Aiden cupped her ass and pulled her to the edge of the table. He kissed her. “Wrap your legs around me,” he told her huskily.
She did. Her heart was pounding. She was very glad she was on a steady surface and that Aiden had a good hold of her. She was ready, but she wasn’t positive what to expect, how this would feel. She had an inkling it might hurt.
He reached between them and took hold of his cock. He slid the head through her slickness, teasing her opening and rubbing over her clit. “We’ll take it slow,” he told her.
“Okay.”
“Zoe.”
“Yeah?”
“Open your eyes.”
She hadn’t realized she’d squeezed them shut. She opened them and looked at him.
“Watch,” he told her, looking down.
Oh, God. Could she watch?
“It’s hot,” he told her. “I’m definitely going to watch as I ease into your sweet body for the first time. I can’t wait to stretch you, nice and slow. Feel your pussy tight around me. Feel your muscles gripping me. Feel you come all over me.”
His words made her melt, heating her up, and relaxing her. With her hands on his shoulders, she leaned back a little so she could see. He pressed forward, the head of his cock pushing into her. She felt a little stretch, a little pressure, and she felt her body responding, wanting to pull him deeper. She wanted this connection, wanted the fullness that seemed right there.
She put a hand behind her, bracing herself on the table and leaning even farther. He grinned. “Nice.”
She looked up. “Yeah?”
His gaze swept over her face, her breasts, her belly, down to where they were joined. “Fuck yeah.”
She leaned a little more. But not so far that she couldn’t see. “More,” she told him.
“Gladly.” He pressed forward, sliding a few more inches inside.
She felt her body stretching, the fullness amazing, her nerve endings singing. “Oooh,” she said softly. “Yes.”
“Tell me if you’re not okay,” he said.
She looked up. His jaw was tight. “Are you okay?”
He laughed lightly. “Sugar, it’s taking everything I’ve got not to thrust hard and pound into you. I want you so fucking much and you feel like heaven. You’re every damned fantasy I’ve had.”
“You’ve had this fantasy?” she asked. “Me and this worktable? Right here?”
“About a hundred times.”
She liked that. A lot. A burst of confidence went through her and with it came the uncontrollable urge to tease. “Did it include going slow and gritting your teeth and holding back?” She wiggled her hips against him and felt him sink in another inch. Oh, that was nice.
He gritted his teeth harder. Then managed, “It most definitely did not.”
“Then this isn’t really a fantasy come true, is it?” she asked. She wiggled again. Another inch.
“Zoe,” he said firmly. “You gotta let me take the lead here.”
“Why? Because you’ve done this a million times? Because you’re the expert? Because you’re the big, strong man who’s taken so many virgins?”
His teeth were grinding now. “Because I might hurt you.”
“Oh, wouldn’t you love that? For me to tell my friends how big and rough you were and how you did me so hard I could barely move after.” She wiggled again, arching her back slightly.
He slid deeper, and she felt pleasure ripple through her.
“Dammit. Don’t mess with me. I’m trying to be a good guy here,” he said, frowning. “Considerate and sweet and gentle and shit.”
She laughed, feeling a euphoria she hadn’t expected to come from something other than an orgasm. She and Aiden were doing the most intimate thing imaginable—under very bright, hide-nothing lights, in a place where they would both be frequently, unable to forget—and they were still laughing and teasing and taunting each other.
It would never be like this with anyone else.
She tightened her muscles around him and he groaned.
“I’m not delicate, Aiden,” she said. “I want you as much as you want me. If I’m a little sore tomorrow, then I’ll just be thinking about you even more.” She squeezed him again. “Every time I move just right or sit down or—”
Aiden suddenly gripped her hips and thrust, burying himself the rest of the way inside her.
Zoe gasped and for just a second thought she’d made a huge mistake. Emphasis on huge. That did hurt. That was a really tight fit. This was obviously very new.
But then he pulled back and thrust again. Then again.
Maybe the idea of making her think about him with every step around the bakery tomorrow was what did it, but whatever it was, Zoe was pretty quickly thinking she was brilliant for teasing him. Because This. Was. Amazing.
