Another lie—I didn’t need to go anywhere. I had no job, no wedding to plan, and no fiancé. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my mom… I did. We were very close. Elaina was always a Daddy’s girl and I was always closer with my mom. But that didn’t mean I didn’t see Kathy Dyker’s faults. She was an attorney in Boston for years and gave up a corporate city life to move here with my dad. She was strong, smart, and resilient. A lot like Elaina, which was probably why they butted heads so much.
“Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up and sent a quick text to Elaina.
You should come here and stay with me for a while. We’ll have the whole place to ourselves and you won’t have to deal with the wrath of Mom and her truth serum brownies.
I tried to get Elaina to move in here months ago when she and Brad first broke up, but she thought it would be too weird to live with Dan and me. Which… maybe she was right. That could have been weird, especially since they never particularly got along.
Her response came back quickly.
You don’t have to twist my arm. I’d love to stay with you for a while. We can lick our wounds together. My plane lands at 4:00 p.m.
I smiled down at the phone and sent her an emoji in response.
4:00. That left me with a few hours to do something really nice for her. To take care of her in the way she’d always taken care of me. Not for the first time that day, my mind shifted to Liam. Liam and his cupcakes. Liam and his donuts. Liam and his sugarlips…
Crap. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. I needed to stop thinking of him that way. Forget the fact that he’s my sister’s ex-boyfriend’s brother and how sticky that would be… but he’s Liam Freaking Evans. He’s the sweet boy who grew up two streets over from me. The boy my mom warned me to stay away from… not because he was bad news but because she knew I would break his heart. You’ll walk all over him, Chloe and you know it! She said to me in high school. She wasn’t wrong… I wasn’t the nicest to boys back then. My mom’s friendship with Liam’s mom, Linda Evans, was too important to risk that.
Tasmanian Chloe, my parents called me. I came in like a whirlwind and left utter chaos in my wake. It wasn’t that I meant to be that way… it was just sort of who I was. Even when I tried not to create chaos, it still happened. Like I was some sort of chaos magnet. Even with Dan, I did everything I could to be the perfect fiancé. I wore pearls and cardigans and joined him at his fancy dentist networking events. At his insistence, I quit my job and used the last year to plan the ‘perfect’ wedding. The ‘perfect’ wedding for the ‘perfect’ couple … only one damn problem. Perfection didn’t exist. And Dan was a lying sack of shit. Okay, I guess that’s two problems.
Regardless, Mom was right. I am a Tasmanian devil. And that was fine for my own life, I guess. But not for Liam’s. With his mother’s cancer and running her bakery, he had enough turmoil already without me.
But I did truly want to be his friend. I was drawn to Liam. I always was, even back in high school. Fascinated by the quiet, brooding, handsome guy who sat in the front of the class, still came out to all the parties, but usually hung back in a corner and watched the rest of us let loose. He was buttoned-up, and a part of me—probably the chaotic part—wanted nothing more than to wrinkle his shirts and scatter those buttons across the floor.
My mind wandered to what Tanja said. If Liam and I were friends… would Elaina and Neil have to talk? Eventually make up?
I grabbed my purse and ran out the door, toward the one person who’d been able to help me last night.
4
Chloe
It only took me ten minutes to walk into downtown Maple Grove where Beefcakes was situated. Even though its location was once at the epicenter, the bakery was now right on the outside edge of what was considered downtown. Regardless of that little fact, ever since Neil’s and Elaina’s photo from my bachelorette party went viral months ago, it was constantly slammed with customers. I entered and slid my sunglasses to the top of my head, scooping my hair back like a headband.
Finn saw me first over the sea of bachelorettes in line waiting to pick up their erotic cupcakes. The grin he gave me told me two things: 1) Liam must have mentioned that we’d been together last night, and 2) The stories Liam told must not have been altogether unpleasant. Otherwise, wouldn’t he be scowling at me?
Chloe: 1. Tasmanian devil: 0.
