by Diana Currie
Cupcake Love
By Diana Currie
Text copyright © 2016 Diana B. Currie
All Rights Reserved
This book is for Michael
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE:
CHAPTER 1: A FROSH START
CHAPTER 2: A NEW PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER 3: BOYS AND BARS
CHAPTER 4: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
CHAPTER 5: MOVING FORWARD
CHAPTER 6: HOSPITAL
CHAPTER 7: LITTLE FRAT OF HORRORS
CHAPTER 8: DINNER PLANS
CHAPTER 9: SUMMER LOVIN’
CHAPTER 10: INDEPEDENCE DAY
CHAPTER 11: SEPERATION ANXIETY
CHAPTER 12: IT WAS ALLY’S FAULT
CHAPTER 13: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
CHAPTER 14: FOOTBALL AND FRIENDS
CHAPTER 15: VACATION PLANS
CHAPTER 16: NEW FRIEND
CHAPTER 17: CONFRONTATIONS
CHAPTER 18: CHARITY CAR WASH
CHAPTER 19: AIDEN
CHAPTER 20: SEX AND STUDYING
CHAPTER 21: BUTTING HEADS
CHAPTER 22: MIXED FEELINGS
CHAPTER 23: WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR
CHAPTER 24: SUMMER SURPRISES
CHAPTER 25: THE BIRTH
CHAPTER 26: AIDEN’S NEWS
CHAPTER 27: HANNAH TIME
CHAPTER 28: MULTIPLE CONFESSIONS
CHAPTER 29: THE DATE
CHAPTER 30: REUNITING
CHAPTER 31: FEBRUARY FUN
CHAPTER 32: WEDDING PREPARATIONS
CHAPTER 33: THE BIG APPLE part 1
CHAPTER 34: THE BIG APPLE part 2
CHAPTER 35: SECRETS AND LIES
CHAPTER 36: THE SURPRISE
PROLOGUE:
I disagree when people say that teenagers are too young to experience real love. High school health teachers and guidance counselors use the word infatuation instead. I’ve heard the term schoolgirl crush plenty of times too. Well, I think that’s a bunch of nonsense. At sixteen years old I may not have been able to comprehend the kind of love it takes to stay married to someone for more than fifty years, or to remain faithful to a spouse for that length of time, but I was still in love. My feelings were real and in the context of my own life there was nothing for which I felt more strongly about than that love. For what I knew of the world it was true love, and it didn’t feel any less real to me just because I was young and naïve.
I was both those things of course; young and naïve. All teenagers are in varying degrees but I still knew what I wanted. Or rather who I wanted. What surprised me was that it would be a game of poker that would change the course of my life forever. No, I’m not a gambler or even a good bullshitter for that matter; I’m a college student at the University of Delaware. It wasn’t actually the poker game that turned my life upside down so much as the boy I played it with, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
My name is Hannah Sing and I moved to a little town called Pittsgrove, New Jersey to live with my father when I was fourteen. It was a real culture shock for me to transition from Baltimore, Maryland to Pittsgrove where life was much slower and everyone in town seemed to know my dad and me before I even arrived. Moving to Dullsgrove, as I quickly nicknamed my new home, would turn out to be the best decision I ever made. Some people would call it fate, other’s might claim it was God’s plan for me, but at the time I just thought that I got really, really lucky. That decision to move to Pittsgrove set in motion a long series of events that ultimately led to me playing poker with Shane that night. Pittsgrove was where we met and the ultimate love story of my life began; only I didn’t know it yet.
During my first summer in Pittsgrove I met Rachel, Jessa, and Andrea who made me feel welcome in the small town. I liked riding bikes, camping out in the back yard, and watching teen movies just like them. I never thought of myself as a tom boy but I was never a girly girl either. I could get along with anyone and I think that’s why I made new friends easily. In their little circle were a few guys named Mark, Tommy, Tyler, and Ethan. Of the boys, I always favored Ethan even though he teased me the most. He was a good buddy, like the older brother I always wished I’d had. I was quite certain the other boys had crushes on me. Now those were crushes, not the true love I was soon to discover; remember there’s a difference!
