by Rachel Astor
Dulcie nodded.
“And then I met Ashton.”
Dulcie crinkled her brow. “Ashton?”
She sighed. “Mr. Sugarman.”
“Oh…”
Grams got a little gleam in her eye, her gaze drifting to the distance. “A force to be reckoned with, that one.” A tiny smile at the corner of her mouth hinted at something. Something Dulcie’s brain wasn’t quite able to process yet.
Grams took a deep breath. “Our love affair didn’t last long, but let me tell you, that man was intense.”
Dulcie’s jaw came unhinged. She would not have been more shocked if it began raining gumdrops inside the apartment.
She wanted to scream, “Love affair?” She wanted to do something worthy of the news that nearly knocked her off her chair, but the words would not come. Too many of them swirled in her head all at once, none of them settling into any sort of coherent order.
“Things were perfect for a while,” Grams said, staring into space. “And then he tried to say we should combine our stores, build one giant empire of candy, automate the whole thing and go off to Paris or some such nonsense and just wait to cash the checks.”
Dulcie’s eyes must have been as wide as saucers. “Um, well, I suppose that doesn’t sound very romantic.”
Grams shook her head. “I knew at that moment that he and I had very different visions for our futures, and my job was the same as it had always been. To take care of your mother and you.”
Dulcie sat for a moment, her mouth poised to say something, but words failed her.
Grams finally sighed. “I’m tired,” she said, rubbing her temples. “I’m going to bed.”
Dulcie watched her walk away, a trickle of guilt weaving its way through her, wondering if she and her mother had ruined Grams’s chances of true love and happiness. Although Mr. Sugarman did not seem like anyone’s idea of true love or happiness.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop her stupid brain from coming back to extremely unwanted pictures of Grams and Mr. Sugarman over and over again.
Chapter Ten
Nick listened slack-jawed as Dulcie relayed the story.
His father had dated Ms. Carter.
That Ms. Carter.
When he hadn’t heard from Dulcie right away, he’d almost regretted exchanging numbers with her the other night, since he’d feared she was brushing him off for good. So when he got her urgent text, at first he was thrilled.
Nick was not at all prepared for this little tidbit of information.
He wasn’t so shocked his father had dated an older woman—besides, she was only five or so years older—as much as he was shocked his father had found someone like that in the first place. He hadn’t seen Ms. Carter in years—not since he’d gone to Cambridge for school—but he still remembered the way that black dress showed off all her…er…assets the last time he’d been to the Assembly of Chocolatiers competition. No doubt, Ms. Carter was pretty hot for an older woman.
Dulcie stared at him, waiting for his reaction. He should say something, but…what do you say when hit with news like that?
Nick put his palms up to his eyes and rubbed them. He cleared his throat. “Well, that certainly is unexpected news.”
Dulcie nodded. “You think?”
“Um, so I guess it ended badly?” he asked.
Dulcie shrugged. “The way they seem to hate each other’s guts, I’d say that would be a safe assumption.”
Nick nodded, his mind still whirring with shock and, if honest, a little bit of awe for his dad. Truth be told, once the initial surprise wore off, a newfound glimmer of respect for his old man might take its place.
“I just… I don’t know what to say.”
Dulcie nodded. “I know the feeling.”
“So they dated,” Nick said, shaking his head once more in disbelief, “then obviously they stopped.”
Dulcie nodded. “And something went very, very wrong.”
“Right.”
“So what do we do?”
Nick had no idea. “Well, it was a long time ago, right?”
Dulcie shrugged. “I think so. I certainly don’t remember it. Or maybe Grams just hid it really well.”
“Yeah,” Nick said, though a glimmer of something, not a memory, but just a notion of his father having been…busy a lot when he was a teenager—not that he paid much attention—surfaced. The more his father stayed away in those years, the happier Nick was. “I mean, what is there to do? They’ve stated their reasons for us not to see each other…”
Dulcie sat up straighter. “Which we will certainly take into advisement,” she said, with mock seriousness.
Nick raised one eyebroow. “But it’s not like the feud has anything to do with us.” He leaned toward her again, remembering the last time he’d leaned in close and how it had ended so…pleasantly.
“We barely even remember the feud,” Dulcie added, a fake innocence in her words, her eyelashes batting.
Which drove Nick nuts. No one had ever made him lose his senses like her before. He took a deep breath to remember what he was saying. “It seems to me it’s all in the past.”
“Completely over and done with,” Dulcie said, leaning close now, too.
They just looked at each other for a moment, the hair on Nick’s arms standing on end. “So,” he said. “I guess this means nothing’s stopping us.”
Dulcie’s coy smile faltered a bit. “Right. Except…maybe we should try to stay out of Grams’s way…and your father’s, of course. To spare them any additional stress. Just for a while.”
Nick nodded. “Just for a while.”
They clinked their coffee cups in a little toast to their agreement, each one taking a satisfied sip, staring at each other over the rims of their mugs.
Nick wanted to take the conversation further, see if she was feeling as strongly as he was, but a few of the customers were starting to notice them heating up their little corner of Dulcie’s shop. A couple of teenage girls were even pointing and giggling.
