Tart (11 page)

But he’d shoved that part away. She was too young. He had older girls to sniff around, and, as he’d come to discover, some boys too. That part of him and Jules had gone dormant, but it was still there, sleeping, not always so quietly, beneath the surface.

She’d been a fixture in his life. Always there for him when he needed her. If he lost that he’d never forgive himself. As long as she stayed in the friend camp that had been possible. To always have her in his life.

He’d been repeating this to himself over and over since Mary had come to his house to tell him about Jules dating Gideon. It was true. Mostly.

If she was with Gideon, he could have them both around. It would be good. Wouldn’t it?

8

B
y the time Cal arrived, Delicious was in full swing. But true to her word, Jules had saved him a seat. On the other side of Gideon.

He frowned but covered it quickly as he entered the doors and everyone looked up. Jules smiled and moved to him to grab a hug. He kissed her, like he normally would, on the lips. But it felt different because she smelled like another man.

“Saved you a seat. Gideon is going to hog you, he said.” She indicated the chair. Seemed to Cal like Gideon was hogging
her
, not Cal. But he kept that in his head where it belonged. He smiled at Gideon, who looked good, even while his hand slid over Jules’s shoulder before he reached Cal, who he pulled into a hug.

“Good to see you.”

“You too. Welcome back to Bainbridge. Mary says you’re back for good. I’m glad.” Cal said it and realized it was true, even if the guy was poaching Jules.

He hugged Gillian and Daisy, nodded to the others and sat. Jules wasn’t even in his line of sight, which sucked. Though Daisy and Levi were, and they were both beautiful and funny to be around so that would be fine. Ryan was at the other end of the table and his brother sent a quick look to Gideon and Jules before moving his attention back to Cal as if to say
See
.

And he did see.

Erin, Todd and Ben were at the other end of the long table. He waved to them. He was glad to see them there supporting Mary.

Speaking of his sister, Mary came out of the kitchen and headed to them with a dish of something beautiful. “You missed the first plate.” She kissed his forehead as she slid it in front of him.

“Sorry. Ferry traffic. But I knew you’d save me something. It’s perfect in here.” He looked around the room. They’d transformed the dining room into something more intimate.

“It’s all Daisy and Jules. I was having a little crisis earlier about it. I wanted it to be as intimate as the house, you know? So Daisy shows up with these heavy red drapes and Jules wound the white lights along the edges of the ceiling. The linens are perfect too.”

Daisy waved a hand. “I can’t take credit for any of it. It was all Jules. The curtains are her mother’s. They were upstairs. As were the linens.”

Jules shrugged and Cal wished he were close enough to reach out and give her hand a squeeze. “It’s nice they get used. They close out the outside world just perfectly and should be easy enough to take down and put back up at will. Same with the tablecloths and linens. I’m leaving the lights for a while. I think they add something.”

She’d done it because it had made his sister feel better. He knew her so well. She’d come over there early, when he’d spoken to her before. Just exactly to be there for Mary when she got freaked.

He hoped Gideon realized how amazing Jules was. Sort of.

It was crowded, but not overly so. He was so proud of Mary, who’d taken her love of cooking and had made it into this. Into this little supper club idea everyone had laughed at until she had a nearly two-year wait list for people who wanted to join just to see what the fuss was about. She was a genius in the kitchen, his sister.

“This is amazing. I haven’t eaten this well in forever. Jules has been talking you up, and she wasn’t exaggerating.” Gideon winked at Mary, who blushed as she oversaw the delivery of the next course.

Jules put her head on Gideon’s shoulder with a smile. “I’m telling you, she’s magic.”

“Did Jules tell you guys we finally chose a cake flavor for the wedding?” Adrian sipped his wine and then his sister made an oooh sound from the end of the table.

Erin leaned over to look down to their end of the table. “You did? You didn’t say. You bogarted cake details from me? Where’s the love, Blue?” Blue was Erin’s nickname for Miles, and the boy blushed in response.

“Mum swore me to secrecy.”

Erin looked to Gillian as both women laughed.

“Shall we tell, Jules?” Gillian looked across the table to her friend.

