“He doesn’t scare that easily,” Harper said.
“I must not be trying hard enough.”
“Be nice, both of you,” Jack said. She grabbed the hem of her sister’s shirt and tugged as she walked away. “Harp, will you help me get plates and stuff?”
In the kitchen, Harper hissed, “Why’d you invite him?”
“Because I wanted to see him. And since I didn’t invite you, you don’t get to be mad about it.” Jack pulled plates from the cabinet and pointed to the paper towel dispenser.
Harper ripped them from the roll with quick, forceful tugs. “Sorry. We aren’t exactly getting along right now.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“Think he’ll ever forgive me?” Harper asked.
They looked at each other as the voices in the living room grew louder.
Harper’s jaw tensed. The forks she’d gotten out clattered to the counter.
“Don’t,” Jack said, picking up the silverware and stacking them on the plates. “Just give them a minute. Maybe calling each other names will help them both get over it.”
“But what if one of them takes a swing?”
“Graham’s out there. It’s fine.”
Mason’s voice boomed into the room. “What’s your problem, man? I’d think you’d want them to be happy, but you’re doing everything you can to keep them away from the two people who love them more than you.”
“Leave Graham out of this. He’s not in love with Jack,” Hutton said.
Jack imagined running into the room and clapping her hands over their mouths until they all shut up. She couldn’t move.
“From where I’m standing, those two are stupid in love with each other. They’re just scared of what you’ll do if they ever admit it,” Mason said.
“Graham?” Hutton asked.
Jack sucked in a breath. Leaning against the counter, she clutched the edge to keep her fingers from trembling.
“We’ve been fighting about her for months now. What do you think?” Graham asked.
“That’s not an answer,” her brother said.
“Jack is the most amazing girl I’ve ever met and has been as long as I’ve known her. I feel like shit for messing with her emotions, but I can’t seem to help it. I want to be with her all the time, and then I think, Nope, can’t piss off Hutton, so I back off. And I’m beginning to hate you for it.”
“Hate me all you want. Just stay the hell away from my sister. As for you and Harper,” he said to Mason, “you may love her, but I hate to break it to you, dude, she can’t love you that much because she hasn’t even told you she’s pregnant.”
The air turned to sludge. If anyone responded, Jack couldn’t tell through the thick haze of static that buzzed in her head. Still in the kitchen, her mouth dropped open, stunned, but no words of comfort escaped. She reached behind her for her sister’s hand and gripped hard. The front door opened and slammed shut with a deafening shudder. A few seconds later it sounded again.
Jack forced Harper into the living room. Hutton stood by the front door. She positioned herself between her siblings.
“How? How did you know?” Harper whispered.
Hutton threw up his hands. “You’re joking, right? I just watched my wife go through all of this. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” he snapped.
“Why’d you tell him?” she asked. Her voice sounded defeated, half dead.
Jack expected Harper to yell or throw a punch, but her lack of emotion pushed Jack’s anger up a notch. Clenching her jaw, she waited for her brother’s response.
“He needed to know he’s gonna be a dad,” Hutton said.
“It wasn’t your place to tell him,” Jack said. “I’m taking her home, and you damn well better be out of my house when I get back.” Putting her arm around Harper’s waist, she guided her sister out.
Once in the car, Jack glanced at her sister. Harper was limp in the seat, her head resting against the window. Jack tapped her foot against the floorboard. The longer the silence wore on, the faster her foot went.
Harper had yet to say a word by the time they arrived at the apartment. Her breathing was steady and calm. It was like her personality had been wiped clean and she was merely waiting for a new one to be imprinted.
Jack checked the parking lot for Mason’s car. Graham’s bike was chained to the rack, but there was no trace of her brother-in-law. She wasn’t sure Harper could talk to Mason in her current state anyway.
Graham was in the kitchen, elbow-deep in one of the larger mixing bowls when they shuffled in. He glanced up, frustration coating his flushed face like a fine layer of flour. His eyes were dark, unreadable. He didn’t smile.
She locked eyes with him and the punch of longing hit like wrecking ball. Not knowing if what he said to her brother was true or just a knee-jerk reaction, she turned away.
Guiding Harper through the shop and upstairs was more difficult than she had anticipated. Though her sister moved, her feet were sluggish and clumsy. They stumbled twice in the dim room. They went up side by side, arms clutching each other’s backs. Jack bolted the door behind her.
nineteen
Graham awoke to a steady pounding on his apartment door. The light peeking in through a slit in the blinds was still soft. It couldn’t be much past seven. He stumbled from bed, pulled on a pair of jeans without bothering to fasten the top button, and opened the door.
Hutton’s raised fist was just about eye level.
In his half-asleep state, he reacted without thinking, shoving his friend back a full step.
“I was just knocking. Chill out,” Hutton said.
As the scene from the night before replayed in his mind, he balled his fists and shoved them in his pockets.
“Unless you’re here to tell me that you’ve been groveling at your sisters’ feet for so long that your knees resemble ground beef, I don’t want to hear a thing you have to say,” Graham growled.