He filled her up in a way her fingers, her favorite vibrator, nothing ever had or could. He was hot and hard and huge. The friction was unmatched, the angle was perfect, the… everything was unlike anything before. Especially the way he was watching her, still with jaw clenched, his eyes on hers.
“God. Aiden. I—” She tipped her head back and opened her legs even farther.
“Zoe,” he bit out. “Dammit.”
It was a good, dammit. Somehow she knew. She arched her back. Hot sparks shot through her body from where Aiden was buried, to deep down to her toes and up to her scalp.
“This is so good,” she panted.
“Fuck yeah, it is.”
She liked that. She knew he was no virgin, and she wanted this to be good for him too. She had no idea how to really make that happen, but she wanted it. She looked up at him. “Tell me what to do.”
“Just fucking lie there, and look like a damned goddess, and let me worship you.” His voice sounded different as if he was feeling a whole bunch of stuff that was all trying to come out at once.
She knew the feeling.
“Just lie here?” she teased. “Easiest gig ever.”
He ran a hand from her belly up between her breasts to cup one. He plucked at the nipple as he thrust then circled his hips.
“Oh, God,” she moaned.
“Yeah, just lie there,” he said, his grin cocky.
Well, she’d let him be cocky with this. He was earning it.
He ran his hand back down and rubbed his thumb over her clit. She shuddered. “Oh, more of that.”
“I love that you’re vocal,” he said. “But I could tell that was good.”
He did it again, and she felt her muscles tighten around him.
“Yeah, milk me with that gorgeous pussy,” he muttered as he worked her clit again.
As if she could help it. Her head fell back again. She was all his. She didn’t have a ton of leverage here anyway, and she was quickly losing the ability to function beyond remembering to breathe. Even that was becoming secondary to chasing the orgasm that was tightening low and deep.
“I’m never going to get enough of you,” he said.
“I hope not. I’m going to need a lot of this,” she said, breathlessly.
He groaned. “I might have created a monster.”
“Yeah, you did,” she told him as he did some magical swirling thing over her clit while pumping deep.
“But you’re my monster,” he told her. He thrust again. “Only mine. All mine.”
“Oh my God, yes.” She couldn’t imagine being like this with anyone else. Letting someone else see her, touch her, taste her the way Aiden had. “Only you.”
That made him give a growl that shot straight through her and her muscles tightened. He picked up his pace, still circling her clit. She lifted her head as she felt everything begin to coil.
Their eyes locked.
“Let go for me, Zoe,” he said roughly. “Let me feel it.”
She couldn’t have held it back if she tried. “Aiden!” she cried as the orgasm seemed to start in her toes and work its way up to where he was buried deep. She clenched around him, gripping his shoulder with one hand, trying to grip the tabletop with the other, but finding no purchase.
Which was no problem at all. Aiden was holding her so tightly she wasn’t getting even an inch away from him. He clutched her hips, pulling her against him as he pumped deep and then came, shouting her name, pulsing inside her.
Add that to the list of never-befores. Feeling Aiden’s climax, feeling him coming apart inside her was almost as good as feeling her own.
Almost.
Because her own orgasm with Aiden deep inside her was absolutely the best thing. Ever. Full stop.
“I can not believe I waited so long for that,” she said, sitting up and throwing her arms around his neck giving him a big hug.
The change in positions, shifted him inside her and she felt ripples of pleasure even from that. She wiggled.
“Wow, could we go again?” she asked.
He laughed, the sound rumbling against her ear, and squeezed her ass. “Give me a little bit. But yeah. We’re going to go again.”
Her inner muscles responded to that with their own little, “yay!” He must have felt it because he groaned.
“Monster. Definitely created a monster.”
She pulled back. “That was so good.” She frowned. “You denied me that at Christmas? You are such a jerk!”
He shook his head. “That was unbelievably good. I can’t believe I denied us both that.”
“But—” She thought about that. “Are you saying it was only that good because it was us?”