Damn.
He sighed. “So, have you finalized anything for the contest?” He put his palms up. “Not that you have to tell me, but I’m genuinely curious. Not too many people get what it’s like leading up to it.”
Dulcie nodded. “It’s okay. My friends don’t get what the big deal is, either, but for some reason, it all feels so important, like it’s some big revelation about the future of the shop.”
Nick nodded. “I know. I mean, I guess I’m not worried about the future of our shop, since it’s Dad’s baby and all, but it’s become a living hell trying to work with that man right now.”
Dulcie chuckled. “It can be stressful.”
“You seem like you’re doing okay, though,” he said, sipping his coffee. He didn’t know if it was because Dulcie made it, or if the brew was actually that good, but it might have been the best coffee he’d ever tasted.
She shrugged. “I think we’re ready. We tested and finalized everything yesterday.” She sat up a little straighter. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but I’m getting a little excited. And believe me, I did not think I would get excited about this contest ever again.” She ducked her face, sort of hiding behind her cup as she took a sip.
Nick couldn’t imagine anything more adorable.
He rolled his eyes in a sort of “it wasn’t that bad” way. “Dad seems to be coming around, too,” he said with a sigh. “When I got to the store this morning, he was so excited. Said he’d been up all night working on the entry and thought he finally had it figured out.” Nick swallowed hard, all the feelings of dread from that morning flooding back. It was so much worse than it sounded out loud. Nick could see his goal of taking over How Sweet It Is drifting away. He couldn’t stand the thought of failure, but worse, the disappointment all over his father’s face translated into nothing but bad news for Nick’s chances for the future he wanted.
Dulcie laughed. “He just wants to succeed.”
“Yeah, I
guess so,” Nick agreed.
He glanced around the shop. They never would have gotten one of the quaint little bistro tables if Dulcie hadn’t already been sitting when he arrived, no doubt having snagged it as a customer vacated. “It seems to me like business is doing pretty well. I don’t think we’ve ever had this many customers waiting at once.”
Dulcie nodded. “Yeah, things are going pretty well…for now,” she said. “Though it’s not always all fun and candy making. The financial end of things could use a little work, to say the least. I mean, the overhead on this place is pretty huge.”
Nick got the feeling she wasn’t quite ready to open up to him completely. Who could blame her? No matter how much they might have in common, they didn’t know each other very well.
He vowed to change that as they sipped their coffee. Nick was dying to find a new topic of conversation, but her words loomed over the table like fog.
Thankfully, Dulcie’s brain worked better than his and she found something to say. “So, since candy isn’t your passion, then what is? Your music?”
Nick shrugged. “I love to play, but it was never one of those serious things for me. Maybe if I’d had more encouragement when I was younger, but I never got good enough to pursue it as a profession or anything.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Really? You could have fooled me.”
He glowed. Like embarrassingly frickin’ glowed from the inside. And then he turned bright red on the outside at how easily she could get to him. “Um, thanks, but, you know, that’s just kind of foolin’ around.”
Dulcie looked pleased she’d made him squirm, like it was about time or something.
He cleared his throat to fill the silence.
“So then what?” Dulcie asked.
“What’s my passion?” he asked, stalling. He hadn’t told another living being about his secret obsession. “Um…”
“Come on,” she said, shoving his shoulder. “You pretty much know all there is to know about me, so now you gotta give me something.”
He raised one eyebrow. “I doubt I know even a fraction of what there is to know about you, but I will tell you if you promise not to laugh. It’s not very manly.”
Dulcie’s eyebrows knit together. “I already thought your passion was candy making. You’re going to tell me it’s less manly than candy making?”
Nick laughed. “Okay, good point, but seriously, don’t laugh, okay?”
He would die if she laughed.
She relaxed her eyebrows. “Okay, I promise.” She leaned in like he was about to reveal some sort of big secret. He didn’t want to disappoint her all over again.
He took a deep breath. “Cupcakes.”
She tilted her head, not in a laughing way exactly, but surprised. “Cupcakes? Your passion is cupcakes?”
His coffee became supremely interesting. “Uh, yeah.”
“Like the cupcakes you brought over here the night you tried to call a truce and I was too fat headed to understand?”
“Um, yeah,” he said quietly.
“Holy crap!” she said, making a few customers turn. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You made those yourself?”
He nodded, stirring…forever stirring. “Uh huh.”
“And decorated them and everything?”
Nick cringed. He imagined her picturing him in some sort of frilly pink apron, whistling a tune while daintily frosting cupcakes. He sighed. “Yeah.”
“Those were the best cupcakes I’ve ever had in my life. Like, my God, the girls begged me to ask you where you got them and everything. We sat in awe and silence while we ate because we were too enamored to even have a conversation.”
He glanced at her, his heart speeding up. He thought his cupcakes were good, but he never knew if anyone else would like them. Sure, they were cupcakes and all—and who doesn’t like cupcakes?—but what if he’d veered too far from what a normal cupcake customer might expect?
