Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2)

by Katana Collins

  “Now I feel even more pressure. Like this food truck has to be successful for the entire Evans family’s sake.”

  “Hey,” Elaina said, turning in the driver’s seat to look at me. “Relax. It’s going to be great. But also, be realistic. It can sometimes take a business a while to find its groove and turn a substantial profit. And don’t blame yourself. Liam knew the risks here and chose to do this just like you did. And you told me the work you’re doing to promote Beefcakes on social media is already improving their sales numbers, right? That will help their situation.”

  I thanked my sister and got out of the car, my heart feeling a whole lot heavier than it did earlier. Because what Elaina just said… it wasn’t exactly true. Just like always, I barreled through and practically forced Liam’s hand into this. I bought a truck way sooner than he expected. I scheduled this soft open faster than he’d wanted. And maybe this was why. Maybe he was hoping to go slower because of everything with his mom—and I just freaking steamrolled right over him. Like I did with everybody. I gulped, my stomach feeling heavy with emotion. It was what Dan always said about me. I charged in with little consideration for anyone else and I dragged others down with me. Tasmanian Chloe.

  Tears pricked my eyes as I stared up at the food truck. Not this time. We were going to succeed at this. I literally would not stop until I helped Liam earn a good living doing something that was his dream… not his mother’s or his brother’s.

  I blinked away the moisture in my eyes and climbed my way into the truck, where I could still hear Finn and Liam chatting about their mother. I intentionally made a show of my entrance, loudly stumbling and hitting the door so that they knew I was coming—and their discussion immediately halted.

  “There she is!” Finn exclaimed and came over to give me a hug. “Excited?”

  “I think I’m going to puke.”

  Liam smirked as he met my gaze and placed the pre-rolled macaroni and cheese bites into the fridge. “Come on, now. This is the exciting time. We can puke when we look at the books after the first week.”

  “Great, that’s just what I needed to hear.” I rolled my eyes as Liam hooked an arm around my neck. I had no control over the way my heart sped up in response to the close contact—or the flush that surged across my neck and chest from where his wrist brushed the side of my cheek.

  Finn hitched his thumb and pointed at his chest. “The good news is that, now that you’re here, I can go back to work in the café before Neil gets even grumpier.”

  “Uh-oh. I take it his mood hasn’t improved since the other night?”

  Liam grunted and, with a quick pat on my shoulder, released his hold on me. “Seeing Elaina stirred up the Grinch in him. Besides, I don’t think his mood has been good since they got back from New York.”

  “And lucky me,” Finn said, “I get to work with him while you’re running the food truck.”

  Liam winced. “Sorry, man. I really appreciate it, though. Hopefully the food truck will sell out of all the goods in record time each day and I’ll have the time to run both spots.”

  I blew out a breath and the ball of anxiety in my chest coiled even tighter. “Let’s hope so.”

  “Come on,” Liam said, jerking his head in the direction of Beefcakes. “We’ve got a few more trips to load up the truck with the food. Then… it’s official. We’re open for business!”

  14

  Liam

  Chloe was tweeting and instagramming like a madwoman, making sure anyone who cared would knew that we were parked smack dab in the center of town.

  The only problem was, we were supposed to close for the day in thirty minutes and we’d only sold half of our inventory. It didn’t even cover the cost of what I’d baked for today.

  Chloe paced the tiny space behind me, out of the way from any customer’s eyes. Not that we had any. I waved goodbye to sweet Mrs. Langley, who’d heard from my mom about this latest food truck venture and had walked into town, searching for the truck just to buy something and support my first day.

  If I was being honest, that’s how I’d describe most of our customers on this first day… friends and family who came by to support us. A few people passing by bought the occasional ice cream sandwich. But mostly it was d-e-a-d … dead.

  I opened the fridge. At least the ice cream sandwiches and mac and cheese balls would keep for another day, but the donuts and brownies were another story. I’d probably drop them off at the kids’ day camp on my way home.