“Well, well, well.” Finn called out to me as I nudged my way to the front of the line. “After what Liam told me, I didn’t think you’d be joining the land of the living today.”
My nose scrunched. “What? What did he tell you?”
I ignored the dirty looks some of the other women were giving me. Whether they were for pushing to the front of the line, or talking to the hot beefcake behind the counter, I didn’t know or care.
“That you and Jose Cuervo had quite the little run-in last night.”
Feigning shock, I pressed my palm to my sternum. “I’m insulted. It was Herradura Silver.” I snorted. “Jose Cuervo is for amateurs and college kids.”
“Touché.” Finn smirked, then jerked his head to the kitchen. “He’s in the back if you want to say hi.”
I did want to say hi. It was the whole reason for stopping in. Just friends. A friendly hi. Ugh, keep telling yourself that, Chloe. “Is that allowed?”
Finn shrugged. “Just don’t tell your sister or she’ll slap us with more health code violations.”
If I had a nickel for every time someone has said that to me in the last few years, I’d likely have enough to cover the loss of the rest of my wedding deposits. Hiking my Kate Spade purse higher on my shoulder, I nudged my way through the crowd and behind the counter, pushing the door and waltzing in.
The sight before me sucked all the air from my lungs. Not just because Liam was quite possibly the most handsome man I’d ever seen—and that included the time I saw Mark Consuelos shopping in Boston—but because surrounding him were dozens of immaculate looking cupcakes. Unicorn cupcakes. My absolute favorite.
“Wow,” I gushed.
He startled—well, for Liam, he did. Which basically meant he glanced up and his eyes widened upon noticing me standing there. That’s it. That’s Liam startled. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing at the sight.
“What are you doing here? And what’s so funny?” he asked.
Huh. Guess I should have bit my cheek a little harder.
I shook my head and tossed my purse onto a table beside the door. “Just you. Being all Liam.”
He gave me a weird look and set down the piping bag. “Okay… you didn’t answer my first question. What are you doing here?”
“Friends pop in on friends.”
His tongue ran across his bottom lip briefly as though he was tasting our kiss from this morning. “Thought we agreed that with Elaina and Neil, the ‘friends’ thing was sort of out of the picture.”
“Right. Well, I gave it a little more thought—”
“Oh, boy,” Liam rolled his eyes.
“No, hear me out. Look, I don’t know why they broke up, but whatever the reason, it’s got to be stupid. I can’t see Neil pulling something like what Dan did—”
“There is no way Neil cheated on her,” Liam interjected, defending his brother.
“Exactly!” I confirmed. “So, this breakup is probably a misunderstanding. I’ll know more tonight. But Neil and Elaina are really good for each other. Seriously. For years, I said that she should dump Brad’s ass and go find Neil.” Not that Elaina ever listened to me. Like, ever. If I was the Tasmanian devil, she was my polar opposite. What’s the opposite of a Tasmanian devil? A sloth?
Liam worried his bottom lip and stared at the half-decorated unicorn cupcake in front of him. “They are pretty perfect together.”
“Perfect doesn’t exist. But they’re great together. Maybe, just maybe, if you and I become best friends as originally planned, they will have no choice but to
make up?”
I held out my hands as though this plan was a tangible item I was presenting to him.
He grunted a noise that sounded half like huh and hm… huhm. “Or they’ll both just be mad at us for becoming friends.”
I snorted and waved my hand. “That’s stupid. You can’t be mad at someone for being kind to another human. At least you can’t be mad for long.”
The tiniest smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Have you met your sister? She’s the queen of holding grudges.”
“Hey,” I snapped and pointed into his face. “Watch it, bestie. That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
He rolled his eyes and grabbed the piping bag once more. “You can’t just call me your bestie and—poof—have it be true. It doesn’t work like that. It’s something you grow toward, not something you decree. You can’t just, like, knight me as a best friend.”
