Falling Sweetly (Starling Falls #2) (11 page)

“Huh?” I repeated, and began to worry that this was the only sound my body was going to be able to produce for the rest of the night.

Jake stood up, walked over to where I was sitting and crouched in front of me. “What do you say?”

“Huh?”

Oh girl, you really need to pull yourself together. You sound like a broken record of a honking goose.

“I want to put a slightly new spin on home cooking. I want to make comfort food that makes people feel like they got a big hug from their plates, but leaves them wondering what that something special is. I’m going to need a fresh pair of eyes and someone with an amazing palate for that.”

He paused and took one of my hands as he stared pleadingly into my eyes.

Oh, damn him for giving puppy dog eyes a whole new meaning.

“Jake, I’m only trained as a pastry chef,” I told him quietly, “I don’t know how useful I’m going to be when it comes to creating the menu apart from the desserts section.”

“I’ve tasted your food,” he chuckled, “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. I promise to work around your schedule at the bakery. We’ll work the hours that suit you. So… What d’ya say?” he asked hopefully.

Nope. Nein. Non. Nyet. No, thank you.

There was an awkward, heavy silence as he looked at me expectantly. I felt the eyes of everyone in the room on me.

“Umm… okay?”

Annika Ray Abbott, you are the world’s biggest mug. You realise you’ve just signed yourself up for months of working alongside the friend you have a pathetic, prepubescent crush on. Stupid, stupid, so stupid!

Jake startled me by letting out a shout of happiness and picking me up off the chair to pull me into a ridiculously tight hug that squeezed all the air from my lungs. My feet dangled awkwardly in his embrace.

“Jake, you might want to put her down now, son, before she starts to turn blue,” Jeremy told him with a weird grin on his face.

“Oh, shit. Sorry,” Jake placed me back on my feet. He stared at me intensely for a moment, those blue eyes gleaming with happiness. “Thank you, ba- uh, Niki.”

Ba- uh Niki? That’s the second time he’s called me that. Is this some weird new nickname he’s trying out? If so, I’m not a fan.

“This is going to be great,” Jake said confidently.

Well, at least that makes one of us who thinks that.

I nodded weakly. “Mmhmm… I’m sure it will be.”

You bring this on yourself, you know.

CHAPTER 9

Annika

“You said you would do what now?” Mitchell asked as he took off his black leather jacket and put on a brown apron with the bakery’s name on the front over his tight white shirt.

“I know, I know. Can we please not talk about this anymore?”

He rested his hands on his slim hips and tilted his head to the side, a look of amused disbelief on his striking face. Mitch’s dark brown hair was styled into a fifties style quiff and his deep brown eyes sparkled with amusement.

He’d become a close friend since I’d started working at the bakery. Mitch was a little eccentric but loyal, and he certainly made work interesting.

After the third incident of me hiding in the kitchen when Jake came in for his morning coffee, Mitch had put two and two together, and made an accurate assumption about my feelings for him.

“Oh, you better believe we’re talking about this, Niki-Ray Abbott.”

When Mitch had discovered my middle name was Ray, he had taken to calling me by what he referred to as my ‘tragic country musician name’. Why? I wasn’t sure, but Mitch was not one to be argued with, so I’d decided it was easier to just go with it.

“It’s not going to affect the bakery, and if I do have to miss a shift or two, I’ll just ask Laurie to cover me. Her college has broken up for the summer, so she was looking to pick up some extra shifts anyway.”

“I’m not worried about that. I’m just curious. For months now, you’ve been acting so weird and hiding from the blond-haired, blue-eyed demi-God every time you’ve seen him, but now you’re going to be working with him? How the hell did the delectable Jake get you to say yes?” he asked as poured himself a cup of coffee.

“I’m not weird! Stop calling me weird!” I swatted at his arm lightly with a wooden spoon.

“Everyone one was staring at me! What was I supposed to say?
I know you’ve had a rough time of it lately, but I’m sorry I can’t help you because I’m quite clearly wired wrong in my brain and am unable to function like a rational woman around you
,” I ranted as I threw my hands up in exasperation.

