope. The booth was so tight she brushed against him every time she moved from the front to the back. He didn’t know which was worse, the temptation of Stacey’s body or of her red velvet cupcakes. Another brush of her sexy hips against his and his question was answered. He wanted Stacey a lot more than he wanted cupcakes.
“I need to ask a favor of you,” she said, pulling at the straps of her baby carrier.
He shrugged. “What do you need?”
“To go to the bathroom. I’d prefer to go without Piper. Can you take her for a bit?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said, feeling lame for not offering sooner. “Can I have one of those cupcakes in exchange? Half?” he added when he saw her frown. He needed some sort of consolation for how much he wanted her and couldn’t have her, although he suspected a cupcake wasn’t going to do the job.
“Half,” she said, and eased the carrier from her shoulders. “You want to put her on your back?” she asked.
“That sounds good,” he said, and turned around so she could help strap the carrier on him.
“I’ll put her so she’s facing away from you. That way she’ll keep her fingers out of your hair. I’ll be back soon,” she said.
“We’ll be here,” he said.
Piper made an indistinguishable noise, but she didn’t cry, so he figured he was good. He continued to sell pies and cupcakes, although the cupcakes were growing scarcer. “I need to put this cupcake in a protective place,” he murmured and hid the treat behind his cup of coffee at the back table.
He smelled a peculiar odor, but was too busy to focus on it when a rush of attendees bought pies. Thank goodness, the pies were popular. Colton couldn’t deny, however, that he was ready for this to be over. He’d rather be driving posts in dry ground than this.
Stacey returned,
