Maid to Order (5 page)

“I would prefer to make deliveries, since this…” he said pausing and looking around. “This isn’t really my thing.”

“Pink is calming and mint green is uplifting. It leaves people feeling happy and calm,” she began to explain and then stopped. Why did she feel the need to clarify things for him? He was being a complete jerk! “Come on and I’ll show you what all goes in the van to take up to the festival,” she finally finished.

She walked around the counter and past him toward the double doors leading to the bakery. He followed her and, somehow, instead of feeling like she’d won this first face to face showdown between them, she felt like she was being stalked by the big bad wolf. A small part of her wanted to run just to see how he would react.

The question was would she be running because he truly intimidated her that much or just to see if he would pursue her? If he did give chase what would happen once he caught her?

Nothing about Rusty Hawkins was like she’d imagined after talking to him on the phone. She’d expected someone older… maybe closer to her mother’s age… based on his need to constantly try to correct her. While he was definitely a bit older than her, it somehow didn’t seem to matter. He was hot! Sadly, he obviously didn’t share the same level of interest in her.

She’d never paid much attention to redheads before and definitely had never dated one… never even considered it actually. Most of them were really pale and had lots of freckles but neither feature stood out to her where Rusty was concerned.

His amazing eyes and intimidation tactics are what she’d noticed above all else. Those were the qualities that forced her to take notice of him as a man. The way he carried himself said that he was in charge or the very least believed himself to be. There was no indecisiveness in him…
none
. He knew what he was about and no one and nothing could tell him differently or ever convince him otherwise.

He had backbone and then some.

“I thought we would set up both of these tables and put these covers on them. Then we could put cupcakes on one and dessert bars and cookies on the other,” she explained while pointing at the folding tables and bag of decorations near the back doors of the bakery.

“Is the van unlocked?” he asked, not really looking at either the tables or the bag of decorations.

“Yeah, it should be. If you grab a table, I can grab the other…” The words died on her lips as, after hearing that the vehicle was unlocked, he walked over and grabbed the bag of decorations and a table in one hand and then the second table in the other. She couldn’t help but stare at him as his muscles bunched and knotted as he walked over to the backdoor. Glancing over at Renee, she almost laughed upon seeing her staring as well.

“Can one of you please get the door?” he ordered.

Ashamed that rather than helping in any constructive way she’d instead been standing there staring at him, she rushed forward and opened the door and held it for him. Then she followed him outside and around to the back of the van, where she opened the back doors for him. Noticing how easily he had loaded the van she knew she should get back inside and load up the rest of the baking racks as well since they were now officially running short on time.

Soon enough they had everything loaded up in the van. Much like his earlier comment about not taking orders from a
civilian woman
, he also seemed to have issues with allowing either her or Renee to carry the heavy plastic racks containing the desserts. While Amy could completely understand not wanting Renee to lift them since she was pregnant… with her it made no sense.

She did this every day. However, any time she would pick one up he would approach her and take it from her and load it himself. Finally she just put things in them and left them on the table while Renee held the door open for him.

Following him out to the van with the last rack she said, “My area is to the right of the gazebo if you’re facing the railroad. If we pull down the alley that runs along the tracks we shouldn’t have to carry the racks very far. I need to go back inside and grab the keys though,”

“You don’t need to go with me,” he replied.

“Excuse me?” she asked, attempting not to allow him to goad her into arguing. “I do have to go… someone has to set up the tables.”

“I’ll take care of that. You stay here and…
bake
,” he replied, closing the back doors of the van after having loaded the last of the trays within.

Then without another word he headed around the back of the van toward the driver’s side. Instinct told her that he was trying to rile her up.

“You need to drive slowly so the racks don’t shift or slide around too much. Then call me when you’re on your way back so we can get a few more racks loaded up and ready to go,” she said, following after him almost at a run just to keep up. He opened the door and started to climb inside when she said, “Did you hear me, Rusty?”

He stopped and turned back to her and gave her a look that she felt all the way to the tips of her toes. After several seconds of his silent reprimand she felt so awkward she finally said, “Okay, well, I’ll see you when you get back then.”

