Make Your Move (2 page)

“J
ODIE, DEAR,
I
must
have more of those cookies!”

“Coming, Mrs. Mitchell!” Jodie grabbed the tray of cookies, just frosted, and headed back out to the counter. Outside the window, people bustled by on Wells St. in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood.

She’d been up late the night before catching up with Dan and didn’t expect to be handling the bakery alone this Saturday morning. Ginger’s babysitter had let her down, so she had to make other arrangements and wasn’t here yet.

“Oh! And they’re fresh!” Mrs. Mitchell exclaimed as she eyed the new sugar cookies, shaped as hearts and decorated red with the secret frosting recipe that Jodie couldn’t make fast enough.

There’d been some question in local blogs and food columns if the cookies were just a marketing gimmick or the real deal, and Jodie let the conversation flourish. Everyone liked to speculate about her “special formula” or whether it was simply a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, who had ever heard of pastry that attracted the
attention of the opposite sex? But the doubting Thomases just drove more business in her direction, more people wanting to see if they were for real.

In Jodie’s experience, she knew that the effect—for adult women, anyway—was very real.

Dan had explained that the pheromone extract that he used, a harmless celery derivative, reacted only with adult women’s body chemistry. The woman had to be attracted to someone in the first place, for the “boosters” in the cookie icing to even take effect. So it wasn’t as if strange men would be lusting after anyone.

After much testing and licensing she was confident about serving it, and had received no complaints from customers. Men and young people would only get a sugar rush from the frosting, but Jodie found that keeping the cookies in a special “adult only” case behind the counter increased the mystique, and the sales.

“They are. How many would you like?”

“I’ll take all of them.”

Jodie gaped for a moment. Her special cookies weren’t inexpensive. If Mrs. Mitchell bought all of these, Jodie would be out of cookies for the day. She’d have to rush to bake more, or turn away unhappy customers later.

“All of them? They don’t freeze well, Mrs. Mitchell,” she said. It was hard to imagine turning down a sale, but still…

“Oh, they don’t?” her customer asked with some disappointment.

“Well, they would taste fine, but the freezing will reduce their
effect,
” Jodie said with a wink, though she had no idea if that was true.

“Oh, then, we can’t have that. What would be the point? Just give me a half-dozen then. I sneak two every afternoon with coffee. Rupert hasn’t been this attentive in years.”

“Glad to hear it,” Jodie said, smiling, relieved.

Working the morning shift alone had been hectic enough as it was without worrying about having to do extra baking. Jason had been leaving messages, and she meant to call him back, but the coffee delivery had been late and between covering the counter and working in the kitchen, she’d been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

She put the cookies carefully in a white box, humming to the music playing over the speaker system as she wrapped the box with her signature red ribbon displaying the name of the shop.

“Here you go, Mrs. Mitchell. That will be thirty dollars even.”

The middle-aged lady handed over the money happily and with a big smile. “Thank you, Jodie.”

“Don’t eat them all at once. You don’t want Rupert losing all control,” Jodie warned playfully as two more customers walked in the door.

“Oh, no, he’s on blood pressure medication, though the extra exercise
is
good for him,” she answered with a girlish giggle, walking back out onto the street.

Jodie shook her head, chuckling. She settled into the routine rhythm of her morning, waiting on customers, refilling the display case, cleaning as she went and making up new specials signs and racks. She had things
more or less under control when Ginger finally walked in, looking stressed to the teeth.

“Hi—everything okay with Anna?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry I’m late.”

“No worries.”

“Mom came over, so I had to wait for her to arrive. She’s watching Anna at my place, but Anna didn’t want me to leave. She’s having some serious separation anxiety issues, and I couldn’t leave Mom to deal with her screaming. It’s enough that she’s probably noticing all of the housekeeping that I haven’t been able to do lately,” Ginger said grumpily.

“Is she okay?”

“Mom? Fine.”

“No, Anna.”

“Ah, well…that’s another story.”

Ginger looked worried as she hung her light jacket on the hook near the entry to the kitchen, grabbing her blue apron and tying it around her trim waist.