  “No, no, no,” Chloe said into the phone, her laugh a little too high-pitched and frenetic to sound genuine. “It’s nothing on our end. I would just hate for you to send out a crew for a story outside on a day like today. It’s pushing ninety degrees out here…” She paused, clearing her throat. “Uh-huh. I see. Okay, then, we’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  I leaned against the countertop, watching as Chloe dropped her forehead to her phone. “Channel Five News will be here in a few minutes for our ‘grand opening.’” She threw air quotes around the words and tossed her phone gently on the counter. “What do we do? We have no customers outside. What sort of terrible marketing consultant am I if I couldn’t even attract enough customers for us to break even on our grand opening?”

  I crossed over to her and placed my hands on her arms. Heat fractured its way through my skin, sending a lightning bolt of awareness jerking up my body. “Hey,” I said, gently. “You’re not a failure. This was only our first day.”

  Her big blue eyes filled with moisture as she blinked up at me, but the tears quickly dissipated. Thank God. That’s all I needed… to be caught bawling with Chloe on our local news channel.

  “They wouldn’t reschedule the interview?”

  Chloe shook her head. “Nope. It’s now or never. I guess they’re booked for the next week at least.”

  Chloe broke free of the hold I had on her shoulders, and that heat disappeared along with her soft skin and sweet scent. She crossed the small length of the truck and leaned on the counter, dropping her chin to her hands.

  “Maybe we should cancel the interview,” I offered. “They say they can’t rebook right now, but maybe in a couple of weeks on a slow news day when we’ve found our groove—”

  “Wait a minute. Doesn’t Nick’s Pizzeria have a happy hour that starts early on Wednesdays?”

  “Um. I think so?”

  Chloe was on her feet, pushing me toward the driver’s seat. “Get us there. Now. I’ll call and tell the station to meet us two blocks down!”

  “What? Chloe, this is crazy. Nick serves pizza. He’s going to be pissed if we poach his customers—”

  “I don’t care! Image means everything in these early stages! Step on it!”

  I did what she said and drove us to the end of Main Street where Nick’s Pizzeria was. His outdoor patio was already jam packed for Wine Wednesday and there was a line of about ten people waiting for tables out front.

  We quickly hopped out of the truck, and as I reopened the window, putting out our menu sign, I noticed Chloe was cutting up a brownie and a donut, putting them on little tasting plates with toothpicks. She hopped out of the truck and ran for the people standing around, passing out samples of our food to the people.

  As the news truck rounded the corner of Main Street, and we saw the field reporter and cameraman climbing out, Chloe announced to the group, “Fifty percent off of any one item if you purchase… um, now.”

  “What are you doing? Fifty percent off?” I whispered.

  “We need it to look like we’re booming even though we’re not. At least this way, we look good on camera, and it’s better to sell at half price than to give away what we don’t sell for free.”

  Well, she had a point there. She hopped forward, greeting the reporter with an outstretched hand. “Hi! So sorry for the last-minute change. I’m Chloe Dyker and this is my partner, Liam Evans.”

  “Hi. I’m Kimberly Waze with Channel Five.” It didn’t escape my notice the way her eyes brushed down my
body, lingering at my biceps. I might not be the largest Evans brother, but I wasn’t a skinny nothing, either. Then her gaze shifted over my shoulder, her brown eyes going wide as she tucked her deep chocolate hair behind her ear. “Wow, looks like you’ve got a nice little line going on right here. Ethan, grab some b-roll of the line before it goes down!”

  As Kimberly and Ethan sprang into action, Chloe and I turned around and I did my best to keep my face neutral as pretty much every person who had been waiting for a table was now waiting in line for the food truck. Chloe lifted her brows to me, a silent I told you so.

  “Um, I should probably go help them…” I said, hitching my thumb over my shoulder.

  “Let’s have you both behind the truck serving,” Kim said. “Then once the line has gone down, we can do the interview out here while everyone is eating.”

