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“Whoa. What has gotten into you?” Willow pressed as she grabbed my arm, whistling loudly enough that a waiter approached almost immediately. “You’re a clone. A fake. You stole my friend!”
“Wine,” I threw out. “A huge glass of merlot. Biggest one you have.”
My friends eyed me as they ordered. Once they finished, they leaned over the table.
“Confess,” Bella demanded. “What is going on?”
“It’s been a rough couple of days, ladies. Okay?” My answer was terser than I’d meant for it to be.
“How rough could making cupcakes be?” Willow snorted in her cutesy bumpkin kind of way.
“Oh, you have no idea. Especially when I found out I can’t afford to open a bakery right now. I’ll be lucky if I can when I’m eighty at the rate I’m going.”
“I’m sure you can find something,” Bella said, usually the more encouraging of the two.
“When hell freezes over. I also had a visit from my father.” I was already drumming my fingers on the table. What the hell was taking so long?
“Uh-oh,” the two girls said together.
I was certain the tray headed in our direction held our drinks. When the same waiter passed by, I almost snagged one anyway. Damn it. I needed liquid libation more now than I had the night before after returning home.
The Lone Ranger had even asked if he could come up to my apartment. Um. No! Having sex in a parking lot didn’t instill romantic feelings.
Not that I’d had hard ones either. The sex had been incredible. Oh, God. There went my mind again, falling into the gutter.
“Yeah, uh-oh. He made me a proposition I’m not certain I can ignore given the circumstances.”
Bella opened her eyes even wider than before. “A proposition?”
Thankfully, the waiter brought the wine before I was forced to continue. I took a huge gulp, large enough beads of the red stuff flowed from both sides of my mouth.
“Are you ladies ready to order?” the young guy asked, even though I sensed he was hesitant in doing so.
“No!” My answer was a tiny bit too loud, coming close to causing a scene. But I couldn’t help myself. I was on edge about every aspect of my life.
“Whew, girl. Calm down. We’re going to wait but check back in a few minutes to see if we need another drink. Okay?” Willow was far too kind.
I sat back, swirling the stem. My thoughts had shifted from the offer to my mystery man so many times I felt like my head was spinning. “Dad basically begged me to come back to worth for him. A huge salary increase, my own spectacular office. Lots of perks. For one year. One year only and he’d invest in Sinful Treats, ensuring I had a place to operate.”
“That’s fantastic!” Bella was excited.
I shot her a rather hateful look. “Have you not paid any attention to what I’ve told you about my father? The man is a conniving beast. He’s up to something.” Or worse. Even for him he was acting strange. I’d known prior to leaving that some of the possible contracts had been on shaky ground. Without them, the stocks would plummet, investors bailing and the company would be ripe for another firm to pick apart.
But to be used as a pawn?
“So, hold him to the deal he made. Force him to sign a contract. Men like that don’t like being hit in the pocketbook. You know?”
I mulled over Willow’s idea. “Not bad. I could do that, but I swear there’s something going on he doesn’t want to tell me about.”
Bella cocked her head. “Any idea?”
“No, but he said a corporation is breathing down his neck. I just don’t know what to do. I don’t want him threatened but what am I supposed to do, hire an assassin?”
“I wouldn’t put it past you,” Bella quipped.
I gave her a brutally stern look.
“When do you need to decide?” Willow piped in.
