Take the Cake (17 page)

“Me?” She looked startled.

“Yeah, you,” he teased. “Come on, ’fess up.”

“Uh …” she floundered for a moment, and then recovered. “There isn’t really much to tell. When I first opened the bakery I was in a dating wasteland, which suited me just fine. I was channeling so much of my energy into the store that there really wasn’t any room in my life for anything else. Or anyone,” she added.

“Surely there must have been someone,” he pressed. He couldn’t imagine a woman like Kate being single, although now that they had met, he was very grateful that she was.

“Okay, so there
was
someone serious,” she said in a guarded tone. Michael was beginning to regret asking the question when he saw the flicker of hurt on her face, but she rallied soon enough and continued, “I’d been in a relationship for a couple of years, and we kind of drifted apart.” Her mind wandered off into thought for a moment, and then she gave a short laugh. “And by the time we split, we had become friends more than anything else.” She sipped her wine, licking her lips as she set the glass back down on the table. “Probably a good thing really, given what happened,” she said, and then looked amused at Michael’s obvious curiosity. “But that’s for another time. Suffice to say that, yes, I’ve dated since then, but nothing really serious. I guess the bakery has been my main squeeze for a while now.”

“Has that situation been by choice?” Michael asked.

“A little,” she agreed. “A bit by necessity and mostly by circumstance.” She looked at him with a wry smile. “Think about the logistics. All of my time and energy had to go into the store, so I guess I really didn’t have much of a life for a while there. I don’t know of many guys that would be patient enough to date someone who’d say,
Thanks for dinner. See you next month
.”

“I know I would have,” Michael replied, realizing the truth as soon as he spoke.

“Really?” Kate couldn’t stop the shy smile of delight.

“I couldn’t wait a week, which is why I’ve been hanging around the store. Walking you home might not be much, but it’s a way of spending time with you, so I’ll take what I can get.”

“Flatterer.” She laughed, giving his hands a playful swat.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, reaching to snare her hand as she began to withdraw, and lacing his fingers with hers.

“It’s not easy in this town,” Kate went on. “Finding someone, I mean. For all that we’re surrounded by people, everyone seems to lead quite solitary lives. It can be hard making the connection.”

“I guess,” Michael answered. “I suppose it’s not really something I’ve thought about all that much. Other things have kept me busy.”

“There’s the rub,” Kate replied. “Everyone’s in a hurry all the time in this town.”

A waiter took their plates away and returned with the dessert menu. Michael cast a quick glance at it, and then left it on the table. The menu was full of mouth-watering words like
chocolate
and
cream
, but he found Kate’s words to be all the more tempting.

“Is that why you have a store that encourages people to take their time?”

Kate gave him an amused look. “Have you seen the store when it’s busy? There’s not much leisure going on there.”

“Ah, yet you’ve got a supply of books and magazines for people to read, the walls are covered with art. I’ve even watched people stand and talk to you about the cupcake names, and Wren entertains people with her quote of the day. You might have started with the cupcakes, but it has become something much more.”

So much more
, he added silently, watching Kate as she thought it over, realizing that he wanted to kiss her again.

“You know,” she said, “I think I understand your writer’s block now.”

“I’m glad someone does,” Michael replied with feeling.

“How were you feeling just before it all happened, before you stopped working?”

Michael gave the matter some thought, aware that Kate was prompting words about a subject he had rarely spoken about to anyone else.

“I guess,” he began slowly, “I was feeling tired.” He sipped his wine and shrugged. “Burned-out, I suppose. The fun had gone out of it.”

Kate leaned forward, resting an elbow on the table, and he instinctively mirrored her position as their heads bent toward each other. “So you found yourself in a position where the occupation that had sustained you for so long felt like a monumental chore?”

“Yes,” he said, surprised that she could understand him so well.

“And then you began to resent it?”

