Dax Marshall drove a 1960 MGA roadster in Old English White with black leather interior and classic silver wire wheels. He also wore a dark gray felt fedora when he did it. But not just any dark gray felt fedora. This was the dark gray felt fedora that Frank Sinatra had worn in his last starring movie role as Edward Delaney in The First Deadly Sin. As he would explain. Ad nauseam.
He’d bought the hat at an auction with a winning bid of over five thousand dollars. Dax considered that a bargain. Wearing a hat that had once graced the head of one of his personal idols—fifth on the list behind Fred Rogers, Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, and Derek Jeter, in that order—was a true privilege worth any price. That he looked “fucking dashing as hell”—his words, not Aiden’s—was simply a bonus.
Aiden was less enamored with the hat, but he had to admit the car was awesome. Classy, distinctive, extremely cool, the car turned heads.
Especially in a small town in Iowa that mostly saw pickups and SUVs. Practical vehicles. Vehicles that were used for work and hauling things and getting people from one place to another. Did the guys in Appleby pick out their favorite colors for their F-150s? Sure, sometimes. If their favorite color was black, white, silver, red, or blue. Did they take a little time over things like adding satellite radio and lining the truck bed and matching floor mats? Maybe. But that was as flashy as things got.
No one drove around in classic convertibles that seated two and had only enough trunk space to hold a spare tire and nothing else.
It wasn’t practical. Iowans, especially those in Appleby, were nothing if not practical.
So when a white 1960 MGA roadster rolled past the Buttered Up bakery driven by a young guy in a dark gray felt fedora like Frank Sinatra would have worn, Aiden groaned.
Dax honestly didn’t know the meaning of inconspicuous.
Dax believed in fun, living in the moment, and making the best of everything. In fact, he believed in making everything better. It was one of his best traits and the main thing that had drawn Aiden and Dax together initially. Aiden believed in doing big things, leaving the world better than he’d found it, making his life count. They’d seen that all very similarly, and Aiden still appreciated that about his friend.
Except, of course, when Aiden wanted to keep a low profile in his hometown regarding Hot Cakes.
A young guy cruising into town in a shiny, classic convertible with a fedora was going to stand out among the pickups and seed company caps, and people were going to want to know who he was and what he was doing here.
Which was fine. As long as Dax didn’t mention Aiden. Yet, anyway.
Aiden kept from lunging out of his chair, barely, but he stood and frowned at his phone as if he’d just gotten an important text. Which he should have. One from Dax saying he was on his way and he’d meet Aiden at the hotel. In the next town. Where Aiden had specifically asked Piper to make reservations for both Dax and Ollie.
“Hey, I need to head over to Dubuque for a meeting,” he said to Zoe.
She was the behind the main counter now, decorating cupcakes. They’d finished the cookies, and Mrs. Murphy had been thrilled with how they’d turned out. Josie was in back manning the ovens and sculpting a cake into a kangaroo. He hadn’t asked why. And Zoe was doing the basic cupcakes frosting and watching the front.
“Oh? Really? Why?” she asked, looking up.
He’d been settled at the table by the window on his computer working since finishing the cookies. Away from the smell of Zoe. And out of touching distance. Because neither of them had been getting much done—at least not very efficiently—when they were within touching distance.
But she’d told her mom they were together. That was productive.
Every time he thought of that, he felt like someone had sucked the oxygen out of his lungs. And he wanted to put Zoe up on that worktable and do all the naughty frosting things they’d teased about. He also wanted to add in sprinkles. He’d always loved sprinkles.
He also wanted to beat his chest like a caveman and take out a billboard down by the highway and maybe just stand in the town square with a bullhorn.
He wanted to buy a diamond ring.
Hearing her claim him, to her mother, and seeing Maggie’s face when she registered that, had caused an avalanche of emotions to crash through him he’d been unprepared for. He’d had five months to think about Zoe and how he felt about her and what he wanted from her. He’d had five months to mentally restructure his life around everything and to imagine what it would be like to be back in Appleby with Maggie and Steve and everyone. But he hadn’t given any thought to how it would feel to be on the receiving end of their words and emotions.
Or maybe he’d thought he knew what it would be like.
Zoe had come to him for sex. That had felt pretty damned good. After the shock, of course. But she’d wanted him. He’d thought a lot about how that had felt.
Maggie loved him. Steve loved him. Henry loved him. He’d figured there would just be, well, more of that.
He hadn’t been prepared, at all, for how it would feel to see Maggie’s absolute delight at the idea of him and Zoe together. To see her eyes well up with tears. To see her nearly overcome with the idea of grandkids.
Hell, he hadn’t even thought of kids.
