Page 31 of Theirs to Treasure

Chapter 12

“You’re keeping it together better than I thought you would,” Elise whispered to Josie.

Josie looked at all the flour on the floor and wanted to whimper. Seriously, how did Chance make such a mess? She’d just made him clean up twenty minutes ago, and he had. The floor had been spotless, then all she’d asked him to do was knead some bread, and now it looked like an entire bag of flour had broken open and spilled across the black and white tiles.

“I know you’re talking about me,” Chance said as he continued kneading. “Are you checking out my ass?”

Elise chuckled. “I’m checking out your ego. I’m measuring it to see if it can make it out the door tonight.”

Chance’s laughter echoed through the kitchen. He was a natural. They both were. Josie had never been able to come up with one-liners like that. She just didn’t have that funny kind of personality, maybe that was why she was attracted to people like Chance and Elise.

“So, are you going to be our new hired help? I’ve been telling Josie we need some since almost day one. The only problem is, I hear you’re not as cheap as we might need,” Elise said as she went over to supervise how he was rolling out the dough. Josie followed.

“For the right situation, I am willing to barter my services. I know I would have to be taught how to do a lot of things around the bakery, but maybe there are things I could teach in return.”

“I’m outta here, I think customers are due to arrive in thirty minutes, I should wait up front,” Elise choked on a laugh.

Josie waited for the kitchen door to shut before she slapped Chance’s arm. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“Have you met her husband? Trust me, she’s used to worse.” His grin was infectious. “How’s your back? His eyes once again tracked down to look at the shoes she was wearing. They were clunky nurses’ shoes. She hated them, they were ugly, but oh-so-comfortable. He must have seen her frown, because he tipped her chin and placed a lingering kiss on her mouth.

“Your shoes are sexy.” He whispered.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Do they make you feel good? Because that is sexy.” Sparks of arousal shot through her core. Holy hell, her nipples ached. That didn’t happen. Not to her.

Chance chuckled.

“See, sexy? Your shoes turn you on, too.”

“Butter,” she gasped.

“Hmmmmm, butter. You would taste good drizzled in butter,” he agreed. “What else?”

He doesn’t know I’m talking about the cinnamon rolls. It delighted Josie to see his eyes were as dazed as she felt. She smiled.

“Don’t forget the brown sugar, and cinnamon and sugar mixture,” she said as she patted his butt, before walking toward the kitchen door.

“I’m bringing all of these ingredients home with me,” he shouted behind her.

Flirting was fun. Who knew?

* * *

“I know you’re not here for the banana bread,” Betty said as she put a slice in front of Sam. “You and Chance are indulging your sweet tooth at the town bakery these days.”

“You really don’t miss a trick, do you?” Sam muttered around the glass of milk he sipped.

“Butch and I ended up having over thirty foster kids go through our home, it would be pretty sad if I couldn’t see the graffiti on this wall,” Betty chuckled as she poured herself a glass of non-fat milk. “Are you taking care of yourself, Sam?” she asked.

Now wasn’t that a question? “These days, I’m not pissing on the doctor’s orders, so that’s good.”

“A step up, be still my heart.”

He loved the way that Betty handled all of her ‘children’ differently. She provided him just the right amount of tough love and sarcasm ninety percent of the time so that when she really laid on the ooey gooey center of pure motherly adoration, he could accept it.

“You never told me, Betty, how’d you end up moving to the ménage capital of the world?”