Page 14 of Sugarlips
I held out my hands as though this plan was a tangible item I was presenting to him.
He grunted a noise that sounded half likehuhandhm…huhm. “Or they’ll both just be mad at us for becoming friends.”
I snorted and waved my hand. “That’s stupid. You can’t be mad at someone for being kind to another human. At least you can’t be mad forlong.”
The tiniest smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Have youmetyour sister? She’s the queen of holding grudges.”
“Hey,” I snapped and pointed into his face. “Watch it, bestie. That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
He rolled his eyes and grabbed the piping bag once more. “You can’t just call me your bestie and—poof—have it be true. It doesn’t work like that. It’s something you grow toward, not something you decree. You can’t just, like, knight me as a best friend.”
My eyes widened. “Weshouldhave knighting ceremonies for friends. How cool would that be?”
“I feel like the only part of that sentence you heard wasknight. You missed the part where I said youcan’tknight someone as a friend.”
I waved a hand, dismissing his thought. “No, no. I heard you. You’re just wrong.”
“Okay, weirdo,” he laughed. “I need to get back to work.”
“Wait!” I shot my hand out to place over top of his, still clutching the pastry bag. Unfortunately, I underestimated the force with which I brought my hand down and I sent buttercream shooting out of the gun across the floor of the kitchen.
Oops.
We both stood there an extra moment staring at the mess.
“Sorry.” I winced.
He gave a small laugh. Almost just like a single huff of breath. “It’s okay. I spill all the time in here.”
Somehow, I doubted that.
“I was thinking… Neil and Elaina get home today around four o’clock… maybe closer to six, once they get their luggage and drive up from Boston airport. It made me feel so good when you had sweets leftover for me, I thought maybe we could bake them each something. Have it waiting and ready for their arrivals?”
Liam’s brows narrowed. “Won’t cupcakes be kind of a painful memory for Elaina? Seeing as how probably every cupcake will remind her of Neil from now on?”
Damn. He was right.I hadn’t quite thought this through beyond wanting to hang out with Liam and knowing that the cupcakes mademefeel better. “Well… what if we don’t make cupcakes? We could make more of those donuts. God, those were good. Elaina loves donuts.”
“I still have another two dozen unicorn cupcakes to decorate for a pick-up tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll help you,bestie! Then we can make the donuts!”
He narrowed his mossy-green eyes in my direction. “You’re not going to let up on this, are you?”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the besties thing or the donuts. I nodded because it was true in either case.
With a sigh, he slid a pastry bag across the stainless-steel countertop. “Fill this with the lavender and pink buttercream.”
“This isn’t taking longat all,” I said, glancing over at Liam. His mouth twisted as his eyes fell to the unicorn I was sprinkling edible glitter on.
“Usually they look… well… moreediblethan that.”
I tilted my head, examining my unicorn. Okay, sure. The eyes were a little lopsided. And its horn was a bit askew from the center. And yes, mine had a lot more glitter than Liam’s… but who doesn’t love more glitter?
Liam slid the undecorated cupcakes away from me. “Why don’t you start mixing the batter for the donuts instead? It’ll give us a head start on Elaina and Neil’s treat.”
“That means you’ll help me?”
“A promise is a promise,” he muttered.