“Hmm,” Mitch said, looking at me thoughtfully.

“What
hmm
? There is no
hmm
. I’m just going to help out a friend, and maybe being around him may help me to get over the whole… awkward emotions.” 

“Awkward emotions? Is that what we’re calling sexual tension and being horny as fuck now?” he asked as he swatted my behind with a rubber spatula.

“Mitchell Parker! Behave yourself. It is too early for you to start being filthy.”

He grinned and poured some vanilla flavoured creamer into his mug.

“I don’t get it. You’re obviously crushing on this guy hard. You’re cute, he’s cute. You guys should just bump uglies and be done with it. Otherwise working together is going to get very uncomfortable.”

“How would doing
that
help make things less uncomfortable? I’m no expert, but wouldn’t that just make things more uncomfortable? Also, both parties in a ‘bumping uglies’ situation have to be willing, Mitch. Otherwise it’s called sexual assault,” I said as I refilled the cinnamon rolls in the display case.

“And your point is? You’re bat-shit crazy if you think he isn’t willing to be all up in your business,” Mitch said, gesturing towards my breasts and hips. “Trust me, I know these things.”

“And how would you know these things? I’m pretty sure the last time you had any contact at all with a vagina was when you were coming out of one.”

“Uhm, because I have eyes. I know when a man wants a woman, and he wants you in all kinds of X-rated, naughty ways.” He rolled his hips obscenely while biting his lip suggestively.

“Oh my God. Stop! You are beyond delusional,” I said horrified, and smacked him on the arm.

“Niki, listen to Uncle Mitch, he speaks the truth. That man looks at you like you’re the tastiest cupcake on the shelf and he wants to lick off all the luscious frosting before devouring the cake in one big bite.”

I stopped and just stared at him confused. “What on earth are you talking about?”

He mirrored my confused expression. “Honestly, I’m not sure anymore. I lost my train of thought… And now I have a major cupcake craving.”

I laughed as he grabbed a chocolate cupcake from the display case. “Go take the bread out of the oven,
Uncle
Mitch.”

“Okay, fine. But first tell me, how does my hair look? This month’s musical is Grease. Auditions are today, and I’m a shoe in for the role of Kenickie.” He smoothed the hair on the sides of his head, and flashed me a cheesy grin.

Mitch was an active member of the Starling Falls community drama club. He claimed he best embodied characters through ‘method acting’.

Every month, I had learnt to expect a different character working with me in the bakery.

When the drama club had decided to do Phantom of the Opera, Mitch had walked around with a half mask and cape, though I had made him lose the mask after a couple of hours as it had started to scare the children.

I had seen most of their productions, and they had all been… unique. As Liya had pointed out, if the cast could actually sing, the productions probably wouldn’t be so… unusual.

Personally, I thought that it was great that the members of the groups had all found something they loved doing and were passionate about, even if they did struggle to match pitch, and members would often improvise scenes without forewarning the other cast.

I’d had to eventually ban Liya from going to any more of the shows as her hysterical giggling could usually be heard over the actor’s dialogue, and Mitch had threatened to “cut a bitch” if she couldn’t control herself during the performances.

To avoid bloodshed I had decided that total separation was probably the best option.

“Your hair is perfect, as is your outfit. Why Kenickie though? Isn’t Danny the lead role?”

“Girl, please. Everyone knows Danny may be the lead, but Kenickie is the true star of the show.” He spun on the spot before strutting into the kitchen, the exaggerated swaying of his hips making me laugh.

I was going through my checklist for the day in my head, when a rap at the door startled me.

Liya’s tired face was pressed up against the glass door. “Need. Coffee. Can’t. Go. On. Without,” she moaned through the glass.

Looking over at the clock, I saw that we weren’t supposed to open for another half hour. I walked over to open the door, shaking my head at her in disapproval.

“You have to start buying groceries.”

She walked past me and headed straight for the coffee pot.

“What’s the point of having a sister who has a bakery if I can’t get free food and coffee?” Her hand reached into the display case and stole a large scone.

