Delicious (Cooking Up A Storm) (10 page)

“No, I’m okay. I guess. It was. I’ve never felt like that before.” She watched the concern in his eyes disappear. He smiled down at her.

“Me either. A first for both of us.”

“Yes.”

“You know, you can call this whatever you want, baby. If it makes it easier to accept for you to call it friendship, then that’s okay. We both know there’s more between us than that. But I can accept that you need to take things slow. If it makes you happy to call this friendship, then who am I to argue? Just as long as you only have this type of friendship with me.”

Cara couldn’t speak. She didn’t need to. Aiden had seen the only answer he needed in her eyes.

* * * *

Cara awoke to the sound of her cell phone ringing from somewhere in her bag. She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She didn’t know where she was.

She looked around the unfamiliar bedroom and remembered. She was in
Aiden’s house. She’d just spent the most amazing night making love with Aiden.

She was alone. She looked around the room and realized that
Aiden had told her he was leaving this morning. This morning? The light streaming through the window told her that it was late morning. She glanced at her watch. It was almost lunch.

Shelby
would be going crazy by now. “Oh, God.” Cara ignored the ringing phone and showered. She found her clothes tossed all over the room and wondered what Shelby would say when she saw her wearing the same clothes from the night before.

She didn’t want to face
Shelby’s I told you so expression just yet. Cara couldn’t look at the bed. She decided changing the sheet could wait. She needed coffee. In the kitchen, she found that Aiden had left the pot going. Beneath a waiting mug was a note and a couple of keys. The house key. And a spare key to the Range Rover. She was moving in with him. She read the note.

I hate that I’m always leaving you after we make love. Maybe we need to talk about that. I’ve left the spare key to the house and to the Rover. I took a cab to the airport, use the Rover today and whenever you like. Move in whenever you want. If you need help, call Sam. He’ll give you a hard time, but he knows that you’re moving in. I’ll call you later. Please don’t run away from me
Cara. Aiden.

She smiled at his consideration. But she wouldn’t call his high school friend. Most of the furniture was
Miranda’s anyway. She only had a few personal things and her clothing. Cara wondered what he would say if he knew how much she didn’t want to run away from him.

Her cell phone rang again. But she wasn’t ready to talk about it just yet.

Cara turned off the coffee, put the spare key on her key ring, and decided it was time to get Shelby’s questions over with.

* * * *

“Where have you been?” Shelby’s question hit her before she even had the door opened.

Cara
had tried to put some respect to her appearance on the drive over to the store but she didn’t carry any makeup with her and there was nothing she could do about that freshly…

She’d stopped for coffee. She needed all the help she could get to face the inevitable but there wasn’t anything pressing this morning. In spite of what she’d told
Aiden the day before.

“I’m sorry. I overslept. What’s going on?”
Cara stopped as Shelby rolled her eyes when the phone rang.

Cara
stood half way to the cookie counter and listened to the strange one-sided conversation. She was even more confused when Shelby didn’t pick up on the fact that her top was on backwards. Shit.

“Have you seen this?” She told
Cara holding up a copy of the Dallas American Statesman. Cara could only shake her head. Aiden had gotten the paper delivered to his front door but she hadn’t thought about reading it. She could barely focus on driving much less read about the state of the world around her.

“You made the cover of the Statesman,”
Shelby exclaimed, coming to a stop in front of her.

“What? How did they find out about this?”

“Are you kidding, your picture’s in the paper. You’re big news. You’re the latest fad.”

Cara
swallowed with difficulty. Suddenly she was finding it hard to breathe. How could the paper have found out about the night she’d just spent with Aiden? She’d just spent it with him. And more importantly why would the news of it make the front-page of the Statesman?

“Who told them about it?” she asked and saw
Shelby’s eyes narrow as they traveled over her backwards top. And then it dawned on her.

“Oh my God! You spent the night with
Aiden!” She all but shouted as the phone rang again. “You did, didn’t you? Oh my God, tell me everything,” she exclaimed, ignoring the phone.

“Aren’t you going to get that?”
Cara wondered what had come over her friend.

