Series: Little Cakes Series by Pepper North
Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
She furrowed her brow and shook her head. She had no formal training. That was expensive and a waste of time in the eyes of her parents. “I just draw sometimes. It’s no big deal.”
His brows lifted again. “No big deal?” He chuckled. “Curls, these are a very big deal.”
She couldn’t keep from smiling. Not because of what he was saying but the fact that he kept calling her curls. From someone else it might have sounded insulting. From him it sounded endearing.
She wasn’t fond of her curly hair. It was unruly and often hung in her face. She kept it cut in a bob because if it got any longer, she lost all control of it. It would poof out one foot in both directions. As it was, even with a ton of product, the corkscrews were still untamable. She tucked them behind her ears over and over, but they just fell back over her cheeks again.
The gorgeous man held out a hand. “I’m Evan, by the way.”
She shook it. His grip was firm. His hand enveloped hers entirely. “Tori,” she murmured, almost sad because now he wouldn’t have any reason to call her “curls” any longer.
He smiled warmly. “Nice to meet you.”
For a long moment she stared at him, wishing she was the sort of woman who could make small talk or flirt with a man or give him her number. But she wasn’t. And who was she kidding? He was simply being kind.
He couldn’t possibly be interested in her. Even if he was somehow attracted to her crazy curls, he would bore of her pretty quickly when he figured out she had no conversational skills and could hardly manage to stammer out partial responses to his questions.
Suddenly, she gasped as she realized she needed to get back to work. She’d been here far too long. She was on her lunch break. Crap. She reached down to grab her satchel from the ground and hastily stuffed her sketchpad, the loose page, and her pencils inside.
She scrambled to her feet next. “Nice to meet you, Evan. I have to get back to work.”
His lips parted, and she thought he was going to stop her for a moment, but then he smiled and nodded. “Nice to meet you too, Tori. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon.”
She turned and walked as fast as she could across the park, aiming for the strip mall where she worked at Little Cakes. Her heart was racing and she couldn’t bring herself to glance back over her shoulder.
She decided she’d rather pretend that Evan, the sexy savior of her artwork, was still sitting on the bench, watching her retreat. It was a nice thought, and she would replay it in her mind over and over later tonight and for the coming weeks most likely.
He didn’t need to know that the encounter meant so much to her. That her heart was still racing. Her palms were sweating. He didn’t need to know that her breasts were heavy and butterflies were dancing in her tummy.
There were a lot of things he didn’t need to know. It was better this way. It kept her from feeling disappointment.
Evan was probably ten years older than her. He was sophisticated and confident. She was neither of those things.
At twenty-four, Tori hardly even felt like an adult. Sometimes, she secretly wasn’t an adult at all, but she wouldn’t want a man to find that out. Not in a million years. Especially not a grownup man like Evan.
She sighed as she rushed back toward Little Cakes. She would never see Evan again, but it didn’t matter. She would have the fun memory of running into him to sustain her for a while.
She grinned inside as she pictured herself alone in her room later tonight. She would totally pretend he was her Daddy. Her heart raced at the idea.
Glancing at her watch, she realized she was definitely late. She’d meant to be gone an hour. She was five minutes late as she rushed through the back door into the cupcake shop.
She froze for a moment. Ellie, Riley, and Sue were all three in the back of the shop at the same time. Tori flushed as they all turned their gazes to her.
“Are you okay?” Riley asked.
Heat rushed up Tori’s cheeks yet again. She licked her lips. She couldn’t stop shaking. “There was a man—” she blurted out before she could stop herself. Why on earth was she telling them this?
Riley’s eyes widened in surprise and she lurched forward, setting a hand on Tori’s shoulder. “Oh, my God. Did someone hurt you?”
Tori blinked at her coworker as it dawned on her that she’d led them to believe she’d been chased or something. Riley was frowning.
Tori shook her head as Ellie and Sue also closed ranks. “No. Nothing like that. He, uh…” She swallowed. “He talked to me.” The heat on her cheeks deepened.