“That’s a great idea!” I grabbed his hand before I could stop myself. I stiffened at the feel of his palm against mine and then immediately relaxed as his fingers curled around mine, linking our hands.
“Well, come on Dyker. Let’s get baking.”
12
Liam
My family has been eating my baked goods for almost my entire life…
So why was I so damn nervous as they sat around the table, staring back at Chloe and me, waiting to taste the samples for our food truck? My mom, Finn, and Addy were all here—and so were Chloe’s mother and father. But conveniently missing from what was supposed to be a Neil-Elaina setup… were Neil and Elaina.
Chloe gave me a nervous look, tapping her fingers against her phone, while I did the same, texting Neil to ask him where the hell he was as our parents cordially made small talk.
“Dude,” Finn said, “He’s not coming. I told you, he gave me some excuse about needing to stay behind to do some work at the bakery.”
Sure enough, seconds after Finn spoke, a text chimed in my phone from Neil stating exactly that.
Of everyone in the family, I really wanted your opinion on these baked goods the most, I texted back. Guilt was always a good last resort.
I could feel Chloe peering over my shoulder and I rolled my eyes. “Want me to hand the phone to you so you can read my texts better?”
“Nah,” she said casually, “Just tilt it a little. There’s a glare.”
I snorted a laugh and shook my head at her shameless candor. This girl. This fucking girl.
I sighed and tucked my phone into my pocket as the front door swung open and Elaina came waltzing into Chloe’s and, for the time being, her home. She seemed startled, blinking in surprise at the massive amount of people sitting in her kitchen when she finally said. “Oh, shit. I totally forgot the taste test was tonight.”
“I’ve been texting you,” Chloe said.
Elaina grimaced. “I’m sorry… I had my phone on silent.”
She hung an expensive looking bag on the coat rack near the door and crossed quickly into the kitchen, sliding into the empty chair next to her mom.
Chloe nodded. “So,” she said, clapping her hands together. “As you all know, we are starting our food truck! The Dump Truck—catering junk food to people who’ve just been dumped!”
Addy’s face screwed into a frown, sending her forehead into a fit of wrinkles. I rolled my eyes at my consistently pessimistic sister. Not that I could blame her… I was the same damn way. It was one of the few ways you could tell we were twins. “What?” I snapped at her.
“The Dump Truck?” she repeated. “It sounds like you run a sanitation service, not a food truck. It’s not exactly appetizing.”
Chloe’s mom clicked her tongue. “She’s got a point, sweetie.”
For the first time since we hatched this plan, I saw Chloe’s vibrato stutter. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, and the lines of her throat tightened. “Well, we didn’t call you here to critique the name of the food truck. But we will take that into consideration.”
I pushed one covered plate forward to the center of the table. “Anyway, we are trying to keep the menu small and the food relatively simple. We want most of the items to be pre-baked since we don’t have a full working kitchen in the truck yet.”
“But our kitchenette passed the inspection with flying colors,” Chloe added, rolling her shoulders back with pride.
“So, for the first menu item…” I uncovered the plate, presenting them with the first set of things we’ll offer in the truck. “A Daily Donut. This one is our ‘peanut butter and jelly’ filled donut and will be our launch day flavor.”
Each family member reached out and took a donut, except for Chloe’s parents who broke one in half and shared it.
“It’s delicious,” Mrs. Dyker said, smiling.
“We’re thinking they should be $1.99 each with an option to buy half a dozen for $9.99 or a dozen for $19.99.”
Finn finished his donut in two bites, and as he was reaching for another, Chloe smacked his hand. I nearly barked a laugh. I’d never seen a woman keep Finn in line—not even our own damn mother. “We’ve got four more things for you to try!” Chloe said. “Don’t fill up on donuts.”
“Next, we have something for the patrons who prefer salty to sweet. Fried mac & cheese balls.” As I spoke, Chloe lifted the plate cover. “They’re like my special version of arancini. These will be on the menu every day and they will come with five balls per order.”