My eyes widened. “We should have knighting ceremonies for friends. How cool would that be?”
“I feel like the only part of that sentence you heard was knight. You missed the part where I said you can’t knight someone as a friend.”
I waved a hand, dismissing his thought. “No, no. I heard you. You’re just wrong.”
“Okay, weirdo,” he laughed. “I need to get back to work.”
“Wait!” I shot my hand out to place over top of his, still clutching the pastry bag. Unfortunately, I underestimated the force with which I brought my hand down and I sent buttercream shooting out of the gun across the floor of the kitchen.
Oops.
We both stood there an extra moment staring at the mess.
“Sorry.” I winced.
He gave a small laugh. Almost just like a single huff of breath. “It’s okay. I spill all the time in here.”
Somehow, I doubted that.
“I was thinking… Neil and Elaina get home today around four o’clock… maybe closer to six, once they get their luggage and drive up from Boston airport. It made me feel so good when you had sweets leftover for me, I thought maybe we could bake them each something. Have it waiting and ready for their arrivals?”
Liam’s brows narrowed. “Won’t cupcakes be kind of a painful memory for Elaina? Seeing as how probably every cupcake will remind her of Neil from now on?”
Damn. He was right. I hadn’t quite thought this through beyond wanting to hang out with Liam and knowing that the cupcakes made me feel better. “Well… what if we don’t make cupcakes? We could make more of those donuts. God, those were good. Elaina loves donuts.”
“I still have another two dozen unicorn cupcakes to decorate for a pick-up tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll help you, bestie! Then we can make the donuts!”
He narrowed his mossy-green eyes in my direction. “You’re not going to let up on this, are you?”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the besties thing or the donuts. I nodded because it was true in either case.
With a sigh, he slid a pastry bag across the stainless-steel countertop. “Fill this with the lavender and pink buttercream.”
“This isn’t taking long at all,” I said, glancing over at Liam. His mouth twisted as his eyes fell to the unicorn I was sprinkling edible glitter on.
“Usually they look… well… more edible than that.”
I tilted my head, examining my unicorn. Okay, sure. The eyes were a little lopsided. And its horn was a bit askew from the center. And yes, mine had a lot more glitter than Liam’s… but who doesn’t love more glitter?
Liam slid the undecorated cupcakes away from me. “Why don’t you start mixing the batter for the donuts instead? It’ll give us a head start on Elaina and Neil’s treat.”
“That means you’ll help me?”
“A promise is a promise,” he muttered.
I clamped my hands to my hips. “Why do I sense a but?”
He lifted a brow in my direction. Not quite smiling, but that very typical Liam expression I was coming to know so well. That non-smile was his smile. “You’re an intuitive little thing. I was going to say a promise is a promise even if you’re not holding up your end of it.”
I gasped in mock offense. “How dare you! I am holding up my end of it. It’s not my fault that you fired me from unicorn decorating!”
He held up one of my unicorn cupcakes and pointed to it. “This looks like some sort of deranged donkey from the land of Oz… not a unicorn. If I bring cupcakes like this to sweet little Emma Davey’s fourth birthday party, those kids will have nightmares.”
“Yeah, well, not all of us can have the cupcake decorating talent that you do!”
“Clearly.”
I stomped my foot and even though we were being silly and playful, my temper flared inside of me. I grabbed a palm full of the pink edible glitter and blew it into Liam’s face.
A fog of glitter enveloped him, and he coughed, looking like Pigpen… but instead of a cloud of dirt, he was surrounded by sparkly flecks of blue, pink, and purple.
“You did not just do that.”
I clicked my tongue and grinned. “I think I did.”
“You glitter bombed me.”
“You deserved it.”
He pinched a section of his hair, tugging at the glitter. “This will take days to come out.”
I snorted. He clearly did not have as much glitter experience as I did. “Days? Try weeks. Next time maybe you’ll think twice before mocking your best friend.”
