“You’ve got it bad” was Malik’s response.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carter said as he flung the icing into a trash bin.
“Remember who you’re talking to. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was in your shoes. Stop trying to fight it, Carter. It’s no use. You’re caught.”
“Nobody has caught me,” he said. “I’m not like you. This thing with Lorraine is just... We’re just having fun.”
Even as he said it, Carter wanted to take back the words. They left a vile taste in his mouth. He didn’t want to cheapen what he’d found with Lorraine, despite the fact that it scared the hell out of him.
“Does she know that?” Malik asked. “Actually, a better question is, do
you
know that? Because from where I’m standing, you’re doing more than just having a little fun. I’ve never seen you like this before.”
He’d never felt like this before, and that was what frightened him the most.
He’d had his share of women. Actually, he’d had his, his cousins’ and the entire Chicago White Sox outfield’s share of women. But never had he fallen so deeply, so quickly and so damn hard. He didn’t do long-term and high emotion. He did carefree and easy exits.
Not this time. This time, he had no desire to make a run for it.
Carter couldn’t shake the guilt he felt over allowing Lorraine to leave last night. It was bad enough that he hadn’t taken her home, but he hadn’t even walked her downstairs to meet the cab. What in the hell was wrong with him?
He pulled out his cell phone, but his fingers just hovered. He couldn’t bring himself to call her.
Coward.
He’d attempted this call at least a half dozen times since she’d left last night, but had yet to follow through. He was still unsure of what to say to her. Should he come right out and apologize? Should he play it off as though he didn’t think he had anything to atone for? He was so out of his element on this one it wasn’t even funny.
Phone call or not, he had to do something to let her know he was thinking of her. Because he
was
thinking of her. Constantly.
Carter pulled up the internet browser on his cell phone and searched for a local florist. He was about to order a dozen roses when he remembered their walk along the Nature Boardwalk the night of the event at Lincoln Park Zoo. He changed his order to irises.
Carter knew this did nothing to make up for how he’d left things last night, but he could only hope that it was a start on his road to forgiveness.
He returned to scraping up icing with a spatula, and spotted Shari’s son, Andre, standing in the corner, watching him.
“Hey there, little man.” Carter motioned for him to come over. He’d always felt a kinship with Andre that he’d never felt with the rest of his cousins. Maybe it was because he had something in common with the four-year-old that his other cousins couldn’t relate to. Like Carter, Andre knew what it was like to grow up with a single mom.
But at least Carter had his dad. Thomas Abernathy, Andre’s dad, had left Shari after she’d told him about the pregnancy, and hadn’t been heard from since. It was Thomas’s loss; Andre was a pretty cool kid.
“How’s it going?” Carter asked him.
Andre shrugged. “I want a cupcake, but Mommy told me I can’t have any more sugar today.”
“You’re in a bakery. You can’t help having sugar.” Carter looked around. “Come on.” He motioned for Andre to follow him to the refrigerated storage units where they stored the pastries. “Chocolate or strawberry?” he asked him.
“Strawberry,” he said, his green eyes sparkling in mischievous delight.
Carter retrieved a strawberry and cream cupcake and handed it to Andre. He put a finger to his lips.
“Shh...”
“Okay,” Andre mouthed, taking a big bite out of his cupcake. He smiled up at him, those twin dimples dotting the corners of his mouth.
Carter was envious of the kid. He’d give anything to go back to the days when a cupcake made everything better.
But it would take a lot more than a sweet treat to resolve his current problems. Although, now that he thought about it, sweets couldn’t hurt.
Carter went into the retail shop and ordered a dozen gourmet cupcakes to be delivered to Lorraine’s, to go along with the irises he’d sent. Cupcakes wouldn’t make up for his callousness last night, but at this point, Carter needed all the help he could get.
He checked his watch. He and his cousins were scheduled to have a powwow to discuss
You Take the Cake
in a couple of minutes. Carter looked around the retail shop to make sure everything was running smoothly, and then headed for the back. As he was making his way down the hallway, he ran into Belinda and Malik coming out of the storage room.
Carter lifted his hands, staving off comment. “I don’t even want to know.”