Addy’s eyes went wide and she dove for the first one, biting into it. “Oh yeah,” she moaned. “These are amazing.”
I grinned at my twin, knowing she loved them. I created that recipe initially for her after she sprained her ankle a few years ago, and she’d requested them every year on her birthday ever since.
“We’re not really sure what to charge for them, so we’d really love to know your thoughts,” Chloe said.
“Keep in mind,” I added, “I can partially prepare them ahead of time, but they need to be fried to order, so they’re a little more time intensive.”
My mom spoke up first. “I wouldn’t go higher than $5.99… but I think they would sell better at $4.99.”
“A dollar per ball doesn’t leave a wide margin for profit,” Elaina said.
“Could you do four per serving instead of five at that price?” Mr. Dyker asked.
Chloe looked up from where she was taking notes, quirking her brow at me.
“Probably,” I said. “As long as they feel they’re still getting a good deal.”
“We could make four balls, slightly larger than this so they fill up the paper bowl we serve them in,” Chloe said, and I nodded. That could work.
“Knock, knock,” Neil’s deep voice called from the front door, and he poked his head inside.
“Neil! Glad you could make it.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elaina’s shoulders stiffen as he entered the house and carefully sat across from her at the table, beside our mom.
Just like Elaina, tension knotted in my shoulders, and my gaze kept bouncing between Neil and Elaina like a tennis match. A very silent tennis match.
Much to my contrary, though, Chloe was as relaxed as ever, and she smiled warmly at Neil. “Thanks so much for coming,” she said.
He gave her a nod and his smile, like mine, was tight. “Of course.”
“Right… well… we, uh, asked ourselves what’s the one most cliché thing people reach for after a breakup?”
“A dartboard?” Elaina asked, blinking innocently enough, but her smile was sadistic.
Neil snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Um… no.” I cleared my throat and crossed to Chloe’s freezer to pull out the next menu item.
“Ice cream!” Chloe exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “But we realized we couldn’t just serve ice cream, so we made chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.”
I grinned and passed out the ice cream sandwiches to everyone. “We made ice cream sandwiches?” As I passed by her, I poked her in the ribs playfully.
Chloe rolled her eyes and giggled, poking me right back. “Well, they were my idea.”
I laughed. “Sure, sure. Fair enough. I’m not about to go toe-to-toe with Chloe Dyker.”
“Damn straight!” she laughed.
From across the table, I saw Elaina’s eyes narrow on us, and I blinked, realizing how closely we were standing to each other. My body was angled toward Chloe and her shoulder was almost nestled against my chest.
I coughed and stepped back with a quick glance at Neil who was sitting back in his chair, his arms crossed protectively over his chest.
Elaina took a small nibble of her ice cream cookie sandwich and her nose scrunched with scrutiny. Chloe sent me a nervous glance before saying, “These will be a bit more expensive at $5.99 because it’s two cookies plus the ice cream center.”
While our parents and Addy and Finn nodded
in approval, eating their ice cream sandwiches, Elaina’s silence spoke louder than any words could.
“Is there… a problem?” Chloe asked her sister.
Elaina cleared her throat and shrugged. “Nope. It’s just not my cup of tea.”
To my left, Neil snorted, and I quickly spoke to cover up the sound. “Any thoughts on how I could improve the recipe?”
From the way Elaina glared at Neil from across the table, my attempt to cover up his snort did not go too well. “Maybe I just don’t like cookies that much.”
“I’ve seen you take down an entire tube of raw cookie dough in a single sitting,” Chloe snapped, folding her arms.
“Well, it’s no yogurt and almonds,” Neil said, referencing the simple lunch that Elaina ate almost every day. “Maybe if you used frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, she would like it.”
Elaina launched to her feet with such force that I thought for a second she was going to dive across the table and smack Neil... over freaking yogurt. “Maybe it’s okay that I have different preferences than other people. Maybe my sister respects my boundaries.”