Jules lit, all for Gillian. “Oh, all right. Go on. It’s your cake. And your day.”

Gideon put an arm around her shoulder and she leaned in to him. They were, Cal had to admit, beautiful together. Jules had an easy way with people she trusted. An open, bold personality, and she was that way with Gideon. It made sense; he was part of their extended group of friends from childhood. Gideon used to spend hours at Cal’s house in his room listening to music and talking about cars and girls.

He’d make her happy.

But would he make her as happy as Cal could? And did Cal want to know? Did he want this to be the new reality of Cal and Jules? This third person he had to mediate past?

Gillian nodded thoughtfully. “I think I’m going to keep it a surprise then. Just trust me that it’s going to be the best cake you ever had.”

“You’re a tease.” Erin laughed. “Once someone gets to know you, they get past that careful reserve and underneath you’re a vicious tease.”

Gillian laughed. “I have to be to keep up with you all.”

The food was delicious. His sister had outdone herself and he got up to tell her so. And also to leave behind the image of Gideon kissing Jules’s temple.

“I told you.” Mary said this as he snuck back into her kitchen.

“You didn’t bark at me to get out.”

“That’s because I wanted to say I told you so. Hello, that trumps everything else. Now that we know I was right, what are you going to do about it?”

“I can’t talk to you about this right now. I wanted to say you did an amazing job tonight.” He hugged his sister and she hugged him back.

“Fine, fine. Thank you. It’s going quite well. I tried some of these new local-sourced ingredients and that worked well, I thought. The space is really perfect. It’s so much easier for me to work in this kitchen than at home.”

“Relieved not to work the truck anymore?”

“I miss the truck and this summer I have a few jobs I think I can cater from it. It’ll be fun. But I don’t miss trying to find a place to park or dealing with all the city regulations and rules. The catering business is more stable for me. And more lucrative. That part is really nice.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Do you need help?”

“My staff is just fine, thank you. Now go on. It’s dessert time and Jules has outdone herself.”

He tried to peek but she pushed him from the kitchen without another word.

“You knew she was going to kick you out.” Jules grinned as he returned to the table.

“I did, but I had to push my limits. Plus I like to poke at her. It amuses me and keeps her from obsessing about how everything needs to be perfect.”

“You’re a good big brother.”

“I am. So tell me what dessert you made for tonight.”

Jules laughed and sat back in her chair to take a sip of wine. “Incorrigible. You’ll find out yourself in a few minutes. Be patient.”

“I’m not very patient; you know that about me.”

Gideon snorted. “Remember how you almost lost your thumb because you kept cutting the fuses on all those M-80s shorter because you hated to wait for them to blow?”

He and Gideon laughed at that one. His mother had nearly lost her shit when she came outside to discover Cal covered in black powder, Ryan and Gideon patting him with a broom to put out all the little smolders on his clothing.

Ryan apparently still found it hilarious. “You two got into a lot of trouble every damned summer. It was a boon to me, as Mom watched you two so carefully I got away with a lot more stuff.”

Cal looked down the table to his brother, still laughing. “You’re an asshole. You still do that.”

Ryan shrugged, unrepentant. “Hell yes. You’re still a troublemaker so as long as you continue, I keep flying under the radar.”

“It occurs to me that the two of you have a great capacity for troublemaking.” Jules leaned across Gideon, who kept his arm around her. It was an open, easy affection between them and it twisted through Cal’s gut.

“I don’t cut the fuses on my cherry bombs anymore.”

She laughed, reaching out to pat his arm. “That’s a start, baby.”

And then the dessert came out and he nearly fell to his knees with gratitude because it was his fucking favorite, a rustic apple cranberry tart. Complete with vanilla bean ice cream.

“You rock,” he said to her as he dug in and moaned.

“It’s his favorite,” Jules explained to Gideon.

“I can see why.” Gideon forked up a bite and sighed happily. “I can also see being involved with you is filled with plenty of awesome perks.” He kissed her quickly and she leaned into him.

Cal put his gaze back on his plate, but not before Adrian caught his attention and raised a brow.

Nothing like a secret crush everyone knew about.

He’d get used to it. Right?

