Page 68 of Sugarlips
“You do?” Chloe asked from beside me, wrapping her lips around a straw and taking a sip of iced coffee.
“God, yeah,” Bruce laughed. “A segment that involves baked goodsandwe can prerecord?”
From beside him, Jill snorted and rolled her eyes. “He’s a happy camper so long as he doesn’t have to wake up at four in the morning.”
Chloe and I shared a smile and she shot me a wink with her lips still wrapped around her straw.
Those fucking lips. If someone had pulled aside sixteen-year-old Liam and told him that someday as an adult he’d get another shot at those lips, I never would have believed them in a million years. There was no way someone as perfect as Chloe would want someone like me.
But she did.
She just couldn’t admit she did for some reason.
“Nervous?” she whispered, her blue eyes radiant and dancing beneath the stage lights.
I reached over and squeezed her hand… because here and now in this situation, I could. “Not even a little.” I meant so much more by that than how I felt about the show, and I desperately tried to convey that with a simple brush of my fingers over her knuckles.
She smiled back at me, and in the blink of an eye, the stage was bustling. Crew members were fixing our chairs, adjusting lights, tearing the napkin off of Bruce’s neck, and before I knew it, the director was yellingaction!And we were off.
Thank God for Chloe.I wasn’t good at talking about myself under normal circumstances, let alone when there were three cameras aimed at me.
“Now, Liam,” Jill said. When the cameras were rolling, her voice was sweeter and higher pitched. “Your other business has already been front and center for some time. Tell us about that.”
My throat was suddenly lined with sandpaper and I took a quick sip of my water before answering, my voice more raspy and graveled than I’d ever heard it. Sweat pushed out of my pores. Holy shit, how did anyone ever operate under these lights? It was like trying to do an interview in a sauna. “Beefcakes is the bakery my brother and I own. It used to belong to my mother, but we took over when she was diagnosed with cancer. Some of you may know us from the—”
“That viral video of him and his ex!” Bruce interjected with a staccato laugh.
“Actually,” I corrected. “I was going to say some of you may have know us from the reality show he was on…Bake It or Break It. Where that ex became his girlfriend.”
“So, they’re back together? I’d heard they didn’t make it long past the final episode. In fact…” Jill practically sang the words. Gossip and, more notably, heartbreak was chum in the water for these sharks. “Iheard that Neil and Elaina’s breakup was the inspiration for your Dump Truck food truck.”
I inhaled a sharp breath. I didn’t love the direction this was taking. We weren’t here to talk about Neil and Elaina—
Chloe’s hand fell to my knee and squeezed gently, her eyes latching onto mine. I blanketed my hand over hers and gently linked our fingers. She was warm and soft and just the feel of her skin on mine relaxed me.
“Actually,” she said calmly, “it wasmybreakup that inspired the idea. The night my engagement ended, Liam came over to check on me… and he brought me cupcakes and donuts. It was late. Nothing was open. And I was grateful for the junk food to wallow with.”
“I bet you were justwaitingfor the right moment to swoop on in, weren’t you? A handsome guy like you and a beauty like her? It’s like you were made for each other!” Jill said, her shrill laugh fading into the background as I kept my eyes firmly on Chloe’s.
“It wasn’t like that,” I answered honestly. “Of course I’ve always had a crush on her. I mean, look at her. How could I not? But I didn’t go over there with some ulterior motive. She was my brother’s girlfriend’s sister… and she needed me.” I swallowed hard, watching as her eyes filled with moisture and she blinked. “I’llalwaysbe there when she needs me. No matter what.” I gave her hand a gentle squeeze to accentuate the point.
We shared a lingering look that was quickly broken by Bruce.
“Well, aren’t you both the sweetest! How long did it take before you two fell in love?”
Our heads whipped around to him. “Love?” Chloe repeated.
“Sure,” Jill said, laughing. “Look at you two. You lovebirds can’t keep your hands off each other, even for a ten-minute segment!”
We glanced down to where our hands were still linked and I held on tighter as I felt Chloe trying to release and pull away.
I swallowed my sigh and then let her.Give her space. Even when we were supposed to be pretending to be together. “Chloe is the strongest person I know. And it’s because she’s so strong, that it’s easy to forget that less than three months ago, she ended a long-term relationship and engagement,” I said. “We care about each other.” I softened my voice and even though I knew I was on camera, I tried my hardest to speak directly to Chloe. “She’s my best friend… and because she’s my best friend, I know we need to take our relationship slowly.”
She blinked, glancing up at me, a small smile upturning the corners of her delicious mouth.
“But haven’t you two been together for months? Pretty much right after her breakup?”
“That’s right, Bruce. We have a clip from a local news report from two months ago—”
