Maybe that flare-up of interest yesterday hadn’t been as strong as I’d thought.
A lump of disappointment stuck in my throat, and I felt hot tears sting the corners of my eyes. I blinked and practically ran to the bathroom, slamming a stall door shut behind me. I dropped the toilet lid down and plunked on the seat with a heavy sigh.
Two days left, today and tomorrow. I needed to kick things into high gear if I was going to make Oliver see me in a new light and, hopefully, win his heart. This despondency weighing on my heart wasn’t going to help me. I sniffled and grabbed a few squares of toilet paper to blow my nose.
No self-pity right now. I had given myself the weekend to make this plan happen. Yeah, he hadn’t acted differently around me yet. But why should he? We’d been in work mode so far, and Oliver was nothing if not dedicated to the bakery. I just needed more encounters with him today. And tonight, at the dance, I’d get my best chance to wow him.
Tonight I would give it everything I had. All on the line.
It had to work.
I stood and slipped out of the stall to check my reflection in the mirror. After cleaning up my face and making sure my eye makeup was okay, I left the bathroom. People were waiting on me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let them down.
I straightened my spine, grabbed a fresh bottle of syrup, and headed back in the room. I just needed to talk to Sami was all. She’d help me. I’d call her after the Pancake Breakfast.
It took everything I had to not look over at Oliver. After a little bit, I gave in to the temptation and glanced at his table.
Kennedy was still over there, but he was talking to Bree now. No sign of Oliver around. He’d left without saying a word to me.
My heart throbbed with a deep, painful hurt, and I rubbed a hand over it—like that was going to make it better. Sometimes it was so hard to stay positive when all I wanted to do was give in to the urge to cry.
After my shift, I cleaned up and exited Village Hall. I leaned against the building’s freezing brick. The air whipped around my face, but I drew it in, let the stinging cold clear my head.
With fumbling, chilled fingers, I dialed Sami’s number. She picked up quickly. “Sami,” I said into my cell. “I need help. My big plan isn’t going well, and…I don’t know what to do.” And I was running out of time, and panic was going to swallow me whole, and—
“Hey, it’s okay,” she soothed. I heard some noise in the background. She covered the phone and whispered something. “Sorry,” she said to me in a low tone, “Oliver’s being annoying today.”
“I don’t think my plan is working so far.” I exhaled, watched my breath fog and dissipate into the air. It was sunny out, but deceptively so—the sunshine didn’t penetrate the morning chill, especially when the wind was blowing. January in Ohio could be brutal.
“We just need to throw you guys together more,” she declared.
“That’s what I was thinking, too. Except I’m going to be stuck in the bakery for most of the afternoon.” I was going to miss one of my favorite events, the Winterfest parade. The band led a small parade through the town square; it was always a packed event.
“Why? When does your shift start?”
“Three thirty. But Oliver won’t be here then. He’s getting your family’s float ready for the Winterfest parade at four, which I’m gonna have to miss seeing this year.” I bit back a sigh.
There was a brief pause. Then she said, “Maya, I’ll work your shift. Go to the parade.”
“What? But I can’t skip out of work at the bakery! And you can’t stay there! You have to be on the float with—”
“It has been my fantasy to have a good reason not to get on that damn float, even for just one Winterfest in my life. I would pay money not to have to be the Cupcake Princess. And wear that itchy costume. And toss out rock-hard candy to kids for an hour in the freezing cold. I don’t want to do it.” Sami’s voice was resolute. “And you’ve just given me an excellent reason not to.”
God, I was so tempted. But that didn’t mean everyone else would be on board with the sudden change in plans. “But your parents. And your brother. They’re counting on you, Sami. You’ve always been the Cupcake Princess. If you don’t go today, there won’t be one.”
“Sure there will.” Another lengthy pause.
Dude. No way—she wasn’t suggesting what I thought she was suggesting. “Sami,” I hissed, “I cannot be the Cupcake Princess.” Was she out of her damn mind? Me, in the Abbott costume, dolled up and sitting beside… Oh, God, right beside Oliver. My heart skipped a couple of beats.