Then she made for the backdoor to the bakery and didn’t look back even though she could feel those eyes following her every move.

“Ms. Carlton… the keys?” she heard him say just as she reached for the door handle.

After stepping inside and closing the door behind her, she leaned against it for a moment and pulled in a deep breath. After a moment she became aware of Renee staring at her.

“Mr. Hawkins, Sir… seems like a rather intense individual,” Renee said and then burst into squeals of laughter.

Oh how she’d needed Renee’s wit and humor after all that. Amy found herself laughing hysterically right along with her. Intense was an understatement. Rusty Hawkins was…
wow
.

She managed to run the keys back outside and he drove away carefully enough.

“Can you take care of the store? Please… just until I get a batch or two ahead and then you should get home… especially since you’re supposed to be part time now,” Amy asked upon coming back inside.

“Sure… but one question first,” Renee replied. “Will you be okay here alone with him… or should I check back later on?”

“I’ll be fine… it’s him you should worry about because if he makes one more reference to my place as a
woman
, I’m liable to clock him one,” she replied.

“He’s pretty freaking hot… a little older than I normally notice but hot none the less. Sometimes it’s nice when a man takes charge… like in the
bedroom
. So try not to jump his bones… I seen you looking,” Renee said with a light laugh and a knowing smile.

Then she disappeared through the double doors into the shop upon hearing the door open and people talking about the goodies in the display cases.

The rest of the day seemed to go way too fast, since Rusty called that they were out of cupcakes and cookies long before she had more ready to go. When he showed up several minutes later she was relieved when he went ahead and unloaded the empty racks himself, stacking them up in the corner and carrying out and loading the ones she’d managed to fill. This seemed to be the norm for the remainder of the day… making time fly by.

All his gruffness and chauvinistic tendencies were over shadowed by his ability to just pitch in and do what needed done, all without her having to say a word. On his third trip back from the festival she was way behind since Renee had finally left.

Upon looking up from icing a batch of cupcakes she found him washing dishes, all the empty racks stacked neatly ready for her to load them up with more baked goods. By the end of the day she’d begun to wonder if maybe he did have experience working in a bakery.

They hadn’t said much to each other for the remainder of the day since they’d both been so busy. Besides, it eliminated round two between them. However, when he called to tell her that the festival was over for the day and that he was headed back to the bakery with the few things that hadn’t sold, she began practicing how to ask if he would be coming back the next day.

If it was this bad on a Friday then the following day would be a nightmare and she didn’t just want his help… she
needed
it. Moody or not… she’d take his crap if it meant him coming back to help again.

When he pulled up and parked the van out back she held the door open for him and he set one rack on the counter that had a dozen cookies and two cupcakes in it.

That was all that was left?

She watched as he unloaded the empty trays and then looked again at the few items that hadn’t sold. She’d have to come in well before the sun was up tomorrow to even be close to ready by when the festival opened at nine in the morning. Rusty approached and she was surprised that even though she hadn’t heard him, she could feel his presence.

Reaching around her from behind, he held a money bag out and shook it so she could see how full it was and hear the coins in the bottom and then said, “Come on. We need to go make a bank deposit.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll do that on my way home. You can go on. I have a few things to finish up here and then I’ll be leaving too,” she said.

“Ms. Carlton, I’m not going to send a woman to the bank, alone, and on a Friday night, with enough money to make someone
really
brave. So finish up and I’ll go with you. Did you eat yet?” he asked.

“I make the nightly deposit all the time by myself, Rusty. Really… I’ll be fine. Thank you for today, though. You will be back tomorrow, right? Please?” she asked in return.

“Yes. I will be here first thing in the morning but don’t
Rusty
me… now answer the question, Ms. Carlton,” he said gruffly getting in her personal space.
So they were back to Mr. Hawkins, Sir.
“Did you eat yet?”

Something like an electrical current seemed to sing between them as he waited for her response.

“No, I haven’t eaten yet. I was too busy,” she replied.

“Good. Neither have I. We can get a sandwich up town after we make the deposit,” he replied. “I was right about you staying here and me making the deliveries. I think it worked well today and it will work tomorrow too.”

