Nicholas leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with the desire to cause mischief and add to the mayhem. “I like it. Go make some cupcakes, mention the shop a million times, act lovey-dovey and get us some business. Positive press. It’ll be like five minutes.” He snapped his fingers. “Or you could go with my original idea of a fake date in a very public place—I’m thinking a kiss cam at a basketball game.”
“San Diego doesn’t have a team.” Technically true, but Donovan was grasping at straws, and he didn’t care. He needed to stop this train from further derailing.
“L.A. is right up the freeway.” Apparently, Nicholas was determined to keep the train spinning off the tracks. “They have two basketball teams. And they have paparazzi. Even better.” He smiled the smile of a smug bastard. Donovan was going to kill him.
Jada held up a hand. She looked slightly panicked, like Nicholas and August’s ideas had spooked the hell out of her, which he wouldn’t take personally. One of their rules was to do the bare minimum. The bare minimum did not include going out on a date or appearing on a TV show as a couple.
“Um, guys, as interesting as those ideas sound, I was thinking more along the lines of hosting the neighborhood book club,” she said. “Their usual place is kicking them out.”
Donovan frowned. “We’re not a bookstore or a library.”
“No, but you do have a big enough space with comfortable chairs. They need a space. A lot of them have probably never been in here before, and if they have, it never hurts to remind them what a great place this is. And … uhhh…”
“Spit it out.” Whenever she started prevaricating like that, it never meant good things for him.
She wrinkled her nose. “I may have already told them they could use Sugar Blitz. I’m sorry. I know I should have asked, but Kendra looked so sad and this place is perfect and don’t be mad please. I really do think it will be perfect.”
“You did what?” A pulse began to throb behind his right eye.
“You know, you should have a doctor look at that vein in your forehead. Check it out to make sure everything’s okay.”
The pulse beat harder. “Jada.”
“I was going to tell you after my shift was over, but you called this very important meeting with your business partners, so I couldn’t. But then I overheard what you were talking about.”
“Because you were hovering,” he bit out.
Nicholas cleared his throat. Right. He was sounding like an ass. Donovan waved his hand. “Please continue.”
Jada took a deep breath. “I can handle everything. You don’t have to do anything.”
“Which is great, but we’re not ready. We’re not prepared to host a book club meeting. We can’t just open our store to chaos.”
“Dude.” That was August.
Donovan caught himself again. Right. He needed to chill. He sounded like a buzzkill, and he had been the one to ask for ideas. He held up a hand. “What kind of book club?”
“Romance,” Jada said.
He could handle that. How bad could it be? He sighed.
Jada sat up straighter, eagerness spreading across her expressive face. “Is that a yes?”
He side-eyed her. “Didn’t you already tell them yes?”
She glanced away for a second. “Yes, but I don’t own this place.”
“Oh, so now you remember that.” He ignored his friends’ disapproving looks. Hey, he was who he was. Sarcasm was going to be the result when his world was thrown out of order.
She hopped up, now bursting with energy, clearly no longer fazed by his attitude. “I’ll get in touch with them to set everything up.”
“You’re going to plan it.”
She spun back toward him. “I mean yeah, if that’s okay.” There was that vulnerability she tried so hard to hide. The vulnerability he found impossible to resist.
Fighting the urge to reach for her hand, he nodded. “It’s okay.”
“I promise not to burn down the place.” A smile, stunning in its intensity and beauty, spread across her face.
Unable to resist, Donovan stood, moving closer to her like she was a magnet. “Of course you won’t. I’ll be there.” He gestured toward his business partners. “We all will.”
He ignored Nicholas’s and August’s twin groans.
Chapter Twelve
Jada caught Kendra’s gaze and gave what she hoped was a crisp, authoritative nod. It was time. Sugar Blitz’s first ever after-hours event. Which Jada had coordinated in less than two days. No biggie. Oh, God, she was going to hurl. Jada wiped sweaty palms on her dress.