Page 27 of Restless Ink

Not that anythingwaswrong, but Dimitri was coming into the shop soon for coffee—either just as friends or perhaps something more. She really didn’t know but knew they needed to talk about it. The last thing anyone needed was the three of them in the same room in public before they all figured out what was going on. It was getting to be a little too much for Thea, and complicated wasn’t a good enough word to describe it.

“Thea, darling, I’m so glad I caught you. I didn’t know if you were working this afternoon, but from the flour in your hair, I’m assuming yes.” Molly winked as if it were a joke, and Thea supposed it was. She was always covered in flour.

She winced and reached up to her bangs before lowering her hand. Sadly, she knew from experience that the more she messed with the flour in her dark hair, the more it would spread and make her look like a skunk. Plus, she was a bit sweaty from working all day even in the cooler air, and flour and water made paste. Having that in her hair was never a good thing.

“That’s me, the flour queen. Do you want your usual, Molly?”

“A sugar-free, fat-free, vanilla latte please,” her friend said with a smile. “Though, sometimes, I wish I could be as daring as you and go for full-sugar along with one of those brownies in front of you. They look delicious, but they also go right to my hips.”

Thea just rolled her eyes and went about making Molly’s drink. “As theydogo to my hips, I don’t indulge all the time. I mostly taste-test to make sure I have the recipe right.” She kept her hands busy making the drink, her back to Molly, but she looked over her shoulder once in a while to make sure there weren’t any other customers in, like…the aforementioned Dimitri.

“Your hips look good with a little bit of curve to them. My hips, on the other hand, just don’t carry that weight. I don’t know how you do it, but you look wonderful with curves. Me? I have to watch everything I eat.”

Thea just rolled her eyes as she served Molly her coffee. Thea didn’t ring the drink up, and Molly didn’t bother to open her purse. That was how it had always been, and Thea didn’t care anymore. The curve comment, however, stung a bit. But she figured it was a compliment. Maybe.

“You look wonderful, and you know it. Where are you off to today?” Thea kept working, changing out stock and fluffing the display case for the late-afternoon sugar hounds. People needed their fix so they could get through the rest of the day, and she was grateful.

“Committee meeting, of course. So much to do, so little time. But the world needs me.”

“That we do,” Thea said, not lying. Molly had been her friend for years, had been there when she opened Colorado Icing and bought her house the same year. Thea had done it on her own and with her family, but Molly had been around as well, always eager to offer advice about how things should be done. It didn’t matter that Thea hadn’t taken any of that advice since she had her own vision and business plans, her friend had still offered it.

“Must be off, but when I have time, we should catch up. I’d love to hear about you and a certain teacher.”

Thea froze, but Molly just waved her fingers before sauntering out of the bakery in her four-inch stilettos. It was going to ice later, and Thea wasn’t sure how the woman could walk in those things in this—or any—weather, but women were strong and could do just about anything.

Though how Molly could be so okay with whatever might happen between Thea and Dimitri was something Thea couldn’t quite comprehend. The other woman had basically—and easily—given Thea the okay to pursue a relationship with her ex-husband and even wanted to offer advice, yet Thea felt as if she were barely keeping up with all the changes.

Thea didn’t know if she wanted a full relationship with Dimitri, she didn’t know if she could handle that with her business and her life, yet Molly seemed towantit.

Thea’s life had already changed so drastically, she was struggling to understand it all.

And because she’d apparently conjured him out of thin air, Dimitri was the next person to walk through the door. She didn’t think he’d bumped into Molly outside since he only smiled at Thea, giving her that look that went straight to her lady parts. And now she wasn’t thinking about her friend at all.

She was just thinking about Dimitri and what the hell she was going to do about him. And, just like that, he was in front of her, making her doubt her resolve.

“Hey there,” Dimitri said softly, his voice that low, whiskey growl that sent shivers down her spine.

“Hey.” Oh, good, she was back in high school, unable to form complete sentences. She cleared her throat and started over. “School’s out for the day, I take it? How was it?”

Dimitri just shrugged and leaned against the counter as others milled about. The rush would be soon, but for now, all of her tables were full of happy customers eating sweets and bread and drinking hot drinks since the temperature was dropping outside.

“School’s out for the weekend, which is nice. Soon, we’ll be at winter break, and I can try to sleep in a bit. It’ll be interesting.”

“Sleeping in? Like to seven or something?” she asked, her eyes wide.

He was the one to wince this time. “Oh, yeah, bakers’ hours. I mean, I wake up early as hell to work out before work, but I think you beat me.”

She smiled, but her brain was going a mile a minute thinking about Dimitri all sweaty, working out.

Shirtless.

With those shorts that rode low on his hips so she could see those lickable lines on either side of his body.

And that was enough of that.

When she met Dimitri’s gaze, she figured he knewexactlywhat she was thinking, considering the heated look that passed between them.

Well, hell.