But now he wanted that. Them. Lots of them.
He also hadn’t been able to truly imagine how it would be starting his morning in the kitchen with Zoe. Because he couldn’t have imagined that. His attraction to her was real enough, but he couldn’t have been prepared for how touching her, kissing her, hearing her, and tasting her would seep into him and become an addiction the very first time.
Even more, he would have never been able to prepare for the way it would feel to have her looking at him with admiration. Or how it would feel to have something like their businesses in common. Or how natural it would feel to hear her sharing things about her business, and asking about his, and talking about real things like employees and how they both wanted to be good to the people who depended on them. Sharing something like that with her, something that was new to him and that already meant a lot to him, something that was already giving him a little anxiety, truth be told, had felt… good. Different. New for them. He and Zoe hadn’t talked about things like that before, but it had been effortless to slip into that conversation.
Now he wanted to talk to her about Hot Cakes. He wanted to tell her he was nervous about introducing new owners to a company that had belonged to the same family for over fifty years. He wanted to tell her how he wanted to find out what the employees needed and how he wanted to actually blow their minds with all the amazing things working for Hot Cakes would mean for them. He wanted her to look at him with admiration for his plans and goals and know they were about Hot Cakes.
But he was scared.
Of losing her.
More now than he had been before. Before he knew how much he really wanted her. Before he’d realized that, as much as he’d wanted to be with her, he hadn’t fully realized all their relationship could truly be. Laughing and teasing in the morning, flirting fun even when she was annoyed with him, him helping in the bakery, sharing their thoughts and feelings and plans about their work.
“Yeah. I’ve got a meeting with a guy about a new business venture in the area,” he told her. That was completely true.
She smiled. “You do?”
“Yeah.” He crossed to the counter.
“You really are planning to stay,” she said. “I mean, I know you said that. A few times. And I know you have plenty of money. You don’t have to work. But that just…” She sighed. But it sounded happy. Not like the exasperated ones she so often gave him. “That just makes it feel really real.”
He braced his hands on the counter between them and pinned her with a look. “It is really real, Zoe.”
“I’m starting to get that.”
Thank God.
He’d only been in town for two days. Really just short of twenty-four hours if they were being very technical. But there was no reason for them to tiptoe around here or take their time or be subtle. He was back in town. To stay. Because of her.
“Good. Because I’m way past starting to, and I’m pretty sure your mom is all in.” He gave her a grin.
She rolled her eyes. “She snuck up on me. I wasn’t prepared.”
“So the truth came out because you didn’t have time to cover.”
Zoe just looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded. “Yeah.”
Everything in him went hot and hard. But she was still working, and he needed to make sure Dax went to the hotel and they had a full plan for how to approach the Hot Cakes employees. And that he got a rental car. “I’ll be back around closing time.” His voice was a little gruff.
Her smile grew. “You’ll notice I’m not using any pink frosting on these.”
He had noticed. “Good girl.”
She bit her bottom lip. Right where he wanted to bite. And suck. He gave a little groan. “Lose the good girl thing by the time I get back,” he told her.
Her eyes widened.
He chuckled. “What?”
“I might regret admitting this, but… you’ve definitely been surprising me. The dirty talk in particular.”
He fucking liked that a lot.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Please do.”
Again, he had to resist rounding the counter and saying to hell with his meeting with Dax. And the big windows at the front of the bakery.
Yeah, Zoe McCaffery had a few surprises as well.
She liked dirty talk? They were a better match every time they spent time together.
At least, until they got to talking about Hot Cakes.
With that not-so-pleasant thought in mind, he gathered up his stuff and headed for the Hilton in Dubuque. He put a video call in to Piper on the way.
“You need to get him a different car,” he told their assistant.
“He’s picking it up in about thirty minutes,” Piper said.
She was wearing her glasses, clearly still at work. She was only twenty-three, but she ran the office, and the guys’ lives—especially Ollie’s—like she was much older and wiser than any of them. Because she was. Wiser, anyway. More mature. More practical. More capable. The woman was like Mary Poppins, Martha Stewart, and Super Nanny all rolled into one. She knew everything, was always two steps ahead of the guys, took care of things efficiently and effectively. Interestingly, she ran the office and their schedules like a drill sergeant, but she did it while dressed in what she called “pinup-girl dresses” that were always in bright colors and patterns and emphasized her curves.
She looked twenty-three though. She had long, dark hair, streaked with blond and red highlights that hung nearly to her ass when she didn’t have it up in a curly, tight ponytail or bun—which was 90 percent of the time. She had huge brown eyes, made even larger behind the large-framed colored glasses—coordinated with her outfits, of course—she wore in the office. She was short so she wore heels. Or maybe she just wore them because she liked them. She dressed smart and professionally but also gave off a fun, confident vibe. Everyone loved her, and Fluke, and Oliver Caprinelli specifically, would fall apart without her.
