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The fact that Caden could waltz into the headquarters of SSGBP unnerved Maggie. The closer they got to the big day, the more she realized this was an Archibald event, a fact that she often managed to push aside because of her deep involvement in the project and her rock-solid belief she was the right person for the job. With his uncle Samuel giving Caden inside information, she didn’t stand a chance. And what was up with the charity thing? It was brilliant, but Caden had never shared it with her.
“We’ve got this in the bag.”
His family, she thought. They had it in the bag. When they’d visit headquarters, everyone greeted Caden like a crown prince. Right now it dawned on her that she’d made a mistake. Everyone knew Caden. They had faith in him. Not her. This team they’d formed supported him and his goals, not hers. No matter how much Maggie thought Kit liked her, his mother would bypass her to choose Caden in a split second when it came time to decide on a successor. What had Maggie been thinking?
“No,” Maggie countered. She lifted her arms to break his touch. “You have this in the bag. I need to get out of here.”
“Wait.” Caden stood in her way. “Something isn’t right—we need to figure this out.”
“Caden,” Maggie said with pleading dripping from her voice. “I need to get to some of the grocery stores and pick up ingredients for these cupcakes. I’ll stop at every store on the way so I don’t deplete Vonna’s stash.”
“You’re seriously going to leave? A cake is not that big of a deal.”
“You just said so yourself. I’ve done it before,” Maggie called out as she grabbed her purse and headed out the front door just before a single tear of frustration rolled down her cheek. She closed the door just as she heard Ebony’s voice coming through the back.
A ration of tears threatened to fall. She’d been so blindly stupid. Not working for The Cupcakery over the last two months left Maggie with not a lot of choices, despite Vonna’s patience and kind heart. The best idea she could think of was working back at the bakery nonstop to come up with a gazillion cupcakes. This meant she’d miss welcoming the guests at the hotel. But this needed to be done. Maggie hurried to Caden’s car. Her mind was so wrapped up on the types of cupcakes she needed to make. If she did her special hummingbird cake, she would have to contact Richard for some pecans. If she contacted him, he would ask what was going on, and Maggie did not want to hear what he had to say.
“Well, look at what we have here.”
Maggie stopped walking and looked up from a pair of black leather dress shoes, to black slacks, and a maroon shirt with a printed tie to match. Jason Archibald. River air flowed deep into Maggie’s lungs at the sight of him. Leaning against the passenger door of Caden’s car was Chase. Frick and Frack.
“Please move,” Maggie said firmly. She gripped the straps of her designer purse, a gift from Caden last weekend.
Chase pushed away from the car. “We missed you at Mama’s low country boil.”
Caden had mentioned his mother was throwing one. But without Caden, she didn’t feel comfortable. “I’ll extend my apologies when I see her this weekend.”
“Your friend was there,” said Chase.
“My friend?”
“The pretty beauty queen roommate of yours,” Jason provided. “Remember her from the wedding earlier this month?”
“Rochelle?”
“That’s her.” Chase approached the two of them.
It wasn’t like Maggie felt afraid, but she still cast a glance over her shoulder. She did not like being alone, in public or not, with these two.
“Rochelle is trying to get a job,” offered up Chase. “We figured with all the work we’re giving MET, we’d help her out.”
“Aren’t you guys sweet.” Maggie maneuvered around them and stepped off the curb.
“You know what is even sweeter?” asked Chase. “The first story she’s going to do.”
Clearly they wanted her to ask. “What’s the story, boys?”
“Would you like to tell her?” Chase asked his brother.
Jason bowed. “Why thank you, my good brother. The first story Rochelle’s got is about a budding beauty queen with a saucy mouth and a penchant for making holograms. And the second story is how she wasn’t expecting that this budding beauty queen’s former roommate had any additional ambitions in life other than just nailing the
hot guy in the Stanford sweatshirt. I’m paraphrasing here. I’m a Southern gentleman. It would be wrong of me to repeat the exact words she said this roommate of hers used.”
“It’s okay, brother dear,” Chase said mockingly. “We have Rochelle’s taped recordings.”
Embarrassing heat crept up Maggie’s neck. Her fingers touched her neck and fingered the strand of pearls there—another gift from Caden.
“Nice necklace.” Chase pointed at her. “Nice trophy.”
