Page 51 of Almost Love

This time she was in complete control of the baking. Well, sort of. There weren’t a million vagina cupcakes spread out over her kitchen counter, however there were a million different pastries everywhere. While nothing happened beyond the kissing, touching and flirting at her house, whenever Oakley swung by for his box of donuts, she’d feel a flutter in her tummy. He’d flash her a smile and look her up and down with those gorgeous green eyes like he was thinking of all the things he wanted to do to her. It took serious effort not to react when he did that. It was distracting, but also incredibly flattering.

In the days since he’d stayed over, she made donuts for Wildes Haven, sorted out the list of tasters they needed to prepare for the week, and even the wedding cakes she’d prepared turned out perfectly.

Then everything collapsed.

It started with burned cookies, followed by flat cakes and finally bitter coffee. All because Xander had the audacity to show up with hiswife. Clementine had been sitting in front for a change of scenery, bent over her notebook and scribbling ideasfor a tasting the following week. He’d said her name and when their eyes locked, her heart dropped. Apparently she hadn’t forgiven him like she thought, because instead of responding to him, she gathered her things and hid in her office. She surfaced hours later and in an attempt to distract herself made another mess.

Freya and Roscoe, tired of her kitchen mishaps, shut her in her office. After much pacing and grumbling she dropped into her chair and fiddled with her phone until the FaceTime ringing filled her office.

“It’s my favorite daughter!” her father greeted her as the call connected. His handsome face filled the screen of her phone and Clementine rolled her eyes. “You look particularly perturbed, kid.”

She huffed. “I’ve been punished.”

“Is this a kink thing? I can’t keep up.”

“What the fuck, Dad?”

Her father grinned and looked away from the phone as he said, “Renu, your daughter is involved in kinky stuff.”

“Dad!”

Her mother’s face filled the screen, her frown matching the one Clementine wore. “Are you being safe?”

“Christ. It’s not a kink thing!” she shouted and her parents looked unconvinced. She growled and forced herself to calm down. “I burned cookies and ruined a batch of cakes today. So Freya punished me by locking me in my office.”

Outside of the widening of their eyes, she would have assumed the call had dropped. They stared at her for a long time before glancing at each other. Then her mother leaned forward slightly and said, “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Sighing, she shrugged. They didn’t know about Xander, nobody did. She knew what everyone would say if she said she had acrush, so Clementine kept it to herself. Maybe talkingabout it back then might have been a good idea, just to have someone to help untangle the mess in her head.

Instead, she said, “Just distracted and messed up. That’s all.”

“We’ve known you your whole life, Tiny. There’s more.”

Her parents stared at her in concern, foreheads wrinkled as they waited for her to explain.

“Nothing else. Got tons of weddings and lots on my mind with that.”

Her mother was still unconvinced, but she said, “Been there, done that. Remember that one year we decided to host a big family reunion in our backyard?” She and her father nodded, wincing at the memory of the craziest idea her mother ever had. “What none of you knew was that I had burned two pots of rice that morning. I cried and called your aunt, the rice we served was hers.”

“Seriously?” Clementine asked, eyes wide as she stared at her mother.

“I was so stressed. There was so much to do and I kept trying to do it all by myself.” Her mother shrugged. “Point is, you’ve got this incredible group of people working with you. Delegate and allow yourself to be distracted. Don’t push yourself when you’re not focused. Nothing good comes of it.”

“This is why I married your mother,” her father offered with a lovestruck look in his eyes. Her mother nudged him, but Clementine saw the smile playing at the corner of her lips. “That and so much more.”

“Ugh, why?” She groaned and her parents cracked up. “You’re the worst.”

“When you meet the love of your life, my precious little girl, you’ll know,” her mother offered unhelpfully and then kissed her father on the cheek.

“That sounds like so much work.” She had to admit that seeing her parents happy together was the best thing in the world.

“We love you, Tiny.” Her father peered at her through the screen and she smiled.

“Love you too.”

“Take a break once in a while, my love,” her mother added before they said their goodbyes and hung up.

Letting this thing with Xander become a reason for messing up was silly. He wasn’t important and shouldn’t have any impact on her life now. After all, she had someone better. Someone who liked her and cared about her. Oakley might have shared a few things with her old crush, or she thought he did at the beginning, but they were so different. He uplifted her, wanted her to find pleasure in everything and kissed her like his life depended on it. He’d been through so much in his life and was still the happiest person she’d ever met. He was one of the best things to happen to her in a long time.

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