Baker’s Law (23 page)

His arms shook as he levered himself down to lie beside her. She didn’t hesitate to
snuggle up next to him, fitting her head snuggly under his. He wrapped his arm over
her waist and pulled her flush against him.

This was where he wanted her to stay, from now to forever. He wasn’t entirely sure,
but just as he dozed off he thought the words may have escaped him, his plea whispered
softly into her ear.

Marissa lay in the warm cocoon Jax created for her with his own body. He’d asked her
to stay, but to be honest she wasn’t sure if he meant for the night or forever. Either
way, she couldn’t. He could love her. She was almost sure of it. He would take care
of her. But she’d been alone for so long, taken care of herself by herself for so
long she wasn’t sure she could open enough to him.

But as she snuggled closer to him, any thoughts that she might be falling in love
with him were quickly whisked away. There was no
might.
She was full-blown, head-over-heels for the man. And it seemed mutual. A man couldn’t
make love to a woman like that, holding nothing back, giving and giving without a
little bit of love.

What she worried about, though, was would it be enough? Was love enough to overlook
the differences that seemed miniscule in the throes of fantastic lovemaking, but Grand
Canyon–huge in the light of day?

She must have dozed off. When she woke, she shifted and found a blanket covering her
and Jax. Pale moonlight streamed in through the parted slats of the blinds at the
windows. She shifted and looked around to get her bearings. Her head now lay on his
left arm. His right arm was thrown over his eyes. It was half past three according
to the clock on his nightstand.

Should she cuddle back up to Jax and sleep with more comfort and safety than she had
in who knows how long, or get up and leave before she did something stupid like profess
her love for the man?

As cowardly as it was, she opted for sneaking out—though she preferred to notch it
up as consideration. She didn’t want to wake him. His workweek had been hellish. He
needed his sleep. Plus, he’d had a busy evening. Delight washed through her body.
Oh, how he’d been busy.

Marissa eased off the bed, careful not to jostle Jax. Once on her feet, she hunted
around in the dark for her clothes. She found her jeans—though no panties—at the foot
of the bed. She slipped into her jeans commando. It was all she could do not to get
all self-conscious and cover her breast as she hunted for her bra and shirt. Finally
after what seemed like an interminable about of time, she found both wadded up by
his bedroom door.

She finished getting dressed and walked to the side of the bed to retrieve her shoes.
She almost slipped back into the bed when she looked down at the gorgeous sleeping
man. She’d seen him naked the night before, but she’d hardly been in a position to
ogle and appreciate. Marissa shook herself. She needed to get home. The last thing
she wanted to do was take the walk of shame first thing in the morning in front of
a teenager. She snatched up her sneakers, then hurried out of the bedroom before she
talked herself out of leaving. In the living room she sat on the sofa to slip on her
shoes and came nose-to-snout with Soldier. She bit back a solid yelp. She’d all but
forgotten about the large dog. But he hadn’t forgotten about her. He pushed in closer
to her until he was breathing on her neck.

“Get back, boy.” She pushed against him but he didn’t budge. She rubbed the top of
his head and behind his ear, which only made him move in closer. Giving up on her
shoes, Marissa used both hands and petted him, rubbed him and all but hugged him.
“You are a cutie, aren’t you?” She bent her head close to his and hugged the shepherd
to her.

When he was finally satisfied with her petting, he backed away and settled himself
back onto his bed.

Marissa moaned before she could help herself. She even liked the man’s damned dog.

She tied her shoes and scooped up her purse. She gave one final glance back toward
the bedroom. She needed to leave. She was so confused, she didn’t think her self-preservation
could take staying there with Jax one moment longer. She made sure his front door
locked as she snuck out.

She cut her lights before she even pulled into her driveway. Once in the house, she
found her note right where she’d left it. She tore it up and tucked it down deep in
the trash chiding herself every step of the way. She was being completely silly. She
was a grown woman who had the right to do whatever the hell she wanted, with whomever
she wanted. She didn’t have to answer to anyone.

