Chapter 2: Sugar

"Did I hear him right?" Gage asked as soon as the front door closed behind the newest resident of Long Valley. Sugar stared after him, the sight of his ass in his tight Wranglers not something she was gonna be able to forget for a long time.

Maybe never.

"Hear what?" she asked absentmindedly. She hadn't seen a man that hot since

"Is he the new fire chief in town?" Gage asked, a note of impatience creeping in.

She jerked her head back towards her boss. "Oh. Sorry. Yeah, he's the new guy." She wrinkled her nose.

Gage walked up and stood next to her at the front counter, staring out into the early morning, sparkling frost covering every barren tree branch and frozen metal bench in sight. "Do you think he has any idea what he's in for?" Gage asked rhetorically, wiping his hands on his apron.

Sugar answered him anyway. "No clue," she said with a shrug, and then nibbled on her lower lip. "Well, he probably wouldn't have taken the job if he'd known, so I'm gonna say no, he has no idea."

"People don't tend to take on new jobs where they're the most hated guy in town, before they even start," Gage said dryly.

"Not usually."

"Think you should've warned him?"

"Nope. He'll figure it out on his own soon enough. Plus, this way, he might come back here and let me dry his tears with a jam-filled donut or two." Sugar winked at Gage and he just rolled his eyes and laughed and sighed. All at the same time.

It was a talent, truly.

"If he wanted to ask you out, you'd just turn him down anyway," he said matter-of-factly. "Poor guy doesn't have a chance in hell."

Sugar opened up her mouth to protest, and then closed it again with a snap. She hated it when her boss was right. Or anyone was right, when she wasn't also. "Being wrong" was on Sugar's Top Ten List of Shit She Hated, right along with throwing up, discussing politics, or eating oysters.

She shuddered.

"You know why I can't date," she said tartly. "Hot, sexy firefighter he may be, but that still doesn't mean I'm gonna do it."

"So you have a thing for sexy firefighters now, huh?" Gage drawled, raising one eyebrow as he looked at her.

She sighed. She knew where Gage was going with this, and it broke her heart. Her best friend, Emma, had told her a long time ago that Gage was in love with her. Emma was probably right, considering she was Gage's younger sister. The chances were pretty damn high that she knew what the hell she was talking about.

But still...Gage?

Objectively, Sugar could tell her boss was cute. Maybe even handsome. You know, when she closed one eye and squinted real hard, she could totally tell that her boss was attractive.

For the 517th time, she wondered why she couldn't just fall for him. A lot of her problems would be solved if she could dredge up something more than friendship for the guy standing next to her.

Speaking of closing one eye and squinting real hard at her boss...She reached up to wipe the streak of flour off his nose that she'd just noticed, but he dodged out of reach. "Hey!" he protested.

"You had flour on your nose," she informed him. "You look like a chimney sweep, except in your case, the soot is all white."

Huh. That was probably it. She'd seen him with flour on his nose one too many times to think he was sexy. Otherwise, she'd probably be all over him.

Yeah, that was totally it. She felt better already. She hated not understanding her own mind at times. Mysteries were fun to read, not to live.

"Personal boundaries. They're a thing!" Gage called out as he headed into the kitchen again, through the swinging doors. Sugar rolled her eyes and looked back out through the front door again, and the large picture windows showing the streets of Sawyer beginning to wake up to another day.

"Good luck, Fireman Jaxson," Sugar said softly to the empty bakery. "You're gonna need all the help you can get."