“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it,” Malik said.
Belinda slapped his arm. “We were restocking the shelves with the shipment of cake boxes that just arrived.”
Malik winked. “Restocking the shelves. That’s our code name for you know what.”
That earned him another slap from Belinda, followed by a kiss. Carter felt the urge to throw up. He followed his cousin and his best friend into the largest office, where the rest of his cousins were seated.
Drake had his computer screen hooked up to a projector, which illuminated one wall.
“Is everybody ready?” he asked.
“What’s this meeting for again?” Malik asked.
“We need to brainstorm our game plan for
You Take the Cake,
” Shari said. She looked pointedly at Carter. “I’m going to get you for giving my son that cupcake.”
“Lighten up,” Carter said. “Every kid needs a cupcake every now and then. So,” he addressed the rest of the room. “I thought the game plan was annihilating Brown Sugar Bakery?”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” Drake agreed.
“That is
not
the plan,” Monica said. “I’m sure the show’s producers would love the side drama, but I refuse to provide it. We will be representing Lillian’s, and that’s not what Lillian’s is about.”
Count on his youngest cousin to have the most level head, Carter thought.
“Monica is right,” Belinda interjected. “This competition is about more than just beating Dina’s bakery. It’s our chance to really put Lillian’s on the map—not just in Illinois but across the country. We’re already getting national and even some international orders for our prepackaged bake mixes, and the local grocery stores that currently carry our baked goods have all been increasing their orders. If we win
You Take the Cake,
we would be in position to expand these two segments of the business exponentially.”
“We’ve already decided that one way to stand out from the competition is to incorporate some really out-of-the-box flavors,” Monica said. “I’ve been working on a lemon poppy seed and rhubarb cupcake that is to die for.”
“She’s right,” Shari said. “I tried it, and I nearly died because it was so bad.”
Monica stuck her tongue out at her sister.
“It’s not just the flavors,” Carter said. “One-third of the judges’ scores are based on the decorations. If we want to stand out, we’ll have to bring it. I just ordered some food-grade platinum glitter dust for the Eiffel Tower on the France cake. If I can find the extra time this week I’m going to practice by making a smaller version.”
“I’m not worried about decorations.” This from Belinda. “After that cake you did for the Hawthorne-Hayes bridal shower, I think you can do just about anything, Carter.”
“Yeah, you brought your A game with that one,” Malik said. “How did they like the cake?”
All eyes turned to him. Carter tried for nonchalant. “They liked it.”
“That’s all?” Monica asked.
“Yeah.” He shrugged.
“He’s holding back on us,” Drake said. “You can stop with the mysteriousness. We all saw the paper. I never pegged you for falling for someone as uptight as a Hawthorne-Hayes, though.”
“According to Carter, they’re just ‘having fun.’” Malik made air quotes with his fingers.
“Didn’t look that way from what I saw in the newspaper,” Monica said. “Or what Amber said she saw the other night at Lincoln Park Zoo. Apparently, things got hot and heavy.”
Carter could feel his cheeks burning. “Can we get back to discussing the TV show?”
He glanced over at Shari, who was looking at him with a concerned, haunting expression on her face.
“Well, even though some of you may think the Dina situation isn’t that important, I disagree,” Drake said. “We need to talk about how we’re going to handle it. I say we call her out on national television for being a lying bitch.”
“Grandma Lillian would have a fit,” Belinda pointed out.
Carter replied, “We can’t let her just get away with what she did. Everything she’s doing in that bakery comes from what she learned here.”
“She’s already gotten away with it,” Belinda countered.
Carter nodded. “And that’s why we need to call her on it.”
Malik stopped the argument and looked to Shari. “She was your best friend, Shari. How do you think we should handle her?”
Shari looked at them all. Then she cradled her face in her hands, said, “I can’t do this” and ran out of the room.
“Let her go,” Drake said.
But Carter wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He got up and went after Shari, finding her standing in the alcove between the storage room and the first consultation office.
“Hey,” Carter said as he approached her. “You okay?”
She wiped at the fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m fine,” Shari said.