His eyes rolled to the ceiling and with his voice barely above a whisper, he started counting. “Ten… nine… eight… seven…”
“Are you doing that therapy thing? Breathing down from ten?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nope. I’m giving you a ten second head start before I retaliate.”
My eyes went wide. “It’s not a head start if you don’t tell me it’s a head start!”
“Six… five… four…”
“You wouldn’t really retaliate against me, would you?”
He grinned. This time a real grin. One that stretched the length of his face. “Oh. You don’t know your bestie very well yet, do you?”
I glanced around for something to defend myself with and settled on the pastry bag of buttercream. I held it up, facing him like a gun as he reached for a bowl and a spatula, still grinning. “Three… two… one…”
He scooped the spatula into what was left over from the frosting and flung it at me. It smacked, wet and sloppy, in the center of my chest, splattering all over my Lululemon shirt. I gasped and squeezed the pastry bag. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite have the shooting power I had hoped it would. And instead of launching across the table at his face, it just sort of spat out onto the ground, landing on the toes of my Vincent Camuto boots.
Dammit. I liked those boots. Maybe butter will just give them a little shine?
“Crap,” I muttered, and his grin widened, triumphantly. I sighed and tossed the pastry bag down. “Okay, okay, we’re even,” I said, gesturing at my shirt.
“Are we?” He took a slow step toward me which I countered with a step back. “You said it yourself, glitter can take weeks to get out. That buttercream will come out with a single wash.”
I was smiling despite the stand-off. A big, goofy grin. The kind of grin that I hadn’t felt myself do in weeks. Maybe months.
Dan never made me smile like this. He was never playful. Never goofy. And if someone had asked me if Liam had a playful side a day ago, I would have laughed in their face. But the fact that he kept this side of himself so concealed, made this moment even more special between us. “You don’t want to mess with me, Evans,” I warned.
“Oh, I think I do, Dyker.”
He lunged toward me, tossing the bowl of butter cream aside. I spun and ran for the other end of the kitchen, only his arms latched around my waist, lifting me off the ground. Nimble fingers dug into my ribs, tickling me and I screamed with laughter, bucking against him.
My body was shaking, I was laughing so hard. I reached for anything I
could… any weapon that might help me escape his grasp. The only thing within reach was one of my deranged unicorns which I grabbed and, reaching behind me, smashed into his face.
His laugh shook against me. His broad chest bounced with the low rumble of his booming laughter, and he lowered my feet slowly back to the ground before pushing his cupcake-covered face against mine and into my hair.
The door swung open and Finn came running in, wide eyed and panicked. “Holy hell… are you guys okay?”
I laughed and nodded. “Just a little, uh, kitchen mix up.”
“I thought we were being robbed or something,” Finn said, and his eyes fell to the disastrously messy kitchen. “I am not cleaning this mess up.”
Liam chuckled and licked some frosting off of his fingers. “I’ll handle it.”
“Okay, then. I, uh, have that appointment thing. You good to take over out front?”
Liam nodded. “Give me five minutes to clean up.”
Finn hesitated for only a moment, then went back out front, closing the door behind him.
“Okay, okay,” Liam said. “You up for helping me run the registers until we close? Then we can come back here and make some donuts.”
Grabbing the nearest roll of paper towels, I tore off a few rectangles and tried to scrub the buttercream from my shirt. “I can do that.”
“So… truce?” Liam asked, and held out a hand for me to take.
“Truce.” I nodded and took his hand. But not before grabbing another handful of icing and smacking it into his palm.
His eyes widened as our palms connected with a smack of buttercream spraying between us. “You fight dirty, Dyker.”
“Get used to it, Evans.”
His grin widened. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
5
Chloe
Elaina’s eyes went wide and she collapsed onto my couch, staring at the donut in her hands. Unlike me, she took the time to put hers on a small plate, while I wrapped a paper towel in one hand and held the donut in the other.
Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2) Page 4