Page 1 of Buns in the Oven

Chapter One

Stella

It’s seven in the morning and my brother Joey and I are standing side by side in front of our coffee shop. It feels a bit surreal that it’s finally done. We’ve talked about opening a business together since we were kids. And now we’ve done it. The Sweet Bean Café isfinallyopen for business.

“Well, we’ve built it,” says Joey, looking with amazement up at the sign. “Now we just have to wait and see if anyone will come.”

“I’m sure people will come,” I say. “Who doesn’t like coffee? Besides, my baked goods are to die for.”

My brother laughs.

“That’s true,” he says. “Okay. Come on, sis. Let’s go inside.”

I take one last glance at our café sign. I wish our parents were in town to celebrate this moment with us, but I know they’ll see it eventually. Our parents are traveling musicians, and their tour schedule conflicted with the grand opening of the café. But they promised they’ll come see it the first chance they get.

I realize Joey is holding the cafe’s front door open for me. I break out of my thoughts and walk into the building. I go straight behind the counter, grab my apron from the hook on the wall, and get to work on the baked goods I need to make. I’ve always been passionate about baking, and it feels like a dream come true to get to do it as part of my job now.

While I bake a couple batches of breakfast cookies, my brother makes a few test espressos to make sure the machine is working properly and then goes around the shop making sure everything’s in order. Everything already looks fine to me, but I don’t say anything, because I’m sure Joey just needs to keep himself busy right now to calm his nerves about the grand opening.

Joey is three years older than me and a typical big brother. Back in high school, when I was a freshman and he was a senior, he pretty much scared off any guy who showed any interest in me. Now that we’re adults—I’m twenty-two and he’s twenty-five—he has mostly chilled out, although whenever I mention going out with a guy, he does still get a little bit of a protective look in his eye.

Not that I go out with many guys. Really, it’s the opposite. I hate to say it, but most guys are idiots. One guy I went on a date with actually had the nerve to say to my face, “You’re pretty for a plus-size girl.”

Yeah…I excused myself from that date as soon as I could.

I scoop the last bit of dough onto a parchment-lined baking tray and slide the three trays I’ve just filled up into our oven. Then I set a timer and get to work on the next task. I’ve almost finished baking everything for the day when I hear the front door of the café open up.

“Hey man!” I hear my brother say. “How’s it going?”

I look over my shoulder to see who our first customer is. To my surprise, I see that it’s a friend of my brother’s, a guy he’s known since high school—Wes.

And,whoa, does he ever look different now.

Back in high school, Wes was lanky and kind of nerdy. He was super smart and didn’t seem to care about the stuff most high schoolers cared about. I actually had a little crush on him, and sometimes when he and my brother were playing video games together I would sit at the top of the stairs and spy on them, silently cheering on Wes during whatever game they were playing.

My adolescent crush on him never amounted to anything, though. And even though my brother and Wes have remained friends, I haven’t seen Wes in person since high school. I’ve thought about him a couple times randomly, but whenever I pictured him, I imagined a grown-up version of that nerdy, cute boy.

I definitely never expected him to turn into the man standing in our café right now.

At twenty-five, Wes is no longer just cute. He’s goddamnhot. Physically, he’s shockingly different—he’s well over six feet tall now, and even with a jacket on I can tell how strong he is. He has an incredibly handsome face, and his eyes are the same sweet blue eyes I remember from years ago.

“Hi, Wes,” I say, brushing my flour-flecked hands off on my apron and stepping out from behind the counter. As I approach him, I can’t stop staring at him.

And as soon as he lays his eyes on me, it seems like he can’t look away either. The intensity of his gaze makes me swoon inside. Whoa. Is this attraction mutual?

“Stella,” Wes says, surprise lifting his deep voice. “Hey. It’s been a long time.”

I nod. Then I think of something and smile.

“Hold on,” I say.

I hurry back behind the counter and grab one of the warm muffins that just came out of the oven. I also grab a napkin—Joey refused to buy the pink napkins I wanted, so we have light gray ones instead—and tuck the muffin into it. I bring the muffin over to Wes and hold it out to him.

“You’re our very first customer,” I say. “So this is on the house.”

“Well, there’s no way I’m going to turn down something so delicious looking,” says Wes as he grins and accepts the muffin from me. His fingertips graze mine as he takes it from me—I find myself wondering if he does it on purpose—and a little shiver of arousal runs up my spine.

“You’ll let me pay for a coffee, though, right?” asks Wes, splitting a look between Joey and myself.