Susan Mallery - Sweet Spot

“Are they causing any trouble?”

“No. They’re real polite. It’s just weird.”

Nicole had to agree with her. “Let me see what’s going on,” she said.

She walked to the front of the store. Sure enough most of the tables were full of teenagers laughing and talking. They were a little loud, but not doing anything she could object to. She was about to turn away, when she recognized one of the girls. A pretty blonde in shorts and a T-shirt who smiled and waved.

“Hi,” the girl said. “I’m Brittany. We met last night.”

“Raoul’s girlfriend.” Hawk’s daughter-a fact that was still hard to believe.

“Right. We’re waiting until he gets off work, then we’re all going to lunch and a movie.”

“Sounds like fun.” Nicole glanced at the clock. It was quarter to twelve. “I’ll go tell him you’re here so he can finish up. It should only be a couple of minutes.”

“Thanks, but he doesn’t have to hurry. We’re having fun. Your Danish are incredible.”

Nicole patted her hip. “Tell me about it.”

She returned behind the counter where Maggie waited. “You know them?” her employee asked.

“I met a couple of them last night at the football game.”

Maggie had worked at the bakery for years. She and Nicole were friends, so a simple questioning look got the point across.

“I don’t know what I was doing at a high school football game,” Nicole admitted. “Raoul plays. He asked me to go. I wanted to be supportive. He introduced me to Brittany, his girlfriend. She’s a cheerleader.”

Maggie started laughing.

Nicole glanced at the kids. “Stop it. Nothing about this is funny.”

“It is to me. You’re popular.”

“Great. It only took ten years of being out of high school for that to happen.”

Nicole went in the back and told Raoul he could leave early. According to Sid and Phil, he was doing a great job. She appreciated having her instincts validated. She was about to leave herself when Maggie found her.

“You have a gentleman caller waiting out front.”

Nicole winced, even as her heart started thundering in her chest. Hawk? Was it Hawk? She hated how much she wanted it to be him. “No one talks like that.”

“I do and he’s gorgeous.”

Definitely Hawk.

“Thanks,” Nicole said. “I’ll go see what he wants.”

Maggie patted her hairnet. “If you’re not interested, ask him if he’s into older women. He’s what, in his mid-thirties? That’s only twenty years.”

Nicole grinned. “You’re happily married.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Nicole returned to the front of the bakery. The teenagers were gone. Hawk stood by the counter, looking more tempting than anything in the bakery. She would take him over chocolate lava cake any day.

Without wanting to, she remembered their kiss from the previous night. How he’d left her both wanting and afraid. Maybe she’d exaggerated the fear. If they kissed again, she would know for sure.

“Hey,” he said, giving her a slow, sexy smile that sent her heart into a healthy aerobic state.

“Hey, yourself.”

Low blood sugar, she told herself. It was low blood sugar. Or the flu. It couldn’t be the man. She refused to be nothing more than a quivering mass of nerves over a guy.

“I wanted to stop by and thank you for last night.”

Nicole heard a snort behind her and knew that Maggie was listening. She ignored her friend.

“Thank me?” He couldn’t mean the kiss, could he?

“For taking those kids to the pizza place and hanging around. For listening. You’re a great role model. Older than the students, but not a parent. You’re successful, together, someone they can look up to.”

Which all sounded nice but couldn’t she be his sex slave instead? No, wait. She wanted to be successful and together. Sex slave wasn’t her most comfortable role. She’d always been the girl-next-door type. Something told her that wasn’t Hawk’s style.

“You didn’t come out here to thank me,” she said, wondering if he was playing her and how long it would be before she trusted a man again.

“That’s part of why I came by.”

“And the other part?”

“Dessert.”

She flashed to a very big bed with rumpled sheets, naked bodies and someone-hopefully her-moaning with pleasure. That was a dessert she could get into.

He pulled a sheet of paper out of his back pocket. “We’re talking about thirty-five guys, a couple of parents, some friends. So say fifty people. Nothing fancy.”

She blinked. “You’re here to order dessert for fifty?”

“Uh-huh. Sunday afternoon we review the films from the game Friday night. It keeps them focused on the prize. I like them wired up on sugar. That way no one falls asleep. I’ve been using another bakery, but I like yours better. So what have you got?”

Disappointment made her want to snap at him, but she didn’t. No point in letting him know how pathetic she was.

“You won’t want a cake,” she said, stepping behind the counter and reviewing the contents of the case. “I would say cupcakes and cookies. I can put a selection together.”

“That would be great.”

“Any flavor requests?”

One of Hawk’s eyebrows raised slightly. “What do you suggest?”

No way she was falling for that, she told herself. “The usual cookies. Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. They’re frosted but not decorated. Probably better that way.”

“You’re resisting.”

“What?” she asked.

“My charm.”

“Were you being charming?”

“You know I was.” He handed her a card.

She glanced at it. There was a logo for the high school, the address, his name and a phone number with an extension.

“This is?” she asked.

“Where I need everything delivered. About two-thirty tomorrow. The meeting room by the gym. I wrote the directions on the back.”

“I’m not delivering this stuff.”

“I have nowhere to store it. Or a way to get it there.”

She looked past him to the big truck parked in front of the bakery. “That would hold a lot.”

“Probably, but if you brought the dessert, you could stick around for the films.”

“I already saw the game once.”

“Not with me explaining what happened.”

Why on earth would he want her there? “It’s Sunday.”