“No!”
Shelby said as if she’d lost her mind. Let the machine get it. It’s been ringing off the hook all morning. Since the news is out about you.”

“How did the paper find out?”
Cara closed her eyes while trying to run damage control through her mind.

“Apparently you’re the toast of
New York. The article has gone nation wide. This is great.”

“What?” At that point,
Cara caught a glimpse of the cover. She took the paper from Shelby’s hands without answering. At the top of the page, the headline read:

Delicious
fulfills this New York critic's every desire…

“Oh my God.”
Cara stared back at a picture of herself, unaware of the camera, looking almost invitingly at someone. In the frame next to her picture was one of Shelby.

“Where did they get this picture?” She asked.

“Does it matter? This is great. You look hot. This will put us on the map big time.”

At that moment, it dawned on her that this had nothing to do with
Aiden. She felt the awful color creep into her cheeks as that same truth dawned on Shelby.

“Oh, no. You didn’t? You did? No,
Cara, you idiot, the article is about the shop. More importantly, it’s about your secret cookie recipe. This New York critic apparently went crazy over them.”

“Just a minute.”
Cara sank down into her favorite chair and started scanning through the article before reading it aloud.

“Ms.
Bennett has a tempting little hit on her hands in the form of ‘Delicious.’ Her secret cookie recipe, which this critic cannot even begin to unravel, is almost as alluring as its creator. Cara Bennett, along with her associate, Shelby Edwards, are two reasons why they say things are hotter in Texas…’

The cookie in question had come about by accident.
Cara had been finishing a batch of her chocolate chip cookies late one night when she’d decided to get creative. Late at night was usually when her best creations had come about. The result was a mixture of chocolate chips, Texas Native pecans and her secret ingredient that nobody knew. Not even Shelby. In spite of all of the attempts by Shelby to find out the ingredients.

The following morning after
Shelby had dubbed it almost as good as sex, Cara had jokingly called it ‘Delicious.’ Shelby had run with the idea. The cookie had become the trademark of the store. They were delicious. And a top seller, but she’d never imagined they’d catch this much attention.

“Do you even remember this guy?” she asked
Shelby who only shook her head.

“No, but apparently you made quite an impression on him.”

Cara stopped reading. “I’m not the only one. He makes us sound like…”

“Yeah. Isn’t it wonderful? We’re hot.”
Cara shook her head. Trust Shelby to like this type of publicity. She glanced back at the paper and continued reading.

“The luscious
Shelby is as hot as a Texas summer.” She looked up and caught Shelby’s smile. “But it’s the illusively, sultry Miss Bennett that steals the show. Like her cookie, she’s sweet on the outside, but don’t be fooled by all that innocence. Nobody with eyes that color is all innocence itself. I have a feeling Cara Bennett can be tempting to a man’s heart as she is to his stomach given half a chance. There are definitely two women living in that very attractive body.”

“What’s this article supposed to be about?” It sounded like an advertisement you’d find in a guy’s magazine.

“Who cares? It’s bringing in tons of business. The phone is going crazy. Everyone wants to know if we have a website. But I don’t want to talk about the article anymore. I want to hear about you and Aiden.”

She threw
Shelby a look. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about with Shelby. As Cara continued to read, she remembered Miranda mentioning a write up in a ‘little New York rag’ about the store. At the time she’d been too worried about Miranda’s reaction to finding out she’d slept with Aiden to put much question into it.

“
Delicious is worth braving the Texas heat. This little, out-of-the-way shop was an oasis to this critic right from the start. From its smoldering little name, to its ‘come hither’ lovely, leading ladies, to its secret recipe that I’d do just about anything to discover, Delicious is destined to fulfill .”

“Oh my God. This is terrible.”

“Terrible? This is great. You can’t buy publicity this good. Just ask your boyfriend,” Shelby added with a grin.

“He’s not my boyfriend. Are you serious? People are actually interested in this dribble?”

