Wedding Cake Wishes by Dana Corbit Page A

her frenzied need for more and greater success as foreign to him as her life in the big city. Still, he couldn’t help being intrigued by all of that intensity, all that drive. He liked to observe her the way he recorded data about some of the wildlife in the park. He didn’t feel drawn by the vulnerability that only he could see in her. He was no more interested in her than she was in him.
    â€œIt would never work out, anyway. You probably never created two people who were more different,” he said, chuckling. “She’s Type A to the tenth power, and I’m—”
    He stopped himself, squeezing his eyes shut. Who was he trying to convince…God or himself?

Chapter Five
    C aroline had never thought of herself as claustrophobic, but as she stood inside the closetlike storage room with its walls appearing to creep in by tiny increments, she had to wonder.
    She glanced down at the clipboard in her hands and then back up to the shelves nearest the ceiling. Logan had surprised her by showing up to work the holiday with her, instead of taking the day off with the rest of the staff. She would have said that he was the hardest-working wastrel she’d ever met, but she’d already decided that most of her preconceptions about Logan had been way off the mark.
    At least they were working on separate projects, so they wouldn’t be in each other’s way or close enough to make each other uncomfortable with the rest of the staff gone. She chose not to wonder which of them might be more uncomfortable.
    Instead of wishing this time that he would ask her for help on that laptop, she was grateful for his combination of excessive pride and limited computer skills. He would stay in that office for hours trying to figure outthe program so that she could deal with the inventory and supply orders alone.
    Already, she’d completed counts on the parchment paper and foil and then flour and sugar on the lower shelves, so all that remained were the supplies on the top shelf.
    Pulling the step ladder from its hook on the wall, she set it on the floor and started up the steps.
    She’d settled on the step where she could reach the huge containers of baking powder and baking soda when she heard a knock on the door just two feet behind her.
    â€œCaroline, are you still in there?”
    â€œWait—”
    But she didn’t say it loudly enough because Logan was already pushing the door open, and the metal door struck the ladder with a thwack. The ladder took that as signal to dump its load—namely her.
    â€œOh, no,” Logan called out as he stuck his head and arm in and grabbed one metal leg of the ladder. It might have been a gallant gesture if she weren’t already sprawled on the concrete floor, her clipboard next to her head. Holding on to the ladder so it wouldn’t fall on her, he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped inside.
    â€œSorry.” He grimaced as he looked down at her. “Are you all right?”
    â€œOuch.” Caroline sat up and rubbed her scraped elbow, but her backside had taken the brunt of her fall, and she wasn’t about to let him know that. Heat flooded her cheeks, but she supposed she shouldn’t waste time feeling embarrassed. She’d been nothing but vulnerable from the moment she’d arrived back in Markston.“I’m fine. I would tell you to learn to knock, but you did that.”
    Letting the door fall closed behind him, he crouched next to her and reached out a hand. “Next time I’ll wait for an answer.”
    As soon as his fingers closed over hers, Caroline realized her mistake in letting him help her to her feet. A tingle she couldn’t define began in her fingertips and raced up her arm. His hands were callused from hard work, another contradiction in an endless line from the earlier image she’d had of him. For a fleeting moment, she wondered how it would feel for their fingers to be laced