Back for Seconds by Ginger Voight Page A

least.”
    She swallowed hard as she nodded. She shook in her shoes as she inched around him, the heat of his body enveloping her as she did so. He didn’t say a word until she reached the door, when he popped off with, “You looked really nice today, Joely. And for what it’s worth, that wasn’t a line.”
    She wordlessly opened the door and slipped from the room before flying down the stairs. She was still breathing hard as she reached the counter, where she gathered her things. When she rose from behind the counter, her belongings in her arms, she spotted Xander exit his office. A pretty blonde waitress met him at the doorway with a huge, familiar smile, which he returned.
    The waitress couldn’t have been more than twenty-two or three. She was svelte and perky, a much better candidate for his charms than Joely could ever be. She had to admit that they looked good together. They looked right. They were two twenty-somethings who had their whole lives ahead of them, with nothing more to consider for the night than the night itself.
    She watched as he put his arm around her, guiding her back to his office with his hand on her back. The door shut behind them.
    Good , thought Joely as she pulled her keys out of her purse. That girl was a much better use of his time. She gathered her things and headed for the door, suppressing immediately any hint of envy that it could have been her had she just kept her big mouth shut for once.
    It was better off this way. Men, romance and sex were things of Joely’s past. She hoped she could convince Xander Davy of that soon, because as of that moment their futures were intrinsically and undeniably linked.
    It was a thought that both excited her and terrified her as she drove home. It was a good thing she needed five dozen cookies by morning, because she’d have been up all night cooking anyway.

Chapter Six
     
    Sunday turned out to be a busy one for Joely. She produced the five dozen cookies for the restaurant as requested, ornately designed flowers this time. She had two dozen ready to go by morning and worked on the other three during the afternoon. She kept her eye on the clock. Since she had to pick the children up again by five, she had to economize her time. She figured she’d kill two birds with one stone, taking her second batch of cookies, and her kids, to the restaurant at the same time. They could eat dinner there and she can oversee her cookie sales through the dinner rush. It excited her to see what kind of reaction they would get, not to mention how they would sell. Her mother had already sent her a text around two o’clock that her first batch flew right out the door, selling like hotcakes.
    These successes filled her with such a sense of accomplishment she wanted to bake even more goodies. It wasn’t that she didn’t know she was a good cook, years of experience taught her that. It was that she was good enough to sell her wares, and that was completely unexpected.
    She got dressed up again, as before. Xander’s advice about branding herself as the product rolled around in her brain all that day. She decided she would project the image of success. She patted herself on the back for not throwing or giving away all the expensive clothes she’d bought during her years as a doctor’s wife, though that had been her impulsive thought while she packed them all. She had wanted to toss away that old Joely, much like Russell had.
    There were so many things that most went into storage. She figured she’d have to get more out in the coming weeks now that she had a three-month plan. She’d sell her cookies and take the odd jobs, saving away every cent that she didn’t have to spend on her kids or on the business itself. Since she controlled her own output, she figured she could predict a reasonable timeframe to save back ten thousand dollars. This would be her launching pad towards a life of independence.
    It was also enough time to see if this wasn’t just some fluke that