Naughty

“Autumn, I’ve thought about you all weekend.”

She stared into his blue eyes. His hair was once again pulled back into a small ponytail at the base of his neck.

“Tell me you haven’t.”

There was no way for her to look away, or to deny it. She had done nothing but think about their time together. The one encounter that as far as she was concerned had changed her life.

“It was a mistake.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m here if you need me.” He pulled her close, and his lips pressed against the corner of her mouth. “If you need me for anything at all.”

She watched him walk out of the bakery without a backwards glance.

“Now that was fucking hot!” Hilary came around the corner. “If that was me, I’d have come in my pants as well.”

Autumn smiled. “It has been a long day. I clearly have other things to do. I’m just going to go on my break.”

Grabbing her jacket, she left the back of the shop, and leaned against the wall, taking several deep breaths. This kind of thing never happened to her, and she couldn’t believe she was having to deal with it now.

Her cell phone went off, and she considered that was a sign to stop thinking about it. She saw her sister was calling, and accepted.

“Hello, you’re still friends with me?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t be anything else. Mom and Dad loved their party, and guess who asked about you?”

“The maître d’?”

“No, silly. David. He asked about you.”

“David?”

“Please, Autumn, stop being difficult. David, the guy you were talking with for the rest of the night, you know, when you finally arrived.”

Autumn frowned. No matter what, she couldn’t think of anyone she actually spoke to. “The weirdos at the table where you put me?”

“They’re not weirdos, silly. They’re part of the financial part of our company. Anyway, I can’t go spilling trade secrets. He wants to know if you’d like to go on a date.”

“No.” She didn’t even need to hesitate.

“Autumn!”

“Summer! No. I didn’t even talk to the guy, okay? He was playing on his little toy. Probably playing a game because he was bored out of his freaking mind. Why were half of your colleagues there? I didn’t see a single one of our parents’ friends.”

“It was a party, Autumn.”

“So? It was a party for our parents.”

“They didn’t have a problem. They had a lot of fun. Now about David.”

“You date him. Don’t think of pushing me off on to any of your work colleagues.”

“Sweetie, I’m not pushing you off. I just, he’s nice, okay? And he’s head of the financial division, and if he’s—”

“Taken care of, you get everything you want. I get that, and I know what you’re saying, but I’m not going to do it, sweetie. The last thing I want is to fall asleep into my dinner.” That had happened with one of the favors she did for her sister. Summer was on the phone, nagging because she’d made everything worse.