“That’s what I’m saying.” The look in his eyes was softer now. Affectionate. Sweet.
She smiled. “Oh.” Then she frowned. “You still have kept that from me for five months!” She slapped him lightly on the chest.
“Can you imagine having this and then having to wait five months to have it again?” he asked. He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have survived. I had to wait until I was here and could give it to you over and over again.”
He kissed her. It was deep and slow but sexy as hell.
“You knew it would be this good?” she asked when he lifted his head.
“I had a pretty strong inkling,” he said, seeming totally sincere.
“How?”
He shrugged. “It’s you. Even kissing you. Seeing you in that lingerie. It was stronger than anything else I’d ever felt.”
That was a pretty good answer. “Maybe you would have been inspired to come back sooner. Maybe it wouldn’t have taken five months.”
He seemed to think about that for a second. He frowned slightly. “Maybe. This business opportunity just really… made sense now.”
She lifted a brow. “I wouldn’t have been enough to bring you back?” She was teasing. Mostly. But it did occur to her that it was a fair question. Sure, the guy needed to have a job. Well, he didn’t need one like most people did. But he probably needed something to do. Still, he claimed he’d come back because he was ready to be with her. He’d made it sound like Christmas had started him thinking about them as a couple, and he’d decided he was ready for that to happen so had come back to Appleby for her.
“Come back and be your sex slave?” he asked as he pulled back. “That does sound like my kind of gig.”
She watched him take care of the condom, even taking the bag out of the trash can by the back door and tying it up, presumably to take it out with them when they went to their cars.
She supposed she wouldn’t want Josie to find that. Not that she didn’t have every intention of telling Josie what had transpired here. After she reassured her she’d fully cleaned and sanitized everything. Which reminded her she needed to do that.
Zoe slid to the floor and grabbed her panties and dress, pulling them back on. Aiden started dressing as well. She took the bowl of cream filling to the sink, giving the Hot Cakes wrappers and leftover cakes a little frown.
Dammit. He had made her think more fondly of them. She’d see them in a gas station now and probably get a little hot and bothered.
“So what is this business thing you’re working on?” she asked as she washed the bowl out and loaded it into their industrial dishwasher. That was definitely something they’d added over the years. Letty was still jealous of the thing. She had come down occasionally to do dishes, just so she could use it and be in awe.
“We’re… acquiring a local company,” he said.
Zoe looked over her shoulder. “Really? Local like Dubuque?”
He blew out a breath. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it.”
She shut the water off and grabbed a towel, drying her hands and turning to face him. “Okay. I’d love to hear about it.”
“The guys and I—” Just then his phone rang. He hesitated, clearly debating about answering it.
Zoe waved her hand. “Go ahead.”
He was still watching her, a strange expression on his face, as he reached for where he’d evidently set his phone earlier on the counter near the ovens. He glanced at the number then frowned, lifting it to his ear. “Hey.” He paused, listening. Then he looked surprised. “Now?” He glanced at Zoe again. “This is not a good time.”
She smiled. “I’m okay.”
She was. She was so okay.
“Hang on,” he said into the phone. He lowered it. “What do you mean you’re okay?”
“I mean, I’m spectacular. I’ve never been better. I feel so damned good I think I’m going to be able to float home.”
He gave her a bemused grin. “Yeah?”
“Dude, I just had sex for the first time.”
His grin grew. “I’m aware.”
“And it blew my mind.”
“Yeah?” he asked again.
“Definitely. I probably need a little recovery time. You know from all the big, hard thrusting and pounding and stuff.”
His gaze heated but he did say, “Are you sore?”
“In such a very, very good way,” she assured him.
He blew out a breath. “We need to talk about a few things.”
“You know where to find me. If you need to go do something with this fabulous new company takeover or whatever you’re doing, then go.” She crossed the tile to where he stood, lowering her voice a little so the caller wouldn’t happen to hear her. “If I go to bed before you get home, I’ll go to bed naked. You know which door is mine.”
His gaze heated. “Open invitation?”
“Oh yeah.”
He lifted his hand to her face. “I’m crazy about you. I really need you to know that.”
