“Coming right up,” she said before disappearing again.
“So…” Cash took a sip of his whiskey. “Your daughter thinks I need to have dinner with you. She’s concerned you’re lonely. Are you lonely?”
I shook my head and smiled, downing the rest of my drink. “Not even a little bit.”
* * *
“Those bakinglessons with Liv and Katie really did pay off, huh?” I asked Dallas who moved around the kitchen of the bakery with an ease that shocked the hell out of me. “I am, as the kids say,shooketh.”
“Do the kids still say that?” Dallas quipped, sticking his tongue out at me.
“I have to admit, I wasn’t sure you could pull it off.” Derek looked over his shoulder from where he stood at the sink, washing the heap of dishes we’d managed to dirty up.
“Oh yee of little faith,” Dallas said with a grin, handing me a tray of freshly decorated Strawberry Fields cupcakes to place in the display cases out front.
“I’ve got a batch of Lemon Blackberry ready to be decorated, Dal.” Cash maneuvered around Dallas like an expert sous chef and placed the perfectly risen confections on the island. “The Dark Chocolate has three minutes left in the oven, and I’m about to whip up the Raspberry frosting now.”
I placed a hand on my hip, balancing the tray of cupcakes in the other. “And you, Cash Montgomery, are full of surprises.”
Cash’s eyes found mine, and he gave me a subtle wink. “You have no idea.”
Derek turned and caught my eye, raising his eyebrows, but Dallas thankfully remained oblivious. He was deep in concentration working a piping bag over some Wedding Belle cupcakes, his tattooed arms flexing with each swirl.
I didn’t know what I’d done to piss off the universe, but over the course of two weeks, everything that could go wrong at work, did. Renovations got behind when Big Earl and his crew all managed to get the flu within days of each other, which in and of itself wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but Katie managed to catch it too. That left me and the B team girls at the bakery to run things, and Katie wasn’t exaggerating when she said they were slow as molasses. Of course, this was when all of Nashville seemed to collectively decide they needed a cupcake.
The girls and I managed to hang on by a thread for six days, but on the seventh day, the two girls had gone out together and gotten completely hammered. They’d left me with six drunken butt-dial voicemails and zero help. I’m a resourceful woman, but I’d watched enoughHell's Kitchento know I was what Chef Gordon Ramsey would refer to as an ‘idiot sandwich’ when it came to all things baking.
“Seriously, I can’t thank you enough. I have no idea what I would have done without you guys. You saved my ass and kept me from having to close the store and lose money.” I shook my head in awe of the crack team that had assembled to help me at a moment’s notice. “You’re like the Avengers if the Avengers were onThe Great British Baking Show.”
I called Cash that morning in the midst of a meltdown, and in true Captain America fashion, he’d swooped in to save the day, bringing Derek and Dallas for reinforcements. Between the four of us, we managed to keep Livvie Cakes going. I ran the front of the store while Dallas and Cash baked and decorated the cupcakes. Derek handled the dishes and periodically went to check on Bradley Cooper for me. We only broke down and cried three times in the week Katie had been gone. And by we, I mean me.
“Well, they’re definitely not as pretty as what Top Chef Katie does,” Dallas said, “but they taste damn good if I say so myself.” He popped one of the fluffy white cupcakes in his mouth and moaned. “That’s it. I’m quitting the band and going to culinary school.”
“Do you like baking, or is it the eating that you really want to do?” Derek teased.
“Both,” he said through a mouthful of buttercream as he crossed over to the sink to wash his hands.
“Can you imagine what I could have charged if I’d told people that one half of Midnight in Dallas was here baking cupcakes?” I asked. “Too bad Luca was in Kentucky.”
Dallas snorted. “It’s not like he would have done anything to help anyway. He’s too busy brooding to actually do anything productive.” He winced, seemingly surprised by his own bitter words. To be fair, in all the time I’d known Dallas, I’d never heard him say a bad word about anybody. “Sorry… Luca and I… we’ve been butting heads a little recently. Nothing to worry about.”
Cash flashed him a look of concern.
“I’m just being sensitive.” Dallas waved him off. “I’m fine.” The timer dinged, and he effectively changed the subject by pulling the Dark Chocolate cupcakes out of the oven. “Know what else is fine? These cupcakes. Look at these beauties. I’m going to run some soup by Katie’s place later, and I was thinking I might take her one. Think she’d be up for it?”
Derek chuckled. “In other words, you want Katie’s stamp of approval on your hard work?”
“No,” Dallas said defensively. “Okay, maybe.”
“I think she’d love that,” I assured him. “She texted earlier this afternoon and said she was feeling better. She wanted to come in and get a head start on tomorrow’s stock, but I insisted she wait. Because of you guys, we had it all under control. Hopefully tomorrow she’ll be feeling even better. Especially since it’s just going to be us again for a while until we can hire some new people.”
“I could always come help tomorrow too,” Dallas suggested. “You know, in case she’s still not feeling 100%.”
I smiled and silently hoped that one day Dallas and Katie would find their way to each other because this was almost too painful to watch.
Derek gave me a pointed look as though he knew exactly what I was thinking and that I should really practice what I preached. I knew he was the observant one, but I much preferred it when his observations weren’t aimed at me.
I cleared my throat. “I’m going to put these in the case and close up out front.”