“I don’t think so.” Cautiously, he reached out and stroked her arm. “What’s going on, Shari? I know you were hurt when Dina backstabbed everyone, but you shouldn’t let it upset you just because she was your friend.”
“I brought her into the business,” Shari said.
“So? I brought Malik in. If he’d turned out to be a backstabbing asshole, I wouldn’t see it as totally my fault.” Although, when he thought about it, Carter realized that he would indeed have felt a measure of guilt. He finally understood what his cousin was going through.
“Look,” he said, capturing Shari’s shoulders and giving them a reassuring squeeze. “What’s done is done. You had no idea Dina would backstab us all.” He paused, then asked, “Did you?”
“Carter!” Shari gasped.
“I’m sorry. I should have known better than to ask that.”
“Yes, you should have.” Shari sniffed and wiped her eyes again.
“Hey, you still haven’t chewed me out for giving Andre that cupcake. You can do that if it’ll make you feel better.”
His cousin laughed. “I should, but I won’t. Let him have his cupcake. At least one person in this family should be happy.”
Carter’s chest tightened at the sadness on his cousin’s face. He understood her guilt, but this seemed excessive. “Shari, what’s really going on? Why wouldn’t you be happy?”
“Don’t worry about it.” She shook her head, and then her eyes focused on his face. “Now, you tell me something. Are
you
happy? With Lorraine, I mean.”
Carter dropped his hands and took a step back.
“It isn’t hard to see, Carter. You’ve been walking around here for the past couple of weeks looking as if you’ve won the lottery.”
“Maybe I did and just didn’t tell anyone.”
“You didn’t win the lottery. You’re in love.”
Carter instantly recoiled at his cousin’s assessment. “Now you’re starting to sound like Malik. After what you went through with Andre’s dad, I thought you’d know better.”
A dark shadow clouded over Shari’s face, and Carter felt like the biggest jerk in all of Chicago. “I’m sorry for bringing up Thomas,” he said.
Shari pulled in a shaky breath. “It’s okay. Just promise me one thing, Carter. Be careful with her heart. Don’t lead Lorraine on. If you’re not serious about her, you should end it before she ends up getting hurt.”
Carter was disturbed by the haunted look in his cousin’s eyes. After all these years, he wouldn’t have thought Shari was still so affected by Thomas Abernathy’s betrayal, but apparently she was.
“I won’t hurt her,” he promised Shari.
She gave him a peck on the cheek. “Thanks for caring enough to check on me. Now, why don’t we go back and figure out how we’re going to win this competition? Because Drake is right—I want to kick Dina’s butt.”
* * *
“Hand me a few of those hydrangeas,” Francine called.
Lorraine picked up a handful of colorful hydrangeas from the array of flowers scattered about the large table, and brought them over to Francine. Nearly every week since she was eight years old, Lorraine had spent her Saturday afternoons helping Frannie put together the fresh flower arrangements that adorned the tables and mantelpieces around the penthouse throughout the week.
Her mother had balked at the idea of Lorraine doing such a menial task, but Lorraine had ignored her. The bright colors and artistry of the flower arranging called to her creative side.
“That’s beautiful,” she told Frannie, gesturing to the enormous spray of eucalypti, hydrangeas and lilies.
“Not as beautiful as those.” Frannie looked pointedly at the vase filled with lovely irises that had been delivered a few hours ago, followed almost immediately by a box of decadent cupcakes in the signature pink-and-brown-striped box from Lillian’s.
She couldn’t deny the thrill she’d experienced when the flowers and cupcakes had arrived, but her joy was diminished by the fact that they had not been accompanied by a phone call. Lorraine was still hurt that Carter had allowed her to leave last night. He hadn’t just allowed her to leave. He’d looked...relieved.
She’d spent the morning vacillating between shock and fury. Until those flowers had arrived, she’d had the sinking feeling that she had been misled again, deluded into thinking that a man had actually cared for her, when all he’d wanted was something from her.
The gifts had momentarily appeased her, but Lorraine was still hurt. Could he not call? Send a text?
Perhaps he was in the middle of creating some gargantuan cake?
But surely he could step away for a moment to send her a simple “how are you doing?” text message.