Sugar Rush Read Online Free PDF

kitchen, unannounced, at”—she glanced at the wall clock—“six-fifteen in the morning.”
    He was truly flummoxed. She’d never been anything other than absolutely professional with him. Always in a good mood, the calm in the center of every storm. And there had been many. He could depend on her to be consistently cool, competent, and focused. Aside from her rather amazing talent, the way she handled the day-to-day chaos of the kitchen with such smooth aplomb was the thing he’d admired most about her. He’d been convinced that bombs could be going off, and she’d be steadily working away with that quiet smile of hers, truly content, as if she existed inside her own personal sunbeam.
    To him, she’d been the perennial Snow White, kind to one and all, always making life easier for those around her. It was why he hadn’t immediately noticed, hadn’t realized ... well, so many things, actually.
    The difference was she no longer worked for him, and was therefore, he supposed, no longer required to maintain a professional demeanor in dealing with him.
    Perhaps he should have taken that into consideration.
    “Why are you here, Baxter?” she asked again, her tolerance clearly being tested.
    “You know, I don’t ever recall you being—”
    “Bitchy?”
    His eyebrows climbed slightly. “I was going to say impatient. Or irritated. I’ve never seen you be either of those things.”
    “That’s because you’ve never seen me.”
    He frowned then. He had not a single clue as to what she could mean by that. They’d worked side by side for years. Of course he’d seen her. “You seem put out with me. Quite ... annoyed, actually. I thought we parted on rather good terms, all things considered. I mean, of course I hated to lose you, and so suddenly. Gateau will never be the same without your vision and talent. But I’m not heartless. I understand the importance of family obligations.” He tried not to look around and actually take stock of her fledgling effort, for fear she’d see his utter bewilderment regarding her new direction. She was meant for far, far better than this. “Of course, I was deeply disappointed that you chose not to return, but please understand, Leilani, I’m not angry with you for leaving.”
    “You? Angry with m—” She broke off once again, clearly fighting to hold on to what was left of her swiftly dwindling control if the grip she had on that poor pastry bag was any indication.
    Snow White with a temper? He couldn’t get that to measure up.
    “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” he said, hoping they could begin again.
    “Because, as usual, you’re not listening to me. Or to anything but the voices inside your head, dictating that you stay stubbornly focused on whatever it is that you want.”
    “What are you talking about? Voices in my head? Are you saying I’m mad?”
    “You don’t listen, Baxter. You never listened. If you had, you’d know why I am not happy to have you come onto my island, or invade my town, much less set foot inside my shop. My shop, Baxter. You don’t have any say here.”
    “Of course I don’t.” He wondered how and when he’d fallen down the rabbit hole without noticing the drop. “I don’t want a say.”
    “Good, finally! Now we’re getting somewhere. What do you want?” She’d enunciated that last part as if he was hard of hearing.
    “I honestly don’t understand at all why we’re even arguing. We never had problems communicating before. I could always depend on you to be straightforward, the voice of reason—”
    She barked a laughed, making the loose tendrils of hair dance around her face, and looked a bit mad herself. “Because there was no point in being any other way. It was energy I couldn’t afford to waste. And it would always have been a waste. The reason we communicated well was because you did all the communicating. But not anymore, Baxter. You can be as single-mindedly charismatic and inadvertently obtuse as you want, but