Page 7 of You Cake My Breath Away

“One day soon, por favor.” She frowns at a overcooked pan dulce in her small display.

Stifling a chuckle, I stop a moment to thank her again before leaving. With the surprise rainstorm now over, sunlight glistens on the ground as I head toward my car. My phone rings the moment I’m safely inside.

I don’t have to check my Bluetooth to know it’s Shantel calling.

“Happy Dirty Thirty,” she yells before I even have a chance to say hello, drowning out the slap of my windshield wipers.

I quickly lower the volume. “Thanks, Shanti. What’s up?”

“Did you see the picture I sent?” The giddiness in her tone makes me cringe. Setting your brother’s widow up on a dating app surely can’t be normal.

“I did.” I check my mirrors, catching sight of a couple locked in a passionate embrace in the car behind me. A lightning bolt shoots through my chest at the memory of Jessie’s kiss. Opening the glovebox, I shove my hand inside in search of a pair of sunglasses to block out the sun—and the couple.

A tire pressure gauge, old chargers, and a bunch of folded papers tumble out of the messy compartment. The last time Jessie borrowed my car when his was in the shop, he told me I should clean it out, said it looked like a Buc-ee’s exploded inside it. I never got around to emptyingit. I gather the contents to shove them back inside when my gaze lands on the disheveled paperwork. Flipping it open, I find a loan application from a bank I’ve never been to.

Where did this come from?

“And?” Shantel’s exasperated voice steals my attention, huffing as if she’s asked this twice. “What did you think?”

I think it’s been less than two years, I mouth, trying to keep my tongue in check.

“He’s alright, I guess.” Paperwork forgotten, I merge onto the road, headed toward my mother-in-law’s house. “If you like guys who can, and I quote, ‘bench-press you better than your ex.’”

She snorts. “Alright, you got me there. But that doesn’t negate the fact that we need to get you back out there.”

“Shantel,” I chide.

“Tilly,” she sighs. “It’s time.”

“I know,” I emphasize. “But—”

“No buts. I miss Jessie too. Every damn day. But he’d want you to move on and keep this momentum,” she pauses, static filling the air when I don’t reply. “You deserve to be happy and for all your dreams to come true, but you’ve gotta get out of this…this cycle you’re stuck in.”

Sunlight peeks through the clouds, and the cake charm on my bracelet shimmers—a reminder of the man who loved me with his entire soul. A thousand tiny knives stab at my throat. Jessie always encouraged my hopes and dreams. We’d lay out on the deck at night, talking about me starting a bakery where I could try out new flavors along with some of my mom’s old recipes. But between him starting his business, and me finishing culinary school, it never seemedto be the right time.

Shantel’s right, but I can’t find the words to reply. Her brother was everything to me. How can she expect me to move on when no one can ever measure up to the man he was?

“I just want to help,” she says. “You’ve been a hermit lately, and with Archer working so much…”

My selective hearing kicks in the moment she mentions Archer’s name. He still hasn’t messaged or called me back.

“Where are you anyway?” she asks.

“Just left Rosie’s.”

A humming noise comes through the speaker as if she’s contemplating something. “Jessie loved that old lady and her peppermint lattes. What’d you get?”

My mouth fills with sand as I try to come up with a lie to tell her. She knows I don’t like peppermint lattes, but it’s become part of my routine, a way to feel closer to Jessie when the days feel particularly hard to get through.

Like my thirtieth birthday he should be here to celebrate.

I struggle to come up with anything but a lie. “I dropped off some cupcakes and she yelled at me about opening my own bakery. You know, a typical Tuesday.”

She harrumphs. “Well, she’s not wrong. But that’ll all be solved soon enough.”

“Huh?” I ask.

“Shit…” She pauses, talking to someone I can’t hear in the background. “I gotta go get ready, but I’ll see you at Mom’s for your birthday dinner.”

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