Only With Me (With Me 2)

NIC HADN’T CALLED, and it had been over twelve hours since he left my place. I sat in the bakery at one of the tables in the back as I pored over financial stuff. Not my favorite thing to do.

Liza sat down across from me and handed me a cup of coffee.

“It’s calm right now, but wait until we get closer to lunch.”

I smiled. “I’m okay with calm.”

Every time the door chime rang, I looked up in a state of panic. I wasn’t sure why, but I was on edge. It could have been my phone conversation last night with Antonio that had me more nervous than normal. Of course, Nic walking up on my conversation had me even tenser.

“Gabi? Is everything is okay? You seem really distracted today.”

With a reassuring smile, I nodded. My eyes caught a glimpse of Charity. She was an absolute basket case. I’d never seen her drop things like she kept doing and fumbling around with stuff. She was currently standing behind the counter staring off into space.

Enough was enough. I needed to speak with her and find out what was going on.

“Liza, will you excuse me? I need to speak with Charity in the office.”

Standing with me, Liza nodded. “Sure. I need to get some cannoli’s made, anyway. I’ve been staling.”

I chuckled as I closed my laptop and made my way over to Charity. “Hey, can we talk in the office?”

She pulled her eyes away from the front window and looked at me. “What was that?”

Tilting my head, I narrowed my eyes. She was totally off in la la land. “Can we talk in the office?”

With a smile, she nodded and said, “Sure.”

I motioned for her to go first as I followed her. I was supposed to have today off, but with Nic still working, I figured I might as well come in and take care of things.

Shutting the door, I set my computer on my desk as Charity flopped onto the small sofa and sighed.

Something was different about her. She had a . . . glow to her. Oh. Holy. Shit.

“You slept with someone.”

She jolted up. “What? How did you know? Who told you?”

I leaned against the desk and held up my hands. “Whoa, hold onto your panties there. It was a guess. You’re acting different.”

“I am not.”

I smiled.

“You’re glowing.”

Her eyes widened in horror. “I am not fucking glowing! You’re glowing!”

With a giggle, I replied, “I’m sure I am. I’m falling in love with Nic.”

A huge smile spread over her face as she stood and walked up to me. Taking my hands in hers, she shook her head. “My baby girl is growing up.”

Yanking my hands from her, I pushed her away. “Stop it. I’m serious. We both kind of admitted to each other we were falling for one another.”

Her brow lifted. “Kind of?”

I shrugged. “Okay, we did. But this isn’t about me. This is about you and how you disappeared yesterday and then came back and you’re acting all weird. I just want to make sure everything okay.”

She took a few steps back and buried her face in her hands and let out a small scream.

Okay. So that answers the are you okay question.

“Oh, Gabi, I’m so far from okay. I don’t know what happened. I’m. He. I felt. Oh God!”

She flopped back on the sofa.

“I didn’t get any of that, Charity. You’re what? Who is he? And what did you feel?”

She covered her face again and said, “I slept with Cole yesterday.”

Scissoring her fingers to peek at me, I stared at her in disbelief. “Wait. What?”

Her hands dropped to the sides of her body while she slumped over. “He came into the bakery like he always does, but for some reason I was insanely turned on by him yesterday. He was different. He didn’t act stupid or try to flirt. He was . . . nice. Really nice.”

I pursed my lips and gave her a really look.

“Don’t judge. I haven’t had good sex in so long I’m starting to think I need to plan a wedding with my vibrator.”

I covered my mouth to hide my chuckle.

“Anyway, Cole came in acted all sweet and then he left. But I left right after to run to the store to buy more vanilla. Oh, by the way, we’re very close to being out of vanilla. I never made it to the store because Cole was walking out of that little boutique a few doors down and we ran into each other. I swear to God the heat from his body lit mine on fire and I almost came on the spot.

I groaned and looked away.

“The next thing I knew, we were at a hotel and he was giving me the best sex of my life.”

Wiggling my eyebrows, I smiled wide. “Really?”

“Yes. Then he did something no guy has ever done.”