by Mysti Parker
Within each of those cloned abodes lived the same type of family. Workaholic dad who drove a midlife crisis Audi convertible or some other looks-like-it’s-expensive-but-it’s-not car. Stay-at-home mom who drove a hybrid car/truck thing, wore nothing but yoga pants, and made a big show of jogging with their three-wheeled strollers. Ugh. Talk about boring.
San Francisco, Sedona, Montreal, Seattle, even Kalamazoo had more flair than this town. It had been too long since she’d traveled anywhere. She didn’t even know if her passport was still valid. Why the heck would Tanner and Garrett want to come back? She wasn’t childish enough to believe they’d returned for her or Paige. Maybe their parents were ill. But surely Linda would have said so. Then again, there were a lot of secrets floating in the undercurrents of Beach Pointe society.
Morgan hung her keys and purse on a hook in the kitchen.
“Hey.” Paige's voice broke the silence.
Morgan jumped. “Oh geez, you scared me half to death.”
“Sorry.” Paige stood in the door that led to her apartment in the rear of the shop. She was holding Tyler, who kept whispering something over and over.
“What’s he saying?”
“Thirty-three.”
Morgan walked over and rubbed Ty’s back. That often calmed him. He rested his head on his mom’s shoulder. Smiling, Morgan put on an apron, washed her hands, and got the butter from the fridge to make a new batch of icing.
Paige bounced him gently. “So, are you going to tell me who owns Maggie’s or not? And who was this friend you were in such a rush to have coffee with?”
Morgan plunked the butter on the counter and grabbed a knife to cut it. She took a deep breath. Might as well spit it out. “Garrett Mann.”
She chopped up the butter, exactly two cups worth, and waited. Paige would freak out sooner or later.
All Paige did was blink at her, but Morgan knew the gears were turning. “Oh. I didn’t know you two had kept in touch.”
“We hadn’t really, but now that he’s living here…”
“Living here? I thought he lived in Louisville.”
“He did. Now he and Tanner are back.”
Paige sat Tyler down at his kid table then set out blank paper and crayons for him. He promptly started scribbling thirty-three all over the paper. She joined Morgan at the counter, leaning close and looking apprehensive.
“He and Tanner? Why? No, don’t tell me.”
“Make up your mind, sis. But I don’t think I have to tell you now, do I?”
Paige let her head fall back with a loud exhale. “Why on earth would they buy Maggie’s?”
“They’re opening up a man-themed cupcake shop. You’ll never guess the name. It’s Mann Cakes.” Morgan realized then how excited she sounded and adopted an expression as melancholy as her sister’s.
“You’ve got to be kidding. Is this some kind of joke? It’s not funny.”
Morgan finished chopping the butter and wiped her hands on her apron. “It’s not a joke. The place is looking nice. They’re almost done remodeling the place.”
“So, I’m supposed to be what? Happy for them? Should I send a welcome basket?”
“I don’t know how you should feel, but I don’t think you need to get upset about it.”
“Not get upset? Let's don't even mention the obvious, but they’ll be competition. They’ll drive us out of business.”
“No, they won’t. It’s a guy food thing—all cheese and bacon and hamburger. Savory cupcakes.”
“Bullshit.”
“Language.”
Paige growled. “Shove it. Did you tell him anything?” She grabbed the mixer and crammed the plug into the outlet before scooping up the butter and throwing it into the mixing bowl. Her assault continued with the powdered sugar, dumping in one, then two, then three cups. A white cloud floated over the counter, growing with every angry addition.
“No, but you’re bound to run into him sooner or later. Seriously, Paige, why are you so upset?”
Shrugging, she frowned sarcastically and spun the spice rack at full tilt until she found the vanilla and snatched it up. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because my ex-boyfriend is back in town. You know, the one who slept with me and then my best friend?”
A year younger than Paige and the Mann brothers, Morgan had been a junior when all that went down, and it had pretty much soured her outlook on romantic relationships.