I wasn’t interested in dating much in high school. I felt awkward and unattractive most of my time in Pittsgrove as my body was growing and changing so quickly. I thought it made me different, but I learned later in life that almost all teenage girls felt just as uncomfortable and self-conscious as I did. Who knew! In addition to having typically low adolescent self-confidence I’ve also always been a klutz as Ethan likes to call it. That means if there’s an object on the floor within a two mile radius of me I’ll inevitably fall over it.
I might want to point out my good qualities too. I have an overactive conscious that prevented me from doing anything that might make my law enforcement father ashamed of me like smoking or underage drinking. I’m loyal to my friends and couldn’t lie to anyone even if I tried. My blushing cheeks always give me away; probably why I was terrible at poker. Sometimes I ramble but only in my own head. I’m a good student, a decent cook, and I keep my room tidy.
Moving to Pittsgrove also meant that I finally had my father back in my life which turned out to be a relationship I hadn’t known I desperately needed. His love and influence filled a void in me that had been growing the last couple years I spent in Baltimore with my mother who often times put her work ahead of her daughter. Having my dad and some good friends around me meant that life in New Jersey was looking pretty sweet. And then Shane Decker entered my life and everything got complicated.
I was sixteen and a sophomore when Shane’s family moved to town. All of Pittsgrove’s residents watched for six months while their house was being built in the woods and everyone was eager to see who was going to move into it. Shane’s father turned out to be a surgeon relocating to work at the nearby hospital and everyone was excited about their arrival. My father, the town’s sheriff, was especially fond of the new family. Colin and Elise Decker were warm hearted and refined. They dressed way too fashionable for rural south Jersey. Shane and his sister, Ally, were as well behaved and polite as teenagers came. The Decker’s were like the Cleaver’s of Pittsgrove; an attractive well rounded family with money and class. They were fascinating to me.
My attitude towards dating high school boys changed drastically after Shane moved to town. I spent two and a half years ogling him with my mouth hanging open like a darn cartoon character. From the first day I saw him I was infatuated with him. There’s that word again, but even I’ll admit that my feelings for Shane began as an infatuation. He was just so cute! Blue eyes, auburn hair, tall and athletic, and a friendly personality. I wasn’t the only girl who noticed this, which was the biggest problem I faced in my quest for his attention. Shane was a favorite among my female classmates. I couldn’t blame them. He was sweet, kind, and had the bone structure of a Greek god. The only person besides my mother who knew about my obsession with Shane Decker was Andrea. I tried my best to hide it from everyone in town but Andrea was my best friend and she saw right through me.
During my years in Pittsgrove I was surrounded by loving friends and family and was overall a happy person even without being able to claim Shane’s lips as mine. I was certainly not on his dating radar but he was my friend and I was thrilled just to have him in my life. Together with Rachel, Ethan, and the others we’d spend our weekends in Ocean City or taking trips into Philadelphia. The Decker’s had a big house, of course, and Ally liked to throw parties on the weekends. Elise would buy huge amounts of food and cook for all of us. For some reason she loved having the house full of kids.
She’s the one responsible for teaching me how to cook as well as I do, and how to expertly bake brownies and cupcakes from scratch. Elise wouldn’t be caught dead making a cake with a box mix.
Sometimes if Ethan wasn’t there, Shane would sneak away from the fun downstairs and hang out alone in his room. I noticed him one time on my way back from the bathroom, quietly reading on his bed. I waved from the doorway and he motioned for me to come in. We held a lot of common interests and from that night forward we’d hide out alone in his room while the others made virgin margaritas with Elise and danced to whatever pop hits were on the radio. I cherished that quiet time we spent together, though I was sure Shane just liked having a little company. We’d argue over music and literature. I liked the classics and he couldn’t understand their appeal. My favorite times were when he’d play his piano for me and I’d lie on his bed watching him stroke the keys with his beautiful fingers. A teenager’s bedroom is a very personal place and I relished the opportunity to be there in his room, feeling completely surrounded by Shane.
