LITMIR.BIZ

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Her hair was cut in a trendy fashion but she presented herself to the world as if she were a badass.

      “Honey, safe isn’t doing it for you. Something is missing in your life. I just want you to be happy,” Staci said.

      “Me, too.” Alysse really craved happiness but had no idea how to get it. She’d thought that the bakery was the solution but the longer they worked at it and the more success and accolades she achieved at Sweet Dreams, the bigger that longing inside of her grew.

      The phone rang before Staci could respond and Alysse reached around her to answer it. The phone was an old-fashioned wall-mounted unit that had come with the bakery when they’d bought the property.

      “Sweet Dreams Bakery, home of the incredible red velvet dream cupcakes.”

      “Hello,” the caller said. His voice was deep and raspy, vaguely familiar, but then she talked to men on the phone all the time.

      Staci just mouthed over to her that the discussion wasn’t over and went to help a customer who had entered the shop. Alysse leaned back against the wall and twirled the phone cord around her finger.

      “What can I do for you today?” she asked.

      “I have a dessert emergency,” he said.

      “An emergency? Well, we will be happy to help you out,” she said. She liked creating desserts that were unique to the person who would eat them. It wasn’t always easy to do, but she’d done it more than once with a lot of success. In fact, she’d been featured in a regional magazine after she’d made an anniversary cake for the deputy mayor of San Diego.

      “I was hoping you’d say that,” he said.

      His voice was perfect, she thought. She closed her eyes and just let the sound of it wash over her. This was what was wrong with her, she thought, snapping her eyes open and staring at the photo of cupcakes mounted on the wall behind the phone. She was afraid of a man who walked into her bakery but one she could flirt with on the phone, one who was safely isolated, she could handle.

      “What can I get for you?” she asked. She pulled a prestamped notepad closer and got ready to jot down the details. She and Staci had made these forms up after they’d botched an order writing it down on napkins. That had been a long time ago, but they still wrote everything down on the notepad.

      “I need something … different. I made some mistakes where my lady is concerned and I want to make it up to her,” he said, his voice low yet sincere.

      Alysse knew she was a softy when it came to men making big romantic gestures. One time she’d stayed up all night making an anniversary cake for a man who’d forgotten to order it in advance and needed it first thing in the morning. She’d charged him double to justify staying overnight to bake it, but in her heart she liked that he’d realized he’d screwed up and tried to make up for it.

      “Then this is going to have to be a really special cupcake or maybe a cookie. Tell me about her,” Alysse invited.

      Sweet Dreams had cultivated a reputation in San Diego of being the place for one-of-a-kind desserts, mainly because she and Staci both believed that making something special was more than worth their time. People would pay for good food and that was what they delivered.

      “Hmm … that’s not easy. She’s kind of elusive and hard to figure out.”

      It was always interesting to her the way men described the women they loved. She and Staci had an annual Valentine’s Day contest where couples competed to come up with the perfect treat for each other by describing what the other person was like. The winners were chosen from those who described their mate and picked the perfect dessert.

      “That’s probably why you like her,” Alysse said. “Men like a mystery.”

      He sighed and she thought she heard a honking horn behind him. “That we do. But I’m used to solving them.”

      She jotted down mysterious on the order form. Every guy thought women were hard to figure out, but if they just paid attention, she thought, it would be mystery solved. She’d never known a woman yet who didn’t in her own way tell a man exactly what she wanted.

      “What else can you tell me about her?” Alysse asked.

      “She’s feisty and spicy in bed,” he said. “She knows how to both satisfy a man and leave him wanting more.”

      She made a few more notes and then put her pen down. Well, it sounded as though he had found him a woman who met all of Alysse’s own perceptions of what the male fantasy was.

      “Is she sweet?” Alysse asked.

      “Semisweet,” he said. “She’s got a kind of gentleness to her that is at odds with that fiery temper of hers.”

      She turned to look at the stainless-steel counters of the kitchen area of the bakery.

      “Okay, I think I’ve got it. Do you want a small cake or a cupcake?” she asked. She already had an idea in mind for the batter—a kind of a riff on her Redemption Cake. She made it often enough out of a basic chocolate cake recipe and added special ingredients to make it personal to the couple.

      “Surprise me,” he said.

      “I will. When do you need it?” she asked. She figured she’d work on the recipe overnight and try a couple of variations so that she got the perfect recipe for this guy. She was going to be charging him a high price for this unique cake and she wanted to ensure he got his money’s worth.

      “This evening.”

      “Uh … I’m not sure I can do that. We close at six,” she said. She could also spend the afternoon in the kitchen working on this special order instead of helping customers and listening to Staci tell her she didn’t date the right guys, which—she wasn’t going to lie—sounded ideal. But this guy was asking for the moon.

      “Perfect. I’ll pay you to deliver it to the Hotel Del Coronado—the Beach Villas.”

      “Um … we don’t usually do that.”

      “Please,” he said, his sexy voice dropping a bit to become even deeper. “I won’t ask again.”

      A shiver spread down her arms and across her chest. There was something familiar about that low tone but then she always associated sexy with Jay Michener, her ex-husband. And Jay was the last man who’d be pulling out all the stops to win back a woman. That wasn’t his style. No. Walking away without looking back was his style, and she needed to remember that.

      “I think you might be my only chance,” he said.

      Alysse shook her head at her own weakness for romance. What was her deal?

      “Okay. I’ll do it,” she said. “Should I leave it at the desk?”

      “No, I’m having a dinner catered for us on the beach. Can you bring it down there?”

      She should say no, but this man who was going to such lengths to win back his lady intrigued her. “I’ll do it. What’s your name?”

      “Just ask for the Marine,” he said.

      “Okay. I’ll need your credit-card information,” she said. She wasn’t about to do all that work without being paid.

      “I’ll pay when you get here.”

      He hung up before she could get any more details. She turned around to see that the shop was empty again and Staci was watching her.

      “Order?” she asked.

      “A mystery order from a sexy-voiced guy,” Alysse said, trying to sound light. But this Marine and his order was affecting her and making her think of things that she usually kept tucked away. She decided to trust that he could pay her; he was staying at the Coronado and it wasn’t exactly cheap.

      “Tell me more.”

      She shrugged. How could

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