“Really?”
“Of course, he can’t be driving that roadster around,” she said. “I told him he could drive it to Iowa, to the hotel and around Dubuque, but not in Appleby.”
Aiden really liked Piper. “Well, he just drove it down Main Street.”
She sighed. “Was he wearing the fedora?”
Aiden chuckled. “Of course.”
“He better not have stopped,” she muttered. “We had a long talk about how it might not go over so well if five rich, hot, young guys come strolling into town, taking over the factory that’s been there for so long and employs so many people, thinking they’re all that and doing everyone a favor.”
Aiden nodded even though he had to admit that he’d been feeling a little bit like he might have been doing Appleby a favor. He didn’t like admitting that. Especially now after hearing Jane say that things at the factory weren’t quite hunky dory. Now he wanted to fix it all. And he had no idea how to do that.
“Great, thank you,” Aiden told Piper. “Text me the hotel address?”
“Sure.” She paused, then Aiden heard his text notification ding. “Done.”
He grinned. “When will Ollie be here?”
“Tomorrow. He had to finish some things up for Grant before he could leave,” she said.
“I’ve got an in-office suspension until I get it done.”
Aiden heard Ollie’s voice but he was outside of the frame. Piper looked over to her right.
“Yes, you are. You’re staying right there until you’re finished. And no more meatballs until then.”
“He’s sitting by you so you can make sure he’s working?” Aiden asked. This wouldn’t be the first time.
“Yes. He’s on the couch with his laptop.”
They had a couch in the reception area outside of their main offices. Piper manned that desk. She was so much more than a receptionist, but all the other women they’d hired for the job had been too easily charmed by both Dax and Ollie. The guys’ schedules and to-do lists had gone out the window with just a grin and a wink. There were also a number of girls who delivered from nearby restaurants, the printing place they worked with, and a couple of PR firms they outsourced to that would come by to talk to Dax, Ollie, and even Cam at times. When the other, equally charm-susceptible receptionists were at the desk, they let those girls past or called the guys to the front, and suddenly the guys were missing phone calls and meetings and not getting shit done.
None of that was a problem when Piper sat there. She’d taken that desk back about a year ago, and things had been smooth sailing ever since. Though Cam grumbled about not getting free extra egg rolls, and Dax made excuses to stroll down to the print shop himself on a regular basis, now.
“She made sweet-and-sour meatballs, Aiden,” Ollie called. “She gave me one and then told me the rest had to wait until I’m done. They’re sitting on the edge of her desk mocking me.”
Piper was a hell of a cook, and her meatballs were Ollie’s favorite.
“It’s Aiden’s fault.” She looked back at Aiden. “You got him all riled up about getting to Appleby to save the day. He’s got two conference calls and a packed inbox he needs to deal with before he can leave and get all wrapped up in this new project. You know he’ll totally lose track of everything else once he’s there.”
“Well, I do need him,” Aiden said. “We need a plan for this new company. We have a lot of files to go over, and we need to research benefits and—”
“I already went through the files you sent to Ollie and Dax,” Piper said. “I highlighted the things you should review first. I also sent you a few articles I think you’ll find interesting. And I set up a call for the three of you tomorrow afternoon with a Duncan Prestor. He’s going to talk you through some employee benefit plans and help you with an intake survey to help you get a better idea about what you’ll need.”
Aiden blinked. Piper was a force of nature.
“I don’t think we can do an intake survey yet. We need to talk to the employees.”
Piper was already clicking on her keyboard. “I’ll let him know that. Do you still want to do the initial call with him to go over some plan options?”
“That… might be a good idea?” Aiden was aware that sounded like a question.
“I agree,” Piper told him.
Okay, then it was a good idea.
“I’ll let him know you’re going to wait on the employee survey.” She stopped and focused on Aiden. “Do you want me to write up a more general survey? Maybe ask them about general satisfaction? Changes they might like to see?”
“That would be…”
“I think it could be a good place to start. Especially paired with the information I sent you about current benefits.”
“Then yes,” Aiden said.
“Great. I’ll tap into my network and see who’s done something similar and can give me some direction.” She was typing this up as she spoke to him.
“Hey, Piper?”
“Yeah?”
“Do we pay you enough?”
She paused in her typing and smiled at him. Then she glanced at Ollie. Then back to Aiden. She had a strange expression on her face when she said, “Working with you guys is a dream job.”