“Oh, get off your high horse. I feel bad enough as it is. I don’t need you jumping down my throat, too.”
When Hutton tried to push past him into the apartment, Graham shifted to take up most of the entryway. Crossing his arms, he leaned on the door frame. “I’m serious, Hutt. You’ve been a first-class asshole lately. If you haven’t apologized to both of them for what you said last night, go the fuck away.”
“If this is about Jack, you’ll get over it.”
Graham’s muscles tensed. He pulled his hands from his pockets and flexed his fingers. The fact that this was his oldest friend was the only thing keeping him from plowing his fist into Hutton’s face. He wondered if Hutton would even notice the restraint.
“You just don’t get it. This isn’t about me. Or how I feel about Jack. It’s about how little regard you have for anyone else’s feelings. If something’s not good for you, then it can’t possibly be good for anyone else. But you know what? Mason’s a damn good guy who loves Harper enough to give up everything he had to make her happy. And what you did last night may have ruined any chance they had of making things work. As for my relationship with Jack, you no longer have a say. I never should have let you in the first place. Jack and I are none of your goddamn business.”
“You’re pissed. I get it. But do you really expect me to believe you have a thing for her?”
“I have a fucking ulcer from the stress of wanting her so badly and knowing I can’t have her. Some days all I need is to see her to have a good day. It was that way even when we were kids. So don’t you dare stand there and ask me if what I feel for her is real.”
He tried to shut the door, but Hutton was faster.
His foot caught the edge, flinging it back open. He followed Graham inside. “Are you telling me that you’re so pathetic that you’ve been drooling over her this whole time?”
“I may be pathetic, but at least I might deserve to have her love me. You don’t even have that.”
Hutton lunged. Graham sidestepped him and latched onto his arm to turn him
back around so they were facing each other. “I took it from you last time because I stupidly felt I deserved it. Now it just feels like I owe you.”
He landed a punch deep in Hutton’s gut. His bones stung from the impact. He shook his hand to entice feeling to return and examined it for broken bones. Distracted, he didn’t notice Hutton until he was within striking distance. A hard fist connected with Graham’s right cheek. A knuckle pressed sharply into his eye. The pain exploded in his head, disorienting him. He staggered a step back and reached a shaky hand out to the wall to regain his balance.
He barreled into Hutton, knocking them both off their feet. They crashed to the floor. The tables rattled and the TV shook. They lay splayed on the floor, inches apart. Neither attempted to get up and continue fighting.
Breathing heavy, Hutton said, “Did it ever occur to you that she could be your one, but you’re just too blinded by her to see it?”
Graham let his head roll to the side. His face throbbed, but the floor was cool against his bruised skin. It took a few seconds for Hutton to come into focus.
Hutton cracked a smile. “You better be good to her.”
“I will,” Graham promised.
Hutton flung out an arm and whacked him across the chest. “Feel better?”
“A little. You?” Graham asked. He pulled himself into a sitting position and dabbed at his eye. He winced and immediately regretted it as the pain shot through his head. He pressed his hand over his eyes as if they might be forced out from the intense pressure.
“I would, except I know I have to deal with my sisters and they won’t be as easy on me.”
“You think I was easy on you? ’Cause I can keep going.”
“I think you ruptured my spleen. I won’t be able to eat for a week,” Hutton said. His words were punctuated with bursts of heavy breaths. “But Jack and Harp might eat me alive. Not that I don’t deserve it, but I’d rather them beat the crap out of me than make me feel lower than dirt. I know I was a schmuck. And I’ll take whatever they throw at me, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“You could always do a preemptive strike and apologize first. That might make it a little easier,” Graham told him.
Hutton had yet to get up. His eyes were closed and he had a hand resting on his stomach. “That’s good in theory, but if I don’t have the best apology in the history of apologies I’ll be dead in the water.”
“You better think of something quick. I don’t know how long they’ll wait to come after you.”
They lapsed into silence waiting for their breathing to even out. Graham recovered first, but stayed where he was to ensure he hadn’t seriously injured his friend. After ten minutes, he stood and pulled Hutton to his feet.
***
No one had heard from Mason since he’d left her house the night before. Jack had driven around town, hoping to see his car somewhere and force him back to the apartment to work things out with Harper. After an hour, Jack had to accept that he’d left Sugar altogether. Maybe for good.
When she got to work the next morning, Harper was scrubbing the baseboards with a ratty rag. Jack couldn’t smell the cupcakes over the disinfectant.
“Hey,” Jack said. She opened the door to let the breeze transfuse the air in the shop. “How long’ve you been at this?”
“A while. It looks good though, doesn’t it?” Harper said.
Every surface sparkled. Even the chairs had been polished. “Yeah. Do you want to take a break for a couple minutes? I have coffee and donuts.” She shook the brown paper bag. It crackled as it danced to and fro.
Harper relented and sat on a stool next to her. She picked at the donut Jack put in front of her.
“Has he called?” she asked.
“Has Graham?” Harper retorted, but there was no heat behind the remark, just sadness, which made her voice husky and slow.