“This is going to be big for us. I don’t even mind playing second fiddle to you.” She added with a smile before rolling her eyes as the phone rang again. “Here we go again. Hang on. And don’t think this lets you off the hook. I want to talk about last night.” She threw her best intimidating a look back over her shoulder.

“Where did they get this picture of me?”
Cara squinted at the grainy photo that framed her from the waist up in some filmy blouse that showed a little too much of her. Her hair looked liked she’d just climbed out of bed.

“I know isn’t it great?”
Shelby came back and took the paper from her. “I’m so glad they didn’t use the old one that the Statesman ran a few months back. This one’s much sexier. Mine looks great as well”

Cara
closed her eyes. “I think that was kind of the point. Now we’re going to have all sorts of perverts stopping by.”

“Like it or not babe, sex sells. This is a good thing. Oh, before I forget,
Aiden called for you earlier. Said to tell you to stop dodging his calls.”

“He did? When?”
Cara forgot all about the article. Aiden would be in Arkansas by now.

“Yes, about five minutes before you came in. He said he’d call you later.”
Shelby mocked in that same breathless voice that Cara couldn’t disguise. She knew she was blushing like a girl in front of her friend’s careful scrutiny. “From the looks of it I’d say someone had a very good night last night.”

Cara
knew it was pointless to deny it any longer. She was wearing her shirt on backwards after all.

“Yes. It was…amazing.”

She heard Shelby’s knowing laugh. “Careful, someone looks like they’re in love and someone else is ready to tell them ‘I told you so.’”

Cara
’s smile froze in place. She wasn’t in love with Aiden—was she? She couldn’t be? She couldn’t be that foolish.

“Don’t be silly, it’s just…a fling. We both know it won’t last. But I am moving in with him,” she added and turned away before
Shelby could see what a liar she was.

“You’re what? He asked you to move in with him.
Aiden’s never asked one of the bimbos to move in with him. This is a sign.”

“More like he needs someone to watch the place while he’s gone and I need somewhere cheap to live. It’s a convenience. That’s all. So don’t start reading things into it that aren’t there.”

“Oh.” Shelby sounded at a loss for words for a moment. She’d held out such hope for Cara. “Well, I still want to hear all about last night. If he can make you late for work as well as make you forget which way your top goes on, then he has to be one amazing lover.”

* * * *

“Hey Aiden—you’re from Dallas, right?” Eric Reynolds asked from the doorway of Aiden’s office, ignoring the fact that Aiden was in the middle of scheduling his week with Lois.

“Yeah, what about it Eric? We’re kind of busy here,” he stated without looking up.

“You ever heard of Cara Bennett or a little place called ?” Aiden’s glance collided with Lois.

“Why?” he asked, his voice catching slightly as memories from the night before came back to haunt him at this most inappropriate time.

“Because she’s on the cover of the Little Rock Post?” Eric held up the paper for him to see. Aiden’s body froze in reaction to the picture of the woman he’d spent the weekend with. Was he losing his mind? Was this conversation even happening? Images of her were starting to appear everywhere. But in the Little Rock Post?

“I was just wondering if she’s as hot as this guy thinks?” Eric seemed oblivious to the tension that filled his boss.
Aiden untangled his eyes from the photo of Cara and glanced at Lois. She knew the name from the flowers. As well as the shop. Lois knew he was involved with Cara.

“What are you talking about, Eric?”
Aiden said in a voice that sounded angry. He was. Angry at being caught off guard. Cara never mentioned anything about an article being done about the shop.

“Some
New York food critic did a piece about the shop and it got picked up by AP. It’s in every paper around the country. Apparently they're selling more than cookies at this place.”

Eric tossed the paper on his desk.
Aiden ignored his second in command’s smirk and started to read, while Lois stepped beside him and read over his shoulder.

“Oh, God,” he said under his breath.

“So, is it true?” Eric asked again. Aiden glanced at Lois who took that as her cue to get rid of Eric. She shooed him out of the office and closed the door in his face.

“Well, sorry. I was only curious,” Eric muttered through the closed door.

“This is your girlfriend?” Lois said gently, looking down at the photo of Cara. “The one that we sent the flowers to?”