With that he turned away and began washing up the dishes. He was right but she sure as
hell
wasn’t going to acknowledge that by saying so out loud. He was already too impressed with himself.

Instead she worked on wiping down the prep tables, straightening the counter out in the shop and boxing up the items from the display cases. Once all the closing chores were done, she made sure the shop was locked up, turned off the lights and then headed back to the bakery to find Rusty.

He was leaning against the four basin metal sink when she walked through the double doors. She immediately felt awkward as those eyes of his watched her approach. The sensation was completely new to her and almost as uncomfortable as his blatant staring.

Standing up straight he turned back to the sink, washed out the dishrag, rung the excess water from it, then turned and walked over to her. The man was so nice to look at she could feel her mouth hanging open as he approached but couldn’t seem to gather the strength to close it.

“Give me your hand, Ms. Carlton,” he ordered.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you have white icing up your arm, and I am going to wipe it off,” he replied with a sigh, showing her the dishcloth in his hand.

“What? No
licking
this time, Rusty?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood between them. Upon seeing the downright scowl on his face at her comment, she attempted to backpedal. “I mean,
Sir
…”

Chapter Four

Ms. Carlton
was turning out to be everything Rusty had secretly hoped for but not dared to think was possible. He’d thought of little else and his dreams over of the previous two evenings had been full of ideas on what she might look like or be like.

As much as he should ignore her attempts to flirt with him, since there was obviously a considerable
age difference between them, he was a man and therefore ignoring sexual innuendo was impossible. The woman was stunningly beautiful. Long golden blonde hair, warm hazel eyes and a pretty smile complete with a dimple in one cheek were only the half of it. From there it only got better… long legs and a slender waist his hands could easily wrap around to guide her…

Forcing his mind out of the gutter which it seemed to make a direct line for within minutes of being in her presence, he led her out to his car after waiting for her to lock up the shop. Then he held the passenger side door open for her. She flashed her model’s smile at him as she walked around the opened door and gracefully sat down in the front passenger’s seat.

“Why thank you, Rusty…
Sir
…” she said in that husky voice of hers and then followed it with a seductively teasing grin.

Like a really good Marilyn Monroe impersonator… sultry and low. She was working him over but good and he was not usually one to be easily manipulated.
If she wasn’t so much younger than him…

As he pulled away from the store and drove up the street he was surprised when, rather than sitting quietly for the short ride up town, she leaned forward and turned his radio on. He could merely glance at her out of the corner of his eye as she flipped through the channels and stopped on a local classic rock station playing “Up on Cripple Creek
.”

Before he could explain that it was customary to ask the owner of the radio if it was okay to even turn it on, he was once again shocked when she started singing along with a song that was a hit long before she was even born… before he was even born for that matter.

Having caught on to the fact that he was effectively speechless she bumped her antics up a notch by dancing in the seat and singing loudly. “Come on,
Sir
… its hippie music! Or at least that’s what my brother, Danny, calls it. Everyone likes hippie music… he
loves
it. Come on, sing with me,” she said between lyrics.

“I think not, Ms. Carlton,” he replied trying to ignore the fact that she was way too cute…
and young
… for an old man like him to be ogling. “Besides, this is a trucker song, not a hippie song.”

“Well, I guess I have other options out on the open road then, if AmyCakes ends up not working out,” she said with a smile. Then she proceeded to surf through more radio channels after the song ended.

Pulling up along the side of the bank he managed to reach out and grasp her arm when she grabbed up the bank bag and turned to exit the car. He pulled her arm over closer to himself and extracted the bag from her slender fingers and tried to ignore the way touching her made his heart beat faster and the hairs on his arms tingle.

“I don’t think so, Ms. Carlton. I’ll walk it over and drop it in the box… you stay here,” he said.

Sighing in resignation she said, “Fine, but I get to pay for dinner then. It’s the least I can do after all. You
rocked
today, Rusty. I thought Ian said you hadn’t ever done this before?”