“She was never your best friend,” Morgan said. “She slept with half the football team, and that was a long time ago. Let bygones be bygones already.”
Paige unscrewed the top and splashed an unseemly amount of vanilla into the frosting. “Easy for you to say. You’ve never dated anyone long enough to care. You wouldn’t even ask Garrett out, and he was crazy about you.”
Morgan felt her blood pressure rising. She struggled to keep her voice calm so she wouldn’t upset Ty. “That’s enough. I can’t help what happened between you two. And if Garrett was so crazy about me, why didn’t he ask me out?”
“He was too shy, and I think he thought you were a lesbian or something. You never dated anyone in high school.”
“He didn’t seem shy today. And I didn’t date anyone because I wanted to focus on my education and future career.” Morgan grabbed the food colors and a small bowl. Then she calmly turned off the mixer and spooned out a big dollop of plain buttercream, putting it in the smaller bowl like a sane person…unlike her sister at the moment. She did want to stress one point, though. Spatula in hand, she pointed her rubber-bladed weapon at Paige as threateningly as one could with such a thing. “And I am not a lesbian!”
“I never said you were, just that he thought you were.”
“Whatever. We were always good friends. And I’m glad he’s back.” Morgan added two drops of red, two drops of blue, and stirred, attempting to recreate the exact shade of purple Jenny Smithers wanted for her daughter’s birthday theme. She loved watching the colors swirl together in the buttercream. Inventing her own colors was one of her favorite parts of painting. She’d applied an endless rainbow of oil paints and watercolors to any surface she could get away with. Nowadays cupcakes were her only canvas, and only for a little while until over-sugared kids gobbled them up.
“Hey, earth to Morgan.” Paige gave her a gentle nudge and an apologetic smile.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone off like that. You didn’t deserve it.”
“Darn right I didn’t. Now what are you going to do about Mann Cakes?”
Paige looked at Ty, who rocked from side to side, happily chanting, “Thirty-three,” while filling another blank sheet of paper with the same number.
“Nothing yet.”
“You should just go and get it over with.”
Paige stiffened and ran her fingers through the back of her short, dark hair. It was some kind of bob, longer on the sides and short in the back. Morgan hated it on her, but never said so. She needed something that didn’t require a lot of fuss, especially with Tyler’s unpredictable moods. She kept looking at her son, but her attention seemed a million miles away, probably back to the night when she and Tanner had broken up. Morgan knew she’d never gotten over it, or him, but would never admit it.
Finally, she looked at Morgan and shrugged one shoulder. “No, not yet. Maybe you’re right. Maybe they’re not competition. I’m probably worrying over nothing.”
“Of course I’m right.” But as she added the last drop of food color to the icing and stirred it into purple perfection, she knew they’d have to meet sooner or later. It wasn’t a big town. You ran into everyone at least once a month. If not at church, then at the grocery or the post office. When that day happened, Morgan worried she might need a helmet to protect herself from the fallout.
Chapter Five
Tanner stood by the door, his hand hovering over the closed sign. “You ready, bro?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Garrett stood behind the counter, hi
s face as grim as a mortician’s.
“It’s opening day! Try to show a little more enthusiasm.”
Garrett held up his mug of coffee and grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
“Smart ass.” Tanner flipped the Closed sign to Open and unlocked the door.
Two seconds later, a small herd of college girls stampeded in. They must have raided Beach Pointe Roasters already because most of them carried large coffees or lattes or whatever frothy crap girls drank.
He retreated behind the counter so he wouldn’t be trampled. “Welcome to Mann Cakes, ladies. You know this isn’t a sweet shop, right?”
The whole group erupted into chatter and giggles. Phones came out, and screens pointed toward him and Garrett. Tanner turned to his brother, who looked just as bewildered as he felt.
“Oh, it’s sweet, all right.” A tall brunette near the counter turned her back to him and angled her phone overhead for a selfie. “Smile!”