“No, but I know where he’ll be today. If I want to talk with him I can. Makes your situation more dire than mine.” Jack licked flakes of icing from her fingers.
“He’s not coming back.”
Harper’s tone was so resigned that Jack knew she was right.
Without the steady diversion of cleaning, Harper’s expression had gone flat. Her eyes were dull, her cheeks pale. Jack imagined punching Hutton in the face for causing her sister’s sadness. She could almost feel the strong set of his jaw against her tender knuckles. The scrape of his stubble. Then she promptly dismissed it. She could never hurt him on purpose. But she was far from forgiving him.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and get cleaned up? You can take the day off if you want.”
“I’m fine, Jack.”
“My shop looks cleaner than the day we opened. You are anything but fine.”
“Leave it alone. Please,” she begged.
Jack held up her hands in defeat. “All right.”
She left her sister at the table staring at the crumbles of donut she refused to eat. The back was quiet as she entered the walk-in cooler. The rush of cold air sent a shiver up her arms. Harper had already decorated dozens of cupcakes Graham made the day before. The icing colors were muted, dimmed as if the vibrant hues had leached out into the cool air when no one was looking. The normally tall and perky peaks of icing now curled back in on themselves. And despite the temperature, some of the swirls of chocolate ganache and cream cheese sagged and drooped over the sides of the wrappers.
Snatching one of the worst from the tray, she sniffed it, half expecting whatever was decimating the appearance to have turned the flavor rancid. The chocolate mint was sweet and light as always. She took a tentative bite. She sighed when the minty icing hit her tongue.
“Hey, Harp,” she called. She walked back up front, cupcake held up for her sister to see. “Have you seen what happened to the cupcakes?”
Harper dragged her hands through her hair, not looking up. The pink streaks were fading, making the blond look dingy. “They look terrible, I know. I did everything the way I always do, but they just kept getting worse. That’s when I switched to cleaning. At least that I couldn’t screw up.”
Jack squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was hoping it would fix itself.”
“It doesn’t work that way, Harp. Not with this. And not with Mason, either. You have to do something.”
“I know. I promise I’ll be better before I even get near the Twilight cups. I won’t mess that up for you. I won’t.”
***
When Graham came in a half hour later, his flat good morning made her want to scream. When he turned toward her, his eye was swollen shut and the skin around it was dark and puffy. He shrugged as she gawked at him. Then he winced.
Her hands itched to comfort him, to press lightly on the growing purple-and-red bruise and wipe it away. Instead, she grabbed a pastry bag off the drying rack, added one ice cube at a time to help her calm down, and pressed it to his face. She couldn’t stop her hand from shaking.
He placed his hand over hers.
“Hutton?” she asked. Her voice was rough, chalky. She cleared her throat and she waited for a response.
“Yeah.”
She slipped her hand from his. “Please tell me he looks worse.”
“Sorry. I had visions of him going home all mangled and bruised and Aria going into premature labor. I didn’t want to be responsible for that. So I kept my blows off his face. His stomach is probably all kinds of purple right now.”
“But he’s having a bad day?”
“Definitely,” he said.
“Good. I’m about to make it worse,” she said. And left him standing in the kitchen, staring after her.
She drove straight to Hutton’s, hands strangling the wheel. Instead of the road, all she could see was the blank stare in her sister’s eyes and the bruise that crawled up Graham’s face. The music was so loud her ears rang when she turned the car off.
She laid on the horn as she got out of the car then slamm
ed the door. It was shrill and had her anger sprinting toward violence by the time Hutton stepped onto the porch, a smile creeping at the edges of his mouth.
She flexed her hands so she didn’t smack the look right off his face. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you better get it together.”
“Well, hello to you, too, Jaclyn.”
“Never mind what you said about me, though I’m pretty pissed and you can bet your ass we’ll have it out here soon over that, but what you did to Harper was unforgivable. Lucky for you, she adores you. So she’ll get over it eventually. But you don’t deserve it.”
Jack shoved past him into his living room. She turned and glared at him when he didn’t try to stop her and noticed her sister-in-law lounging in a rocker. Not wanting to berate Hutton in front of his wife, she motioned for them to go back outside.
“Oh, don’t worry, he’s been getting the same lecture from me for the past hour,” Aria said. Her small, round frame vibrated with anger. She laid her hands protectively over her swollen belly as if putting ear muffs on the baby. “It took him until then to fill me in on what went down last night. But believe me, he’s going to make it up to them. And to you.”
Hutton sank into the couch and let his head fall back so that he stared at the ceiling. “Don’t you both think I feel like shit for what I said? I hadn’t planned on telling him; he pushed and I snapped. I screwed up.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples hard enough to turn the skin red.
“Screwed up is missing Mama’s birthday. Or arriving two hours late to an important meeting. It is not breaking your sister’s heart and ruining her marriage,” Jack seethed. She stalked around the room. Pictures of the three of them lined the mantel and clung to the walls. They were making silly faces or laughing too hard to smile normally in more than half of them. She turned her back on the reminders of happier times.
Love and Cupcakes Page 25