This time when he tried to correct her way of addressing him with the look he’d mastered over the years, she merely looked away from him and out the window of the car instead. He was slightly disappointed at her acquiescence. Some sick part of him kind of enjoyed the way she stood up to him or teased him by calling him Sir or Mr. Hawkins in that derogatory way of hers that made him think of all forms of wickedness and perversion.

She could think what she wanted but she wouldn’t be paying for his meal or even her own for that matter. Thinking so got her to concede to letting him make the deposit though so he kept his mouth shut for the moment.

Instead he got out of the car and after scanning the parking lot, the street and the business next door, walked over and dropped the bag in the slot. No sooner had the drop box door closed back shut when he heard music coming from inside of his vehicle. He was almost afraid to turn back around and see what she was doing now but forced himself to.

Amy was again singing as though she had been a rock star in a former life. The sound coming from his vehicle was so loud Rusty could hear it plainly from outside the car. Walking back over to the driver’s side he jerked the door open and just looked at her. She didn’t stop or even look at him and he could feel his frown deepen.

God, she was beautiful.

He just couldn’t bring himself to end her good time, so instead sat in driver’s seat and turned down the radio several notches. She couldn’t sing worth a damn but looking the way she did, no one would pay much attention to that fact anyway. Besides, he liked this song.

“This song reminds me of you,
Sir
. You definitely have a little bit of a dark side…” she said between singing lyrics that again were from a song she would have been way too young to remember. John Cafferty he was not, so he again attempted to ignore her antics.

He found disregarding her extremely hard to do and it was even more difficult to keep from smiling at his own weaknesses where she was concerned. He
never
smiled…
especially now
… and certainly not for some young hot thing with way too much energy and sass. She should be dead on her feet after the day they’d just put in but instead she looked like she had found her second wind.

The reprieve from her station surfing and horrid singing came at last upon parking at a local bar and grill not far from the bakery. After being shown to a table outside on the patio she announced that she had to use the restroom. Then she took off back inside the establishment, leaving him and three other men at another table to watch her walk away.

When the men looked back at him and he caught the look of envy on their faces he enjoyed the idea that people would actually think someone like her would go for an old man like him. Forty three wasn’t old unless more than two decades of it was spent seeing and experiencing things normal people never faced their entire lives.

When the waitress came out to ask about drinks he ordered himself a beer and having no idea what Amy would want, ordered her an iced tea.
Unsweetened since she was sweet enough without adding more sugar.

Within minutes Amy returned and he stood to pull out a chair for her across from him but she was too quick and simply plopped down in the seat right next to him. He couldn’t remember feeling this awkward around another person in a very long time and it was starting to irritate the piss out of him. He was relieved when the silence between them was broken by the return of the waitress who sat their drinks down and informed them she would return shortly to take their orders.

Grabbing his beer, Amy took a big swig of it, closing her eyes as though savoring it. Against his morals, better judgment and the normal tight control he held over himself, he felt his lower body react to the sight of her immense enjoyment of the beverage. He had thought that part of him was rendered useless from some of the things he’d witnessed in the past couple of decades. Obviously that was not the case and he found himself just staring at her.

Upon noticing his gaze, she said, “Thanks… I needed this after today. Tomorrow’s going to be even worse, I’m afraid.”

Turning in his seat, he signaled the waitress to bring him another beer, since Amy had taken his. Then he spun back around to face her only to find her twisted around in her seat talking to a man sitting directly behind her. The beautiful smile on her face brought out yet another unfamiliar feeling in him…
jealousy
. It was ridiculous and just a quick shot of the emotion but he recognized it for what it was.

He was stunned at the sheer amount of reactions the woman had managed to bring out in him over the course of one day. He felt like one of those old toy dolls that would talk if one pulled the string on its back. In his case, whenever Amy yanked his chain he often erupted with varying emotions in unpredictable degrees of intensity.

“Ms. Carlton, it’s typically polite to entertain your
current
dinner companion rather than looking for the
next
one,” he said after finding himself unable to control the green monster within.

Then he wished with everything in him that he could take his comment back or that she would somehow miraculously not have heard it. The man she was talking to simply burnt him a dirty look but after sizing Rusty up made the correct decision to keep his mouth shut.

