But because her stepmother really was wicked at times. And her sister was a drama queen.

“Kelsey,” Jane broke into her sister’s ranting. “I am on my way over. Do not throw any more dishes.”

Cassie had basically grounded Kelsey because she’d gotten a C on her chemistry test. That meant Kelsey couldn’t go to the school dance that weekend. That meant Kelsey was going to be insufferable to live with, which meant Cassie was going to be even meaner and… Jane was going to be getting a lot of calls from both of them.

“It’s not fair! She’s not my mom! I don’t understand why she gets a say in this at all!” Kelsey said. Her voice was wobbly with tears, but they weren’t sad tears. They were teenager-pissed-at-the-world tears.

“Because you got a C. That’s not her decision. That was something dad and I put in place, and you know it,” Jane said, heading out the door of the factory toward the parking lot. Thankfully, her work shift was already over, and she hadn’t had to duck out early.

She really sympathized with Kelsey. Her sister was in a very tough situation in general. Her own mother was flitting around the world while her father sat in a nursing home, and she lived with the stepmother who punished Kelsey for anything she had—friends, great hair, a natural talent for dance and a place in the front row of the dance team at school—that Aspen didn’t.

But Kelsey also used her my-mom-was-never-there-for-me and my-father-is-sick stuff as an excuse to be a brat.

Jane had been there for her. Jane was still there for her. She didn’t do Kelsey’s laundry or cook for her or sleep under the same roof, but she went to parent-teacher conferences, showed up to every dance team performance, and went to bat for her when Cassie leaned too hard.

But Kelsey had to get good grades. She was capable of it. She just didn’t try because she hated chemistry.

Well, I have to do a lot of things I hate every day, Jane thought. Kelsey needed to grow up a little. Throwing dishes against the wall in the kitchen was not grown-up.

“I got a C!” Kelsey said. “Big deal! That’s passing! And she only grounded me because of the dance. If I didn’t have anything fun going on she wouldn’t have even bothered. And you wouldn’t even know about the C!”

“Well, to be fair, I know about the C because there are two plates lying in pieces on the kitchen floor.” Cassie had called Jane immediately. She’d even sent a video of Kelsey heaving the second plate across the kitchen.

“She would have told you anyway,” Kelsey said.

“Probably,” Jane agreed. “But that would have surely been after you told me because you know how much I hate hearing that kind of stuff from her.”

“It’s just one stupid test,” Kelsey muttered.

“And the rule is ‘no C’s,’ so it doesn’t really matter.”

“You have to get me ungrounded.” Kelsey’s tone turned pleading.

“You have to get yourself ungrounded,” Jane told her. “Talk to your teacher about some extra credit. Do more chores. Beg. But this is on you.”

“You could take me out Saturday,” Kelsey said, ignoring everything Jane said. “And then I could go to the dance from your place.”

Sister time with Jane never counted as “going out,” so the grounding rules wouldn’t apply. Jane could take Kelsey anywhere and anytime, for the most part. There had definitely been times that Jane had let Kelsey spend a weekend or even three or four days with her just to give them all a break. She suspected Cassie liked that as much as Kelsey did. But this wasn’t going to be one of those times.

“You can hang out with me this weekend if you want,” Jane said, compromising. It was Friday night. Kelsey could spend her grounded weekend on Jane’s couch with ice cream. That was better than her shutting herself in her room to avoid Cassie, Jane supposed. “But you’re not going to the dance.”

“Come on!”

“No. I’ll be there in ten minutes, and I’ll help you with the chores, but you’re not going to the dance, and I’m not sweeping up broken plates. Pull yourself together. Clean the kitchen up, and I’ll see you soon.”

Jane took a deep breath and blew it out. Maybe she should start doing yoga. Josie’s younger sister, Paige, ran Cores and Catnip, a yoga studio and cat café. Jane could head over there right now, in fact. Cores offered yoga classes of all kinds along with a juice bar and cat adoption center. The sign even had a cat playing with an apple core on it. Paige really liked the cats best, but the yoga and juice bar actually made money while collecting cats did not.

Cores was the opposite of Buttered Up in almost every way. The bakery was decorated in bright yellows and had display cases brimming with multicolored treats full of fat and sugar. People came in to get a shot of sugar and caffeine so they could face their workday. On the other hand, the yoga studio was all soft creams and tans and was a quiet place. People came in and did yoga while cats lay around on the mats and purred. People stretched, breathed deep, drank smoothies, and petted cats. They even adopted them sometimes. If Paige could part with one.

Yoga sounded good. Relaxing. All that. Hell, maybe Jane needed a cat.

But truly, she probably needed to take up kickboxing. Pent-up frustration seemed to need something more like beat-the-hell-out-of-a-punching-bag than stretching and breathing. Or purring.

Jane tucked her phone away and mentally went over the cleaning supplies that were at the house, wondering if she needed to stop to get anything on her way over.

So she was about thirty feet from her car before she realized there was a man leaning against it.

Her heart thumped and she felt her lips curving. It wasn’t just any man.

It was her very hot, very charming, hell-of-a-kisser boss.

And yes, she’d had dirty dreams about him and pie last night. Together. At the same time. Combined.

“I can’t wait until Saturday to go out with you,” he said with a shrug.

The stupid warm, twisty, aww-I-really-like-him sensation bloomed in her stomach at that.

“Saturday is tomorrow,” she pointed out, coming to a stop in front of him.

God, he looked good. He was in jeans, a black Hot Cakes t-shirt stretched over his chest and shoulders, and black work boots on his feet. They were pretty clean and a little shiny compared to most of the boots around here, but otherwise, he didn’t look awkward in them. He wore them with the same easy attitude he seemed to do everything.

Except kissing. The kissing had been pretty intense.

“Yeah, tomorrow,” he said. “And you didn’t come into the break room today.”

He’d been looking for her. Awww.

“I got a call from my stepmother I had to return over lunch,” she said.

He frowned slightly. “Everything okay?”

“Everything is… typical.”

“So not okay.”

She nodded. “Right. But it could be worse. So typical.”

“Well, I can’t stop thinking about you,” he said, pushing off the car and straightening. “And eight o’clock on Saturday is fourteen hours and thirteen minutes from now.” He stepped forward, nearly on top of her. “That’s too long.”

Again, awww.

Guys didn’t make her go awww.