“Are we willing to risk that?” Graham asked.
“I don’t know yet. But it’s really the only way to go if we want to do this.”
“Agreed. How long ’till you have that template in the computer? If we can get it set up this week, then we can try a small-scale test to make sure it’ll work like you want.”
“Oh, it’ll work. Even if I have to draw the damn template by hand,” she said.
“It’s gonna be a massive undertaking, Jack. Just because you’re stubborn it doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself to make it work.”
“No one remembers the ones that come easy.”
***
Graham should’ve known something was up when he walked into the kitchen to find Jack waiting on him with a cup of coffee. Her hair was down for a change and fell past her shoulders. Something about the light made her eyes look flecked with gold. He took the cup, gulped down half of it, and handed it back.
“So, I made some calls this morning and convinced Grace and Nick to come in later this week to talk about a slight tweak to their wedding cupcakes,” Jack said.
“What would that be?” he asked.
“Well, two things actually. First, I want to offer them the gardenia cups—”
“I haven’t tested the recipe yet, Jack.”
“I know, but I just have this feeling about it. I think Grace will adore them. I know whatever you make will be fantastic. And second,” she continued before Graham could interrupt again, “I want to make them a garden collage since they’re getting married in Fletcher Gardens. I’ve already got Harper working on a sketch.”
He should have seen this coming.
After her excitement last night, he knew she wouldn’t wait long to test the template. He ran his hands through his hair. “And you couldn’t have checked with me before you called her?”
“You would’ve said no.”
“You’re killing me here, Jaclyn. Now get out of my kitchen so I can make your damn cupcakes.” He nudged her when she didn’t move.
Pulling boxes and canisters from the metal shelf, he piled them on the table and set to work. He added ingredients for the traditional white chocolate batter and adjusted the mixer speed without thinking. Balancing the honey and gardenia would be the tricky part.
After he put the cupcakes in the oven, he started on the icing. Graham split a base of vanilla icing into four bowls. He varied the amounts of honey and flavored sugar in each sample. There was something familiar about the flowery scent. He inhaled, closing his eyes to better concentrate. The answer hovered at the edges of his mind, keeping just out of reach.
Jack’s sultry laugh pulled him back to reality.
“You okay up there?” he called.
She leaned around the doorjamb, smiling. “Never better,” she said. She watched him for a moment as if expecting some sort of reaction.
He remembered how she’d reacted in Market when he’d first smelled the sugar, and wondered what she sensed from it. “Wanna try the icing?”
“I’ll wait ’till the cups are ready. Get the full effect.”
“What effect would that be?”
Harper murmured something he couldn’t quite make out. But Graham thought she’d said, “Don’t you wish you knew.”
“I’ll let you know when they’re ready.”
Graham tested each of the icing batches. Then he covered the bowls in plastic wrap and waited for the cupcakes to finish baking.
An hour later, they’d narrowed down the choice to two. Graham and Harper voted for the more subtle flavor, while Jack went for the full-bodied one. Graham caught Harper roll her eyes at her sister and figured he must be missing some inside joke. Instead of asking about it, he said, “You’re not gonna give in on this, are you?”
“I just think we need some more opinions. And I’ve got someone we can call,” Jack said. She pulled the phone number for the guy who had wanted to ask her out the week before from the bulletin board.
At least it’s not programmed in her phone. Graham listened as she dialed, laughed at something the guy said, and invited him in for a “onetime offer.”
He imagined the ideas racing through the kid’s head. And then squeezed his eyes shut and mentally recited the ingredients in his most difficult recipe to block the images, which sprang to very vivid life, of Jack falling for this guy.
He started another recipe when Pete showed up not ten minutes later and reached across the counter to touch Jack’s hand. Graham stood so close to her that they were almost touching. She straightened, but didn’t move away.
“What is it?” Pete asked.
“Something you’ve been wanting for a while,” Jack said. She handed him one of the cupcakes.
“You didn’t.” His grin could’ve broken his face in half.
Graham wanted to punch him.
“No. Graham did. And they’re even better than I thought they’d be.”
“What did I do?” Graham asked.
Pete winked at Jack. “Made me a cupcake that tastes like Jaclyn smells.”
Graham clenched his jaw. “Did I?” He glanced at Jack but she stared at the counter.
Harper had assured him Jack wasn’t interested in Pete. He’d talked himself into believing it. And now here he was, making special-order cupcakes just so that Jack could fulfill some twisted fantasy. He would’ve gone into the back, but Jack shifted so their bodies connected at various points—heels, hips, shoulders.
Graham watched her as Pete took a bite. Breathing normal and mouth set in a half smile, she seemed unaffected.
Either Pete didn’t want her as much as he let on, or Jack was immune.
“Try the other one,” Graham said, nudging the plate closer to Pete. “It’s a little stronger.”
Pete shoved it in his mouth before Graham had finished the sentence.
Jack’s body softened against Graham. “So, what’s the verdict?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. I kinda thought I was just here to see how you reacted to them. Not really to tell you which one I liked better.”
