The Cinnamon Bun Book Store: TikTok Made Me Buy It (Dream Harbor, Book 2)
The Cinnamon Bun Book Store: Chapter 16

Hazel was sitting on her couch with a cup of tea and a blanket pulled over her bare legs, since she hadn’t thought to grab pants, attempting to act like she knew what to do after a night of purely casual sex.

Which of course, she absolutely did not know how to do. She rearranged the blanket and took a sip of her too-hot tea and glanced toward the bedroom again.

She’d probably already messed it up by asking Noah to stay but she’d felt all wobbly and vulnerable and orgasm drunk and the words were out of her mouth before she could consider their implications. And he’d stayed. And it had been really nice. Like really nice. Like sleeping wrapped up in Noah’s arms had been just as perfect as she’d imagined it would be.

And something about waking up with a hot man in your bed, really did wonders for a girl’s self-esteem.

But was this right? Should she feel all soft inside for this man? How could she not after he took a call from his adorable little nieces in front of her and talked to them like they mattered? And that was after the mind boggling, super hot, kitchen oral he’d performed the night before. Any person with a brain would be in her same position right now. Hazel was not at fault here.

‘Hey, sorry about that.’ Noah emerged from her room still dressed in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, running a hand through his copper hair and looking so adorably sheepish that Hazel had to look away or she might accidentally propose another crazy layer to this arrangement. Like marriage. Or carrying his babies.

Hazel cleared her throat. ‘No problem. Are your nieces okay?’

‘Yep, they’re fine. Uh … coffee?’

‘In the kitchen.’

Hazel took some deep breaths while Noah prepared his coffee and tried to control her libido that had decided to finally wake up after nearly thirty years of being asleep. It didn’t work. Especially not when Noah shuffled back out into the living room and lowered himself onto the couch next to her, gingerly, so he didn’t slosh his coffee.

She forced herself to look at him.

He gave her a lazy smile over his coffee mug.

‘So what do we do now?’ she blurted out and watched Noah’s eyebrows rise in return.

‘Well, we still don’t have any condoms but I could…’

‘No!’ Hazel’s cheeks heated. ‘That’s not what I meant.’

Noah chuckled. ‘I know.’

‘Jerk.’ Hazel smacked his shoulder.

‘What we do now, Haze, is exactly what we’ve been doing.’ He shrugged and took another sip of coffee while Hazel pretended not to stare at his bare chest. ‘We keep following your clues and giving you the best lead up to your birthday ever, and if that includes more of this…’ he gestured between them and somehow even that was hot, ‘then that’s great.’

‘Okay.’ How did he make it sound so simple? Like they didn’t just alter everything between them. Maybe they hadn’t? Maybe she was overreacting.

‘And if you don’t want to do more of this part, that’s fine with me, too.’

She knew he meant it, knew he wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t one hundred percent on board with. He’d already proven that plenty of times.

‘I want more of this part.’

His smile grew. ‘Great, me too.’ He leaned back on the couch and stretched his legs out and rested his feet on the little tufted ottoman she’d ordered in a moment of online shopping frenzy. Something she used to do when she was bored. Now she apparently just had sex with the town sex god.

‘So your sister’s pregnant?’

‘You change subjects almost as fast as my nieces.’

Hazel winced. ‘Sorry. Bad habit.’

Noah’s head was resting on the back of the couch and his eyes were closed but he was still smiling. ‘It’s okay. Keeps me on my toes.’

Said toes wiggled happily on the ottoman and Hazel couldn’t help the way her gaze slid from his feet up the long lean lines of his legs, over his taut stomach and across his chest. She followed the breadth of his shoulders with her eyes and the strong curves of his arm muscles. His forearm flexed as he adjusted his hold on his coffee mug, the friendship bracelets sliding down his arm as he brought the cup to his lips.

His eyes were open again. Caught. Oops.

She thought he might tease her for staring but instead he just winked and went on. ‘According to my niece Cece, her mother, my oldest sister Rachel, is pregnant, yeah. But I don’t think I’m supposed to know yet.’

He shrugged like it didn’t really matter to him either way, but the lines of his body had gone tense.

‘You love them, your nieces.’

‘Of course.’

‘And your sisters, you love them, too.’

He paused for a sip and maybe to figure out his answer. ‘Of course, yeah. It’s just more complicated with them. You know how family can be.’

‘I guess. I don’t have any siblings.’

‘Really? I thought I heard your dad, uh one of your dads, talking about someone … a Frida?’

‘Frida is one of my mom’s dogs. Diego and Frida.’

‘Right. I forgot you have a mom, too.’

‘Yep. No shortage of parents, just no siblings. At least no human siblings. My mom is overly dedicated to her dogs, some might say.’

Noah huffed a small laugh but his gaze was far away.

‘Why’d you leave home?’ Hazel was definitely not doing the ‘morning after a casual fling’ right, but she also felt like she and Noah had become friends and she was curious about him.

‘Aw, Haze, you don’t want to hear about that.’ He leaned toward her and waggled his eyebrows. ‘There’s so many more interesting ways we can spend the morning.’

She frowned and Noah sat back.

‘Okay fine, you really want to know?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s not some big dramatic story. I told you, I dropped out of school, wildly disappointing my parents, and then I tried for a year to help out with their seafood business, I really did. But I hated it. It’s a big company now. The work was all at a desk, dealing with distribution and markets and all kinds of other shit I didn’t care about and I just … I couldn’t do it.’

‘And then you ran away.’

‘Jesus, Hazel.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t apologize.’ He blew out a long breath. ‘I’m sorry. You’re right. I ran off after that. Took my boat up and down the coast for a while until I landed here. My nieces miss me and I never go home. That’s it. That’s the whole story.’

‘The book club thinks you were an underwater welder in Florida.’

Noah raised an eyebrow.

‘And half the PTA thinks you smuggle goods on the black market.’

‘The black market, huh?’ The corner of Noah’s mouth hitched up into a smile.

‘Yep. And there was definitely a town meeting once in which it was heavily debated whether or not you were a male stripper.’

Noah choked out a laugh. ‘A stripper?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, that part’s true.’

Hazel’s eyes widened but then Noah burst out laughing. ‘Just kidding.’

‘Jerk.’

He put his cup down on the ottoman and crawled over to her, caging her in with his arms. He dipped his head and kissed her and Hazel forgot to care that she hadn’t brushed her teeth. He nipped at her bottom lip and she moaned so wantonly she might have been embarrassed if she wasn’t so busy being turned on.

‘I’ll strip for you, though, Haze. Anytime.’

She laughed and his teasing smile grew. ‘You’re already practically naked,’ she pointed out.

He glanced down at himself in mock surprise. ‘You’re right!’ He shook his head. ‘But you are wearing far too many clothes.’

He pulled the T-shirt over her head and tossed it aside and proceeded to show her all the much more fun ways they could spend their morning.