“
Yes
,” he said with feeling. “It was draining. At first I stopped writing out of spite, I guess, which in retrospect wasn’t the smartest thing to do.”

Kate gave him a sympathetic smile. “Like you were cutting off your nose to spite your face?”

Michael chuckled at her turn of phrase. “Something like that,” he admitted.

“I guess writing would be like being in a relationship of sorts,” Kate mused. “You spend your time with it, and it has its ups and downs.”

Michael sipped as his wine, watching Kate as she spoke. Their hands were still entwined on the table top, and he ran his thumb over the palm of her hand. It was a curiously intimate moment, and one he was enjoying.

“When you’re in love with a story, you have to take your time to follow it and to fall in love again,” Kate said. “You need some time. And maybe you need to be in love with a story because you’re going to spend years of your life inside without seeing anybody. Working sixteen-hour days and weekends, you need to be in love with every detail. If you don’t have that, then how can you write if you don’t love what you do?”

Michael raised Kate’s hand to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss on the center of her palm, making her breath hitch in her throat as his breath tickled against her skin. “Is that what the bakery is like for you?”

“Sure,” Kate replied, trying to focus on what she was saying, rather than the warmth of his hand and the feel of his lips against her skin. “Getting the business up and running was never going to be easy. I can’t tell you the number of times I cried myself to sleep from sheer exhaustion, wondering when things were going to get better.”

“But you kept at it,” he said in a soft voice, dusting a kiss across her fingers.

“It felt like it was all that I
could
do,” Kate replied, mesmerized by the way he kept brushing his lips across her hand. She could feel a tingle of heat beginning in her chest, swirling over her clavicle and up into her face, flooding into her lips and cheeks.

Michael turned her hand in his and kissed the inside of her wrist. “You want to go somewhere else?”

Kate looked at him with luminous eyes. “Yes, please.”

Chapter 11

Skylines and Dumplings

After settling the check, Michael guided Kate out into the street, and the two began walking.

“Where to next?” Kate looked up at Michael.

“I thought maybe an after dinner drink somewhere different might be nice,” he offered. “A friend of mine told me about a bar down on 32ⁿd and said it was good.”

“Sounds good,” she replied, tucking her arm though his as they walked. “It’s not often I get to do stuff like this.”

“Like what?” He glanced down at her in surprise. “You mean dating?”

She smiled and nudged him as they walked. “No, I mean … well, that too, I suppose. But what I meant was getting the chance to go exploring for an evening.” She blinked up at him. “It’s nice.” Michael gave her a pleased smile, and Kate realized again how tall he was. She barely came up to his shoulder, and every time he put his arm around her she felt comforted and protected all at once.

“What’s that smile for?” Michael’s voice roused her from her thoughts, and she glanced up to see him smiling down at her before shifting his gaze back to the sidewalk.

“I’m just having a really nice time.” The air was crisp but not too cool, and there were lots of people out enjoying the evening.

“Glad to hear it. I am too,” he said.

A few minutes later, they had reached the building Michael had been heading for. Kate shot him a curious glance as he led them inside and pressed the button for the elevator.

“Can you guess yet?” he said with a grin.

“I’m thinking it’s a bar, but I don’t know which one,” Kate answered.

The elevator doors opened with a soft chime, and Michael led them inside. They were the only ones there, and so he took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her and give her a soft kiss.

“Thanks for this evening,” he said in a quiet voice.

“Shouldn’t I be the one thanking you?” Kate answered, looking up at him. The cupid’s bow of her lips curled into a smile before Michael bent his head to claim them with his own. They were still kissing when the elevator stopped and the doors opened, and Michael broke away with reluctance as they stepped into the foyer.

“The M Bar,” Kate said, reading the sign on the door. “I never would’ve thought of doing this.”

“Well, I figured it would be a chance for us both to do something different,” Michael said as they went inside. “You spend so much of your time at street level, I thought you’d like the chance to look out over the city.”

