Page 13 of The Baker and the Kraken

Adam grinned back. “Me neither.” He squeezed Calder’s hand. “Now, come on. You promised me the best shrimp cocktail you’d ever had, didn’t you?”

On land, anyway. He wanted to share everything with Adam, and this was a solid start. Calder happily allowed himself to be tugged off the beach, automatically steering Adam out of the way of a garbage can and not letting him stumble when the toe of his shoes caught in a crack in the sidewalk.

Chapter Five

Adam

Adam was starting to think that Simon could be right. Maybe he and Evie had been squealing accurately. Any time Adam had been anxious over the last three weeks, he’d consoled himself that these still weren’t dates, so it was okay.

But… he was pretty sure you didn’t think about kissing a friend—even a good friend—as often as Adam had started thinking about kissing Calder. He was still scared, but every time Calder demonstrated that he was still interested in Adam despite everything, Adam couldn’t help but feel reassured. Only… could it simply be because Calder wasn’t interested in Adam romantically? Was he less annoyed because he was less invested?

This seemed like the most likely answer given the other interactions Adam had had in his life, except… Except the way that Calder looked at him sometimes made it hard for Adam to believe that everything between them was strictly platonic.

They’d hit a point where Simon checked in with him practically every day at work.

“Have you kissed him yet?” Simon demanded.

And then Evie would holler from the front, “Well?”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Simon, if a kiss happens, you’ll be the first to know. Let’s be honest: you’ll probably work it out with one look at me. You don’t need to keep asking every day. Calder and I are friends.”

Simon slung a towel over his shoulder, his eyes twinkling. “Only I think I do need to keep asking, because there’s no harm in you getting extra reminders about what you’re missing out on. Maybe it’ll make you act faster.”

Adam was pretty sure that nothing could make him act faster. Yes, he wanted to kiss the other man. He longed to know what his lips tasted like. But what if Adam was wrong? What if everything between them really was platonic, and Adam had gotten everything backward, and instead of getting a kiss, he ruined the best friendship he’d ever had?

It couldn’t possibly be worth the risk.

And so Adam stewed, night and day.

Plus, it really was getting busier and busier at work. He was glad of the business for Maggie’s sake—and his own, he supposed, since her success kept him employed—but he still wasn’t convinced that Valentine’s Day wasn’t a whole lot of pressure for not enough reward. He was up to his ears in pink, red, and white icing, heart-shaped everything, and an unfortunate number of rose-shaped decorations, be they icing, fondant, or spun sugar. He enjoyed making flowers within reason. In February, reason was abandoned.

On top of that, the more time he spent in the bakery getting ready for Valentine’s Day, the less time he was spending with Calder. The wonderful man still seemed as understanding as always, but Adam worried there’d be a tipping point. And even if nothing went disastrously awry and thus defied the lessons that Adam had learned through his life, he was still spending less time with Calder, and he didn’t like that at all.

He wasn’t sure that it was fair to say that all these feelings had sneaked up on him, since he’d been kind of low-key obsessed with the man since he first saw him, but Adam somehow hadn’t expected to be this invested. He’d thought keeping everything platonic would help, but he wasn’t sure that was true anymore.

He should head to bed soon, but he was relaxing on the couch, not really watching whatever movie he’d turned on. He perked up when his phone rang, despite the fact that Calder had told him he was busy tonight, and he deflated a little when he saw it was his dad calling—and then guilt washed through him because of course he wanted to talk to his father. He swiped to answer.

“Hey, Dad, how’s it going?”

“Not so bad, kiddo, how are you?”

“Apart from the fact that I’m being buried in pink frosting, I’m okay.”

His dad laughed and groaned at the same time, sounding commiserating as he said, “This damn time of year.”

It wasn’t just because of the baking that Adam didn’t think much of Valentine’s Day, though it certainly hadn’t helped. Sure, it was great when it went right, but it was awful when it went wrong. And while they generally saw the positive side of it at the bakery—leaving aside how Adam felt about the workload and the commercialism—even there, they’d seen some Valentine’s go spectacularly wrong, including cakes, cupcakes, and other treats being smashed into people’s faces.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Adam pursued.

“Yeah, of course,” his dad assured him. “You know me. I’m more worried about you working yourself to death covered in icing.”

Adam laughed. “At least they could say I was very sweet on my tombstone.”

His dad scoffed. “There is that. But you’re sure you’re not being overworked?”

“I’m fine,” Adam promised. “Joseph’s been really reliable compared to the last driver, which has left Simon and Evie able to do their jobs, which means I can do mine.”

Getting pulled up front because Simon had to do an emergency delivery had not been good for anyone.