“They weren’t too…non-cupcakey for you?” he asked.
God, did you just say non-cupcakey in front of the woman you like?
“They were amazing. Like, there are no words to convey how amazing.”
He still couldn’t look her in the eye. She had to be just saying it. “Um, thanks,” he finally spit out.
“How is it you haven’t started selling them?” she asked. “They would fly off the shelves.”
He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. And it’s not like my father would go for it. I mean, it’s a candy store, not a bakery.”
“You haven’t approached him?” She blinked pure disbelief.
He shrugged. “It’s not one of those things that can easily transfer to an assembly line.”
Her gaze drifted down. “Oh right, I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Besides, it’s only a pipe dream. Nothing will ever come of it. I need to focus on taking over How Sweet It Is instead.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s a travesty there isn’t a place to buy them already.”
“Come on, Dulcie. Thank you for the compliments, but they aren’t that amazing.”
“Oh my God.” She huffed, turning in her seat. “Constance, would you come here for a sec?”
Constance looked at Dulcie like she needed anti-psychotic meds, motioning to the lineup stretching out the door.
“I know, but it’ll only take a sec.”
Constance rolled her eyes and apologized to the people in line, hurrying over.
“Do you remember those cupcakes we had the other night?”
“How could I forget the best cupcakes I’ve ever had in my life?” she asked, then put her hand on her hip like Dulcie better have something more important to talk about than cupcakes or she would smack her with a piece of fruit leather.
Dulcie turned to Nick. “See?”
“You liked them?”
“They were so good I dreamed about cupcakes. Haven’t been able to stop thinking about them ever since. Where did they come from, anyway? My daughter’s birthday is coming up and she would die for a batch.”
Nick was speechless. His cupcakes had always been his passion, sure, but he never believed anyone else would think they were as good as he did.
Dulcie glanced at Nick questioningly, tilting her head toward Constance, wanting to spill the secret.
Nick nodded, still half in shock.
“Nick made them.”
Constance’s eyes widened. “By God, Dulcie, you better hang on to this one. Especially if it means that’s the only way I’ll ever get to indulge in that little bit of heaven again.” She stared out the window, then turned to the shop as if remembering she had something else to do. “Darn it, gotta get back before the customers start throwing things.” She rushed away.
Dulcie wore a look of pure smugness. “Told ya.”
He ran a hand through his hair, a strange tingle inside him. He couldn’t decide whether he was uncomfortable or excited. Or both.
“That’s, um…that’s good to hear, I guess.”
Dulcie bit her lip. “Honestly, it would be a shame if you weren’t able to share that kind of talent with the world.”
Nick squirmed.
“At least say you’ll consider talking to your dad about getting your stuff on the shelf. I mean, it’s not candy, but if you gave him a taste, I’m sure he’d be dying to sell them.”
“You don’t know my dad very well,” he said, smiling a little. “But I’ll think about it. For you.”
No way in hell he’d ever mention anything to his dad, but saying it was well worth her smile.
When Nick got back to How Sweet It Is, his father shoved a small see-through container of chocolates in front of his face the second he walked into the store.
“This is a test,” his father said. “They’re the recipe I worked all night on and now it’s up to you to break them down and figure out how I created them, all the ingredients that went into making them.”
“Why?” Nick asked.
He should be happy he was gett
ing another chance. Of course, he wouldn’t need another chance if his father had just left him alone to create the damned chocolate like he was supposed to. He tried not to think about how long he had tried to design something only to come up empty, or the tiny twinge of relief he’d felt when his father said he’d come up with something.
His father sighed. “Because you never learned the business like you should have. How can I expect you to run the store if you’ve never even designed a chocolate before?”
“Dad, I know candy. I’ve been around it my whole life. And besides, I know business.”
His father slammed his hand on the counter. “There’s a big difference between stuffing your face with candy and knowing how to design and sell something spectacular!”
Nick put up his hands. “Okay, okay. I’ll give it a shot,” he said, quick to put an end to the conversation before he ticked off his father even more.
Several customers had turned to watch the outburst.
“So, where do I ‘break down’ this chocolate? There’s not a proper kitchen here anymore.”
“Go to your fancy condo,” his father said. “That gourmet kitchen should be sufficient. Lord knows I paid enough for it.”
Nick winced at his words. It’s not like he’d asked his father to buy the condo. Just like he hadn’t asked him to pay for Harvard. But he was sure his father did it so he could hold it over Nick’s head.
“Fine,” he spat, grabbing the container of chocolates and getting the hell away from his father as fast as he could.
Nick had no idea how to “break down” a chocolate recipe, but he figured tasting one was as good a place to start as any. He jotted down the most obvious ingredients as he rolled the flavors around in his mouth.
His father had outdone himself. Sure, How Sweet It Is had some decent chocolates, but this creation was above and beyond.
By the time the container was empty, Nick was positive he’d picked out all the ingredients. Actually, it had been surprisingly easy when he started with the basic flavors and worked his way up to the more subtle hints of vanilla and even a little cinnamon.