Her heart flipped in her chest, and she felt another of those surges of, oh, yes. She turned her head and kissed his palm. “I do. And same.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’m all in. I know I gave you a hard time at first and I know I said this was too boring and cliché and all that but… you’re the one, Aiden. I think you’ve probably been the one for a long time.”
Emotions swirled through his eyes. Surprise, heat, affection, lust, and something else. Something that looked like concern. But that didn’t make sense.
He lowered his head to kiss her before she could really study his face. The kiss was hot and sweet, longer than she’d expected. He lifted his head reluctantly.
“Okay, I’m going to go take care of this,” he said. “But I’ll see you later.”
“For sure,” she said. “We have a lot of laters, Aiden.”
He gave her a smile that looked like he couldn’t quite believe she was saying this stuff.
Well, he’d convinced her. What could she say? She could admit when she was wrong. And when she’d thought a relationship with Aiden would be predictable and boring, she’d been very wrong.
He kissed her again. “God, I don’t want to go.”
“Then hurry up so you can get back. Text me when you’re on your way. I’ll probably be at Jane’s. Or Josie’s.”
“I didn’t know you had plans with the girls. What if I was going to take you home and ravish you all night?”
“I didn’t have plans. Until now.”
“Now that I’m leaving you alone?”
“Now that you’re leaving me alone and I have a huge story to tell them!” She laughed. “But even if I did have plans with them, I would have canceled. No problem. I would have sent them a message that said, ‘Can’t make it’ and an eggplant emoji.” She grinned. “They would have been fine with it.”
He laughed. “That’s all it would have taken?”
“Totally. I would have gotten high-five emojis back. Or maybe the one that looks like a noisemaker with confetti. Or maybe the honeypot emojis. You know what those mean, right?”
He nodded with a half grin. “I definitely do.”
“Of course, after I tell them our story, we’re going to start using the cupcake emoji.”
He lifted a brow. “You’re going to tell them our story?”
“That’s why I’m going over there,” she said. “I’m definitely telling them this story.”
“All of it?”
“Well, the highlights. And that the cupcake emoji definitely needs to be added to the sex emojis.” She grinned and couldn’t help but hug him again. “It was so good, Aiden. Oh my God, I’m getting hot again just thinking about it.”
He squeezed her ass. “Same.”
“Good.” She gave him another quick peck. She wanted to do so much more than that, but she stepped back. “Now I have some deep scrubbing to do on this table,” she said with a grin. “Go.”
He blew out a breath. “Okay.” He lifted the phone back to his ear. “I’ll meet you in twenty minutes.”
Then he was gone.
Zoe had never grinned so much, or gotten so horny, cleaning up her kitchen.
She really hoped he’d hurry home.
He shouldn’t have slept with her before he told her about Hot Cakes.
Aiden realized this insight was one, too late, and two, probably shouldn’t have been a huge revelation actually. It seemed obvious now. After the fact. He should have definitely told her before taking her on her worktable. With Hot Cakes cupcakes. Definitely.
Dammit.
But he hadn’t had a real plan for when to tell her. He hadn’t had a specific plan for sleeping with her either. Not one that went beyond I’m definitely going to do that. Well, and okay, the cupcakes. Those had been part of the plan from the day he’d promised to make her love that cream filling.
But he should have told her he was now in charge—sort of—of the production of that cream filling. Before he’d smeared it on her breasts.
That did seem obvious. Now.
The last few days had been so damned nuts that both of those things—confessing his new business deal and finally making love to the woman he was falling more in love with every day—had simply been “Get to that ASAP” in his mind. They hadn’t been really related.
Except now he could see that one should have definitely come before the other.
If just one damned thing with taking over Hot Cakes would have gone smoothly, then he might have gotten it right. If things had fallen into place the way he’d expected, he could have gone to her and said, “So there’s this thing I’ve been working on” and told her everything, before getting the best blow job of his life.
“We should have a town hall.”
Aiden looked up at Dax, refocusing on the conversation.