Jodie couldn’t help feeling sorry for Ginger, the only one of her friends with a child, and never wanted to find herself in the same situation. Ginger worked two jobs to support herself and her daughter, freelancing as a personal trainer in addition to working at the bakery. As Jodie’s only full-time employee, she gave her as many hours as she could, still she couldn’t imagine how stressful it must be to raise a child alone.

“Scott again?” Jodie guessed.

“Right the first time. He popped back up last weekend, and it’s so confusing for Anna. He gets an attack of guilt a few times a year and decides to ease his
conscience with a visit, then disappears again. When Anna was younger, it wasn’t such an issue, but now…it’s starting to show at school. She’s acting out, and it’s playing havoc with my life as well as hers.”

Jodie murmured sympathetically and offered a hug. Though she tried not to spend too much time thinking about her less than ideal childhood in a working-class neighborhood of Philly, where her dad had been a mechanic and her mom a lunch lady at the elementary school, Jodie couldn’t help the memories sneaking up on her now and then.

Don Patterson had been an asshole of tremendous proportions, constantly expecting perfection, even from a six-year-old. Jodie couldn’t remember ever receiving a kind word from her father, and she’d gotten out of town as fast and as far away as she could when she’d graduated high school. He’d wanted her to stay home, to go to a local school, but she’d resisted.

He’d died when she was in college, and she hadn’t bothered going home for the funeral. For that reason, her mother hadn’t spoken to her since then, either. She didn’t lose a lot of sleep over it, since her mother hadn’t ever defended her, but just let her father take over.

Jodie shook her head, blowing out a breath and offering Ginger a cranberry muffin. “Get some coffee, sit, and decompress. Things are slow for the moment.”

“Thanks. You’re one in a million, Jodie.”

Jodie patted her on the shoulder and wiped the fingerprints from the fronts of the glass display cases more vigorously. In her experience, men rarely cared if they stomped on your heart or ruined your life in the process
of getting what they wanted. Ginger and Anna were two more examples of that.

Still, women had more choices now, and Jodie always congratulated herself and her friends for opting to be independent career women, and she wanted to support Ginger in doing the same, if she could.

She didn’t hate men because of her father, God, no. Men were luscious. They were fun and wonderful, but a girl couldn’t let herself get in too deep. Jodie never did. Guys were drawn to her voluptuous thirty-eight-C build and her long brown hair and blue eyes since she could remember.

“Whoa, hottie alert,” Ginger almost purred as a guy ran by the bakery, drawing both of their gazes in appreciation. He stopped mid-stride and turned around.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Jodie said admiringly, to herself, though Ginger overhead and nodded.

“Uh-oh, he’s coming in!” Ginger laughed as he approached the door.

Jodie shushed her employee with a grin and greeted the guy, discreetly admiring his sleek runner’s build. “Can I help you?”

He walked up to the counter, smiling. All blond and tan, he was probably a few years younger than Jodie’s thirty-two, closer to Ginger’s twenty-seven.

“Sure. You have anything whole grain? And some water?”

“Water is in the case, and we have some fresh bran muffins that are cooling from the oven. Ginger would be happy to get one for you—or more than one?”

“No,” he said, smiling in Ginger’s direction. “One is fine.”

Ginger’s head snapped up from where she’d been admiring him from the waist down through the glass case, her cheeks flushing prettily. Their handsome customer didn’t seem to mind at all as he took in her curly red hair and pale complexion.

“Uh, sure. Just a minute,” she stammered, and disappeared.

“She’ll be right back,” Jodie promised with a smile. Ginger needed a boost, and waiting on a cute guy was just the ticket. Jodie made herself scarce when Ginger returned, reorganizing some cakes she had organized five minutes before at the far end of the display case.

To her amazement, Ginger finished the sale without even getting the guy’s name. When he left, Jodie popped up and looked at her assistant squarely, hands on hips.

“Ginger, why didn’t you flirt a little? He was into you.”

“Why do you think that?”

“He asked you about every muffin we have on the board, even the sugary ones, and all the ingredients in this one—and he was staring at your boobs. He also mentioned thinking he’d seen you at the gym. He was doing everything he could to get you to connect. You just handed him his receipt and told him to have a good day.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Ginger said grumpily, shrugging. “I must be getting rusty. I haven’t been with anyone since Scott.”