Finn’s brows creased as he looked between them. “Your boundaries about… ice cream?” he asked.
“Yes,” both Neil and Elaina snapped at the same time.
“But maybe those boundaries you set for yourself are actually stifling the thing you really want,” Neil threw back at her.
“How do you know what I want? What if you’re just projecting what you want onto me?”
“You still talking about ice cream?” Addy prodded this time. Except she knew full well that her little question was tossing a single piece of raw meat into a lion’s den.
“Yes!” They both cried once more.
“Okay,” I said carefully. “We’ll take into consideration some sort of frozen yogurt dessert—”
“Don’t bother,” Elaina said. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work I need to finish up.”
“It’s seven-thirty in the evening—” Chloe started, but she was cut off by the sound of Elaina’s footsteps stomping upstairs to her bedroom.
“Me too,” Neil grunted, standing from his chair and heading to the door.
“But you just got here,” I called after him.
The only response was the front door slamming shut behind him.
“Well,” Chloe sighed, “that could have gone better.”
“Are you two done playing matchmaker?” Mom whispered.
“We weren’t,” I said.
Chloe sighed and flopped down into a chair at the table, reaching for a donut. “I’m not sorry,” she said. “They need to talk. If not to each other, then they need to talk to someone about what happened.”
Chloe’s dad stood and dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head. “That may be, pumpkin. But none of us can force that to happen.” He offered me a hand to shake, which I did as he kindly smiled at me. “You have some tasty products here. I think you two will do well.”
Her mom stood as well and after giving Chloe a hug, she hugged me. “In two days, this town won’t know how it survived before, without a food truck.” She winked and pinched Chloe’s chin before they, too, left.
God, I hoped she was right.
13
Chloe
I didn’t see Elaina at all the next day. Or the next evening, even though I had cooked us a squash casserole for dinner. I left her a plate covered with a note, and at around ten that evening, I heard her come home.
The next morning, I was up early. The coffee was made. I scrambled some eggs. Elaina came downstairs, dressed in her normal pant suit and sputtered to a brief stop, eyeing me carefully. “You’re up early. Doesn’t the truck open at lunch time?”
The flutter of excitement in my belly jolted, making me feel like I might throw up my coffee. “I couldn’t sleep,” I said calmly. “Nerves. Plus, Liam’s been up since three in the morning. The least I can do is help him load the truck up with the prepped food.” I slid a plate of scrambled eggs across the counter to Elaina.
She lifted a brow at the plate. “Breakfast this morning… casserole last night. You trying to butter me up?”
I shook my head no and poured myself more coffee. “Nope. Casseroles by their nature are pretty big, so I figured I’d share. And like I said this morning… nerves.” I cleared my throat and stirred my spatula into the eggs, breaking them up. “You were late coming home last night.”
“Yeah…” Elaina started, sounding uncharacteristically quiet. I glanced over my shoulder and poured my eggs onto a second plate, turning off the burner and joining her at the island counter. “… I, um, was meeting with a realtor and went to see a couple houses.”
My heart sputtered. “You’re moving out? But… you just got here?”
Elaina sighed and took a tiny bite of eggs. “I’ve been here a couple weeks and… I don’t know, Chloe. Maybe it’s time we get back to normal. Each have our own place. Hell, I haven’t ever even had a place that was entirely mine. It’ll be good for me. For us.”
“Is this about Liam?”
“No.” She answered too quickly, and based on the shifting movement of her eyes, she knew it. With a sigh, she added, “Okay, maybe a little. You two seemed… close yesterday.”
“Well, we are close. We’re opening a business together. And we’re friends. He was here for me the night Dan left me.”
With her eyes cast down, she refused to meet my eyes and instead pushed the eggs around her plate. “You promised me…”
My gaze narrowed and even though she didn’t finish the thought, I knew the promise she was referring to. The promise that I wouldn’t date Liam. “And I’ve kept that promise. Nothing’s happened between Liam and me.” Other than that one kiss the night things ended with Dan. But I reassured myself that that was before our pinky promise.