Tanner leaned close and flashed his pearly whites. A pair of girls took a selfie with Garrett, whose smile was more Mona Lisa than Colgate commercial. There were a few more selfies and several orders for Monday Muffintops—his own idea, brilliantly executed by Garrett of course. These were made from a plain savory batter, lightly sweetened with maple syrup, with link sausage hidden inside. It kind of defeated the purpose of tops if you didn’t have the bottom part, but who was Tanner to judge? They sold out of the first batch in half an hour.
A thousand selfies and a few dozen mini cheddar cupcakes later, the girls filed out. Garrett went to stick another batch of Mondays in the oven.
“What the heck was that all about?” he yelled from the kitchen.
“A nice profit,” Tanner yelled back.
“I don’t think they were that interested in the food. I felt like we were on display.”
“Maybe we were. Who cares? Those pics and vids will go up all over Facebook and YouTube. You could use a date anyway.”
Garrett didn’t answer. Fifty bucks said he was thinking about Morgan. He really needed to get over her. Inevitably, Tanner’s traitorous mind drifted to Paige. They’d already been here over a month and hadn’t seen her once. Garrett and Morgan had gone for coffee a couple times, but that was it. She didn’t offer any news about her sister. Tanner had lost enough dignity to beg Linda for info, but she wouldn't talk. He even considered calling up Paige’s mom, but he’d just look nosy and pathetic. Why all the secrecy? Maybe Paige had a sex change and was now Peter or something.
“So, what about you?” Garrett said, coming back from the kitchen. “You’ve only gone out with that one girl since we've been here. What was her name?”
Tanner had to think a second. “Gabrielle.” That was it, right? Probably not a good sign that he couldn’t remember.
“Yeah, and what was wrong with her?”
“She smelled like pickles and talked about her dogs the whole time. I've never met anyone so attached to their Pomeranians. She probably lets them lick her on the mouth. I'm not kissing that. And besides, I’ve been too busy with this place to worry about it.” Lying wasn’t his strong suit. His voice went a pitch higher, and he blinked a lot. God forbid he ever commit a crime. The cops wouldn’t even need a lie detector.
“Whatever.” That was Garrett's default answer to everything.
The rest of the morning saw a steady stream of customers, from soccer moms, to business ladies, to nannies and grandmothers. Not one man in sight. During an afternoon lull, Garrett sat down with another cup of coffee and a Baconista, Tanner’s personal favorite. The dough was full of bacon bits and stripes of shredded Colby cheese, the bottom wrapped with strips of bacon and topped with a mound of Cheez Whiz.
Tanner joined Garrett at the table. He pulled up a seat backwards, straddled it, and opened a bottle of water. “I don’t get it. The Baconista should be heaven for dudes.”
Garrett shrugged. “That’s how we advertised it, right?”
“Yeah…” Of course, there was that one photoshoot of him in civilian camo pants, boots, and a sage green T-shirt that was a tad too tight. And he may have flexed a little while holding that tray of Baconistas and Mondays. Those pics had appeared in the paper, on Facebook ads, and even a small billboard on the bypass.
“Okay.” Garrett looked dubious. “Well, we just opened. Let’s give it a few days and see if the guys start coming in.”
The door opened, and Tanner spun around to see a man walk in. Followed by another man. Holding hands. Tanner got up, trying to ignore Garrett’s quiet chuckle.
“Hi there,” one of the men said. He gave Tanner an appreciative appraisal from head to toe. “I’m Glen. This is Jeff. We’d like to place an order for our wedding.”
“Yes, a big order.” Jeff nodded enthusiastically, watching Garrett as he walked behind the counter. “What would you recommend? And, please tell me you cater.”
“You got the money, we got the time.”
Well, at least they were guys. He hadn’t met a man yet who didn’t like bacon, no matter what team they pitched for.
****
Ten minutes before closing time at five o’clock, Tanner counted receipts. They’d done well for the first day. Garrett was on his fifth cup of coffee and looked twitchy.
“What’s the matter?” Tanner asked.