Senior year was probably the most difficult for me. You see, Shane started to date once he got a car. It was a gift for his eighteenth birthday. Did I mention his parents were loaded? I would spend many a night fantasizing about making out with him inside that black Pontiac Firebird he was so proud to own. He’d often pick me, Ethan, and Rachel up from our houses in the morning and drive us to school. I’d casually glance around the leather interior looking for any signs of a female presence; maybe an earring or a hair band left behind. There was never any evidence but it felt like torture knowing it must have been going on. Like I said, Shane was very popular with the girls.
Ally was a year younger than the rest of us but she started dating Rachel’s twin brother Jack that year, and Jessa went on a few dates with Mark. I didn’t even try to date since the only boy in the world I wanted to kiss was Shane. Tommy and Tyler fought over who’d take me to the prom. The only reason I agreed to go at all was to see Shane in a tuxedo. Even if I couldn’t dance with him or be his date at least I got to watch him. Ethan took Rachel, Andrea had started dating a classmate named Steve, and I settled on meeting up with both Tommy and Tyler as “friends.” I drove my old truck that night and met the boys at the dance. It was humiliating to me but no one else made a big deal of it. Prom really was fun even though I spent the duration of exactly one song on the dance floor. Two left feet, remember? Near the end of the night Shane approached me and asked me to dance. I’d questioned where his date was and he told me she could survive one song while he danced with his best friend. I remember the way he looked into my eyes and I knew he meant what he said. When the song was over he thanked me for the dance and kissed my cheek. It was the highlight of my high school career.
Graduation came before I knew it and we were all headed in different directions. It was sort of depressing to me, to think I’d spent so much time developing these relationships and now we were spreading out all over the country. I knew high school friends always swore to keep in touch but life too often gets in the way. I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing Shane again. I was determined to keep in touch with him and his sister if it killed me.
Jessa was accepted to the University of California, Andrea to Columbia, and I had chosen University of Delaware. Mark stayed in Pittsgrove to help run his parents’ auto repair shop and Tommy was enrolling at the community college. Jack was accepted to Stanford on a scholarship which tore little Ally’s heart to pieces, but they were determined to do the long distance thing. Ethan, Shane, and Rachel all had big plans for their futures as well. I felt like I was living in a teen soap opera that summer when one by one my friends’ plans changed and by the time September rolled around I was no longer the only one going to UD.
I hated the idea of a dorm room so thanks to Rachel’s last minute fears of leaving the East Coast, we were able to live together at UD. She found a cute little house right off campus to rent and we moved in a few weeks before the semester began. Apparently Ethan’s football scholarship at Penn State fell through or something, and Shane was vague about his reasons for his last minute decision to stay close to home. Ethan and Shane both signed up for student housing but were assigned to different dorms.
Regardless of how it happened, I now found myself back in a similar situation to the one I thought I’d left in Pittsgrove. I was again in close proximity to the man who unknowingly held my heart. I didn’t want Shane out of my life, in fact the thought liked to kill me, but I wasn’t sure having him on my campus was going to be good for my aching heart. If I was looking for a fresh start at college where I could move past my unrequited love for Shane it didn’t look like I was going to get that opportunity.
There we all were, in that vast holding pen for young adults they call college; my heart fluttering away at the thought of soon seeing Shane again.
CHAPTER 1: A FROSH START
College was a much different atmosphere than high school. We had freedom like never before, and class schedules that allowed us ample amounts of “hanging out” time. Rachel insisted we soak up the local college culture by attending lectures, parties, and club meetings. Freshman year began with a struggle for me to balance my studying with socializing but I was determined to succeed at both.