“I was nearly driven out of the building with pitchforks,” Ollie reminded him. “So naturally, you want to call even more of our new employees together in one place and ask them how they feel about things?”
Ollie had gotten to town about an hour ago. He’d flown. Using the private jet they owned but rarely used. He’d then gone straight to the Hot Cakes factory. Because he could never just fucking chill.
Apparently, his arrival had not been met with a red carpet and champagne toast.
Now he, Dax, and Cam were all checked into the hotel in Dubuque, and the four of them were sitting around Dax’s suite with Grant on Skype trying to figure out what to do next.
“Pitchforks?” Dax asked. “Come on. People found out the new owner was in the building and they had some questions.” He shrugged. “Makes total sense to me. Besides, it was only the business office people and one of the foremen, right?”
“Forewoman,” Ollie corrected. “Though she’s also the new union leader, I guess. Gorgeous redhead. Riled up, gorgeous redhead.”
“That’s the best kind of redhead,” Dax said.
Ollie shook his head. “She had a ton of questions, and I think she kind of hates me now.”
“Why?” Aiden asked. It was Jane. It had to be Jane. She’d gone in to talk to Ollie. Good for her. “What did you say?”
“That I didn’t have any answers,” Ollie said. “Which is true.”
Aiden could understand why that would have frustrated Jane. The employees were already worried about this change, and to hear the new guys in charge didn’t have a clue, wouldn’t make anyone feel better. “You should maybe let Whitney handle this stuff for a little while,” he said. “She’s at least good at PR.”
“I’m good at PR,” Ollie protested.
“Standing on a stage at Comic-Con and throwing t-shirts out to the crowd isn’t really PR,” Aiden said.
“Public relations,” Ollie said. “Our relationship with our public is great.”
“But we’re talking about relationships with our employees,” Aiden said. “That's different. They want us to be serious. And knowledgeable. And reasonable.”
“Maybe we should make t-shirts and take them to our next employee meeting,” Dax said. Aiden shot him a look. He put his hands up. “Just kidding.”
He had maybe been half kidding.
“They want benefits and time off and fair overtime pay,” Aiden said. “Not t-shirts and cappuccino machines in the break room.” Yes, Dax had suggested that as well. “These aren’t kids blowing off steam by chopping troll heads off and earning purple diamonds. These are real people with real issues that they’re counting on us to solve.”
What had he gotten into? Aiden wondered for the forty-seventh time over the past two days. What the hell was he doing buying and trying to run Hot Cakes?
“By the way, we’re promoting Whitney,” he said firmly. “To VP.”
“She’s already a VP. What’s she going to be VP of, now?” Cam asked.
“Everything,” Aiden told him with a scowl. “VP of Every.Fucking.Thing. We need her. She’s the only one with a clue about how that place runs.”
“Yeah, sounds like her family did a hell of a job,” Cam said dryly.
“She wants to do things different. She’s on board with what Ollie and I have discussed with her.”
“You’ve met Whitney?” Cam asked Ollie. Then looked like he regretted letting that slip.
Ollie nodded, giving Cam a grin. “Now I see why you date the girls you do.”
Dax looked from Ollie to Cam and back. “What’s that mean? From what I can tell, Whitney is nothing like the girls Cam dates.”
“Exactly,” Ollie said. “You like them a little more… submissive now, don’t you, Cam?”
“Fuck off, Ollie.”
Which was you’ve got me all figured out in Cam language.
This was getting so complicated. Aiden scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d just given Jane a pep talk and advice about confronting her new bosses. Including him. She’d told him about Heather, who had the perfect work hours to allow her to pursue her paralegal degree. She’d told him about Albert, who was seventy and had a bad knee but still had to work to afford to support his wife and their developmentally disabled adult son who lived with them. She’d told him about Mathias, whose wife was a nurse who picked up all holiday shifts so she could get extra holiday pay. That meant Mathias needed to be off on those holidays to take care of their two kids.
None of them loved Hot Cakes, but they had worked out their schedules and the jobs they could each do so they could be there for their families and work on improving their lives.