  I had to admit, Chloe’s plan worked. Twenty minutes later, we had a bit more money in the register, even with the discount, and lots of happy new customers excited to try more of our stuff. Several of the people sitting outside at Nick’s even came over to buy some dessert before going back to their tables. The interview portion was going well, though that was mostly thanks to Chloe. I was never very good at those sorts of things. Luckily, I just had to sit there and give short answers while she took the microphone.

  “So, who came up with the idea for the Dump Truck?” Kim asked.

  Chloe and I glanced at each other, grinning. “Well,” Chloe said. “We sort of both did. I was recently broken up with, and when Liam came by to check on me with some of his signature donuts and cupcakes, I immediately felt better. It’s incredible what a little sugar will do for a broken heart—”

  “Dyker!!” A booming voice shouted at us, interrupting the interview. Nick, the owner of the pizzeria was a bit older than us—in his early to mid-thirties. He had long hair, muscles big enough to almost rival my ex-Mr. Universe brother—and a neck so thick, he could probably break a necklace off of his body without using his hands. “What the hell is this?” he shouted, lumbering toward us.

  “Oh, shit,” Chloe said.

  Even Kim looked startled and moved out of the way. But not before whispering to Ethan, “Keep rolling.”

  “Are you seriously serving food to my customers outside of my restaurant?”

  Chloe stood her ground, as cool as I've ever seen her despite the fact that a huge, hulking man was approaching at a terrifying speed with a booming voice.

  She leaned against the ordering counter, flashing him one of her gorgeous, thousand-watt smiles. “Oh, hey Nick. How's it going?”

  “Don't you, ‘oh, hey Nick’ me. What the hell are you doing out here?”

  I leaned into Chloe, dropping my voice in an effort to conceal it from both Nick and the news crew recording our every move. “Maybe we should just pack up for the day and leave?” I offered.

  “Are you kidding?” Chloe asked. “This is the best business we've done all day, and you just want to walk away?”

  “It's not worth a couple hundred dollars to lose a good relationship with another local business.”

  Chloe huffed a sigh but folded her arms and offered nothing more. I climbed out of the van, crossing toward Nick. It wasn't until I was standing just in front of him that it sunk in how much bigger he was than me, and holy hell, I really hoped all those lessons I learned from How to Win Friends and Influence People paid off right now. Unfortunately, when I looked behind me, Chloe had also followed me out of the truck. “Why don't you just let me handle this one?” I said.

  Chloe’s confident smile never wavered as she replied, “I will. I'm just here for backup.”

  "Well, I'm hoping not to need backup."

  Chloe scoffed and rolled her eyes. "No one hopes to need backup."

  There was no use arguing with her. I didn’t have the time it would take to convince her to go inside and let Nick and me talk. I just hoped she didn't make this worse. “Hey Nick,” I said. Nick didn't respond to the pleasantry, save for crossing his arms over his extraordinarily swollen chest. “Sorry about this. It's our first day, and we really needed a spot for this news segment.”

  “And you didn't think to reach out and ask me first as a professional courtesy?”

  It’s a public parking spot and a public sidewalk, I wanted to say, but bit my tongue, knowing it would only hurt the situation.

  Chloe leaned forward, placing her hand on my forearm. “It all happened really fast. But next time —”

  “Next time?” Nick shouted.

  “Not next time,” I interjected, before Chloe could do more harm. “I think what Chloe meant to say was we promise not to sit in front of your restaurant selling food during your business hours.”

  I stole a glance to my left where Chloe was now glaring at me. “Oh, is that what I meant to say?” Even though I could feel the anger radiating off of her, I couldn't help the sparking electricity that trickled down my spine beneath her steely gaze. Was I seriously getting turned on by her anger? That was all kinds of fucked up. Slowly, her glare shifted to Nick. “What I was actually going to say, before I was rudely interrupted, was that customers who spend a certain amount at our food truck while we're here will get a gift card to spend at your establishment that we will pay for, of course. And maybe, you could offer the same for us, to help us spread the word about our new food truck. We would supply both gift cards, and I think it would be a symbiotic way to help promote both of our businesses.”

