Page 24 of Cakewalk

“Yes! I’ve gotten a couple of requests from people wanting to buy desserts for Thanksgiving and wondering if we took orders for cakes. I wasn’t sure what your schedule was or if you would be comfortable with that, so I wanted to check before I made a sign and started advertising it.”

“Thanksgiving? Orders?” Gigi choked out. People wanted her to make the desserts for their Thanksgiving? Holy cow…

“Right?! It’s so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away. I swear yesterday was the Fourth of July!” Audrey said. “So, if it’s cool with you, I was thinking we wouldn’t overcomplicate this, but offer the option to purchase six or twelve cupcakes, and then a small cake or a bigger one? You can tell me what sizes you think would be easiest for you to bust out. I know this is kind of short notice, but I’d love it if you thought we could pull it off. Roderick makes cookies for every major holiday, and they’re incredibly popular, but ever since Crumbs closed down, Colebury hasn’t had anything like this. I’d love it if we could fill that hole. And maybe take some burden off of him. Last year I’m pretty sure he didn’t sleep for a week trying to finish Christmas cookies.” The smile that spread across her face was contagious, and Gigi couldn’t stop herself from returning one just as big.

“Of course!” Gigi exclaimed, her mind still reeling from what her boss just told her. “Can we limit flavors as well? That way I can just make large batches of everything.”

“Absolutely! I can’t wait to tell Zara—she’s going to be stoked!”

A thrill rushed through Gigi as this all started to sink in. She’d done it. She’d turned it all around and was making this whole baking thing a success. People wanted to special order her cakes—that was something that she would have laughed at just a month ago, and now…well, now it was a reality. She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Holden.

“What are your Thanksgiving plans?” Audrey asked, plucking Gigi out of her thoughts. “If you don’t have any, you’re more than welcome to come join us.”

The offer made Gigi stop in her tracks. She hadn’t even considered what she would do for the holiday. She and Bradley had always joined their parents at the country club for the day, enjoying the large buffet and mingling with a number of personal and business acquaintances. She knew Audrey had married into a large family and that they lived just outside of town, but the idea of joining the Shipleys made her uneasy. Thinking of all those people who would be curious about her and her story. No, she would prefer a small meal with just her and Holden at the kitchen table.

Holden.

Suddenly an idea struck her, and a different kind of thrill rushed through her. She’d mastered the baking part of it, so how hard could the cooking part of it be?

“Thanks, but I already have plans.”

Now, she just had to pull it off.

* * *

Holden

The damn blinking cursor was taunting him again and Holden had no idea how to stop it. He’d spent the better part of the afternoon staring at the open document in front of him but hadn’t typed more than a handful of words—all of which he’d then deleted—since he’d sat down. At this point, he’d give any one of his organs if he could just write something.

Mindlessly, he picked up the last of the crumbs from the Harvey Wallbanger cake that Gigi had made the other night and tossed them into his mouth. This cake had turned out incredible, and he had already told her at least twice that she needed to make it again. Of course, pretty much everything she had made these last couple of weeks had been good, causing him to add an extra mile to his daily run just to make sure it didn’t start to catch up to him.

“Holden! Holden!” Gigi’s sweet southern accent rang out from downstairs, the front door slamming behind her. Glancing down at the clock on his computer, he realized it was a lot later in the day than he thought. Another day wasted on not writing.

“Up in the loft,” he hollered, hoping that his voice would carry down to her.

His life had changed so much since she’d waltzed her way into it—but he wouldn’t change it for a second. Much to his surprise, he was enjoying having her around. He liked having the company inside the house. And not just the company, her company to be specific. Her bright smile and bubbly personality had come out more and more ever since he’d kissed her that day, and he was enjoying every second of getting to know her.

And then there was that kiss.

He knew he shouldn’t have kissed her. But she had been so damn cute sitting on the kitchen floor, covered in whipping cream. The almost dejected look on her face had broken his heart, and the only thing he could think to do in that moment was kiss it off her. He’d been so amped up from all their flirting and innuendos all afternoon that he just couldn’t help it. There hadn’t been any blood left in his head for thinking—it had all rushed to his dick. But it wasn’t fair to her. She’d just lost her husband; she didn’t need another man kissing her. Even if the guy had been the biggest prick on earth—which from the very little Gigi had told Holden about him, he was pretty sure that he had been the biggest prick on earth—he didn’t need to be making moves on her like that. Not to mention, he had his own wife’s memory to be respecting.

But it had been one hell of a fucking kiss.

Footsteps on the stairs to the loft drew his eyes away from the screen in time to see Gigi pop up into the room. She looked as beautiful as always in her skinny jeans and fitted purple knit top. Her long blonde hair was falling loosely around her shoulders. She looked like some kind of angel as she skipped toward him.

“Oh my goodness, Holden! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what!” she squealed, almost jumping up and down as she reached his desk.

“What?” he said, sitting back in his chair. He’d never seen her anywhere near this excited, and he had no idea what could have possibly set her off like this.

“People want my cakes! The Busy Bean is going to be taking orders for cakes and cupcakes for Thanksgiving! Isn’t that amazing?!”

“Wow,” he said. He suddenly felt nauseous at the mention of Thanksgiving. Was that already next week?

“It’s gonna mean a bunch of extra hours this weekend, but still. People like my stuff enough to want to have it at their holiday meal!”

“That’s incredible, Gigi. I’m excited for you.”

Holden sucked in a deep breath as the room started to spin around him. He could hear that Gigi was still talking, but he had no idea what she was saying. It was like she was the teacher in a Peanuts cartoon—all he could hear was noise.