By Rusty’s own standards, he deserved to be called out for his behavior toward her but he was wound pretty tight at the moment and the man must have figured that out. Amy just smiled at the man again and said her goodbye before turning back to face Rusty.

He waited for her to rip into him about being rude, irrational or just plain mean.

Instead she again left him flabbergasted when she leaned in close to him with her sultry smile and quietly said, “So is this like a
date
to you then, Rusty?”

The smell of her perfume mixed with…
sugar
… made the blood in his veins heat to the point that he wanted to reach across the table and pull her smart mouth over to him and kiss her breathless. When her gaze lowered to his mouth as though daring him to, a shot of animalistic aggression rushed through his body forcing him to move back from her or do something they would both regret.

Again he was rescued by the waitress who’d returned to take their orders. Having been numb for so long he couldn’t seem to process the feelings and sensations she brought out in him fast enough to even attempt to keep up. He barely registered that she’d ordered or that silence had descended around them for several seconds while he continued to stare at her.

As if to pull him back to the present, Amy said, “What? I’m not a salad and water kind of girl, Rusty…
Sir
. Cheeseburgers and beer are more my style. Not quite the kind of
dinner
companion
you were expecting?”

He didn’t miss the snort that escaped the waitress or the look of shock and disgust that crossed her face. Barking out that he would have the same thing that Amy had ordered, even though he wasn’t real sure what that was, he then waited for waitress to walk away.

He’d had about enough of Amy’s shenanigans for one evening…
cute or not
… and he was going to let her know right now. Whether it was rude to say something or not, she was ringing his bell and he was going to put a stop to it.

“You do realize your comment just now, in front of the waitress, sounded as though you were my
paid
companion, don’t you, Ms. Carlton?” he asked smartly.

Again he cringed the minute the words left his lips. He couldn’t take this comment back either but it should effectively shut down whatever had possessed her to flirt with him in the first place and put an end to any of her future attempts to seduce him. She was poking a short stick at a very mean bear and her youth apparently made her blissfully unaware of it.

Grinning like a clown at a circus she leaned in close to him yet again and said, “Not any more so than your comment did in front of my friend’s husband.”

Then she glanced over her shoulder at the man behind her as though to make her point.

“I’m sorry…” he managed after several seconds of stunned silence and a heavy sigh that escaped him. He felt like a real heel but couldn’t take any of it back. Besides what would be the point? She needed to stay clear of him and being an asshole was one way to make sure she did. “I was raised by my grandfather and he had certain…
ideas
… about what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t.”

What had possessed him to tell her that? It wasn’t like she would even care about his childhood anyway. This wasn’t a date nor was she even a friend. She was essentially a stranger that grated on his nerves…
and emotions.
Her teasing smile only widened at his confession and something like a smirk escaped him before he could rein it in.

Why did she have to be so damn cute?

“I think that’s the closest thing to a smile I’ve seen from you all day,
Sir
,” she laughed.

Then she reached out and poked her finger at the corner of his mouth before she took another drink of
his
beer instead of her own. He felt her slight touch everywhere at once. Young or not, he wanted her.
In a way that he couldn’t remember wanting a woman before.

Unable to stop the smirk that had returned he said, “Are you planning to eat my meal also… or are you content with just drinking my beer? I mean seriously, how much more do you want from me?”

Glancing down and realizing that she had his bottle in her hand, she blushed and set it down gently on the table. Then her brief moment of embarrassment turned to that same form of teasing that was slowly making him crazy. Her sexy grin returned while she wrapped her arms loosely around his drink and hers, as well as the watered down glass of tea, and then looked back up him.

“I want it all, I guess. Everything… drinks, food,
actual
conversation… more of your panty dropping smiles,” she laughed.

Too tired to keep up the boundaries he should be firmly implementing, he relaxed a little more during the course of their meal. For as pretty as she was, she was also equally sweet and smart. God help him, he was completely fascinated by her as he listened to stories of her dog and ideas she had for her bakery.

Regardless of her attempts to flirt with him, she was obviously a little nervous around him but she didn’t allow that to stop her. In fact that was probably what contributed to her overall chattiness.