  Nick's cold gaze flashed and jerked to meet Chloe's. “What makes you think I need your help? Look around. I'm as busy as ever.”

  “Maybe you don't,” Chloe said. “But in a town like ours, small businesses need each other to thrive.” Chloe glanced around before adding, “Then again, I know for a fact that a chain pizza delivery is opening soon less than ten miles away from Maple Grove. And you don't do home deliveries. So maybe you don't need my help right this second, but you might in a couple months.”

  Chloe held out her hand for Nick to shake, waiting for him to place his palm against hers. Instead, his hard gaze shifted from her eyes to her hand, then to me. “Your girl runs her mouth a lot, you know that?”

  “I'd say she runs it just the right amount.” I looked at Chloe, admiring the square of her shoulders. The confidence in her stance. And that gleam in her eye, with just enough mischief to make us appear more successful than we really were for the evening news. I leaned in closer to Nick, whispering, hoping the microphones couldn't pick up my voice. “Plus, unless you want the lead story running on the five o'clock news to be that the grumpy pizza shop owner doesn't support new businesses in Maple Grove, I'd shake the woman's hand and smile for the cameras.”

  With a tick in his jaw, Nick clapped his hand into Chloe's, giving it a firm shake. Chloe smiled and said, “And I'm not his girl.”

  A smirk tugged at the corners of Nick's mouth, his glance shifting between us. “That so? Seems like I hit a sore spot there.”

  I didn't like the way he was now smiling at both of us. It was like he caught us in something, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. “Not exactly —”

  “Well, there you have it, Maple Grove,” the news reporter stepped forward, holding her mic in hand and speaking directly into the camera. “This new food truck, catering to your sweet tooth, is forging relationships with business owners all over the town. And it appears, for the time being, you can find them here in front of Nick's Pizzeria.”

  Nick placed a hand on each of our shoulders and pushed Chloe and me closer together so that she was nearly falling into my arms. I quickly caught her, just as her toes stubbed against mine and her soft breasts brushed my chest. “That's right,” Nick said to the camera. “These two lovebirds can be awfully convincing.”

  “What?”

  “No!” Chloe and I both exclaimed together at once.

  “Thanks so much for tuning in. Back to you in the studio, Bill and Teresa.”

  She turned to us after signing off, lowering
her microphone to her side. “You two are dating and you didn't tell me? That would've made a way more compelling story.”

  “We're not —”

  She rolled her eyes as the sound guy took the microphone from her hands. She wasn't even paying attention to us anymore. Instead, she was speaking to her two-person crew. “It's not a big deal. I’ll re-film the intro add it in post. Good luck with the food truck guys!”

  And before we could correct or stop her, she and her news van were gone.

  Nick chuckled, shoulders bouncing as Chloe whipped around, standing nose to nose with him. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “Hey, if you're going to strong-arm me into playing nice, I have every right to fight fire with fire.”

  Chloe's cheeks flushed red and her bubblegum-pink lips ghosted into a thin white line as she pressed them firmly together. Holy shit. The sight of Chloe mad was both terrifying and beautiful. “You're screwing with our lives. If my sister —”

  “And you messing with my business isn't screwing with my life?” Nick asked, then scoffed when Chloe didn't answer. A rough guttural sound that rolled in the back of his throat. “Don't dish it out if you can’t also take it, sweetheart.”

  Up until today, I always liked Nick. I didn't think he was a bad guy, just rough around the edges. But I'd never seen him like this before. I was not impressed, to say the least.

  As Nick turned to walk back into his restaurant, Chloe's fists tightened at her sides, bunching into two white knuckle balls. “Don't call me sweetheart.”

  I nodded in agreement. Nick paused, slowly turning back to face us. His eyebrow arched like a backbend over deep brown eyes. "You prefer I call you bitc—"

  He barely got the word out, before I was throwing my fist toward his face. I don't know what came over me. But the moment I heard that word, a white-hot fury overtook my body, and in a motion that felt completely out of my control, my fist connected hard with Nick's jaw.