“It’s amazing the bakery makes any profit at all with you around,” I told her as I closed the door and took in her bright pink scrubs which were decorated with colourful cartoon characters.

Liya had started working as a nurse on the children’s ward at Starling General Hospital after our move to Starling Falls, and she was amazing at it, I’d seen her with her patients when I visited with toys for the children.

“You on your way to the hospital, or coming back from it?”

“On my way. I’m starting a twelve hour shift and I needed sustenance.”

Mitch walked out of the kitchen carrying a large tray of freshly baked bread. He and Liya groaned in unison when they saw each other.

None of us were sure how it had started, but the both of them had been rubbing each other the wrong way ever since they’d first met.

“Don’t you have a job torturing little children to be at?” Mitch asked, putting the tray down on the counter.

“Don’t
you
have a jailhouse to be rocking at?” she replied tartly, running her eyes over his fifties styled clothing and hair.

“I’m auditioning for the role of Kenickie in Grease, ho.” Mitch rolled his eyes in her direction.

“It looks like you’re trying out for a career as a sad Elvis impersonator.” Liya smiled mockingly at him.

It’s really lovely how much they like each other.

“It’s too early for animosity. Can’t we all just get along?” I pleaded with them optimistically, despite knowing what their answers would be.

“No.”

“No.”

I rolled my eyes at their answers as I sipped on my tea.

“Should you really be eating that scone?” Mitch asked Liya, with a raised eyebrow.

“Should you really be wearing those jeans?” Liya replied snarkily with her own raised eyebrow.

“My ass looks amazing in these jeans, and we both know it.”

“By amazing, do you mean flat and unimpressive?”

Mitch gasped loudly as he looked over his shoulder to check out the back of his jeans. As Mitch started to respond I interrupted him, knowing that this volleying of insults could go on forever.

“Enough. You’re both giving me a headache. I have enough to do today without playing referee between the two of you. Mitch, go put the second tray of croissants in the oven. Liya, go to work.”

I started to push her toward the door, but she dug her feet into the ground.

“Hold on, I wanted to talk to you about yesterday.”

Oh great.

“What about yesterday?”

“Really? You’re going to play dumb? Okay then. First Jake disappeared, then you disappeared, then you both came back together and he looked a great deal happier than he was before.

And all of a sudden you’re agreeing to work with him on his new restaurant idea, after avoiding him like the plague for months. Did something happen during the time you both disappeared that I should know about?” she asked with a salacious grin.

“Ooooh. Is there more gossip? You told me you agreed to help him with his restaurant and that was it! Niki-Ray, if something else happened and you didn’t share it with me, your best friend and confidante, I’m gonna be pissed,” Mitch chimed in looking engrossed.

“For goodness sake, you two are delusional! He was obviously upset about something, so we talked, and I helped him come up with a solution for his problem because that’s what
friends
do, and that’s what we are…
friends
. There’s nothing more to tell,” I sighed in annoyance.

Mitch and Liya exchanged a look that made me nervous. The thought of them on the same page about anything, let alone anything concerning me, was terrifying.

“Okay, if you say so, Niki. When do you guys start working on the menu?” Liya asked as she walked around me and back to the coffee pot to pour more coffee into a take away cup.

I shrugged, trying to ignore the flip-flopping in my stomach.

“I’m not sure. We didn’t really get a chance to talk about that yesterday. He sort of sprung the whole idea on me.”

“Yeah, I gathered that from your many
‘Huhs’
and what-planet-have-I-landed-on expression.
”
Liya yawned before grabbing another scone. “What you doing this evening? You want to come round for dinner?”

I stared her deadpanned. “You want me to come to your house for dinner? Does that mean you’re actually going to cook and don’t expect me to bring the food to you?”

Liya burst out laughing. “Oh, Niki. You are so funny.” She hugged me and started walking towards the door. “Dinner at eight? Bring pizza. Caleb’s working so it’ll just be the two of us.”

“Fine, I’ll bring the pizza but you need to stop at the store on your way home and buy ice-cream. Someone finished the last tub of Rocky Road that was in my freezer.” I sent her an accusatory glare.