Gage rolled up to The Heartwood Inn as he’d done countless times before. This time, though, trepidation had his heart skipping in his chest the way small children did. He wasn’t there to see Sheryl, but he could very easily run into her while on the premises. If he’d have called her before this interview, he probably wouldn’t have to even go through with it.
He’d never met Alissa face-to-face, though he had spoken to her on the phone about the full-time position in the bakery. He already got up before dawn to work on the ferry, and he figured he’d rather get up and bake than get up and stroll around a boat, looking angry all the time.
He stowed his helmet and tugged at the bottom of his shirt. He wore slacks and a button-up; the same type of thing he’d worn to that upscale bonfire weeks ago. Inside the lobby, he saw a small sign that said Bakery interviews: floor 3, and he stepped over to the elevator with relief. Sheryl would have no reason to be on the third floor. Still, he couldn’t help thinking of her down on the lower level, probably in her office if she wasn’t out on the grounds somewhere.
On the third floor, he followed the signs to a suite in the corner and checked in with a woman sitting at a desk there. She sported dark hair, so he knew she wasn’t a Heartwood sister. He sat on the couch, early for his interview and glad of it, because it had taken a few minutes to get to the right place.
“Thanks for coming,” a woman said, causing him to glance up. For one terrible moment, he thought he’d heard Sheryl. But it had been another blonde, this one definitely related to the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.
“You must be Gage,” she said, approaching him. “I’m Alissa Heartwood.”
“Gage Sanders.” He stood and shook her hand, watching her for any sign of recognition. He saw none, and another wave of relief hit him.
She started for the door that led into the bedroom. “Nice to finally meet you, Gage.”
“Finally?” he asked, following her. An alarm went off in his mind, but he couldn’t figure out where to place it.
“We’ll be starting with a taste test,” Alissa said, ducking into the room.
Gage strode after her, because she’d practically run away from him. He went through the doorway and paused, assessing everything he could see before he committed to staying in this room.
There was no bed in the room. Just a big table with several desserts on it. If they could even be classified as desserts. They looked like science experiments gone bad, and he frowned. Looking around the room, he couldn’t see anyone else.
“Alissa?” Two other doors led out of this room, besides the closet, and another alarm went off. He took a step backward, thinking these Heartwoods might be a brand of crazy he didn’t want to deal with.
“Hello, Gage.”
He stilled, because that was Sheryl’s voice. His attention jerked to his left, and sure enough, she stood there with her hair pulled up tight into that top ponytail, a pair of dangling earrings in her ears, and a fun, flirty sundress in pink and yellow.
The breath left his body, and he couldn’t form words. Behind him, the clunk of the hotel room door closing registered in his mind, but it was still running pretty slow.
“You look great,” she said, taking a couple of steps toward him.
“Thanks.” He cleared the roughness from his voice. “So do you. What are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you that.” She smiled as she reached him. Only a couple of feet separated them, and he could easily take her into his arms and kiss her. Oh, how he wanted to do exactly that. Instead, he held very still.
“I’m applying to be the head baker here,” he said. “Similar hours to the ferry.”
“So you’d give up the ferry job?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And are you still Lisa’s pretend boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Are you looking to be someone’s boyfriend?”
Gage shook his head. “Not particularly.”
“Oh.” She side-stepped over to the table. “Alissa said I could do this interview.” She looked down at the dessert disasters. “You have to sample these and tell me what you think it is.”
Gage walked over to the table, his stomach yelling at his mouth not to taste anything on this table. “This is…an interesting interview.”
She handed him a fork, a sexy smile on her face that Gage wanted to kiss away. He took the fork and moved up and down the table, trying to find the tiniest piece of something that didn’t look raw or overbaked.
“Who made these?” he asked. If it was the current head baker, no wonder the inn needed a new one.
“That’s not important,” Sheryl said.
Gage cocked one eyebrow at her and dug his fork into what he thought was a peach pie. He’d been born and raised in Georgia and knew what one should taste and look like. This had the right smell to it, even if it looked like it had been mixed with cream and then baked.
“Peach pie,” he said, putting the tiny bite into his mouth. “Oh, yeah. It even tastes like it. There’s just some…charred notes I’m not used to.” He coughed slightly and put the fork down. This job wasn’t worth eating these desserts.
He turned back to Sheryl. “It’s so good to see you,” he said, deciding to just say whatever came to his mind.
“I made the desserts,” she said. “They’re all my horrible, failed attempts at baking.” She stepped closer to him. “See, I’ve been trying to get one decent thing made, so I could bring it to you and apologize.”
