“It’s not that easy,” Jane said. Grumpily.

“Of course it is,” Josie said. “Falling in love should be the easiest thing.”

“It’s not easy when there are all these other people who are getting involved. It’s not just sex and pie, you know. There’s toilets and chemistry tests and wheelchairs and freaking llamas.”

“I believe they’re alpacas, actually.”

Everyone turned toward the new voice. Including Josie. Who actually whipped around quickly. Which caused her to wobble on the ladder. Which caused her foot to slip off the rung. Which caused her to fall.

Fortunately, the new guy caught her on her way down.

Jane gasped and was halfway out of her chair when the man’s arms went around Josie, sweeping her up, and eliciting a little squeak from her.

Everyone froze for a moment.

“Holy shit, that was smooth as hell,” Max said.

“Josie, are you okay?” Jane asked at the same time.

But Josie didn’t reply. She was staring at the man who held her. As he stared back at her.

“Um.” Max shot Jane a look.

She shrugged at him then looked back at Josie and her savior. “Josie?”

Still nothing.

“Jocelyn Diane!” Jane said loudly.

That shook Josie out of her daze. She blinked and then looked at Jane.

The man seemed to snap out of it too. He swung Josie’s feet to the floor, righting her.

Josie swept a hand down the front of her dress and apron and cleared her throat. “Yes. Yeah. I’m good. Fine.”

“Wow.” Jane looked at the man. “That was amazing. Great reflexes.”

“Well, we’ve had some practice at this.” He was looking at Josie when he said it.

Jane frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Uh, this is… uh...” Josie tucked her hair behind her ear, and Jane was very interested to see her friend was blushing. “This is the man who caught me the other night too.”

Jane felt her mouth drop open. She looked at the man with wide eyes. “Really?”

“The other night?” Max asked.

“Josie slipped off a stool in here the other night and was saved by a handsome stranger,” Jane said, her mouth curling. “Or so the story goes.”

Josie’s blush got darker as Jane spilled that she’d called him handsome.

“Maybe you need to keep your feet on the floor around here,” Jane teased.

“Or maybe not,” Max said with a grin. He extended his hand to the other man. “I’m Max.”

“Grant Lorre.” The man took Max’s hand.

“Wait.” Jane frowned. “Grant Lorre? As in Hot Cakes Grant Lorre?”

“Yes.”

“As in our boss?” Jane asked, shooting Max a glance.

Max cleared his throat. “Oh shit. Sorry. We didn’t recognize you, Mr. Lorre.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Grant said. He looked at Jane. “I’m actually here to talk to you. And not about Hot Cakes.”

“Me?” Jane asked.

“It’s about Dax.”

“Oh.” She sank back into her seat. Was she in trouble for fraternizing with him when he’d been her boss? They hadn’t slept together, but their flirtation had probably been obvious.

“I’m going to… go”—Josie started for the kitchen—“do … something… somewhere else.”

It was clear Grant flustered her friend, and Jane couldn’t wait to dig into that further with Josie and Zoe and a bottle of wine later. But Grant was here to talk to her about Dax. Which meant they might need two bottles of wine later.

“Yeah, I’m gonna head out,” Max said, getting up. “Call me later if you need,” he told Jane. Then he swiped the one uneaten strawberry muffin from in front of her. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” she said. Suddenly her stomach was twisting, making her regret all the baked goods she’d consumed.

After the door closed behind Max, it was just Jane and Grant left in the bakery. Besides George and Phil, two regulars. They came in after the rush, sat at the same two tables every morning, and read the paper. They didn’t come in together, exactly, but, both widowers, they came in at the same time and stayed for the same amount of time every morning.

She focused on the man across the table. She had to admit she understood why Josie might be a little flustered after being in his arms. He was very good looking. Tall, broad shouldered, dark hair and eyes. He looked as comfortable in his suit as she felt in her yoga pants and the t-shirt that had been washed a million times and was soft as a baby’s bottom.

But he had an intensity about him that made him not her type. Her type was, apparently, a charming goofball who was only intense about Ping-Pong and llamas. Wait, excuse her, alpacas.

“How is Dax?” she asked. God, she missed him. When she wasn’t thinking about how crazy he was. Or how, if she went to see him she’d probably propose to him, and there was a good chance she’d come home to find a baby goat or an alpaca in her living room some night.

No, that wasn’t true. Even when she thought about those things, she missed him.

“I’m guessing kind of miserable about now,” Grant said, looking at his watch.

“Really?” Did she want him to be miserable? Maybe a little. She was miserable. And five pounds heavier than she’d been two days ago.

“Airplanes and hangovers don’t mix well,” Grant said. “Though, he should definitely know that by now, so I wouldn’t give him too much sympathy.”

“He’s on an airplane?” Her heart thunked hard against her chest. Dammit, he’d gone back to Chicago. She’d chased him off.

No! She didn’t want him to leave. He couldn’t run Sunny Orchard from Chicago. That meant he’d probably sold it. Son of a bitch! “How is it that he’s able to keep buying and selling major businesses so quickly and easily?” she demanded of Grant. “Shouldn’t these things take a few days, at least? I couldn’t sell my mountain bike for three months, and it was practically new—I do not like biking because biking sucks—and I was asking like a hundred bucks! That was a steal! How can he just change his mind and snap his fingers and everything just poof falls into place? And why didn’t any of his friends stop him? Any of you?” She glared at Grant. “You know he would be great at this nursing home thing! Fun innovations, bold ideas, making people happy—those are his specialties! He needs to start doing something more permanent. To see that he can make people happy long term. That he’s not just a temporary reprieve for people.”

She stopped, realizing that not only had she been ranting again but this time it was at her boss. One of them, anyway. Having this many was starting to get annoying. Oh, and she’d pretty much just told herself that Dax needed to keep the nursing home.

Grant just waited until she was done, however.

When Jane pressed her lips together, he said, “I agree. Except for the part about biking. Biking is great. And that selling major businesses is fast and easy. It’s not. But he hasn’t even tried to sell the nursing home, so there’s that. Which is also why we didn’t try to talk him out of selling it.”