Page 3 of Suddenly Yours

Max and Cora were far too graceful for my little bakery. My brother had studied dance all his life, thanks to our parents’ history and the fact that they had started Sharper Image Dance Company years before I was born. Still, Max had defied them by joining the army shortly after graduation. His military training made him move like every step had purpose. But his dance training made those steps ridiculously smooth. His rich honey-colored eyes scanned the room with that familiar mix of big-brother worry and silent amusement.

He wore a fitted black winter coat over a dark T-shirt and looked effortlessly artistic and annoyingly put together. Cora and Max had left the city for the slower life in Silver Cove and were in the process of opening their very own dance studio a few doors down.

Cora would run the local studio while Max ran my parents’ baby in New York. It didn’t require him to be there twenty-four seven, but it was clear he was pulling all the strings now. Especially since my parents, who were currently getting a divorce, spent most of their time bickering about money.

But I digress. I was happy that Sharper Image Dance Company was coming to Silver Cove, even if our parents were dead set against it. When they had put Max in charge, they had made the mistake of giving up too much control. Which meant Max could do as he pleased. And currently, he and Cora were dead set on making Silver Cove their home.

Cora hurried over and enveloped me in a hug, ignoring the fact that I was covered in flour. “We heard the stress in your text messages so we decided to head over and help out where we could.”

“My texts weren’t stressed,” I insisted.

“They had caps lock on,” Max said, already dropping to one knee in front of the still-beeping oven like he was disarming a bomb.

“I’m not panicking,” I argued as my voice hitched.

He shot me a look, his eyebrows fully raised. “You just practically said that in all caps.”

Cora gently pried a dough-covered spatula from my grip. I didn’t even know I was still holding it. “We will help. You just breathe,” she said with a reassuring smile.

“I am breathing,” I said and realized at the same time that I was feeling light-headed.

“Sweetheart, mental breathing doesn’t count,” she said warmly.

I gulped in a few breaths, as if proving it to her.

The bell chimed again and I stopped myself from throwing something at the door. I did not need anyone else seeing me like this.

If it was a customer, I was about to fake an emergency and shut the doors for good.

But it wasn’t a customer.

It was Cade. There wasn’t a day growing up that I didn’t remember Cade being around. We went to the same school. Attended family functions together, even though we weren’t related. We even went on family vacations every year side by side.

If Cade was here, that meant Max had called in reinforcements.

Cade stepped into the kitchen like a six-foot-four avalanche of calm and competence. His dark hair was ruffled from the wind outside on this brisk early spring morning in Maine. His broad shoulders filled out a gray T-shirt under the thick flannel he wore, which looked unfairly good on him. The only thing missing was the tool belt that usually hung low on his hip. His gaze swept the room, then landed on me.

And lingered.

Cade was everything Levi had never been.

Levi had been business-handsome and always wore a tailored suit. He’d been soft around the middle, and his blond hair was thinning already at twenty-four. Still, Levi had been handsome enough to win my heart, not to mention he’d been a smooth talker. He had always known just what to say to me and, for that matter, anyone else.

Cade, however, was sculpted, strong, agile, and impossible to push around. He often said the wrong things at the wrong times. He’d grown from a chubby kid into a ruggedly handsome hunk that most women drooled over. He looked like the country man next door that you wanted to bring over to fix your broken sink, then spend the entire time drooling over him while he worked.

Man, I was losing my mind. I tried to snap it back into the enormous task at hand, but then noticed Cade’s mouth curved as he smiled that stupid grin at me.

“Rough morning?” he joked, and I wanted to toss something heavy at his head. Then his eyes moved to my apron and I looked down at the flour, butter, and dough explosion that was all over my body.

“Define rough.” I groaned.

As if to answer, the oven’s loud beeping stopped suddenly behind me.

Cade glanced over at my brother. “Max said you might need backup.” He walked over and began looking at the machine that he’d installed a month ago. “I’ll take a look at it.”

“I didn’t say she needed backup,” Max corrected. “I said she might cry.”

“I’m not going to cry!” I almost shouted as my eyes started to burn. Okay, so I may have been on the verge of crying before they arrived.