Read Online Sugar Rush by Elaine Overton - Free Book Online Page A

June morning.
    He’d been welcomed back warmly, and no one seemed to suspect anything out of the ordinary. It was a little awkward at first because Sophie insisted on directing his efforts from her wheelchair. Eliot had never been responsive to being micromanaged. Even as an underling in his uncle’s factory he’d resented it, and he certainly wasn’t responsive to it now years later and at a much higher pay grade. It didn’t help that he hadn’t actually done any serious baking in years. His skills were rusty. He needed some time and a couple of practice batches of dough to get a feel for it again. But that was next to impossible with Sophie watching his every move.
    After about an hour and a half, he wiped his hands on his apron and squatted down next to her chair. “Sophie, what’s going on?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Why are you riding me like this? Did I do something to make you think I’m incompetent?”
    “No! of course not!”
    “Then why are you watching me like a kid fresh out of culinary school?”
    Her wide brown eyes watched his for a few moments, and then she burst into laughter. “Boredom.”
    “What?”
    She exploded in frustration. “This chair is driving me crazy! I can’t go everywhere I want to, or do everything I want to. I read through all my magazines by ten last night and still couldn’t sleep. I just laid there staring at the ceiling. Wayne is out gassing up and washing the delivery truck, and I have no idea where Lonnie and Dante are, and Grandma is up front with a customer. But, you’re here.”
    Eliot hid a smile. Her frustrations were real, but it was such a relief to realize it wasn’t what he’d feared: that she’d somehow discovered the truth. “So that’s it? You’re just bored?”
    “I’m freakin bored out of my mind!” She laughed again. “And unfortunately, you work in the kitchen, so I guess I’ve kinda leeched on to you.”
    Eliot stood again. “Tell you what.” He walked over to the mixer and pulled out a blob of dough. Bringing it back he flopped it down on the table in front of her. “If you want to work, I’ll put you to work.”
    He pushed her up to the table, then reaching into the large bowl that took up half the table, he sprinkled some flour on the blob.
    “What am I suppose to do with that?” she asked, eyeing the blob warily.
    “Make a pie crust out of it.”
    She glared up at him. “If I could do that I wouldn’t have hired you.”
    “My, my, my, how the tide changes. As long as you were sitting there doling out orders like a little dictator you were happy. I actually try to get you to do some work, and suddenly you’re all attitude.”
    She chuckled. “Fine.” Eliot watched her reach for the blob as if afraid it would bite her at any minute.
    Eliot returned to his task of making crescent rolls. He only hoped they came out even and crusty.
    A minute later, he looked over and she was still pulling hesitantly at the blob. With a soft laugh, he came up behind the wheelchair. “Here, like this.” Covering her hands, he squeezed the soft dough, feeling it mesh through their combined fingers. “Don’t be afraid of it. Think of it like modeling clay.”
    “But I never planned to eat it.”
    “Then you missed out. Yum.”
    She laughed, as he hoped she would. “You’re not serious? You didn’t actually eat clay?”
    “I sure did. But in my defense I was only four or five. At that age, all kinds of things taste good.”
    “You could’ve been sick.”
    “Nah, why do you think toys go through so much testing? They’re all eatable, really. The scientists make sure if any of it accidentally goes in one end, it comes out the other.”
    “Ugh, we are baking here!”
    “Sorry.” He smiled, enjoying the feeling of their combined fingers squeezing the bread. “See how it’s starting to take shape?”
    She glanced down at their hands together, the lighter color of his against the deeper brown of hers. She liked the way it