She touched his chest, the heat from her hand like a brand. Her fingers moved up to his collar, and Gage fought against the raging river of desire moving through him.
“I’m sorry, Gage. I’ve been terrible to you.” She looked up at him. “I went to South Port last weekend. That footlong is delicious, and the band playing was pretty fantastic.”
“You went to South Port?”
“My next idea was to bring you a footlong and beg you to take me back,” she whispered. “But every time I went by your house, your bike wasn’t there.” She looked like she was one breath away from crying, and her cheeks held a beautiful blush Gage wanted to see every day of his life.
“You want me to take you back?” He really needed to stop asking questions, but some of the things she’d said didn’t seem to make sense the first time.
“I’m in love with you,” she said, and Gage blinked.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” She laughed lightly. “Is that so hard to believe?”
“A little, actually,” he said.
Sheryl nodded, but she didn’t look away from him. “We’re not so different, you and I,” she said. “We just need to learn how to communicate.”
He agreed with that assessment, and his hand came up to rest on her hip. She didn’t move away or flinch, and Gage finally caught up to what was happening here. “I’m not going to get the job, am I?” he asked, ducking his head so his mouth was closer to her ear.
“Oh, you’ll get it if you want it,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Yes,” she said, leaning away from him slightly so she could look at him. “The real question is whether you can forgive me. And whether you want me or not.”
“Neither of those are real questions,” Gage said. “Of course I want you.” He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. “I’ve always wanted you, Sheryl. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I wanted you.”
“Mm.”
“And I can forgive you. Heaven knows I’m not perfect.”
“You don’t have to be.”
He opened his eyes, and he saw the truth right there in hers. She was right, and she believed what she’d said. He didn’t have to be perfect to be with her.
“I love you, too,” he said, leaning down and touching his lips to hers. He didn’t get to kiss her as long as he would’ve liked, because the door to the suite opened again. He didn’t let go of her though, when he looked to see who’d come in.
“Oh, good,” Alissa said. “You two made up. Darcy.”
The receptionist came forward, and she had two footlongs in her hands. Gage started laughing, so glad when Sheryl joined in with him.
“Do you have time for lunch?” she asked, taking the hot dogs from Darcy.
“I think I can clear my schedule,” Gage said.
Sheryl started for the door, but Alissa put her hand on Gage’s arm. “You can bake, right?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “But we should keep her as far from the kitchen as possible.”
Alissa laughed, but Sheryl said, “I heard that,” from the doorway.
Gage joined her with, “But I said it so quietly. How’d you hear that if I wasn’t barking it?”
She shook her head, a smile on her face, and said, “Come on. I want to eat lunch with my boyfriend.”
Gage reached over and picked up her tin foil wrapper before putting the last bite of his footlong in his mouth. This was his second one today, and it tasted amazing. The first he’d eaten in Sheryl’s office with her, and that had been great too.
But South Port possessed something special, and he loved behind here with the woman he loved, eating the food he loved.
“How’d you know I’d be at that interview?” he asked, balling up their trash.
“Alissa called a family meeting last week,” she said, her hand in his absolute perfection. “She wants to open a fish shop on Main Street. I guess she’s rented a space and everything. She said she wanted to quit the head baker position.”
“Ah,” he said.
“I told her you were a great baker, and then I may have started…crying.”
Gage’s heart twisted in his chest. He didn’t know what to say, so he pressed his lips to the top of her head. “My sisters and I are close,” she said. “Even if I don’t see them every day.”
“That’s nice. Michael left the island a week ago.”
“I know. He texted me that I needed to go see you.”
“He did?”
“Yeah, but that’s the next story.”
“Okay,” he said with a chuckle.
“Anyway, Alissa put the job up, and you applied, and she texted me. We set everything up from there.”
Gage let her words sink into his brain, and a rush of love for her filled him. She’d set everything up from there, because she loved him.
She loved him.
Britta barked, and Gage looked out at the ocean, the sight utterly beautiful. In the next moment, the dog took off, barking at the birds circling several yards away. Sheryl giggled in his arms, and Gage asked, “Michael texted you?”
“He said you were miserable,” she said, tilting her head back to look at him. A teasing sparkle sat in her eyes.
“I wasn’t miserable,” he said, boldly lying right to her.
“I was,” she said. “And I couldn’t think of how to get you back. But then he texted, and you applied, and everything just came together.” She kissed him, and Gage had never been happier in his whole life.
“And I think you were miserable,” she whispered against his lips. “Just admit it.” She traced her fingers through his hair and down the side of his face.
“Fine,” he said, kissing her again. “I was miserable without you.” And he’d never thought he’d ever need someone the way he needed Sheryl. But he did, and he was glad he did.