“Oh, yes, you can, girlfriend. The costume, in all its kitschy glory, is hanging in the living room as we speak, just waiting for you to slip it on. Please.” Her voice took on a pleading tone. “You will be making a dream of mine come true. And my dopey brother will have no choice but to pay attention to you. He is, after all, the one and only Cupcake Prince.”
A nervous giggle slipped out of my mouth. I just didn’t even know what to think. Me. The Cupcake Princess. My heart gave a tiny nervous twitch. “You know that seeing Oliver in his costume was always my favorite part of the whole parade.”
“Yeah, I do know. So, you’ll do it?”
“Well, um, I guess if you really don’t want to do it yourself and—”
“I don’t!” I heard loud voices in the background. “Hey, look, Maya, we’ve got a bunch of customers. I’ve gotta go.”
“But you didn’t tell me about that hot dark-haired guy with the leather jacket!” I cried. “Alex of the smirky lips and the multiple loop earrings. You promised.”
I could practically hear the tension crackling on her end of the line “It’s, um, complicated,” she finally said.
Complicated? Seriously? She was not pawning that crap off on me. As her friend, I required all the dirty details. “Sami. A rocker guy shows up from out of town, calling you Amanda, practically inciting a riot at your family’s Bake Sale booth the second your brother takes one look at him… Of course it’s complicated. Start explaining!”
I heard a deep, resonating exhale. “You know you’re the only person in Abbott Springs I truly confide in, right?”
Duh. We’d been each other’s confidants for years. “Yeah. So?”
“So, when I’m able to make any sense at all out of my not-quite-relationship with Alex, I’ll tell you. I will. But for now, it’s as much of a mystery to me as it is to anybody else.”
Crap. I could tell she was itching to get off the line, and there would be no prying info out of her until she was ready. “Okay, fine. We’ll talk about it later. But I’m not letting this go forever, okay?”
“Thank you,” she said, relief pouring into her voice.
We hung up. I stared at my phone in disbelief at what had just happened. I had to admit, Sami was devilishly clever. The plan could work—Oliver and I would be sitting on the float together, oh-so close. He’d be in a good mood, and perhaps I’d get another chance to flash some cleavage at him. Make him more sexually aware of me.
I was tired of being friend-zoned. I’d give Oliver a taste of the real Maya at the parade. And then tonight, at the dance, I’d knock his socks off.
My stomach fluttered with excitement.
This had to work.
Oliver
“Where the hell is Kennedy?” the mayor hollered to his wife from the car in front of me as he kept a fake smile plastered on his face. We were all lined up in parade formation, with our huge pastry float right behind the mayor’s auto; the high school marching band shifted in place, blowing into their hands to keep warm. “He’s supposed to be here by now. The parade launches in a couple of minutes.”
I groaned. Kennedy had been acting a bit off at breakfast today, but I’d never guessed he’d bail on the parade. He had to know how pissed his dad was going to be at him. What was he thinking?
And speaking of missing, where was Sami?
I settled into the front bench seat, anger coursing through my
blood. Shoulda known she’d skip too. Leaving me here handling the family business. Again. This shit was getting so old.
A fluffy purple dress hopped into the seat beside me. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry I’m late,” Maya declared as she straightened the huge plastic crown on her perfect brown curls. “I wasn’t sure this dress was gonna fit—your sister’s a bit smaller than I am. And I got caught up in getting ready. Time just slipped away from me.”
I blinked in surprise as I stared at her face. “Where’s Sami? Why are you…”
Maya rubbed a white-gloved hand on her stomach and gave me a shaky smile. “She’s manning the bakery and asked me to work the float with you. I hope that’s okay.” She shot a glance to the front of the parade line. “Why haven’t we started yet? I thought I was going to have to run after you guys or something.”
Leave it to Sami to sucker someone else into taking her place—and not only that, attempt some kind of a heavy-handed matchmaking scheme to force me to spend time with Maya. Unreal. Oh, sis was gonna get an earful later about this.