The first Saturday after classes officially started I woke up to voices coming from the kitchen. Rachel and I had gone to a Welcome Freshman party in the student center the night before. I’d left her on campus around one am when I just couldn’t take one more guy approaching me asking me about my major. I couldn’t tell who was downstairs so I tiptoed across the hall to the top of the stairs to listen, being careful not to be detected since I was still in my sweatpants and Pittsgrove High t-shirt. I could smell coffee brewing and the quiet conversation between two male voices.
At first I thought Rachel might have met some new friends after I’d left last night, so I turned around to go back to bed. Then, one of the males in my kitchen laughed. I’d know that sound anywhere; a deep hearty chuckle followed by a soft sighing. Shane was downstairs. He must be there with Ethan. I turned on my heels and ducked quickly into the second floor bathroom. I was afraid they'd leave before I made it downstairs but I had to do something about my appearance before I'd let either of them see me. I brushed my teeth furiously and pulled the comb through my long tangled brown hair. I splashed water on my face and rubbed a little lotion on my hands to disguise my lack of showering. After quickly trading in my sweatpants for jeans I flew down the stairs running smack into a wall of muscle.
Ethan lifted me up for a giant bear hug and then set me carefully down on both feet. I still wobbled a little from being jostled around like a rag doll.
“What’s up, Hannah? Where have you been?” Ethan asked clearly glad to see me.
“Sleeping, until you guys woke me up,” I said, mock punching his chest so he’d know I wasn’t actually angry.
He pretended to hit me back and then said, “No, dummy, I meant last night. I can’t believe we haven’t hung out since orientation day.”
“I was there last night, you must have just missed me,” I replied casually.
“Come on, I got a tasty treat for you in the kitchen,” he said winking at me. I immediately felt my face blush a rosy pink. In addition to blushing when I tried to tell white lies it also happened at the slightest feeling of embarrassment. He ushered me into the kitchen where I knew Shane must still be hiding. He was sitting at the little folding table, helping himself to seconds from a plate of donuts and Danish. Oh, the tasty treat is a donut. That makes more sense than…
“Morning, Hanny,” Shane greeted me. I smiled back and took a seat across from him.
“Would you like some coffee?” he offered, motioning with his hand towards the pot on the counter. It was so like Shane to be hospitable in someone else’s home. His mother raised him right.
“None for me thanks,” I said. “How are you?”
“Good. My professors seem knowledgeable and so far the
dorm is okay, but my roommate is a tool,” Shane said with a shrug of his shoulders.
I smiled. I could still feel the heat in my cheeks as I took in his appearance. It was obvious the guys had slept here the night before. Both were still dressed in their nice clothes and Shane’s auburn hair was less spiky than normal like it had been matted down by sleep. From my chair I could see into the living room where blankets and pillows were strewn about. I silently cursed myself for heading home when I did. I wondered what I’d missed out on by leaving the party early.
“So when did you meet up with Rachel last night?” I asked.
Ethan jumped in before Shane could respond and his eyes fell from me back down to his donut.
“She texted me, probably right after you ditched her, and we happened to be out so we met up in the student lounge,” Ethan explained.
“I didn’t ditch her,” I retorted. “It was one am and I couldn’t take any more creepy guys asking me the same cliché question over and over.”
Shane looked at me again and said in a husky voice, “Hey, Hannah, what’s your major?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I scowled at him and shook my head, trying to hide the fact that coming from him, that terrible pick up line would have worked wonders on me.
Ethan laughed and said, “You can’t be so hard on those poor boys, Hannah, or you’ll never get a date.”
“Excuse me,” I shot back, “who said I’m looking for dates?”
“Aren’t you?” Shane asked. “I mean, the college degree isn’t the only reason we’re all here, right?”
His question was good-humored enough, but it sent a shiver through me. I’d never given much thought to dating since I’d only ever wanted Shane. The idea of being with someone else just felt wrong. In the back of my mind I knew I should at least try but I'd never met anyone worth the effort besides him.
Ethan snickered at my silence and jokingly said, “Nah, I think Hannah actually is here for the higher learning.”