Jodie’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously? That’s been almost two years.”

Ginger leveled her a look. “Jodie, I work two jobs and I’m a mom. I’ve trained myself to not notice hot guys coming on to me because I don’t have time. Besides, once they find out I have a kid they’re not so interested.”

“You deserve some grown-up fun,” Jodie insisted, not liking the loneliness she saw in her friend’s eyes.

Ginger smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “I know you like to love ’em and leave ’em, but I don’t feel right doing one-night stands anymore. I have Anna to consider. Don’t you ever want something more permanent?”

“No way. And ‘permanent’ is what got you Scott in the first place, if you remember. A one-night stand is exactly what you need. Besides, I never love any of them, I only fu—”

“Jodie!” Ginger cut her off before she could finish her sentence, laughing and turning pink.

Jodie shrugged, grinning, happy she could lighten up the mood. “I’m just saying it would be good for you. I could take Anna for an overnight and you could go out to play. He must enjoy working out. You have something in common from the start. Maybe you could find something more interesting to do on the exercise equipment than exercise, you know?”

“You are just bad.” Ginger peered at her, taking a sip of her coffee. “Well, he’s gone now, anyway, so it’s a nonissue. For what it’s worth, I don’t buy your ‘I don’t fall in love’ routine. You just haven’t found the right guy. One of these days he’ll come along and you’re not even
going to know what hit you. Then you’ll see my side of things.”

“Doubt it.”

“Mark my words. One of these days, Jodie Patterson is going to fall and fall hard. I can’t wait. You deserve a good guy.”

“Yeah, well, we all do, but there are precious few of them out there.”

Ginger murmured agreement to that and went back to her task.

Jodie was amazed that Ginger’s romantic illusions still held after what she’d been through. Jodie had figured out in high school what guys were interested in, and it seemed so obvious.

She was diverted from her thoughts when Jason walked in the door. She looked at him in surprise, and then realized she’d never responded to any of his morning calls or text messages.

“Hi, Jodie,” he said quietly, as he approached her. Ginger wiggled her eyebrows and discreetly left them alone.

“Hi Jason,” she said, putting on her prettiest smile. “I’m really sorry about last night.”

“Me, too.”

She walked out around the case to where he stood. “I was hoping you’d let me make it up to you.”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted to. When I didn’t hear from you, I thought I was getting the brush-off.” He grinned crookedly. “I figured guys like me weren’t much your style, so I didn’t blame you, and wanted to come by and say no hard feelings.”

“Nonsense,” she said, reaching up for a quick kiss, glancing sideways to make sure no customers were coming in the door. “Let’s make some plans tonight. I’m off in a few hours.” She was breaking her weekend routine, but she kind of owed the guy. That, and she really wanted to get laid. Due to work and other obligations it had been a few weeks, and she was overdue.

She’d had a great time with Dan the night before, chowing down on double-stuffed pizza and talking into the night. Now that she’d spent some time with him, she felt good as new, and ready to get back to normal.

“Absolutely,” he said, leaning in for another kiss.

She averted his kiss as the bell over the door rang. She dusted off her apron, putting a few feet between them as she turned to greet her customer, and instead saw Dan walk in the door. Dressed in his usual jeans, sneakers, white T-shirt and the tweed jacket he’d worn since she could remember, he squinted behind his thick glasses, adjusting to the light inside. He broke into a smile when he saw her.

“Hey you.” She greeted him with pleasure at the surprise, closing the distance and hugging him without restraint. For a moment she completely forgot about Jason, unworried about being seen because, well, it was just Dan.

I
T WAS AS IF
someone flicked a switch in Dan’s world and the light came on. That’s the feeling he always had whenever he was with Jodie. Bright and warm, like the incandescent bulbs that were hot to the touch and bathed you in a natural glow.

She’d spent time with him the night before, bringing some completely unhealthy and delicious food for them to share, and he’d talked more than he ever did to anyone. That had always been the case.