“That’s my girl.”
Since meeting Shelby, Aidan had been forced to step up his workout routine. His job kept him pretty active, but he still tried to get to the gym a couple of times a week to get in a long run and lift some weights. But with the desserts, cookies and cakes she was forever bringing around, he’d found himself having to add another day of exercise.
He had no idea how she kept her weight exactly the same, but being a guy and therefore visual, he happened to know she never gained an ounce. No harm in looking and Shelby was a beautiful woman. He knew every inch of her...at least the inches he could see. Under her clothes was another matter. Not that he hadn’t imagined, but a guy never knew for sure until he—
He firmly squashed that line of thinking. They weren’t going there, he told himself. Not now, not ever. Friends. Good, platonic friends.
He left out the casserole, but put the parfaits in the refrigerator. She turned on the oven and checked out the bottle of wine he’d chosen for their dinner.
“I need to learn more about wine,” she said with a sigh. “I’m forever guessing at what is good. I wonder if I could take a class or something.”
“Talk to someone up at Condor Valley Winery. They’d know where to start.” He leaned against the counter. “I don’t know that much, either. We could take a class together.” He thought about the dessert they were having. “What about learning about different wines to have with different desserts? People are always pairing wine with food, but what about sweet things? It would be a fun event to have at the bakery.”
She nodded quickly. “You’re right. And with the winery as a cosponsor, we could get the wine at a real discount. I wonder what it would take to get a license to sell wine in the store. If Amber was interested...”
The last sentence nearly sounded like a question. “You’re not sure.”
“I think I have too many ideas for her. She and I are partners, but I’m only a minority shareholder and things have been done a certain way for a long time. Not that she isn’t great. She is. I really like working with her. But I try to be careful—to not push things too far.”
He opened the bottle of wine. “It was like that when I first went into the business with Mom. I’d always worked there part-time, but when I took things over, I had to balance what I wanted with what my mom thought was right. It was much easier when I bought her out. Everything was on me.”
“Your ideas.” She took the glass of wine he offered. “So you succeeded and failed on your own.”
“Right. No one to blame and no one else to take the credit. It works for me.”
“I’m envious,” she admitted. “I know Amber understands the business better than me but I keep thinking about all these other things we could be doing. I’d love to expand. The space next door to ours is going to be available in a couple of months. We could do so much with that. I think a tea shop would be fun to open. Tourists would enjoy it and we could limit the hours so we only needed one shift of servers.”
“Have you talked to Amber?”
“I mentioned it and she wasn’t that interested. I’ll try again in a few months. Maybe during the summer, when we’re flooded with tourists.”
He crossed to her and put his arm around her. “Sorry it’s difficult. For what it’s worth, I value your opinion and I’m about to take advantage of our friendship by asking you to share it with me.”
She leaned into him. They fit well together, he thought, realizing a second too late that what he’d meant as a friendly, comforting gesture was so much more. At least to him.