Being back home after being gone for so long has made me appreciate Cunningham Falls. Made me appreciate the townspeople who remember me. I’ve missed out on a lot with my family, with my old friends.
This week has been a lot of fun. If I’m being completely honest with myself, I don’t want it to end.
And then of course, there’s Maisey. She’s the main reason I’ve had such a great week. Spending so much time with her just doing…regular things. Hanging out, going to dinner, enjoying her actually making me dinner, watching movies on Netflix or going to the movies, having her over to my sister’s house so we can go over the final details for the anniversary party…
We’ve spent so much time together, it’s like we’re a real couple.
Last weekend, I helped Maisey deliver a wedding cake to a bridal client. Talk about an experience. It was a trip, watching her work her chaotic magic, hustling those cakes into the reception hall at one wedding, and the very hotel I’m staying at for another. Once she’d delivered the cake and we were on our way back to her place, I couldn’t help but lean over and give her a smacking kiss on the cheek while she drove.
“What was that for?” she’d asked, smiling at me as I settled back into my seat.
“You’re amazing,” I told her, because she was.
Is.
By the way, I’m in love with her.
This isn’t a new realization. I’ve known this from the moment I ran into her my first weekend back home. Seeing her rattled me, but in the best possible way. From that night on, I wanted her. I’ve always wanted her.
But not just sexually. I crave her company. Her sweetness. Her silly jokes. Her laugh.
God, her laugh.
How can we make this work? I want to make it work. I want her to be mine in every possible way, yet she lives here and I live in California. I’m at the height of my career, finally finding my place with a team, relieved that they have no desire to trade me. I’m happy in San Francisco, with my Niners.
Maisey? She’s happy here too. She has her own business, she’s doing well. How can I expect her to close her business and move to a new state, change her entire life, just for me?
I can’t.
For once in my life, I don’t know what to do.
“Oh my God, this cake is a complete pain in my ass.”
I chuckle under my breath when I hear Maisey complain from the kitchen. She’s working on my parents’ cake at home, though first she baked it in the industrial-sized oven at Cake Nation, then brought the cakes home when they cooled so she can frost them here. She claims she can concentrate better when she’s at her place, but I don’t believe her.
I think she just wanted to hang out with me.
“Why is the cake such a pain in your ass?” I ask her as I walk into the kitchen a minute later.
She glances up at me, blowing the wayward hair out of her eyes with a frustrated breath, a frosting tube clutched in her hands. “Soooo many lines on this, and they have to be perfect,” she says, drawing the words out. “I can’t screw up. There’s no room for me to make a mistake.”
“You’ve got this.” I come up behind her, settling my hands on her shoulders. She’s so tight, I immediately start massaging them, easing the knots from her muscles with the hard press of my fingers. “So tense.”
“Hunching over a cake for hours on end isn’t good for you,” she says, sucking her lower lip between her teeth as she draws a gold line of frosting on the cake.
“I know something that’ll make you feel better,” I whisper close to her ear.
She smiles, but shakes her head. “I have to finish this tier first.”
Damn. Guess I’ll have to wait. The sex between us has been unbelievable. I can’t get enough of her. And I don’t think she can get enough of me either. We’ve done it everywhere.
Everywhere.
When I’m done massaging her shoulders, I move so I’m sitting at the table across from her, watching her work. “Found out today a few of my friends are coming to my parents’ party.”
“Friends from school?” she asks, her gaze still locked on the cake as she draws line after line of frosting.
“No, friends from my team. Football players.”