9

T
wo weeks after that dinner at Delicious, Jules took the back door out after work. The street out front was still busy and she was
so
done with the day. Mary didn’t have any jobs that night and so she’d locked up, cleaned up and headed toward home.

Jules wanted a hot bath, a good book and maybe even a movie. She’d been up late several nights in the last two weeks and it was really beginning to catch up to her.

Smiling, she thought about the reasons why she’d been up late. She had a boyfriend. Like a real one. A man who brought her flowers and knew how she took her coffee. He was in her life but didn’t dominate it. He loved her friends and respected her business.

Gideon had shown up at her house with dinner and a bottle of wine and they’d eaten, played cards and fucked so loud if she had close neighbors they would have called the cops.

Things were very good.

“Hey, I’m glad I didn’t miss you.”

She turned to catch sight of Cal headed down the alley toward her.

“Hi, you. If you want a cup of coffee you’ll have to get it at my house. I’m closed for the day.”

She stepped close, knowing he’d hug her. But what happened was far more than a hug.

She saw the look on his face and worry sliced through her for just a brief moment as he pulled her to him and then he kissed her and she forgot everything.

He kissed her, pouring all his energy into it. The heat of his mouth against hers, the taste of him was shocking as he slid his tongue into her mouth.

Years
. Years and years she’d wanted exactly this and it was better than she’d imagined. All her words skittered away. The scent of him filled her senses, his taste overwhelmed. He’d backed her against her doorway and kissed her like there was no tomorrow.

He nipped her bottom lip and she held on, her fingers in his hair. Somewhere she knew she needed to tell him to stop. This wasn’t okay. But it was . . . goddamn, it was everything she’d imagined and more.

He set her on fire and all the want she’d carried for him spilled between them and he feasted on it, feeding it back to her.

And when he stepped back, she gasped for breath and held a hand out, warding him because she was weak and nothing had prepared her for the reality of what he kissed like as a man.

“What. Was. That?”

He licked his lips and began to pace the alley. “That was a kiss, Juliet.”

“No duh. I’ve seen you kiss lots of
other
people enough to know. But why me? Why now? What’s wrong?”

He threw his hands up in the air. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that you taste so fucking good I’ll never forget it.” He continued to pace, shoving his fingers through his hair, disheveling it.

“What?” She gave in and licked her lips, tasting him again. Damn it.

“I’m tired, Jules. Tired of telling myself I don’t want you when everyone on the planet knows it’s a lie. I
do
want you. I’m tired of seeing you with another man when I wanted you first.”

She blinked, trying to clear her head. Luckily he was being a guy, which made it easier to put the kiss to the side to get to the real issue.

“You’ve had a long time to make a move. Through, hmm, let’s see.” She paused to count them all. “Candace, Elvin, Shaun, Carrie, and what was the last one? Oh yes, Diego. Funny how your move only comes when I’m seeing someone, instead of the other way around.”

He gusted a sigh. “Yes, I can see how it looks that way. But it’s more than that. Don’t tell me you can’t feel it.”

“You know, Calvin, I used to tell myself it was that you were really gay. I said to myself,
He can’t admit it all the way yet, but if I push him and then we get together, one day he’ll be unhappy that I can’t be what he wants.
I’d have been that woman, you know the one. The one who gets dumped when her husband finally comes out. More than how
I’d
have felt, I never wanted you to have to fake who you were. Because I love you.”

He started to speak and she held her hand out to shut him up.

“No. I’m talking now. And then, well, then you dated women too and I realized something else. You truly do like men and women both. So what that meant was that you were choosing
other
women. Other than me I mean. You made your choice, Cal. You made it and you can’t just come down the alley and kiss me like that. You’re screwing with my emotions and that’s shitty.”

He shook his head, miserable that he’d fucked it all up so much. “No, I’m not. I wouldn’t do that to you. I know what it looks like. But you know me. Better than anyone else in the world, you know me.”

“I’m with someone. I’m with Gideon and now I have to confess this . . . this kiss to him.” More than that, she had to process how it had lit her up from the inside out. How he’d brought her to the brink of an orgasm just from a damned kiss.