“Do you have plans?”

“No, but that’s not the point.”

“Sure it is. Come on. You’ll have fun.”

She was confused, and not being in control always annoyed her. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because if you spend time with me, you’ll like me.”

“And that matters why?”

“You need to like me so you’ll want to sleep with me.”

Nicole was grateful for the cane. It helped keep her upright. “This is all about getting me into bed?”

“Naked,” Hawk added in a mock whisper. “Don’t leave out the best part.”

She totally understood her attraction to him. He was amazing looking and kind of funny and maybe nice, even if he was a playboy. Obviously there was a chemical thing going on, but that only explained her end of things. She wasn’t making it easy, which begged the question…

“Why me?”

“You intrigue me. You’re not easy.”

That was it? He couldn’t say he thought she was pretty or interesting or sexy? Intriguing was as good as it was going to get?

“I’m not sure about your standards,” she muttered, feeling slightly sick to her stomach.

She turned away. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back so they were facing each other and suddenly much closer than they had been.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said, staring directly into her eyes. “I want to see you again. Naked would be my first choice, but I’ll deal with clothes if I have to. Despite what those women you were talking to might have said, I don’t do this a whole lot. There’s something about you, Nicole. I can’t figure it out, but I will.”

And then what? He would be over her?

She didn’t know what to say, what to think. What was he asking? To date her? To have sex? Both?

She wanted to say yes, but the fear returned. The chilling emotion that warned her that, while she might be over Drew, she wasn’t over being hurt and she wasn’t ready to get involved or even play. Not that she’d ever been much of a player.

“Say yes,” he told her.

“I can’t.”

He leaned in and kissed her. It was hard and hot, his tongue pushing into her mouth. He took what he wanted and left her breathless. She kissed him back, feeling her blood heat. It was a battle of wills. Based on the way they were both breathing hard when they pulled apart, there was no clear winner.

“Say yes,” he repeated.

If only she could.

He sighed. “Bring dessert.”

“Okay.”

He released her and was gone. When her head stopped spinning, she saw he’d left a hundred-dollar bill on the counter, which would cover a whole lot of cookies and cupcakes.

Maggie walked in from the back.

“That was interesting,” she said. “He’s very clear about what he wants. I like that in a man. You should go out with him.”

“I can’t. I’m not ready to have a relationship.”

“Who said anything about a relationship?” Maggie’s smile faded. “Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot about what happened.”

Nicole bristled at the pity she saw in her friend’s eyes. She wanted to defend herself, to say she was doing fine. Based on how she couldn’t handle Hawk’s playful invitation, that wasn’t true.

“I’ll get the order together,” Maggie said. “You head home.”

“Okay. I’ll be in to pick it up tomorrow.”

Nicole left.

On the drive home, she tried to talk herself into a better mood. She should be grateful she had friends who cared. And she was. Sort of. But she really, really hated anyone feeling sorry for her. She prided herself on managing. Whatever happened in her life, she managed.

It was her own fault, she reminded herself. She’d wanted to go out with Drew. She’d accepted when he’d proposed. She’d known she wasn’t madly in love with him, but she’d begun to think no one would ever care about her enough to want to marry her. A stupid reason to get involved. There was nothing like a little hindsight to make everything clear. Unfortunately, knowing what she should have done didn’t change the past.

So now what? How did she get over what had happened? She wasn’t missing her bastard of an ex-husband, but she sure wanted her pride and self-respect back. If only she could buy them online.

She was still smiling at the thought when she pulled up in front of her house. A familiar car was parked on the street. The guy leaning against the car straightened as she drove by.

Speak of the devil, she thought grimly.

Drew waved as she circled around to the garage in back. She ignored him and parked, but he was waiting when she walked to the door and she had a bad feeling that ignoring him wasn’t going to make him go away.

“GO AWAY,” Nicole said by way of greeting.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Amazingly I do.”

She thought about standing on the porch and refusing to go in the house, but wasn’t excited about providing entertainment for her neighbors.

She went inside, knowing he would follow, walked to the center of the room, then faced him.

“Say what you have to say and get out.”

“That’s not very friendly.”

“What a surprise.”

She was pleased to see that the gouge on his cheek wasn’t healing all that fast. The last time Drew had come calling, it had been the middle of the night. Claire had still been staying there. She’d attacked him with a high-heeled shoe that had done an impressive amount of damage.

Drew didn’t seem bothered by her lack of welcome. He smiled at her. “I’ve missed you, babe, and I know you’ve missed me.”

He still had the ability to leave her speechless, she thought, stunned by his arrogance. “What am I supposed to miss? You sleeping with my sister?”

He threw up his hands. “When are you going to let that go?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe when I feel as if either of you are the least bit remorseful about what you did. You’ve never apologized or admitted you did anything wrong.”

Jesse hadn’t. She kept complaining that Nicole wouldn’t believe her. So far she hadn’t heard anything that would excuse their actions.

“It wasn’t what you think,” Drew grumbled. “You’re taking it all wrong.”

That made Nicole wish she knew how to throw a knife. Or hit really, really hard. “You were in my sister’s bedroom, on her bed, kissing her. Her shirt was off and your hand was on her bare breast. What about that isn’t what I think?”

Drew shifted uncomfortably. “I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough.”

“This is so typical,” he said, his voice getting angry. “You take everything so seriously. Yeah, I made a mistake. People do that. Even you. I told you Jesse shouldn’t be here after we were married.”