Come On Closer Read Online Free

bakery, he’d swear he wasn’t the only one trying desperately to keep his paws to himself when they were alone together.
    Nope. This is not the time for self-indulgent bullshit. Focus, man.
    â€œIt’s not a problem. I’m just saying that if I had made that cake—which I wouldn’t, because I’m not an eight-year-old girl—I would have gone with a big-ass rainbow,” he said. “The kind of rainbow that makes people change all their ideas about how big a rainbow should be. Maximum rainbow.”
    Larkin’s eyes narrowed, but the corners of her generous mouth curved upward. “Don’t even try to get into a rainbow-measuring contest with me, Sullivan. You’ll lose.”
    He laughed just as Brynn breezed into the kitchen, eyeing him warily on her way by. Shane pretended not to notice. She’d come from the living room, which looked like the scene of some kind of mass explosion of pink and white decorations. Flowers and dainty little goodie bags and some kind of blobby things that he assumed made sense in the context of a baby shower. Not like he’d ever been to one, and not like that was breaking his heart. It wasn’t the kind of party he’d normally crash.
    Which was why Brynn could have been a
little
nicer about the tiny quiche he’d popped into his mouth on his way by the food trays. She wasn’t as nervous around him as she used to be. He couldn’t decide whether or not that was a good thing.
    â€œThat looks amazing, Larkin,” Brynn said, tucking a lock of long red hair behind one ear as she rounded the small island and examined her friend’s handiwork. “I owe you big.”
    Larkin waved her hand. “No problem. It was fun. I love making the cute ones.”
    â€œIt shows. You could have skipped the bakery and just made cakes for a living,” Brynn said.
    â€œThat would never work.” The words left his mouth before he gave it much thought, and when both women turned their heads to look at him like they were expecting him to say something rude—which, granted, wasn’t an unreasonable expectation—Shane felt uncomfortably like an interloper. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation, but it also wasn’t one he wanted to have around Larkin, especially not today. “Larkin would get bored,” he explained. “Just doing cakes would get old for her. Plus it would mess up her thing with Gina, and then we’d never hear the end of how the positive vibes in her life had been ruined or . . . something.”
    Brynn’s lips twitched, and he heard a muffled snort as she gave Larkin a sidelong glance. Brynn was a cute little redhead. More than cute, if he was being honest. He’d actually considered asking her out last spring, but work had sidetracked him. And then he’d asked Emma to get him a date for Jake and Sam’s wedding, and Larkin had blown into his life like a hurricane, and now he couldn’t seem to muster up anything more than detached appreciation for other women’s looks. He didn’t want other women, not that it seemed to help his chances with Larkin. And Larkin . . . well, who the hell knew what Larkin wanted.
    Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, probably.
    â€œI don’t talk like that,” she protested, frowning as she looked between the two of them. “You think I talk like that? I’m not a hippie.”
    â€œMmm.” Brynn pursed her lips, but her eyes were dancing. Larkin’s mouth curved into a self-deprecating little smile.
    â€œOkay, I’m not a
total
hippie.”
    â€œNo. A total hippie wouldn’t have made her bake shop look like Candy Land threw up in it. I’m right anyway,” Shane said. “If you wanted a cake business, you’d have one. Even if it meant a blood feud with Gina Valeri.”
    â€œGina might win,” Brynn said. “She’s meaner than you.” Gina
did
run a