“Sorry,” she said. She picked apart another cupcake and put the hunks on the plate. “Do you mind trying them both again?”
Graham had followed the same line of thinking as Pete. He remembered that Jack had mentioned wanting to try an experiment when they bought the sugar, and he wondered if she was learning to control her ability.
Pete ate them both and said, “I like the first one better, I guess. It’s not as overpowering.”
“Damn,” she said.
“Not the result you were looking for?” Graham asked.
“I got what I needed.” Jack scooted a few inches away from him.
His skin was hot where they’d been touching. He jammed his hands in his pockets to keep from pulling her back to him.
She leaned on the counter and continued, “I appreciate the help, Pete. Next cup’s on me.”
“Anytime,” he said.
Pete lingered for a few minutes chatting but Graham tuned him out. He watched Jack, trying to work out what she’d learned from the experiment. Her smile was friendly, her voice calm. There was no trace of the excitement he’d seen when she’d first tasted the icing.
He waited for Pete to leave before he did a test of his own. Taking the last bite of cupcake, he dunked it in the more potent icing so it dripped off in a gush, and popped it in his mouth. The flavor exploded on his tongue like a hot June night.
Jack was close enough that he could smell the flowers on her. He wondered how he hadn’t put it together before. It made his head light. He met her startled eyes and contemplated what she would do if he kissed her.
Everything he felt for her, everything he kept buried down below even the memories of the father he’d almost forgotten, came roaring to the surface: the way her hips swayed in the low-cut dress when they’d danced at Hutton’s wedding. The way her lips curved into a wicked grin when she could smell the cupcake flavor before he’d finished mentally adding ingre
dients to a new recipe. The way her perfume lingered in the kitchen whenever she left her sweater on the hook by the door.
The force of it made his lungs burn. With his eyes locked on hers, he took a step toward her.
She dug her fingers into the edge of the counter. “Stop, Graham, please. You know that’s not fair.”
He let the thought linger another few seconds before he stepped back and forced his mind clear. “You’re the one who wanted to experiment with the kid. Not my fault you didn’t think of the consequences,” he said.
“That’s all I think about,” she said, her voice a husky whisper.
Graham didn’t know what to make of that. But he was certain he’d crossed a line. He’d always been so careful with what he wanted around her, and in less than a minute he might have ruined everything. He said her name, no louder than a breath. He reached out to her, but she shook him off.
***
She’d been avoiding Graham for the better part of a week. The kitchen was permanently overheated and smelled like gardenias no matter what flavor he baked. No amount of air conditioning or open doors seemed to relieve the thick, stifled scent. Jack stayed up front, where the air was at least breathable.
Harper walked through the door, fanning herself with a clipboard. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but you better figure it out soon. If I have to smell those damn flowers one more day, I’m gonna throw up.”
“You can smell it?” Jack asked.
“I think the whole damn town can smell it.” She looked over her shoulder before continuing in a lowered voice, “Talk to him, Jack. Go on this delivery with him and don’t come back until you’ve worked it out.”
“I’m not sure either of us is ready to be alone with the other one yet.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?” Harper asked.
Before Jack could respond, Graham stuck his head through the door. A wave of heat pulsed off of him. She met his eyes for a second—just long enough to see a hint of longing before the wariness took over again.
“Harp, you ready?” he asked.
“Jack?” she asked.
“Just go. Please,” Jack said. She could practically see the tension pour from Graham’s body when Harper turned to follow him.
She let out a frustrated breath when they’d left the shop. An hour or so alone was just what she needed to get her emotions back in check. She looked up when the door opened, thinking for a moment that they’d come back to insist she go instead of Harper.
She told her stupid heart to settle down.
“Hey, y’all,” she said as Grace and Nick walked in.
Grace set her purse on a table and walked to the counter where Jack stood. “Oh, it smells wonderful in here. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see what you’ve come up with.”
Telling herself to snap out of it, she tried to muster up some enthusiasm. “I’m excited about it, too. Lemme grab your info and some samples and I’ll be right out. Help yourself to a bottle of water if you want.”
Jack pulled their clipboard from the wall and put two gardenia cupcakes on a plate. “I was thinking about what we could do to really make your wedding cake stand out,” she said when she walked out front again. “And I had this idea. It may be a little over the top, but I wanted to run it by you anyway. Just in case.”
“We’re definitely up for something a little out there,” Grace said.
“Great. So, I had my sister sketch something up.” Jack pulled the drawing from the clipboard. Harper had added color to it since the morning before. Smiling, she passed the paper to Grace. “Since you’re getting married in Fletcher Gardens, we came up with this collage of flowers. The colors and types of flowers can be customized to mimic how the garden will look in June.”
“It’s perfect. I mean, I liked the simplicity of the different colors in the first option you gave us, but this just blows that out of the water.” Grace’s hands shook the paper as she held it out for Nick to see.
