AllFreeNovel
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“You tell me,” I say, wondering how we made it through a meal last night without the boys mentioning a woman in their lives. Usually, they’re incredibly quick to share if they start dating someone new.
He shakes his head. “Not my place to speak about.”
I take a deep breath. “You’re the one who brought her up. Tell me what you know.”
He stands. “No.”
“What’s her name?”
He shakes his head.
“Is she local?”
He shrugs.
“Walker,” I growl in warning.
“Have you and Cash finally stopped circling around each other?”
“Did you want a single or a six-pack today?”
He chuckles, knowing full well that’s the quickest way to shut down any conversation he doesn’t want to have with me.
Unlike Cash, Walker was my brothers’ friend first, so I can see him as just another one of the guys. I can rely on him like I could Ronnie or Donnie.
The difference is, Cash was my friend first and, as well as he and the boys get along, at the end of the day, he’s my friend, not theirs. It makes it difficult for me to put him into that category,although I’ve tried so many times because it would make things clearer in my head.
“I want to say a single, but I know I’m going to have serious FOMO the second it’s gone. Let’s do a six-pack.”
“Preferences?”
“Surprise me,” he says. I fight the urge to give him the ugliest cupcakes I have, which isn’t that horrible, considering I take the ugly ones and turn them into cake pops before I even fill the display case.
It’s honestly hateful of the guy to bring up a woman I know nothing about and then shut down the topic of conversation, but the man owes me nothing. His loyalty is to my brothers.
That kind part of me that wants everyone to see me in a good light won’t even let me pick one of the cookies and cream cupcakes because I know he doesn’t like that flavor.
I give him three creamsicle cupcakes because they’re his favorite, a buttered pecan, and two key lime cupcakes because that’s always his second pick when we run out of his top one.
I carry the box to the counter, grinning down at the new logo. The scalloped circle is adorable, with tiny little cupcakes on it.
“No discount?” he asks when the total pops on the screen.
“Discount?”
“The family discount?”
“Family would answer my questions,” I say, changing the price to include the twenty-percent discount he’s been getting since I opened the store.
I give it to a lot of people. Okay, I’m one of those people who want Lindell to stay as fresh and untouched by the outside world as possible, so I only charge full price to people from out of town. I know it’s horrible, and I’ll probably have to answer for it on judgment day, but until then, I’ll stay petty.
He narrows his eyes at me, the information staying locked behind his lips, so I promptly change the price back. He pays without further discussion. It’s not like the man can get such deliciousness anywhere else in town. We don’t exactly run a monopoly, but business owners around here work under the unspoken rule that we aren’t competition to the other. The closest thing Walker would be able to get to one of my cupcakes would be a prepackaged snack cake down at the corner grocery store, and he knows it.
“You’re mean, little Tate,” he says before grabbing his box of treats and leaving my bakery.
I busy myself cleaning and wiping things down in the dining room.
The bell above the door chimes, and a second later, “Was that awkward?”