Apparently, Whitney had been the go-between for the workers and management so her father was never aware there were jobs Albert couldn’t do because of his knee or that Mathias and three other men often traded shifts without formally being approved.
They were all worried about the idea of changes. They were all in precarious positions, balancing their work and their lives, and fearful their new bosses wouldn’t be as understanding and flexible.
Aiden rubbed the center of his forehead where a headache was definitely brewing. He’d left the guys alone for a few hours, and already things were more complicated than they had been that afternoon.
“Full steam ahead,” Cam said. “There’s no reason to mess around. Let’s just do this. Let’s get in there and do things and not talk it to death.”
Full steam ahead should be fine. There was no reason to be taking this easy or rolling this out slowly. Hot Cakes needed overhauling. They all needed something to do, and hell, Aiden was all in. He was madly in love with Zoe and was moving his life back to Appleby. Might as well jump into his new business venture with both feet.
Too bad he hadn’t told her about it before he’d fucked her on her worktable, had the most amazing sex of his life, and basically convinced her she was in love with him and ready to say I do. He hadn’t proposed, but she’d said she was all in. She’d said he was the one.
Fuck, she thought he was the one.
He knew she was the one, and he wanted to be the one for her.
But the one didn’t go behind her back to rejuvenate the company she thought was standing in her way of being more successful.
Even if it wasn’t true.
“Fuck.” He pushed himself up from the chair in Dax’s suite and paced to the sliding door that led to the balcony.
“We have to talk about it,” Dax said.
“We do,” Ollie agreed. “I wasn’t ready for that today. That’s on me. But these people are worried.”
“Of course they’re worried,” Aiden said. “They’ve never worked for anyone else. Whether they love or hate the Lancasters, that’s who they know and who they’re used to. I doubt anything in that factory has changed in ten years. The employees may not like it, but at least they know what to expect. People, by nature, don’t like change. If they’ve had a hard time getting management to listen to them, then they’re not going to trust us when we say not to worry and that it’s all going to be all right.”
“Then you think a town hall is the right thing to do?” Ollie asked.
Damn. A town hall. Inviting everyone who wanted to come to see them. Meet them. Talk to them. Pummel them with questions.
“We have to be open with them.” This came from Grant. “They’re not going to trust us if we keep things hidden or make it all a big secret.”
Aiden winced. Exactly. Hiding things and keeping secrets was a really bad idea.
“Then we just go in and prove it will be different. We make the changes and show them it’s better,” Cam said. “They’ll balk at the start, but once it’s all in place, they’ll see it’s fine.”
“What if they quit? Or picket or something?” Dax asked.
“They’re not going to quit,” Cam said. “Where would they go? There aren’t that many jobs around here. They’ll stay. They’ll bitch, but they’ll stay.”
“You really think bulldozing them is the way to go?” Ollie asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to talk and listen and negotiate? Long term, that will build trust. We ask what they want. We tell them what we can do—and we’re honest about what we can’t—and then we deliver. That will build trust. And loyalty.”
“It will also take forever,” Cam said. “People can adjust. The faster we get it done, the sooner they’ll see it’s better, and the sooner the complaining will stop.”
“That will be cheaper too,” Grant said. “Drawing it out, doing focus groups and town halls and whatever will take time and money. If you just go in, implement things, and hang on for a few months, it will be more efficient.”
Aiden took a second to appreciate how even this meeting highlighted how each of his partners was different and how their varying perspectives worked to make the bigger picture more complete.
Ollie shook his head. “This is a small town. This is Iowa. Honesty and integrity are really important if we want to get anywhere. If we want to be here long term—and I assume that’s our goal here—then we need to do this well.”
Yeah, yeah. Okay, Aiden thought. He got it. Honesty and integrity mattered for long-term relationship building. Aiden looked skyward. If the universe or God or whatever was trying to drive home that point, it-slash-He was doing a great job.
“Fine.” Cam shrugged again. “I think it’s going to be a bigger pain in the ass that way, but whatever.”