“I thought you’d like it. And these, too.” Jack handed them each a full-sized gardenia cupcake. “They’re not on the menu yet. Might not ever be. But if you like them, we’ll make them for you.”
Grace’s moan of pleasure was all Jack needed. For the first time in days, she enjoyed the gardenia scent and the cool rush that came with it. Her skin tingled as the air conditioner blew from the vent above her. She couldn’t hold in the laugh.
“Did I do that out loud?” Grace asked.
“Can we get a couple of these to go?” Nick asked and winked at his fiancée.
“Sure,” Jack said. “I’ll give you the lot of them if you want.”
“You can do this flavor and the whole collage in the minis still, right? It’s not gonna be a huge wedding, as you know, so we don’t need a ton of cupcakes. But I really, really want this.” She swiped her finger in the icing and licked it off.
“I wouldn’t have shown them to you if we couldn’t do it the way you want.”
“You rock, Jack.” Grace glanced toward the back as if to make sure they were alone. “I know we never really got to know each other very well, which is my fault actually. I didn’t like y’all hanging out much ’cause I thought you were going to steal him away. Well, I guess it wouldn’t have been stealing so much as him wanting you bad enough to leave me for you. But what I’m trying to say is, you seem really cool and I’m sorry I never gave you a chance.”
Jack stared at her, replaying the words to make sure she’d heard right. The idea that Graham would’ve left Grace for her was laughable. “No worries,” she said for lack of anything better. “There’s no rule that says you have to be friends with your boyfriend’s friends.”
“True. But when that boyfriend is someone like Graham, or Nick”—she paused to kiss her fiancé’s cheek—“you can’t ignore the people he cares about if you hope to keep him around for the long haul.”
twelve
Jack was still thinking about what Grace had said when the Dispatch delivery guy came in with an armload of the new issue. He dumped them on the counter, eyed the display case, and left without a word.
Her hands shook as she tugged at the knot holding them together. It took a moment for the image on the cover to register. At first glance, it was a simple shot of Jack and Graham leaning on the counter, laughing at some joke she couldn’t recall. It was casual and unposed—exactly the type of scene customers would expect to see on any given day at Crumbs.
But as Jack looked closer, she noticed a trail of pastel sparkles, which led from a cupcake on the counter to her nose—superimposed onto the photo.
She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten. When she opened them, the scent trail was still there. If she didn’t know better, she’d have sworn the colors were getting brighter.
Her ability wasn’t a secret, but it wasn’t common knowledge, either. She replayed the interview in her head to see if she’d slipped up and mentioned it in passing. Nothing she could remember even hinted that there was more to her than she’d let on.
Jack flipped through the pages in a frenzy looking for the article. She found it two-thirds of the way through. The photographs showed off artful shots of the cupcakes, the storefront, and Graham whisking a bowl of orchid-pink icing.
The callout quote in large, block letters screamed at her.
Jaclyn can literally smell people’s desires.
She gripped the magazine so tight that the paper crinkled in her hands. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to start at the beginning.
It started off innocent enough. The writer covered the shop’s history and Graham’s pastry school experience, Jack’s transition from corporate life, and how they developed new flavors. Harper’s name made its first appearance halfway through the article.
Harper hadn’t been there for the interview, but Darcy had talked to her anyway.
Something at the back of Jack’s mind said Melanie had something to do with her sister being involved. She could see Mela
nie popping by the Dispatch office and gossiping about how Harper was the new driving force behind Crumbs. She skimmed the section about her sister until she got to the full quote that had been called out.
“Jaclyn can literally smell people’s desires,” Harper had said. “She can’t tell you who you’ve got a crush on, but if you’re craving a mint cupcake or shortbread cookies or hummingbird cake, she’ll know. And she’s never wrong.”
Jack read the quote three times. Her head felt heavy, and she steadied herself with one hand on the counter. Her sister had all but invited the entire tri-county area to come in and test her. She would either be bombarded with smells she didn’t want or everyone would be so freaked out by her that they’d go out of business within a week.
She set down the magazine without finishing the article.
She picked it back up within minutes and read it seven more times in the hour that followed, by which time the betrayal she felt at Harper’s public revelation had turned to full-fledged fury.
“Hey there, little sister,” Hutton said as he swung in the front door.
She grumbled a reply without looking up from the glossy pages. Her temples pounded. The ache crept along her skull and pulsed at the top of her neck. She massaged it with one hand while the other trailed a shaky path through the story.
“You okay?” he asked, rubbing a hand on her back in slow circles.
“The article came out today.” She waved the magazine around like a handful of limp noodles. The pages slapped against the air.
“Give it, give it.”
When he reached for it, she snatched it back. “It’s bad,” she said. Her throat burned with tears she refused to let fall. “With one stupid quote, she might have ruined everything.”
He crooked his fingers for the magazine. It caught him under the chin when she tossed it to him. “Jesus, Jack. Could you dial it down a little? I don’t really want to be decapitated because you’re pissed at some dippy magazine writer.”
Love and Cupcakes Page 15