“Is she sweet?” Alysse asked.
“Semisweet,” he said. “She’s got a kind of gentleness to her that is at odds with that fiery temper of hers.”
She turned to look at the stainless-steel counters of the kitchen area of the bakery.
“Okay, I think I’ve got it. Do you want a small cake or a cupcake?” she asked. She already had an idea in mind for the batter—a kind of a riff on her Redemption Cake. She made it often enough out of a basic chocolate cake recipe and added special ingredients to make it personal to the couple.
“Surprise me,” he said.
“I will. When do you need it?” she asked. She figured she’d work on the recipe overnight and try a couple of variations so that she got the perfect recipe for this guy. She was going to be charging him a high price for this unique cake and she wanted to ensure he got his money’s worth.
“This evening.”
“Uh...I’m not sure I can do that. We close at six,” she said. She could also spend the afternoon in the kitchen working on this special order instead of helping customers and listening to Staci tell her she didn’t date the right guys, which—she wasn’t going to lie—sounded ideal. But this guy was asking for the moon.
“Perfect. I’ll pay you to deliver it to the Hotel Del Coronado—the Beach Villas.”
“Um...we don’t usually do that.”
“Please,” he said, his sexy voice dropping a bit to become even deeper. “I won’t ask again.”
A shiver spread down her arms and across her chest. There was something familiar about that low tone but then she always associated sexy with Jay Michener, her ex-husband. And Jay was the last man who’d be pulling out all the stops to win back a woman. That wasn’t his style. No. Walking away without looking back was his style, and she needed to remember that.
“I think you might be my only chance,” he said.
Alysse shook her head at her own weakness for romance. What was her deal?
“Okay. I’ll do it,” she said. “Should I leave it at the desk?”
“No, I’m having a dinner catered for us on the beach. Can you bring it down there?”
She should say no, but this man who was going to such lengths to win back his lady intrigued her. “I’ll do it. What’s your name?”
“Just ask for the Marine,” he said.
“Okay. I’ll need your credit-card information,” she said. She wasn’t about to do all that work without being paid.
“I’ll pay when you get here.”
He hung up before she could get any more details. She turned around to see that the shop was empty again and Staci was watching her.
“Order?” she asked.
“A mystery order from a sexy-voiced guy,” Alysse said, trying to sound light. But this Marine and his order was affecting her and making her think of things that she usually kept tucked away. She decided to trust that he could pay her; he was staying at the Coronado and it wasn’t exactly cheap.
“Tell me more.”
She shrugged. How could she describe what he wanted her to do without letting Staci know that her hard heart was melting? “He wants something special to try to win back his girl.”
“What are you going to make?” Staci asked, focusing on the food like a good baker.
“I don’t know. I was going to go and pull ingredients that fit his description of her.” She liked this part of the process. Baking was as easy to her as breathing. She knew the recipes and then just changed up the ingredients until she had something unique.
“And that would be?” Staci asked. “Let me guess, sexy?”
Alysse laughed because so many guys said that when they were asked about their women. But once the probing went a little deeper the answers started to vary.
“More specifically, spicy, unpredictable and semisweet,” she said.
“Sounds like a challenge. When do you need it?” Staci asked, wiping down the counter.
“Tonight. I told him I’d deliver it to the Hotel Del Coronado.”
“Why are you delivering it?” Staci asked. “Girl, be serious here. We don’t do this kind of thing.”
“He had a really sexy voice and he said please,” Alysse said. It sounded lame as a reason even to her.
“He’s taken,” Staci said, shaking her head as she walked across the room. “He wants a dessert for his lady.”
“I know. I just... It’s romantic, isn’t it? That he’d go to that much trouble to get her back,” Alysse said.