“And you’re going to come back to Chicago with me and Grant and observe all this from afar, right?” Dax asked, eyebrows up. “You sure? Because you sure seemed interested in the reports and articles you were reading earlier.”
“Only to the extent that I want to see the Lancaster empire taken completely apart and everyone saying what we’re doing is four million percent better than anything they ever did,” Cam said. Without a single ounce of humor.
“Four million percent?” Grant echoed, though his tone was dry. “In year one or by year five, or what are we talking here?”
“The sooner the better,” Cam said, again without even a curl to his lip.
Ollie gave Aiden a wide-eyed look. Yeah, it was really better that Cam stay in Chicago as they took over Hot Cakes from the Lancasters. And worked with their new VP of Everything, Whitney Lancaster.
Grant sighed from the computer screen. “Which means, as usual, I’m the only one considering cost? Because it sounds like, as long as whatever you do is four million times better, Cam isn’t going to blink at spending money.”
“Oh, we’re spending money,” Cam said. “Benefits, gutting the plant, new technology, fucking new name tags, if needed. Whatever it takes to make Hot Cakes bigger and better and the best place anyone has ever worked and the product the best fucking thing anyone has ever eaten.”
Everyone seemed taken aback by how adamant he suddenly was.
He looked around. “Reading everything over the last few days shows me there are a ton of improvements that can be made. There are a lot of holes. Things they’ve half-assed. Because they were the only game in town. In the area really. But they haven’t expanded their products in years. They haven’t gone after any new markets. They haven’t done any upgrades in almost a decade. There’s a lot of potential.”
“And you want to make these improvements because…” Ollie prompted.
“Because I want everyone to know that the second a McCaffery got involved, things got better. That a McCaffery will do things the Lancasters never did. That a McCaffery is the one who gives a shit.”
Ollie nodded. “Got it. But we’re the ones who are going to be here dealing with it all in person while you’re in Chicago?”
Cam shrugged. “I might hang out in Appleby more than I thought.”
Oh. Shit.
Aiden stared at his friend. “Really?”
“If we’re having a town hall and having the entire town show up to see what we’ve got planned and who’s involved, I’m going to be there,” Cam said.
Aiden blew out a breath. He needed to talk to Zoe. She had to hear this from him. Before there was a fucking town hall.
“I need twenty-four hours.” God, he was going to need more than that, he had a feeling. “No announcements of any kind for at least that long,” he told his partners.
“Whitney thought Thursday next week would be good,” Ollie said. “And she thought having it at the plant would be perfect. Plenty of room. She said we can bring in chairs and refreshments. We open it up to everyone, even people who don’t work there. They meet us. We present our plan. We take questions. Then everyone is talking about it over the weekend.”
“You want them talking about it?” Grant asked.
“Of course. Because we’re going to wow them,” Ollie said, clearly fully on board.
Aiden’s stomach was in a knot. He cast a glance at Camden. This was it. Soon everyone would know. They’d see them as heroes. Or villains. Depending on who was looking at the situation.
“You worried about your family’s reaction?” he asked.
“Sure,” Cam said. “They’re totally stubborn and unreasonable. But we’re in too deep now.”
“You don’t believe Hot Cakes is a competitor of Buttered Up, do you?” Aiden asked.
“No.”
“You think you can convince your mom and sister of that?”
Cam snorted. “No.”
Aiden sighed.
“But hey, now that you’re sleeping with Zoe, they can’t stay pissed at us forever, right?”
Fuck. He hoped that was true.
But that sounded horrible. That wasn’t why he’d slept with her.
Was it? The knot tightened further. It wasn’t. Of course. He’d wanted her long before he’d thought about taking on Hot Cakes. He’d decided to buy Hot Cakes because it was a way for him to come home and be with her. She was the reason he was home. Hot Cakes was secondary to that.
But he’d definitely slept with her before confessing about the business. That could have easily been his subconscious trying to hedge his bets.
Dammit.
He had to tell her. Tonight. Right now.
“You better sit down,” Grant told Aiden. “We need to hash out this town hall.”
Well… shit.
This was going to be bad.