Aiden studied her for a moment. He’d always thought maybe, just maybe, Piper had a little thing for Ollie. But Ollie treated her like a sister at best. A nagging assistant at worst. Hell, she made dinner reservations for him and the women he took out. Aiden was pretty sure she’d sent flower arrangements and possibly even a birthday gift or two on Ollie’s behalf as well. Knowing Piper, she was the one who remembered there were birthday gifts that needed to be sent.
Oliver Caprinelli would be a very hard man to be in love with. His head was in the clouds 99 percent of the time. Getting his attention would be a feat. He would forget about you the second even the spark of a new idea came to him. He’d close himself in his office to brainstorm and not emerge for hours. He’d forget to eat. He didn’t always go home to sleep. He missed phone calls, dinners, and yes, birthdays.
It was even hard to be his friend sometimes. Aiden couldn’t imagine being a girlfriend. Or a wife.
And no one would know that better than Piper.
“That wasn’t really an answer to my question,” Aiden pointed out.
She grinned. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready for a raise.”
“No raises for wenches who dangle meatballs in front of their bosses,” Ollie groused from off camera.
Maybe she should try dangling other things in front of him, Aiden thought. Then frowned. Piper didn’t need to go out of her way to get Ollie’s attention. She was amazing and beautiful, and every other man who walked into their office noticed everything she had going on. If Ollie wasn’t smart enough to notice Piper, that was his own damned fault.
Besides, if they did hook up and Ollie pissed her off or broke her heart, then Fluke would lose Piper, and they all needed her. Aiden should be working to keep Ollie completely distracted from Piper as a woman. She was his nagging assistant. That was perfect.
“Just type the email, Oliver,” Piper said in a very old schoolmarm tone. In spite of her cherry-red glasses that matched the red cherries that dotted her white dress, she pulled off the I’ll-rap-your-knuckles-with-my-ruler attitude very well.
“Don’t give him the meatballs even when he’s finished,” Aiden said. “His attitude is crap.”
“It is,” she agreed.
“Don’t you have a cute cupcake baker you need to be covering in frosting?” Ollie called.
Aiden froze. “What?”
Piper frowned at Ollie. “Keep typing.”
“What’s he talking about?” Aiden pressed.
“Cam got a call from his mom a little bit ago,” Piper said. “She asked if he knew about you and Zoe.”
“Oh.” Shit. Aiden thought fast. Cam did not know about him and Zoe. Cam was protective of Zoe. To an extent. If someone hurt her, Cam would absolutely hurt that person. But Cam wasn’t the type to punch Aiden for kissing Zoe.
He didn’t think.
“What did he say?” Aiden finally asked. Cam hadn’t called him or Zoe about it. What did that mean?
Piper chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.
“Piper?”
“He didn’t call you?”
“No.”
“Text? Email?”
“No. No.”
“Oh.” She sighed. “All he said to me was to book him a room at the hotel too.”
Aiden frowned. “He’s coming to Iowa?”
“Yeah. He left right after Dax did.”
“But he’s staying at the hotel? Not in Appleby?”
Piper shrugged. “He asked me to book him a room, so I did.”
What the hell? “Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see him soon enough, and I can ask him what’s up.” Aiden wasn’t looking forward to that reunion. “Did he seem… angry?” Aiden asked. He really liked this tie. If Cam was going to punch him, he didn’t want to bleed on it.
“He seemed… resigned?” Piper said. She ended that with a question mark though. She looked at Ollie. “Didn’t you think?”
“Determined,” Ollie said. “Or… annoyed. Yeah, maybe a little annoyed too.”
Great. A determined and annoyed Camden McCaffery. That wasn’t as bad as a pissed-off, unreasonable one, but it wasn’t great either.
Aiden reached up and pulled his tie loose.
Dammit.
Twenty minutes later, he strode into the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Dubuque, Iowa.
He’d texted Dax that he was here, and Dax had replied with a simple, “1247.”
Of course Dax was on the top floor. He did love a great view. And Dubuque might be in what some people considered a flyover state, but it was right on the Mississippi and definitely had a pretty view. If you were into rivers and bluffs and trees and rolling hills and stuff.
Aiden was. He’d missed his home state. Chicago was a great city, and he’d loved city life at first. Chicago and its many resources had been an important place for them to be as they got Fluke off the ground, and trusting Grant to take them back to his hometown had been a good move.
But Aiden was ready to be back in Iowa.
And yeah, he did have a cute cupcake baker to be covering in frosting as a matter of fact.
