Page 4 of To Tell the Truth
A girl who made him cupcakes and taught him about fractions.
A girl who was now a woman who still made him cupcakes.
And Fletcher was going to find a way to make sure Samantha and her cupcakes didn't disappear from his life again.
Chapter Three
Samantha was standing in the green room that wasn't even green. It was some boring beige color or whatever. If she kept staring at the wall long enough, she could come up with a better name for the drabness of it.
But that's not what she was thinking about. What she was really thinking about was Fletcher Keris and the way he smelled when he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. It was chaste and sweet, but it had still somehow burned her skin.
Her national television debut didn't turn out as bad as she thought it would, and she was able to ignore Fletcher's presence as the other panelists asked questions. But then there was that moment when he asked the question that made her know he remembered her.
"What was your favorite subject in high school?"
She never told him she loved math, and she sure as hell never told him that making cupcakes for him and teaching him math was one of the few highlights of her boring high school life. After all, he was a hockey star at their school. She was just Samantha.
But when he asked her that question, she kind of clammed up and got nervous.
"Math."
There was a twitch to his lips that only she noticed, but it was there.
"Why math?"
"Because I could be close to you and make you cupcakes and I knew your favorite was my Lemon Delights."Yeah, that's not the right answer.
So instead, she just said, "It helped me learn recipes."
Luckily, it was a quick and easy save. And then he had to ruin it by kissing her cheek and throwing her completely off balance again.
She worked in a bakery with Riley Rookwood's sister and Riley Rookwood's girlfriend, and it was Riley Rookwood's investment that got it started. So she had never told them her secret that her biggest crush in high school was one of the stars of the California Sunbursts, one of the biggest rivals of Riley's Chicago Otters.
Samantha would have to tell them sometime, right? Or maybe not. They didn't have to know that her high school crush played for the California Sunbursts. It wasn't like she was lying to them or anything. She just wouldn't tell them this little thing about her past that they didn't need to know because it would never come up again.
Instead, she should focus on just getting the hell out of here. So that's what she tried to do. Stuff her make-up that Georgia helped her with before the show into her bag. Stuff that t-shirt she wore in here before she put on her long-sleeve button down pink shirt that matched the wall of Icing back in Chicago.
Stuff down whatever stupid high school crush had come bubbling to the surface when she saw Fletcher Keris out on that stage.
There was a knock at her door. Time to go.
"It's open," she yelled.
The doorknob clicked and she could hear Cora and Riley down the hall. She wondered how long she would have for Georgia to be honest with her about her performance before the couple got there.
"So how bad was it?" she asked as she stuffed her TV show apron in the bag.
"The Lemon Delight? Oh, it was awful."
Samantha turned quickly before her eyes locked on Fletcher. He was leaning against the doorway still wearing that white button-down shirt and those dress pants he wore in the studio, and he was staring at her in a seductive way that made her want to pull him in, close the door, and lock it behind him.
She had to remind herself that he was someone she hadn't talked to in years, just a ghost from her past.
"Hi, Fletcher."
"Hi." He gave her this soft, sincere smile that made her want to melt into the floor. "I have to admit that I was not expecting to see my high school math tutor from Duluth on this show tonight."
She shrugged. "It's not my usual hangout."