“All day, we’ve had a bunch of women and a gay couple, but not a single straight man has stopped in. What’s the deal?”
“I don’t know.” Okay, so he knew the answer to that. He suspected Garrett did, too, but he was probably in denial.
The door opened again, and in walked another woman, but not just any woman. Tanner dropped the receipts on the countertop. They fluttered across it, some hit the floor, but he couldn't care less.
“Hmm, so it’s just like Morgan described,” Paige said. Her eyes took in everything.
For a moment, he was transported back to the first time he saw her. Paige and her sister Morgan had just moved from North Carolina. They were your perfect girl next door examples—hair in neat ponytails and braids, wearing no-nonsense jeans and T-shirts. Not his type at all. At least he didn’t think so. He had needed serious help with math if he wanted to graduate, and Paige had just happened to be his tutor. He annoyed the crap out of her. She said he was hopeless. But one afternoon, the math finally clicked, and their eyes met. Hers were big and brown, some would say doe-like, but no. This girl was anything but meek. She was intelligent and could hold her own in a fight. He hadn’t realized he wanted a girl like that until then.
Paige crossed her arms. She stared at Tanner for one painful second before turning to Garrett with a smile. “It’s good to see you again. Welcome back to Beach Pointe.”
“Thanks. It’s good to be back,” Garrett said, sliding his gaze toward Tanner. “Right, bro?”
“Very.”
She shook her head with a slanted smile and a brief laugh. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.” That time, she was looking right at Tanner. Clearly, the old wounds he’d inflicted still festered.
“I guess you were wrong.”
Her dark eyes narrowed into slits. Shit, he’d already pissed her off and hadn’t even said ten words to her yet.
“I’ll just… Dishes… See ya, Paige.” Garrett retreated to the kitchen.
Now what? Was she going to tear him a new one?
She walked up to the counter and scanned their nearly-empty display. “Seems like your opening day was a success.”
“It was.”
She nodded, focusing blindly on the few remaining items in the display case as though trying to find something else to say.
Tanner broke the silence. “You’re looking good, Paige.”
She huffed through her nose and scratched at the back of her neck. “If you call tired and stressed good, then yeah.”
“No, really. The short hair works on you, too.” He wasn’t lying. She did look tired, with dark circles under her eyes that said she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages. But she still had
a smoking hot figure, flawless skin, shiny hair. If anything, she was even more beautiful than before. Plus, he couldn't help but be a little relieved that she was still Paige and not Peter.
She held up her hand and shook her head. “Don’t try to… Look, I’m not here for small talk.”
“Okay, so why are you here?”
“We’ve lost customers, and it’s because of you.”
“Oh, come on, how do you know that? We just opened.”
“Several orders have been canceled, including Glen and Jeff’s. I had to guilt them into telling me they’re ordering from you instead.”
“We’re not trying to be competition. We wanted the opposite—all the guys who don’t like the sugary, pink stuff.”
“Well, that’s not what you got, and I think you knew that going into it.”
“How would I know that?”
Paige slung her arm out, pointing toward the door. Her voice rose, along with the angry red in her cheeks. “The billboard, the TV ads, even a front-page article in the paper. I think you knew exactly who you were attracting, and what it would do to our business.”
Tanner would've had to pick his jaw off the floor if it hadn’t been attached. Fists clenched, he had to force himself to stay behind the counter. Not because he wanted to throw her out, but because he wanted to hold her and say he was sorry. Hell, he kind of wanted to kiss her, too. But she wasn’t having any of that. He’d have rather faced a badger with an axe to grind than Paige Baxter at that moment.
So, he held his ground. “If some son of a bitch hadn’t burned our business and our friend to the ground, we’d still be there. We needed to pay the bills. This place was available, so we took it. That’s all. We wanted to draw the men in—the straight men, the ones who wanted Cheez Whiz instead of a mound of sweet icing. I can’t help it if we drew a different crowd. Maybe you need to step up your game, if you’re so worried about it.”