He thought about Zoe as the elevator climbed to the twelfth floor. Cam would get over it. Or used to it. Or whatever. Aiden and Zoe were together now, and Cam would just have to deal. That wasn’t really Cam’s strong suit—dealing with things he didn’t like—but this was his best friend and sister. He wouldn’t want to lose either of them, and if Aiden could prove he was the best thing for Zoe and that he really wanted to take care of her and love her, then Cam would be good with it.
He would definitely need to leave out the frosting stuff though.
The doors swished open, and Aiden blew out a breath. Cam was very likely in there with Dax. They’d probably already raided the minibar and had room service on its way up.
The thing about hanging out with Dax… he didn’t let you let things like practicality and huge price tags and it being 2 p.m. keep you from enjoying yourself. Two p.m. on a weekday? Why not have a T-bone steak with the works? And dessert. Especially dessert. Dax was a dessert-first kind of guy. Not because of a sweet tooth exactly. More because of a life philosophy. Live life to the fullest. Get what you wanted when you wanted it. Always.
Aiden rapped his knuckles against the door to Suite 1247. The corner suite. Of course.
Dax opened it with a flourish a moment later. He was wearing one of the hotel robes. And probably nothing else. Aiden didn’t need to know.
“Hey.” Dax stepped back to let Aiden in.
Clearly room service was not on its way up. They’d already been there. Dax picked a french fry off the plate as he passed, tossing it into the air and catching it before settling back on the couch, propping his feet on the coffee table, and pointed to the remote and the gigantic television. He shut it off.
“I see you’ve settled in easily,” Aiden said, taking the armchair perpendicular to where Dax sat. Dax’s robe was loose around the waist, and he didn’t want to accidentally catch a glimpse of anything underneath.
“I think best when I’m comfortable,” Dax told him with a grin.
Dax was very rarely uncomfortable. Physically or emotionally. Zoe’s assumption about the guys sitting around their office in beanbag chairs was true if she was referring only to Dax’s office. He had two oversized beanbags in there, and he claimed he did his best thinking in them. As a group they never met in Dax’s office. Grant refused to do serious work while sitting in a beanbag chair in an office with a cappuccino machine in the corner. Grant Lorre was very much a black-coffee kind of guy. Strong black coffee.
And yes, Dax claimed cinnamon sprinkles on top of his cappuccino helped his creative process. Just like the gummy bears in the glass candy jar on his desk did. Just like the music from the Rat Pack—played on vinyl on an old turntable—did. Just like the daily ping-pong game against Elliot, one of their best graphics guys, did.
But the truth was, bugging the shit out of and getting smiles out of Grant, helped Dax’s creative process and all that—from the Rat Pack to the gummy bears—did that.
Yes, hanging out with Dax Marshall was a little like hanging out with a thirteen-year-old with a credit card and no limit. Or being stuck in one of The Hangover movies.
Still, the guy made a kick-ass video game and was the star at every con he’d ever been to. Aiden knew Grant would never admit it, at least not where Dax could hear him, but Dax and his YouTube videos and his appearances at conventions and his insistence on high quality, unique merchandise, had made them more money than anything Aiden and Grant actually did for the company.
Bottom line, Warriors of Easton wouldn’t even exist without Dax. Ollie was the storyteller, the world builder, the visionary, but Dax made it all real. He took Ollie’s ideas and made them come to life. On screen anyway. He put movement and color and sound to everything, and without him, Warriors would have never come to be. He worked his ass off, honestly, to make Warriors of Easton everything it could possibly be.
Aiden, Grant, and Cam were completely worthless when it came to all that.
They were the paper and money and regulations and business guys. Sure, the company needed them too, but Ollie and Dax could have found three other marketing and business majors just by throwing a rock. It was a good thing Aiden, Grant, and Cam had found them and had recognized brilliance when they saw it.
“Have you seen Cam?” Aiden asked, propping one of his feet up on the coffee table next to Dax’s bare foot.
Dax also rarely wore shoes around the office. That also bugged the shit out of Grant.
“Yeah, he’s on his way. Went to upgrade his room.” Dax grinned.
“Upgrade?”
“Piper put him in the executive suite down the hall. Figured we’d want to be on the same floor to work. There’s only one of these deluxe suites on each floor. He’s down there working to get a deluxe on another floor. Can’t handle me having a better place than his.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. That sounded exactly like Cam. “He’s not planning to stay in Appleby?”
“Said he didn’t want to walk in on you banging his sister on the kitchen table.”
Aiden started choking. On nothing. He coughed hard and sent Dax a glare.
Dax waited for him to quiet then gave him a grin.
“Did he actually say that?” Aiden asked.
“I sure fucking did.”
Aiden looked over his shoulder at Cam. Who evidently had a key to Dax’s room.