Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2), Katana Collins [ebook smartphone .TXT] 📗

“Eat up,” I said, handing her a donut. “The sugar will help give you a boost.”

She grinned a lazy smile at me, and I saw in my peripheral as her gaze swept my body in appreciation when she thought I wasn’t looking. I smiled, keeping my eyes cast down toward the mac & cheese balls. “First a panini for lunch. Pizza for dinner. Now this? You trying to fatten me up or something?” She objected, but not so much that she didn’t already have a bite of donut in her mouth.

“The pizza was from Nick,” I reminded her. It was his thank you for her work so far at the bar. Revenue was already up for him because of the vouchers we were giving out at the food truck, but in the last week, Chloe had also set him up with online ordering for take-out. That alone had his revenue up another thirty percent, and he wasn’t even doing delivery.

“It’s amazing how few people want to actually call a restaurant to place an order anymore,” she said, practically reading my thoughts as she took a second big bite of her donut.

Her groan was sexy as hell, and for a moment, I was jealous of the stupid donut.

“Hot damn,” she said, smacking her hand to the table. “I forgot how good your donuts are!”

“You forgot?” I clutched my chest in horror. “How could you forget? It’s your product, too.”

“Yeah, but since I’ve been helping you bake everything, I’ve been so busy, I haven’t been sampling the goods as much.”

I narrowed my eyes, studying Chloe. “Are you okay?” I asked, suddenly serious. Chloe loved junk food. She thrived on it. But in the last few weeks, she’d lost weight; weight that, frankly, I didn’t think she could afford to lose because she was already so thin. Her face, though beautiful as always, looked a tad gaunt without its normal pink flush. And below her eyes, there was a light tint of blue.

She was exhausted.

She was exhausted because she was helping me live out my dreams. “I was thinking… maybe we should hire someone to help back here in the food truck? That way you wouldn’t have to commit to six nights a week slinging donuts while also running a marketing empire and helping me bake.”

She jerked back as though my words were a slap. “You don’t want me here serving with you?”

I sighed. Dammit. “No, that’s not what I meant. I love working with you, but you’re doing too much.” I knelt in front of her and brushed my thumbs to the dark circles beneath her eyes.

“I’m not doing anything more than what you’re doing. You run Beefcakes and bake and do this in the evenings.”

“Well, maybe it’s too much for me, too.” I shrugged. “Just think about it. We can hire someone to help us bake the donuts and stuff instead, if you enjoy being here in the truck. Hell, maybe even Remy would want the extra hours working for us, too. He could pull double-duty. Some baking for Beefcakes and some for The Dump Truck.”

She smiled, her brows jumping playfully. “Like a double agent… a double donut agent!”

I laughed, grateful to have a glimpse of the fun, carefree Chloe.

“Hello?” A deep voice called from the outside of the truck and my spine immediately bristled. I knew that voice. I hated that voice.

“Dan?” Chloe launched from where she was sitting and leaned out the front of the truck beneath the awning.

“What the hell is he doing here?” I asked through gritted teeth. It was one thing to run into each other at an event. But for him to come to our business? He was seeking Chloe out. Trying to win her back. Even if he hadn’t done anything yet or moved in on her, I knew it. I felt it in my bones.

“I had to come see for myself the food truck that has this damn state all abuzz.”

I blinked as I moved to stand behind Chloe and looked down at Dan. He looked rough. His hair was messy, his shirt and chinos were wrinkled, and… I inhaled. Was that the smell of alcohol? “No one could stop talking about you two at the networking event. Every time we turned around, it was all, blah, blah, blah Dump Truck.”

“Dan, are you drunk?” Chloe asked and looked around. Luckily, there was still a lull in customers, which was pretty typical around nine o’clock. It was that weird between time—too late for the after-dinner crowd, but too early for the late-night munchies. But it wouldn’t last long. It never did.

“Psssssh.” Dan’s puckered lips made a sound not unlike air escaping a tire and he waved both hands at us. “Just had a couple gin and tonics with dinner.”

Chloe’s jaw set firm and she glared at him as I eyed some of the bystanders starting to watch. Dammit, he was drawing attention—and not the good kind. “Go home, Dan. Go home to Raina and sleep it off.”

“Raina? Raina’s no longer in my home. I kicked her out.”

Fuck. I knew it. He and Raina were on the fritz… and he wanted Chloe back. My Chloe.

Except she wasn’t my Chloe. She wasn’t my anything.

Every bit of my body screamed with this news. But I watched her carefully for her reaction. So far, there was none. “Well then, go home to no one.”

He snorted and stumbled a bit as he stepped back. “I’m sorry, is this not a public park? In a free country? If I want to sit here and stare at you two lovebirds serving us broken-hearted bastards all night… I will.” He folded his arms and plopped down on a park bench a few feet away from the truck.

“Dammit,” Chloe whispered. “What do you want Dan?”

“I want to talk to you. Alone.” His glare shifted to me and I gave it right back to him.

Chloe folded her arms. “Why?”

His jaw clenched. “Because I fucked up. I fucked