Semi-Sweet On You
Hot Cakes Series
Erin Nicholas
Copyright © 2020 by Erin Nicholas
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 978-1-952280-01-6
Editor: Lindsey Faber
Cover design: Angela Waters
Cover Photography: Lindee Robinson
Models: Christina Engel and Camden Grigsby
Contents
The Hot Cakes Series
About Semi-Sweet On You
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
About Erin
The Hot Cakes Series
One small Iowa town.
Two rival baking companies.
A three-generation old family feud.
And five guys who are going to be heating up a lot more than the kitchen.
Books in the series:
Sugar Rush (prequel)
Sugarcoated
Forking Around
Making Whoopie
Semi-Sweet On You
Oh, Fudge
Gimme S'more
About Semi-Sweet On You
A slow burn, second-chance rom com!
She broke his heart ten years ago.
Now he's back -- and her new boss.
And she might still be semi in love with him.
But that’s no problem, right? They can keep it professional.
Until her grandmother gets involved.
She’s thrilled to think that Whitney and Cam are still in love. And invites him to move in with her…and Whitney.
Of course, Whitney can handle that too. Yeah, everything is fine. Just fine.
Until Cam makes it clear that he’s all in.
Having him back is very sweet, but can she really have it all? Or will it all crumble around her?
1
“I think my butt looks really weird in this. Can you come look?” Whitney called from inside the powder room in her office.
Piper was out at her desk in the reception area of the Hot Cakes executive suites and this dress was hers. Whitney did not think she was pulling it off. At all. The other woman wore the pinup-style dresses and looked like a million bucks. But Piper had the curves for it. And the attitude. She was confident, sassy, and sexy.
Whitney knew she didn’t have the curves, and she was pretty sure she didn’t have even half the attitude.
But she wanted it.
She really did.
She wanted a change, that was for sure, and her attitude was just part of it.
This dress might be a good start.
She turned in front of the mirror on the back of her powder room door. Or maybe it wasn’t a good start.
She wasn’t ready for a dress like this.
“Seriously, I don’t have the curves for this,” she called. Piper might be on the phone, but Whitney really needed a second opinion.
“I sincerely doubt I’d ever use the word ‘weird’ in regard to your ass.”
Whitney swung around with a gasp. That was not Piper’s voice.
“But I’m very happy to take a look.”
Whitney sucked in a breath. Dammit. That was Cam.
Camden McCaffery.
One of the partners who owned Hot Cakes.
One of her new bosses.
Her ex.
Oh, and the guy who she was still sort of in love with.
Fuck.
She took another breath and then peeked around the edge of the door.
Cam was leaning against the doorjamb of her office door. Looking hot in a custom-tailored charcoal suit, the light blue shirt underneath unbuttoned at his throat. And cocky. As always. And amused.
“I thought Piper was out there,” Whitney said. Which was obvious. But what the hell else was she supposed to say?
“That’s who I came up to find too,” Cam said, stepping into Whitney’s office. “But she’s gone.”
“Gone?” Whitney asked. Piper knew she was in here trying on dresses.
Cam shrugged one big shoulder. “I guess.”
Whitney swallowed, her eyes on that shoulder. He was so… yeah, big. Wide. Solid. He’d always been muscular, but now he was… big. He had definitely changed over the years. Grown. Filled out. Gone from cute to oh-my-God hot.
Which was really unfortunate for a girl who was trying to her damnedest to be over him.
She’d seen him here and there. It seemed every time he was home to visit they ran into each other. Sometimes literally. Like the time she’d come around the big display of marshmallows at the end of aisle three at the grocery store and run directly into his chest. She’d jumped back, trying to avoid him touching her, and fallen right into that big stack of marshmallows. The entire store had come rushing to see what had happened.
And that wasn’t even the most embarrassing time.
“So come on,” he said, motioning her forward with his hand. “Let’s see.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “See what?”
“Your ass.” His lips curled on one end. “Isn’t that what you’re worried about?”
“I can wait for Piper.”
“Why?” He tucked his hands into his pockets. “I’m quite qualified to judge how a woman’s ass looks. In dresses. In jeans. In shorts.” He paused. “Out of all of those things.”
He was an ass. She couldn’t forget that. Of course, when he was an ass, it was on purpose. Especially when he was an ass to her. He was stubborn, had a quick temper, a deeply ingrained sense of justice and loyalty, and a pretty black and white view of how things should go, but he had never been an ass to her. He’d been downright sweet and protective and romantic and… sexy.
Until she’d broken his heart ten years ago.
So, yeah, she might deserve it a little. She knew that.
They’d been in love. He’d wanted her to go to college with him. When she’d said no, he’d wanted to stay in Appleby with her. So she’d broken up with him. No way could she have kept him here. But it had broken his heart.
And it certainly made working for him now a challenge. Hell, it made seeing him on Main Street a challenge.
He’d been poking at her for the past month. Ever since he’d come back to Appleby full time. Every time they were in a meeting together or had a conversation, he made comments that were meant to annoy her. She didn’t know why, exactly. She could speculate, but she hadn’t even let herself go there.
She just knew she had to hold her