The little speech didn’t stop her from tiptoeing up the stairs to her bedroom, though.
Once in there, she didn’t even bother to undress, just lay atop her comforter sans
her shoes and rehashed the night. For hours, despite being bone-weary—and damned
good
sex—tired she couldn’t do anything more than lie there and think. Think about Jax
lying naked as she left. Jax plunging into her. Hell, even Jax holding her tenderly
afterward, all of it left her more keyed up than when she’d driven over to his house
in the middle of the night. She had it bad.

As dawn crept from behind her curtains, her gritty eyes fluttered slightly, finally
ready to give up, but now she didn’t have time. She had to get up and get to the shop.
She had the order for the bridal shower to work on, not to mention a birthday-party
order she’d taken nearly a month earlier that was due the same day.

She rolled out of bed and peeled off her day-before clothes. She nearly gasped aloud
when she remembered she’d left her panties behind. Memories of her night with Jax
surfaced and threatened to slow her but she shoved them aside and hurried to the shower.
When she was toweling off, something caught her attention in the mirror. She leaned
in closely to focus on the reddish-brown blemish on her neck.

“A hickey.” Marissa slapped her hand to her mouth. After thirty-four years she’d gotten
her first-ever hickey. From the captain of her high school football team—now the chief
of the Oak Hollow police department—no less. A giggle threatened to burble up to the
surface and she snorted through her closed fingers.

She hurried out to her dresser and grabbed one of her Sweets by Marissa tees. She
pulled it on over her head, then sagged with a sigh of relief. The clothing covered
up the love bite. She finished dressing and went to the kitchen to find Hill already
at the table. He sat with a bowl of cereal in front of him.

“Oh hey,” he said around a mouthful of marshmallow cereal. He swallowed and waved
to the table. “I, uh, I helped myself.” He sounded apologetic.

“Good. I’m glad you did.” Marissa tucked the tag of his shirt in as she walked to
the fridge to hunt for something. But unless Jax was inside it, she didn’t think she’d
find anything suitable. She banished the wayward thought from her mind. “Hill, I know
that you don’t trust easily and you have no reason to believe me.” She closed the
fridge and turned to the teen. “I want to help you. I am helping you. You are welcome
to anything I can give you. If a roof over your head and food is the least I can do,
please accept it and don’t get all weirded out. ’Kay?”

A sad smile tipped the corner of his mouth. “If my dad met you, he’d call you a bleeding
heart. Then try to con you out of anything he could get.” Hill shook his head. “Some
people are born to be parents, like you and my mom, and some should be sterilized
the moment they can conceive.”

Marissa couldn’t help herself—she leaned over Hill and kissed the top of his head.
“Every parent should have a kid like you.” She patted his shoulder when he nodded
and then dug back into the marshmallow cereal.

“Sorry, no more mushy. How are you feeling this morning?” She grabbed the box and
pulled out a handful of the cereal.

“Fine.” He glanced at the pristine white bandage covering his lower left arm. He lifted
the bowl and drained the last dregs of milk before standing and moving to the sink.
“I can do a little work before school to make up for yesterday.”

“If you feel up to it.” She dusted the crumbs from her hand. “I should be ready to
go in ten minutes.”

Hill nodded and rinsed out his bowl.

As Marissa hurried back to her room to finish her hair she all but kicked herself
for not letting Hill come back to her house sooner. He needed a bed, not a sofa, to
sleep on. He needed breakfast. And routine.

They rode in silence to the shop. As she pulled up to the back door a thought popped
into her head. “Do you know how to drive?”

He looked down. “No.”

“Would you like me to teach you?”

Hill paused in unbuckling his seat belt. “Why?”

“You need to learn how. Everyone should know how to drive.”

“Why would you do that for me?” He shook his head and got out of the SUV.

He broke her heart. At what point would he stop getting up after being beaten down?
So far, Hill had showed remarkable resilience, but could there be a point when he
would just lie down and let the world roll right over him? God, she hoped not. And
she was determined to do all she could to make sure it didn’t happen.

Hill helped her set up before he had to head off for school. They fell into the rhythm
they’d established since he started working for him. He got the huge bins of flour
prepped for the morning baking while she get the two large coffee makers going. Then
Hill went into the freezer and did a quick inventory. The morning work went smoothly
and efficiently. She couldn’t quite remember how she’d managed before he’d been there.
It surely had been lonelier.

