Ella snorted. “Those torches should really come with a warning label.”
“She set our old order notebook on fire and almost singed my eyebrows off,” Liv said with a laugh.
“She’s over-exaggerating.” Ella grinned. “It was only one eyebrow.”
“Get out of here.” Liv picked up a dish-towel off the counter and swatted her with it.
Ella giggled and started toward the door. “I’m going,” she said, leaving Liv and I alone for the first time since we’d been there.
Liv flicked the switch on the mixer, and it slowed to a stop. “Now, we’re going to load up a pastry bag with the buttercream and decorate the cupcakes with it.” I watched as she filled the pastry bag with the thick frosting before handing it to me. She placed two of the cupcakes in front of me. “You’re going to squeeze a small dollop in the center first, and then slowly swirl the icing over the cupcake.”
“Swirl,” I repeated. “Is that a technical term?”
“In fact, it is.” She laughed, placing her hands over mine. “Try to apply even pressure to the bag so the icing doesn’t go everywhere.” My fingers tingled as she gently guided my hands over one of the cupcakes, resulting in a beautiful mountain of frosting. “Awesome. Now, you try.”
She removed her hands from mine, and I tried to emulate what we’d just done on the next cupcake. This time, the frosting leaned heavily to the right.
I laughed. “That didn’t turn out so good.”
“That’s not bad for your first one,” she said, placing another cupcake in front of me. “This time, use that little dollop in the middle as your guide. Imagine you’re placing circles around it, even as you build the icing up.”
I nodded and tried again. This time, it looked damn near perfect.
“See?” Her eyes sparkled up at me. “You did great.” She held her hand out. “Here, I’ll finish these up real quick so we can go to dinner.”
I handed her the bag and leaned against the counter, watching her work. She quickly moved the bag over the remaining cupcakes, covering them with a perfect mound of white buttercream.
“You really are good at this.” I watched as she leaned down so that she was eye level with the cupcakes, inspecting them. Once she was satisfied, she stood and wiped her hands on her apron. “And you seem to really enjoy it.”
“I do enjoy it.” She untied her apron, hanging it on the hook beside the door. “It just isn’t really what I wanted to do for a living. I’m good at it, but it’s never been what I was passionate about. Baking was supposed to help afford me the ability to do what I loved. It was supposed to be more of a means to an end, but that’s the way it is sometimes, right? What we’re good at and what we’re passionate about aren’t always the same things.” Her tone was light, but her wistful smile betrayed her. She turned away from me, busying herself by putting a few bowls in the sink. “I’m thankful for the bakery. I don’t mean to sound like I’m not. It’s just not what I saw myself doing for the rest of my life.”
I knew she thought her dream had passed her by, but I felt strongly she could still pursue a career in music. We wrote so well together. I knew she was doing it to help me, but what if it could be something much, much more? I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could she’d turned back toward me expectantly.
She smiled. “You ready to go get that pie?”
“Definitely,” I said.
“We’re heading out,” she called to Ella and Katie.
Ella peeked her head in the kitchen. “You two have fun.” Once again, Liv’s face appeared to have a silent conversation with Ella’s.
“I drove the Jeep to work so we could leave straight from here.” Liv grabbed her purse off the hook and dug her keys out. “You get to play DJ.”
I opened the door for her, following her out into the night. We weren’t even on the road yet, but my mind was already going ninety miles an hour.
The night air enveloped us in a cool autumn blanket as we drove with the top off the Jeep, Liv’s hair blowing wildly around her. We passed houses and businesses with Halloween decorations out front, which meant I had to play “Thriller” as my first selection. I laughed as Liv danced in place at a red light, complete with ridiculous zombie faces. Then of course, I joined her.
We sang “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith at the tops of our lungs, trading off vocals and harmonizing with each other. Our voices blended together smoother than the butter and sugar in the buttercream we’d just made. With each song I picked to play, it was as though we’d previously rehearsed them. There wasn’t one sour note between us, and we played off each other easily, the way you do when you’ve been in a band with someone for a long time.
A band…I thought about how easy it had been to write with her, how comfortable it was to be with her. The songs we’d started were good, and I knew the band would love Liv’s style. I had no doubt we’d be able to write some material for Midnight in Dallas, but the more I thought about it, something felt off. Part of the reason the songs we’d started felt so right was because ofher.Because of us, together.
An idea started forming at the corners of my mind. Music was Liv’s dream. Sure, she could be a successful songwriter, but she belonged on the stage. Her presence radiated magic. What if we could do something together? We could have our own duo and...
“Earth to Jax.” Liv laughed, nudging my arm. “I lost you somewhere around that last Lumineers song. You okay?”
I turned to face her only to realize we’d already arrived at the pie shop. “Yeah, I’m good. Let’s go.”
“Welcome to The Loving Pie Company. Oh, hey, Jaxon,” the owner of the pie shop greeted me with a wide smile. “It’s been a minute. Are you guys recording tonight?”
