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“Do I ever,” I said, voice flat.
“I forgot it was her birthday. I just wanted to get her a cake.”
“I don’t know why I thought anything different.”
He left for the cakes just as Anders came back up to the counter, smiling after Sam, holding the one mini-cupcake. I already had his order rung up, and he already had the cash in hand for it.
“Sam and Jenna are together, now, too, right?”
“Um… open secret, I think is the current status.”
“Like I said, you’ve got to find your someone too. I’m sure they’d be lucky to have you.”
“Eh…” I closed the cash register drawer and tossed his receipt in the trash. Somehow I found I couldn’t make eye contact with him—a kind of guilt I didn’t want to acknowledge right now. “People could live without me. My best trait is my cakes, and people can just buy those.”
“Oh, nonsense. I’ll ask Nancy, I’m sure she’ll be able to set you up with someone. You know, she used to be quite the genius matchmaker back in her day—”
“Spare me.”
“You like girls best, right? Do you have a type?”
Hell if I knew the answer to that anyway. The only person I really had on my mind was the absolute worst person to date anyway. “Still trying to figure it out. Just promise you won’t actually get Nancy on matchmaking duty finding me a wife.Ora husband. Or anything else.”
“We’ll have to see about that,” he laughed, taking the little box I’d put his cupcake in. “I’m just saying, no better use of youth than being young. Having fun and making mistakes is part of the process. Spring is the season to fall in love.”
“Spring is the season to make cake. Just like the other three. Have a great day, Anders. Tell Nancy I said hi. In a very happily-single way.”
Anders had only just left before Sam was back at the register with a 7-Up cake, and he gave me a wrinkly, creased hundred-dollar bill, counterfeit-checker pen marks already on it.
“Who in the world bought coffee with a hundred?” I said, checking it with the counterfeit pen before I shoved it into the drawer.
“Paisley. Dunno where she got it.”
“Right. Frankly, who knows why I asked. That’s all for you, Sam?”
“Yes ma’am. Hey—you have anyone you’re going to the festival with?”
I’d had enough of this conversation already. I hung my head. “Me, myself and I. The best company. Are you officially going with Jenna?”
“Oh, no. Nothing like that. We’re notdatingor anything, not strictly. I mean, just friends. You know how it is.”
God, this guy sucked at lying. I wanted to watch him play poker. “Uh-huh. Well, I hope you two enjoy the cake.”
“Peace out, man,” he said on his way out the door, cake in hand, and I sighed.
Everyone in this town was bizarre. I liked to pretend that was why I was leaving, but I was kind of uselessly in love with the weirdest person in the entire town, so… maybe it was my weakness anyway.
I got a lull between customers after Sam left, the early-morning crowds gone, and I was in the middle of restocking cinnamon buns in the gentle quiet—music playing through the speakers, chatter and laughter from the park not far down the street, the wind murmuring in the trees along Amber Lane—when the door chimed again, and I glanced back to where Emberlynn pushed through the door, a blissful look on her features, heading for the bread racks.
Girl was late. She was usually in here in the mornings. Unfortunately, I knew all too well what it meant when she came in late in the morning smiling that happy smile. It had started when she’d gotten together with Aria, and that was really all I needed or wanted to know. Everyone in Bayview wanted Aria, and Emberlynn was pretty too, a woman on the shorter side with a bob of blonde hair and soft features that had a gentle sort of baby-face look about them, and always dressed nicely to boot, but—it didn’t matter how attractive they both were. I didn’t want to think too much about their sex life.
“Sourdough today?” I said, walking up behind her as she started for the register, and she jolted, giving me a wide-eyed look.
“Christ, you’re going to give me a heart attack,” she said. “You’re not normally lurking in the corner waiting to jump me.”
“I’m normally out on the floor restocking at this time. Not my fault you’re in late.”
“I slept in this morning.”