Then Maya smoothed her hand up and over her bodice, the action snapping me out of my anger and drawing my gaze.
Holy crap. Maya’s breasts, powdered with sparkling glitter evident through the thin layer of mesh over her chest, almost spilled out of the top, and my crotch twitched in an involuntary response to the shock of luscious curves. On Maya, the purple Cupcake Princess gown didn’t look wholesome and innocent. It clung to her figure, emphasizing her small waist and high breasts.
God, this was so wrong.
My sister’s words about Maya’s feelings for me slammed right to the forefront of my mind, and I dragged my pervy eyeballs away from her. Every cell in my body throbbed with a strange, heated discomfort, despite the chill in the air.
“We’re starting in a minute!” someone from the front of the parade line yelled. “We’re not going to keep waiting, so get ready, everyone!”
I turned my attention to the bag of candy at my feet. Candy. Yes. I could do this. I could just sit here on this bench, throwing treats to the kids on the parade route as I smiled and waved. Same experience as every damn year.
Maya shifted and her knee rubbed against mine. No, not the same experience. Awkward and different and…I wasn’t even sure I had words to articulate the confusion of emotions in me right now.
What the hell should I say to her? I’d barely had time to wrap my brain around Sami’s speech. Had stayed up long into the night last night, staring at my ceiling. Replaying the words in my head.
Maya loved me.
Maya loved me, and I honestly had no clue what to think or feel about it.
She elbowed me in the side. “Hey, you gonna share that candy or just flaunt it in front of everyone? I should help hand some out too, yes?”
My limbs were stilted as I shifted the bag closer to her. “Um. Yeah. Sure.”
“You okay?” When I peeked at her face, I saw that her brow was knitted.
No. No, I wasn’t okay. Because all I could think about was her now, and it was freaking. Me. Out.
Finally the parade whistle blew, kicking off the official start. Our float trudged forward, thanks to the driver hidden in the back. A round of cheers exploded in front of us as we followed behind the band and the mayor’s car. The movement provided a decent distraction; I gave Maya an incoherent mumble in answer and started grabbing candy in my gloved fists. Luckily our costumes and gloves were lined with thick, warm material, so the brisk breezes wouldn’t be too bad to handle.
“Hey, Cupcake Prince!” a guy named Craig hollered from the front of the sideline. Ugh, he was kind of a tool, but no one in our group could get rid of him. I rolled my eyes at his smarmy face, his waggling eyebrows. “Where’s my candy?”
I pelted a handful at his face and laughed as kids scrambled to capture the falling pieces. “Happy Winterfest!”
There was a soft sound beside me. I glanced over at Maya, who stared at the whole scene around us with a rapturous look on her face. She turned to face me, her eyes wide and bright, cheeks flushed pink, lips slightly parted. My heart gave an irregular thud in response.
Maya was really pretty.
How had I not realized before how pretty she was?
“This. Is. Amazing,” she proclaimed, a wide smile creeping across her face. She scooped a handful of candy out and tossed a few pieces into the crowd. The kids clapped and screamed in glee. “You know, I’ve always loved watching your family’s float every year. Your sister looks beautiful in this dress.” She threw a couple more pieces out. “And you—” The words ground to a halt, and she bit her lower lip.
“And I what?” I urged. Without paying much attention, I flung a few pieces of candy to the crowd. For some reason, I needed to hear what she was going to say.
“And you always looked so perfect.” A complex emotion flickered over her face, and she straightened her back. The wide smile was on her face again. “I’m just happy to be a part of it this year.”
Huh. Funny how different she was from my sis. Sami hated it. Hated all the fuss over the parade, the costume, the cold weather. But Maya loved it, ate it up. She waved at little girls, who beamed at her and waved hard in response.
“You’re really good with people,” I said. Wow, duh—could I sound any dumber? Like she wasn’t aware of that about herself already. But I didn’t know how to act around her now, what to say. The easy, familiar relationship we used to have was no longer here. Instead, the silence of things unspoken filled the spaces between us.