Kate looked around the bar and then up at Michael with a beam of delight. “This is wonderful.”

The bar opened up into a rooftop area, with round tables and chairs set up in random order, and one end of the room was covered with twinkling Christmas lights. The overall decoration was minimal, as the real backdrop to the bar was the New York skyline itself, and the eye was drawn straight to the illuminated Empire State Building.

He ducked his head to hers, brushing his lips against her temple. “Would you like a drink?”

“Please,” she replied. “Vodka, lime, and soda.”

He nodded as he ran his fingers down her arm to take her hand again and began to lead her through the crowd. Finding a space at the bar, the two of them made small talk while they waited, and then Michael noticed a couple of guys nearby giving Kate’s bare back some covetous glances. Oblivious to their blatant interest, Kate kept smiling and talking to Michael, who kept her hand in his.

The barman arrived, and Michael placed their drink order with some relief. He’d be glad to get away from the crush at the bar and from the unwanted attention. The drinks were dispensed, and Michael turned with both glasses and indicated an area of the room with an inclination of his head. Kate glanced back at him as she pointed to a bench seat, and he nodded.

Each wall of the bar had long bench seats with red cushions, and they managed to find a space over at the far wall. Michael set their drinks down on the low table in front of the bench and sat, watching as Kate settled herself beside him. Their easy intimacy remained, and Kate rested comfortably against his side as they toasted each other, and then sipped their drinks and gazed at the brilliantly lit cityscape.

“It’s so beautiful,” Kate said, sighing and tipping her head back to rest it against the padded wall behind her.

Michael tilted his head to rest it against the top of Kate’s, breathing in the sweetness of her scent. No matter where they were, she always seemed to smell of sunshine and cupcakes. “Yes, you are,” he murmured in reply, smiling when he got a soft chuckle in response. Kate let herself lean more against Michael’s side, and felt a surge of pleasure as he automatically lifted his arm to rest it around her shoulders.

Their conversation drifted on. Michael’s thumb drew lazy circles on Kate’s upper arm, and Kate rested her hand on Michael’s knee, her hand soaking up his body heat. As Kate spoke, Michael gave in to the temptation that had been at him all evening, and twined his fingers in her hair, running his fingers through the silken lengths in a languid caress.

Seeing their glasses were empty, Michael glanced over toward the bar. Kate watched the tendons in his throat as he moved his head, and then acting on impulse, reached up to brush a kiss against his jaw. He turned back and gently cupped her chin in his hand so that he could kiss her, taking his time, exploring her warmth with his. When they broke apart, he was surprised to see Kate give him an urchin grin.

“That might have been a bit forward of me, but I couldn’t resist,” she admitted.

Michael rubbed his nose against hers, giving her another small kiss. “You don’t hear me complaining. Maybe you can blame the alcohol?”

Now it was Kate who reached up to slide her fingers around the nape of his neck, licking her lips as she leaned in for more. “I don’t think so,” she whispered before their lips met. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”

~~~

Wren had jammed her iPod headphones into her ears and was mouthing the words to a Lily Allen song when she collided straight into someone’s chest.

“Sorry,” she muttered as she stepped aside to walk around them and was then startled when a hand shot out to grab her arm. She looked up with a quick retort, but the words died on her lips as her eyes rounded in surprise.

“You?”
she said, blinking as her shock was greeted with a low rumble of laughter. It was Mr. Wonderful.

“Are you okay?”

Wren nodded and stood there in surprise as he kept talking. He asked her questions: about her day, if she’d made any more aprons, wanting to know if anyone else had cracked the secret code. She found herself answering, and as she talked he listened. They fell in step with each other, strolling along the streets of the Village. It wasn’t until she saw the lights of Chinatown that she realized he’d been steering them both here all along.

“It’s Friday night.” He shrugged in answer to her silent question. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not much for cooking, and I want dinner.” His hands were in his jeans pockets, but he crooked an elbow toward her invitation. “Join me?” After a pause, she slipped her arm through his, and they kept walking.

Half an hour later, Wren glanced around the crowded restaurant, wondering not for the first time what the hell was going on.

“You okay?”

She glanced back in time to see David pop another piece of dumpling into his mouth. He chewed, watching her with a steady gaze as she toyed with her chopsticks.

“I’m fine.” She shrugged. “Just surprised is all.”

“What? You don’t like the food?” David asked in a mild tone, his eyes not leaving hers.

She shook her head and scooped up some steamed crab, chewing it with pleasure. “The food is great. I just don’t know what I’m doing here.” Wren grimaced. “Sorry, that came out wrong.” She scooped up some more crab, watching David as she ate. He was working his way through his dumplings with every sign of enjoyment, glancing around the restaurant, exchanging small talk with the other couple that was sharing their table.

“I’m flattered,” David drawled. “But if it makes you feel any better, everyone has to eat and we just happen to be doing it together.”

