“See what?” Jane asked, starting for the door.

“You in love,” Josie said, sliding off the stool. “We’ve never seen that before.”

Well, she had a point.

11

He’d dreamed of Jane last night.

That didn’t surprise him. He’d absolutely gone to bed with her on his mind.

What did surprise him was that the dreams didn’t include her naked and bent over the sofa in the living room of his suite, or her naked and on her knees in front of him in the shower, or her naked and tangled up in the sheets on his king-sized bed.

She wasn’t naked in his dreams at all.

She was sitting at a big table, somewhere outside—the place didn’t look familiar—with people from Hot Cakes and her sister and stepsister and Zoe and Aiden and Josie and Piper and Ollie and Grant and Cam. And Dax’s father.

They had all been there, sitting around a big table laden with food and drinks. They’d all been just talking and laughing.

Then he’d come to the table, carrying a tray of strawberry pies and had passed them out before bending and kissing Jane and then taking his seat next to her.

They’d basically been hosting a dinner party for all the people in their life. As a couple.

It was the most normal, almost boring, dream he’d ever had. And he’d awakened from it feeling happy and in the best mood he’d been in for a while. Which was saying something. He was generally in a good mood.

Then when he’d looked at the clock beside his bed and saw it was only 7 a.m.—thirty minutes before his alarm was set to go off—he was even further convinced Jane was magical.

So he’d been whistling when he stepped into Buttered Up at ten to eight.

“Oh my God, are you sick or something?” Jane asked, coming through the door from the kitchen.

He moved to the end of the bakery case. Jane came around in front of the case, and Zoe and Josie stopped just behind it. An older woman and man were serving the customers at the register.

“I feel amazing.” Dax slipped an arm around Jane’s waist and kissed her temple.

She gave him a big, wide-eyed stare that clearly said, “What the hell?”

“Good morning,” he said with a grin, unconcerned about her reaction.

She put her elbow against his side, trying to push him away. He laughed and dropped his arm.

“’Morning, Dax,” Josie said, looking back and forth between them curiously.

He liked that having a man kiss Jane publicly seemed unusual. “Good morning, Josie,” he said. “How are you?”

“I’m great. And you?”

“I’ve never been better.” He looked down at Jane. “Seriously.” He wanted her to see his sincerity too. He was a well-known goofball, but he was crazy about her, and he wanted her to know he meant that with everything in him.

“I heard a rumor about you,” Josie said, putting three lemon-poppyseed muffins into a carryout box and passing them to the man who was helping the customers.

“Oh?”

“I heard you’re no longer an owner at Hot Cakes,” she said.

“Oh, that’s true. Feel free to spread it around,” he confirmed.

“Really?” Josie cast a glance at Jane. “So it’s not a secret either?”

“Of course not,” Dax said.

“Are we also allowed to talk about the reason for it?” Josie asked.

“No.”

“Sure.”

Jane and Dax spoke at the same time, then looked at each other.

“You’re not going to tell everyone why you are thinking about giving up your shares,” Jane said. She narrowed her eyes. “Unless there’s a reason other than the one you told me about last night.”

“You,” Dax said. “You are the reason. The only one. And I’m not thinking about it. I did it.”

She swallowed hard, and when Dax glanced at her two best friends, they were both watching with huge smiles.

“You can’t tell everyone that,” Jane said, lowering her voice. “You shouldn’t really tell people you’re giving up your shares at all.”

“Why not?” Dax and Josie were the ones speaking simultaneously this time.

“Because when it doesn’t work out and you buy those shares back, everyone will know, and that will require even more explanation,” Jane said.

Dax turned to face her more fully. “I have no reason to believe it’s not going to work out.”

“You live in Chicago.”

“For now,” he agreed.

“We’re very different.”

“In wonderful ways,” he said.

“You don’t want to be a part of my crazy life long term, Dax.”

“I think I do, actually.”

“One night with the girls and you’re so confident.”

Dax laughed. “Admit it. The way I handled them was at least thirty percent of why you got naked with me in your car last night.”

Jane gave a squeak-cough and looked at her friends again.

“Your car?” Zoe said. “You left that detail out.”

Dax grinned down at Jane. “You told them the naked part though?”

Jane rolled her eyes as Josie confirmed, “Oh yes.”

Jane shook her head and looked at him again. “Maybe you saving me from Kelsey and Aspen’s dramatics was the whole reason the car happened.”

“Nah,” he said with a shake of his head. “You’ve been wanting to get into my pants since we first met.”

Zoe laughed and Josie said, “Yeah, I saw you two at Granny’s together, remember? The naked-in-your-car thing was just waiting to happen.”

Dax gave Jane a smug grin. “And don’t try to tell me I got you all softened up with the ice cream, because you were giving me that look when you saw me leaning against your car at Hot Cakes.”

“I was not.” Jane’s cheeks were a little pink.

And she didn’t ask what look? She totally knew. Dax grinned. “You totally were.”

She shook her head. “So we’ll just move into my tiny apartment together, and you’ll do your video game stuff from my kitchen table?”

He shrugged. “Or we can buy a house. Or build one. Or I could rent some office space.”

Honestly, if her entire protest was the size of her kitchen, he was so in.

“You’re really going to have to throw me harder challenges than that,” he said.

“How about I don’t like gummy bears or beanbag chairs and refuse to paint even a single wall in my home yellow?” she asked, crossing her arms.

“All the more reason for me to rent office space,” he agreed.

“Like I might never let you have gummy bears in my house.”

He shrugged. “I can make you like gummy bears.”

“No, you can’t.”

He gave her a look. A look that was full of all the dirty thoughts he was having about her and his favorite candy. “Dare me.”

She cleared her throat.

“But an office somewhere downtown will be better anyway,” he said, letting her off the hook. Kind of. They were going to come back to this conversation at some point.