I knew how she felt about me, yet she didn’t know that I knew. And my stomach wouldn’t let me forget it for one damned second.
Maya gave me a crooked grin, and something in my chest softened at the innocence of her expression. She leaned forward and whispered, “Just between us, I was afraid they’d boo me. Since I’m not your sister and all, I mean.” There was a momentary flicker of vulnerability in her eyes that made me swallow.
Always eager to please others and so afraid of rejection, Maya gave everything to everyone—yet she never fully realized how much the town loved her for her generosity. “No one would ever do that to you,” I replied with more heat than I’d meant to.
She drew in a deep breath, which caused her breasts to rise. Against my will I found my eyes drawn back to the soft swells. My throat tightened.
“Oliver,” she said in a throaty whisper, and I dragged my attention to the spark in her warm eyes.
“What?” Something about the tone of her voice slammed me in the solar plexus, and I realized I was leaning very, very close to her. Dragging the fruity scent of her shampoo into my lungs.
“We’re not handing out any candy.” Her lips parted in an amused smile, and I swallowed. Fought a strange urge to brush my mouth across hers. See if that pink gloss tasted as sweet as it looked.
What the hell was happening to me? Now that I knew about her feelings, had heard my sister’s warning about it, I couldn’t seem to get my head in the right space again. Focus on work, I ordered myself. Now was not the time to get caught up in this. But my close proximity to her was mixing me up. Making me notice things I’d never noticed before.
Stirring parts of my body that hadn’t been aware of Maya until yesterday.
I grabbed some candy and shifted so I wasn’t quite as close, turning my focus to tossing pieces to my side of the street. We sat in silence for a few minutes as we waved and threw more candy. People clapped, laughed, talked. The marching band music wafted back to us, clashing cymbals and bleating trumpets.
But I couldn’t stop being aware of the sensation of her hip pressed against mine, despite the layers of skirt fabric. Every minor bump in the road sent us rocking, and she would brush a hand along my thigh, my arm, my knee to steady herself.
A distraction. I needed something to tear my mind away from these dangerous thoughts.
Desperation made me blurt out, “Whoever finds the person with the weirdest winter outfit on wins.” Yeah, resurrecting
a version of an old game we’d played back in high school was probably lame, but it was the best I had right now.
Her eyes narrowed in mock determination, and she eyed me. “You’re on, buddy. Prepare for devastating defeat.”
I grasped the moment and forced my attention to the crowd, handing out candy with renewed vigor. “On my left, there’s a man with three pairs of fuzzy antler headbands on.”
Her smile widened as she eyed the forty-something male who was most likely single and would be for life, and she whispered, “That’s messed up. His head must be huge to fit all of those on there.” She leaned toward me and gave a perfectly royal wave at the crowd on my side—also giving me a perfectly wicked shot down her cleavage.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was doing this on purpose. The touches, the boobs, the flirty smile. But her smile was bright and sweet as she grinned at the kids on the sidelines.
Then she leaned even closer and whispered, “Look at the woman dressed head to toe in snowflakes. Top that, sucka.”
I swallowed and tore my attention away from the strange temptation of Maya’s mouth so near my ear that her breath warmed my skin. Peered at the woman in white, with snowflake hat and gloves, coat, and pants. She’d even painted two big snowflakes on her cheeks. Damn, that was gonna be hard to beat. “I guess she just really, really loves winter.”
“Who doesn’t?” Maya retorted. She leaned back and gave me a victorious smirk.
I huffed in mock determination and eyed the crowd, scanning both sides. Someone had to beat snowflake-lady. Then I landed on the winning candidates just up the way on Maya’s side and gave the duo a hearty wave. “Aaaaand I do believe I have won,” I declared with a slight nod of my head in their direction.
Maya looked over and breathed “Dammit” when she finally saw the couple. They were spectacular, clad in matching red-and-white-striped one-piece snowsuits paired with a set of blue gloves and hats. Their chests were covered in dozens of American flag pins as well, just in case people didn’t get the point. “Now those people love America. Well, I guess you are the winner. What is your prize?”
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