~~~

“I see a gap at the bar,” Michael said later. “I’m going in.”

“Kiss for luck?”

“Absolutely,” Michael murmured, dipping his head to hers again before getting up and moving inside to get some fresh drinks. Kate watched him go, admiring the way he wove his way sinuously through the crowd with little effort. She felt more relaxed and happy than she had in a long time.

After another leisurely drink, they left the bar and walked the streets, feeling warm and relaxed from a combination of the alcohol they’d consumed and the intimacy that was growing by the hour between them. Kate stumbled slightly on an uneven piece of pavement, and Michael wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her, his fingers splaying around her, grazing the underside of her breast. She turned as he righted her, so they were standing face to face.

“You okay?” He smiled as she hiccuped.

“Better than,” she affirmed. “And getting better and more betterer all the time.”

Michael threw his head back and laughed, and Kate laughed as she watched his Adam’s apple bob. She’d never seen him laugh like this before, and it was intoxicating.

“More betterer? That’s a word?”

“It’s a Jack word.” Kate grinned.

“Then that’s good enough for me,” Michael said, his smiling fading as he looked at her smiling up at him. She had so many different smiles. This one turned up at the right slightly, creating a dimple that was provocative and challenging. He dipped his head and kissed it, before trailing kisses to her lips. Kate gave a low hum as she wrapped her arms up around his neck, shivering slightly as Michael’s hands ran over her bare back. They drew apart and smiled at each other, before Michael wrapped his arm around her waist once more as they continued on their way.

“Can I say that I want to see you again soon?” Michael asked as they drew closer to Kate’s apartment. Their pace had slowed the closer they got, as neither of them were willing to see the evening end.

“Sure,” Kate admitted with a smile. “Perhaps it’s just as well that we’re as bad as each other.”

“Or as good, depending on how you look at it.”

“This is true. So I guess this is it.” Kate turned to face him. “I had a great time.”

“The first of many, I hope,” Michael said, running his hands up her forearms and resting them on her shoulders as he drew her into his chest.

“I’d like that,” she agreed.

This time their kiss was long and sweet, their lips were gentle as they said a silent goodnight before either of them said the words that would bring the evening to a close. When they parted, Kate turned with a reluctant smile toward the door, and Michael waited until she had her keys out before he began to turn away. He had gone a few paces when he heard Kate’s voice.

“Michael?”

He turned to see Kate leaning out of the door, her hair blowing in the soft evening breeze, sending more of her scent toward him.

“Yes?”

“I hear tomorrow’s going to be a beautiful day, especially in the afternoon.”

He couldn’t stop the smile that started to spread his face. “Really?”

“It’s the word on the street,” Kate said in a solemn voice. “Or at least, from here anyway.” She cocked her head and smiled. “Spend it with me?”

“I’d love to.”

“Great.” She grinned. “I’ll see you then.”

Michael waved at her and turned to go home, this time a bit lighter at heart.