Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2) by Katana Collins (best love novels of all time TXT) 📗

“I bet I know someone who could,” Elaina whispered and glanced across the lawn where Liam was walking toward us. The line had dispersed and I noticed that he had put the closed sign up.

I shot to my feet, standing. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he shrugged. “We’re sold out.”

“Of…”

“Of everything.”

“Everything, everything?”

He nodded, his goofy grin growing. “We did it,” he said. “Or rather… you did it. You practically did everything for this Chloe. All I had to do was bake some stuff and help out behind the counter.”

“We did it,” I exhaled as a whole new set of tears flooded my eyes. Relief. I might actually be able to pay my mortgage this month if we can keep up at this rate.

“We did it,” Liam repeated and curved his arms around my waist, lifting me off the ground in a hug. He swung me around, those large hands of his encasing my body, causing a pool of heat to swirl in my belly.

Over his shoulder, I saw Elaina give me a knowing smile and a wink before standing and walking to her car.

If you like him, you should go for it. Elaina’s words rang in my ears as Liam’s scent filled my senses and his dizzying embrace encompassed me.

I did like Liam. I liked him so much that I couldn’t risk losing him.

20 Liam

From the corner of the room, the TV hummed with talk show chatter that I barely paid any mind to… until my own voice echoed through the bakery.

I groaned and an unwelcomed flush heated across my cheeks. “You’re not really going to watch this, are you?” I asked, glancing at Chloe, whose eyes were glued to the TV.

“You aren’t?”

We’d filmed the afternoon talk show a few days ago down in Boston…it was pretty popular in New England, hosted by three women who were local celebrities. “I’d rather perforate my ear drums,” I grumbled. It wasn’t that I didn’t want the food truck to succeed. Hell, I didn’t even mind doing the interviews. They were kind of fun. But as my laugh boomed through the speakers of the TV, I cringed. “I sound like an idiot.”

Chloe’s brows lifted and she regarded me carefully from where she sat beside me. “You sound adorable. And sexy. The public loves you.”

“Maybe.” Doubtful. “But if Neil and I don’t hire a manager soon, I’m going to go delirious with my lack of sleep.”

She stuck her tongue out at me. “You’re no fun.” Pouting, she grabbed the remote control beside us on the table and clicked the TV to mute, putting subtitles up instead.

It had been a little over a week since our change in schedule with the truck, and I was busier than I’d ever been in my life. Beefcakes was slammed, with lines around the block to place orders. We had expected business to die down after the excitement of the reality show wore off, but it seemed the opposite was happening. Chloe’s social media campaign for the bakery was working well. Maybe too well. We weren’t prepared to handle that amount of business. And it wasn’t just walk-in business; she’d set up online orders on our website for easily shipped baked goods. The good news was, she marked up the price for those, making the return on investment insanely high. The bad news was, it was more baking. More baking that I didn’t have the bandwidth for.

Add onto that, The Dump Truck was thriving, too. We were selling out of our baked goods every night, typically before midnight. Which afforded me at least three hours of sleep before I had to wake up and do it all again. I bought a cot and put it in our office in the back of the bakery and had taken to collapsing onto it as soon as I was done baking for the day, not even bothering to go home for my naps.

Yep. Business was great, but with only about four to five hours of sleep a day, Mom’s surgery that was scheduled for this week, and Neil leaving for Budapest the day after her surgery… I was running on fumes. I needed help. Badly.

Neil, Chloe, and I sat at the table in the bakery after closing. Finn cleaned up around us, taking on a larger role at the bakery as we needed the help. He was a freaking champion. He happily filled in with anything we needed as long as he didn’t have one of his mysterious “appointments” that he refused to divulge more detail about. Even still, whether he was sweeping the floor, baking, or handling the register, he did it all without complaint.

We had interviewed ten people and still had about ten more to go. Most were competent. But so far, only two were good.

I sighed and scrubbed my hands over my face. “I wish we could hire two people, not just one.” Ideally, we needed to hire not only a manager to help me run the business, but also an employee to take over some of Finn’s tasks.

Chloe gave me a compassionate glance and bit her lower lip. “Can you?”

Neil sighed, flipping through the resumes on the table. “Fiscally, it makes more sense to start with one employee. Someone who can bake and learn our recipes, but who can also be a manager of the bakery.”

“But…” Chloe looked between us, her brows creasing. “That’ll only be the equivalent of what you already have after Neil leaves town. You’re going to be just as sleep-deprived and stressed because the work won’t be split any differently—”

I put my hand on her knee and squeezed gently. Her gaze dropped to my hand and I felt her palm drape over my knuckles. Excitement skimmed over my skin at the contact of her fingers tracing circles over the back of my hand. She was worried about me… and that warmed my heart. “It’s only for a few weeks,” I said. “Then Neil