She held my gaze a moment longer, and I could see the wheels turning as she assessed whether or not I was telling the truth. Finally, she gave me a nod, her features relaxing. “Okay,” she said. “I trust you.”
“Have you talked to Neil at all since the breakup? … Other than last night’s disaster, I mean.”
She sighed and stood to put her plate of barely touched eggs in the sink. “Hardly. I tried calling him a couple of times when we first got back from the reality show. But I don’t even know what to say to him. He wants to get married and I’m just not ready for that yet.”
She shrugged and finished her coffee. With a sigh, I swallowed my words. My sister was a strong, sometimes obstinate woman. I had no doubt that she attempted to talk to Neil… but I also would bet a thousand dollars that her pride prevented her from laying out her feelings for him explicitly.
But I let the subject drop. I was pretty sure Elaina wouldn’t listen to me anyway. When it came to serious things, she rarely did. Hell, she rarely listened to me when I told her to wear her hair down instead of up. “So, you’re getting a house, huh?”
She smiled into her cup of coffee and nodded. “I’m really excited about it. I think I’ll have enough money left over for a down payment after I donate the amount needed for the healthcare outreach center.”
For months, Elaina has been trying to get this health center off the ground—which would change the lives of the people here in the Lakes Region in so many ways. But in order to get the project off the ground, the town needed a larger budget than they had the funds for… so, Elaina being Elaina, decided to make it happen by entering and winning that reality show contest with Neil so she could donate her half of the winnings.
“I’ll miss living with you,” I said, honestly. It was fun having my sister as a roommate again. “But I’m really excited for you.”
“And I’m really excited for you today, too. Even if I don’t always show it.” Elaina smiled, ever the more reserved sister between the two of us.
“Awwww,” I cooed and crossed over to her, my arms outstretched. “Prepare yourself for a sister hug!” She rolled her eyes but caught me as I launched myself
into her arms.
“Is this a good time to ask you to give me a ride to Beefcakes on your way to work?” I hugged her tighter, not letting her out of the embrace until she answered my question.
I felt the movement of her whole head as she rolled her eyes and nodded. “As long as I don’t have to go in.”
I pulled back from the hug, holding her at arm’s length. “You barely need to stop the car. Just slow down enough for me to do a badass commando roll. I’ll even let you give me a little push.”
Elaina snorted a laugh. “Well, now you’ve got a deal.”
We arrived at Beefcakes thirty minutes later, and there, parked out front, was our glorious food truck. I took a deep breath as Elaina slowed the car, and my heart thrummed heavily against my ribcage. What in the actual fuck did I think I was doing here? Instead of a salaried job with benefits and a 401k, I thought this would be my path?
Shit.
“Hey,” Elaina said softly, reading my mind. “It’s going to be great.”
I nodded, even though I didn’t quite believe her.
Just then, Finn shoved through the front door of Beefcakes, holding a tray of goodies with Liam following behind him, heading to the truck. “What do you mean we can’t afford to pay off Mom’s surgery in full? Didn’t Neil just win half a million dollars?”
“Finn, it’s complicated. The debt on the bakery was compounded by interest, and shockingly, five hundred thousand dollars doesn’t go that far after taxes.
“So… what? Mom doesn’t get the surgery she needs?”
“Of course she will. It’ll just take us a little longer to pay off the second mortgage. It’ll be okay. We’re still in a much better place than we were…”
Their words faded as they climbed into the truck and went out of earshot for us. I glanced over to find Elaina biting her bottom lip and I cringed. “I don’t think we were meant to hear that.”
“Clearly,” Elaina said with a sigh. “They’re right, though. The prize money is awesome and we’re both in a better position than we were, but it only goes so far. Especially knowing how in debt Neil’s mom was before her cancer treatments began.”
Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2) Page 10