Just before he took off for school, she tried once again to talk him into one more
day at home to rest, but he’d hear none of it.

Hill left just before the store opened. Marissa had taken a few moments after he’d
gone to get on her computer and look up what it would take for her to become Hill’s
guardian. Legally. That was assuming he’d even want her to.

But whether it was her frazzled brain or just lack of knowledge on what to do, she’d
had a hell of a time finding out anything. After nearly an hour of Google searches,
she made a mental note to get in touch with a lawyer and maybe get it straightened
out that way.

After she’d shut down her computer, though, nothing had gone smoothly. She’d burned
the first batch of cupcakes, not paying attention to setting the timer—something she
hadn’t done in years. Then she’d burned her hand when the oven mitt slipped and she
caught her wrist on the oven rack. Now she was sporting a new burn, sleep-deprived
and a tad more than grouchy.

She was about to give up and call it a day when the bell over her door jingled. Her
sister Marlie, all decked out in a fuchsia form-fitting suit and cream lacy shirt
strolled to the counter. “Hey ya. You look like—”

“Don’t you dare say it.” She must be eons behind on her beauty sleep. Every person
she’d come across recently told her how terrible she looked.

“Sorry.” Marlie wrinkled her nose. “Burn something?”

“Some cupcakes this morning.” She hadn’t told her sister—or anyone in her family—about
the fire outside the shop. “Whatchya doing here?”

“I came to go over the schedule with you.”

“Schedule?”

“For Callie’s bridal shower. And wedding.”

Marissa stared goggle-eyed at her sister for a long moment. “Come again?”

“You agreed to help me.”

“With preparations. I came to the meeting and I am baking over six dozen cupcakes
on short notice.” The oven dinged as if to prove her point. She’d been baking nonstop
to get the quantity she needed for the shop, Callie’s wedding and the birthday party.
Several times she’d cursed the missed opportunity to get the extra oven she’d been
tempted to buy. But the back of the shop had limited space as it was. The extra appliance
would have more than likely required a renovation to enlarge the back. That meant
code-compliance meetings and more money than she was willing to shell out.

Marlie followed Marissa to the back. “You agreed to help. I didn’t specify what that
meant.” She stuck out her lip in a pout as she had when they were young. It held just
about as much weight.

Marissa stuck out her tongue in response. Then on a sigh she asked, “What do you need
me to do?” It was futile not to give in to Marlie. She always had and always would.

Marlie went over the Saturday festivities, of course to be held at the country club.

“Are you sure Bunny will let me back in? The last time I was there with her she turned
a few shades of green.” She pulled the cupcakes from the oven and set them on the
cooling rack. She waved to the coffee maker to see if her sister was interested.

Marlie shook her head. “If Callie doesn’t mind, Bunny will keep her mouth shut. They
have some weird power struggle going on right now.”

“Who’s winning?” The sisters walked back to the front of the store.

Marlie pulled another sheet of paper from her leather folder. “I’d say Callie, but
I would never underestimate Bunny.” She shrugged. “So, for the wedding. It’s a week
from Saturday. Do you have a dress?” Marlie glanced down at the sheet.

Marissa rolled her eyes. “I have at least one.” She leaned on the counter across from
her sister and screwed up her face with a little bit of resentment that her sister
didn’t think she could dress appropriately.

Marlie looked up a little confused. “No, sorry. Do you have a baby-blue dress? That’s
what color the reception hall will be draped with. And we have to match—to blend in
as unseen as possible. That was one thing that Bunny insisted on. Put her foot down
and apparently threatened to pull funding for the whole shebang otherwise.”

“Funding? A wedding needs funding?”

Marlie gave a quick snort. “You don’t want to see the budget. You could open another
shop. Or two, for what this is costing.” Marlie slid a sheet of paper across the counter.
“Here’s a timeline for you. I really do appreciate you helping me with all this. With
the Carlisle/Johnson wedding on my resume, I’ll be able to book bigger weddings.”
Her eyes sparkled. Marlie had always loved planning parties. When she’d been engaged,
she’d taken care of all the wedding planning.