“But penguins and polar bears don’t actually live together, right?” Ollie said. “They’re commonly put together in commercials and things, but they live on opposite poles.”

Dax frowned at him. “Are you sure?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

“But… the snow.”

“Polar bears live in the arctic and penguins live in the Antarctic,” Piper said, breezing into the room with a new carafe of coffee.

“Oh.” Dax seemed disappointed.

“You could still do different habitats,” Piper said, patting his arm. “Just have to put them on two different tabs.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Maybe Drew would want to do alpaca treats,” Piper said, leaning over Ollie’s shoulder to refill his cup.

Ollie’s bright expression pulled into a frown. “Why would the alpaca farmer want treats? Nobody goes out there. Except you.”

Piper gave him a big smile as she moved to Cam. He held his cup up for her to fill.

“He and his brothers are talking about opening up the farm to some tours for kids. Day cares and preschools and things like that. Making it a full-time petting zoo so that kids can learn about the animals up close and personal. I was going to talk with him about teaching the kids about some of these wild animals too. Maybe looking around their property for jackrabbit and fox tracks. Drew and his brothers are real outdoorsy types.”

Typically Cam would have exchanged a what’s-going-on look with Aiden or Grant as Piper poked at Ollie—a not outdoorsy type at all. But he found himself looking at Whitney instead. She was watching him too. She gave him an arched eyebrow and he shrugged. But he also grinned. He liked sharing that little nonverbal communication with her.

Ollie scowled. “Kids will like Dax’s animals better, I guarantee.”

“I’m sure Dax can make it a lot of fun, but learning about real animals in the real world could be good.” Piper’s smile had faded. “You spend a lot of time in virtual worlds. Maybe some time in the real world where you don’t get to call all the shots would be good.”

Ollie swiveled in his chair and pinned her with a stare. “I call all the shots?”

She propped a hand on her hip. “You try to.”

“And then you go ahead and do whatever you want to anyway.”

“You mean, I fix the things that won’t work your way or that you mess up by forgetting that the real world doesn’t follow your rules all the time like Easton does,” she said, referring to the magical land in their video game.

“Piper,” Ollie said, his voice low and firm and far more serious than any of them were used to hearing. “Enough.”

Piper didn’t look intimidated. Or impressed. She looked pissed.

Cam felt his brows lift. Dax sat up straighter. Grant leaned forward in his chair. Aiden actually got to his feet.

“Okay. Let’s get back to Whitney and the presentation,” Aiden said in his best knock-it-the-fuck-off voice. “Piper,” he added, his tone gentler. “We can talk later.”

She stared at Ollie as she took a breath, then she looked at Aiden. “I’m fine. Everything is fine.”

Yeah, even Cam knew that when a woman said she was fine the way Piper had just said she was fine, she was most definitely not fine.

Whitney spoke up. “Piper.”

Their executive assistant looked at her.

“We can talk later,” Whitney said.

Piper nodded. “Great.”

Aiden looked at Cam. Cam grinned at his friend. Then they both looked at Grant. Who also smiled. Then they all looked at Ollie. Who was frowning. But not in a confused, what’s-going-on way, rather in a oh-shit-this-isn’t-good way.

On the contrary, Cam thought this was actually very good.

Piper had been putting up with the Fluke guys and the stupid levels of testosterone in their conference rooms for years now. It was time for there to be more estrogen balancing things out.

Piper and Whitney could be good for one another.

He loved everything about this.

“Whitney,” Aiden said. “Is there anything else we should know at this point about the new product?”

She shook her head. “I’ll send an email summarizing everything. If you’re all okay with where we’re at, I’ll move ahead with getting the stamping equipment and talking to our accounts about the new bars.”

“Great,” Aiden said. He glanced around the table. “Anyone have anything?”

“Good to move forward in my mind,” Grant said. He met Whitney’s eyes. “Great job. You’ve pulled this together quickly and you’ve got all the I’s dotted.”

It had only been two weeks since she’d first presented about how they needed to change up their machines and think about hiring more staff. It really had been fast. Then again, she’d been working until ten almost every night.

Cam shook that off. It was fine. It was what she needed to do and he’d said he was in full support of it.

Whitney smiled at Grant, clearly pleased. “Thank you.”

“I fucking love it,” Dax told her, shoving his chair back and standing. “I’m going to do some website brainstorming this afternoon.”

“Don’t you have a meeting with the Alzheimer’s Association people today?” Whitney asked with a frown.

“He does,” Piper confirmed. She turned to Dax. “They’ll be in your office at one.”

His office at Sunny Orchard, not here at Hot Cakes.

“Right,” he muttered.

Whitney chewed on her bottom lip and Cam felt his shoulders tightening as he watched her worry.

“He’ll be able to do both,” Aiden assured her, pushing the papers in front of him into a stack and then rising. “Honestly, Dax is best when he’s got a million things going on in his head.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Aiden paused and reached out, squeezing her shoulder. “Seriously. Piper will be sure he stays on track. Sunny Orchard is a priority.”

Cam didn’t say anything, but he felt himself frowning. Sunny Orchard and the Alzheimer’s programming better fucking be a priority for Dax. Aiden was right. Dax was a master multitasker and really did do best when he was juggling several balls. Cam had never been concerned about his partners getting their stuff done, and done well, before. One of the reasons Fluke worked well was because the guys all did their thing and trusted the others to do theirs.

For the first time, Cam was going to follow up with one of his partners on something that wasn’t a legal matter and something that he didn’t really know much about at all. Just to be sure Dax was doing it. Hell, Dax wasn’t even a partner in Hot Cakes. If he did the website stuff for their new product, he’d be doing it as an outside consultant.

But yeah, Cam was going to check in. He never did that.

“Hey, guys, hang out for a minute,” Cam said, coming to his feet.

Dax paused on his way to the door, looking back.

Grant kept his seat and Aiden dropped his hand from Whitney’s shoulder and faced Cam.

“Everything okay?” his friend asked.

“Sure.” He was going to make sure everything was okay. “Just need to follow up on a couple of things,” Cam said. His eyes went to Whitney. “Thanks for the presentation.”