She shook her head. “Rachel, Creative Cupcakes’ stupendous co-owner, baker, and promoter.”
This time a grin did escape his mouth, which led her to notice his strong, masculine jawline.
“Tell me, Rachel, what is it that makes you so stupendous?”
She gave him her most flirtatious smile. “Sorry, I can’t reveal my secrets either.”
“Afraid if I found out the truth, I might not think you’re so impressively great?”
Rachel froze, fearing Mike the magician might be a mind reader as well. Careful to keep her smile intact, she forced herself to laugh off his comment.
“I just don’t think it’s nice to brag,” she responded playfully.
“Chicken,” he taunted in an equally playful tone as he made his way toward the party room door.
Despite the uneasy feeling he’d discovered more about her in three minutes than most men did in three years, she wished he’d stayed to chat a few minutes more.
Andi Burke, wearing one of the new, hot-pink Creative Cupcakes bibbed aprons, came in from the kitchen and stared at the cupcake mess on the floor. “What happened here?”
“Zorro came in, gave me a panic attack, and the tray slipped out of my hands.” Rachel grabbed a couple of paper towels and squatted down to scoop up the crumpled cake and splattered frosting before her OCD kitchen safety friend could comment further. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the mess.”
“I should have told you Officer Lockwell hired a magician for his daughter’s birthday party.” Andi bent to help her, and when they stood back up, she asked, “Did you speak to Mike?”
Rachel nodded, her gaze on the connecting door to the party room as it opened, and Mike reappeared. Tipping his head toward them as he walked across the floor, he said, “Good afternoon, ladies.”
Mike went out the front door, and Rachel hurried around the display case of cupcakes and crossed over to the shop’s square, six-foot-high, street-side window. She leaned her head toward the glass and watched him take four three-by-three-foot black painted boxes out of the back of a van.
“You should go after him,” Andi teased, her voice filled with amusement. “He’s very handsome.”
“How can you tell?” Rachel drew away from the window, afraid Mike might catch her spying on him. “He’s got a black mask covering the upper half of his face. He could have sunken eyes, shaved eyebrows, and facial tattoos.”
Andi laughed. “He doesn’t, and I know you like guys with dark hair. He’s not as tall as my Jake, but he’s still got a great build.”
“Better not let Jake hear you say that,” Rachel retorted. “And how do you know he has a great build? The guy’s wrapped in a cape.”
“I’ve seen him before,” Andi said. “Without the cape.”
“Where?”
“His photo was in the newspaper two weeks ago,” Andi confided. “The senior editor at the Astoria Sun assigned Jake to write an article on Mike Palmer’s set models.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mike Palmer created the miniature model replica of the medieval city of Hilltop for the movie Battle for Warrior Mountain and worked on set pieces for many other movies filmed around Astoria. His structural designs are so intricate that when the camera zooms in close, it looks real.”
Mike returned through the front door, wheeling in the black boxes on an orange dolly. Rachel caught her breath as he looked her way before proceeding toward the party room with his equipment. Did the masked man find her as intriguing as she found him?
Andi’s younger sister, Kim, came in from the kitchen with a large tray of red velvet cupcakes with cherry−cream cheese frosting. The three of them together, with Andi’s boyfriend, Jake Hartman, as their financial partner, had managed to open Creative Cupcakes a month and a half earlier.
“Who’s he?” Kim asked. She placed the cupcakes on the marble counter and pointed toward the billowing black cape of the magician.
“Mike the Magnificent,” Rachel said dreamily.
An Excerpt from
THE CUPCAKE DIARIES: TASTE OF ROMANCE
All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!
—Charles Schulz
FOCUS, KIM REPRIMANDED herself. Keep to the task at hand and stop eavesdropping on other people’s conversations.
But she didn’t need to hear the crack of the teenage boy’s heart to feel his pain. Or to remember the last time she’d heard the wretched words “I’m leaving” spoken to her.
She tried to ignore the couple as she picked up the pastry bag filled with pink icing and continued to decorate the tops of the strawberry preserve cupcakes. However, the discussion between the high school boy and what she assumed to be his girlfriend kept her attentive.
“When will I see you again?” he asked.
Kim glanced toward them and leaned closer.
“I don’t know,” the girl replied.
The soft lilt in her accent thrust the familiarity of the conversation even deeper into Kim’s soul.
“I’ll be going to the university for two years,” the girl continued. “Maybe we meet again after.”
Not likely. Kim shook her head, and her stomach tightened. From past experience, she knew once the school year was over in June, most foreign students went home, never to return.
And left many broken hearts in their wake.
“Two years is a long time,” the boy said.
Forever was even longer. Kim drew in a deep breath as the unmistakable catch in the poor boy’s voice replayed again and again in her mind. And her heart.
How long were they going to stand there and torment her by reminding her of her parting four years earlier with Gavin, the Irish student she’d dated through college? Dropping the bag of icing on the Creative Cupcakes counter, she moved toward them.
“Can I help you?” Kim asked, pulling on a new pair of food handler’s gloves.
“I’ll have the white chocolate macadamia,” the girl said, pointing to the cupcake she wanted in the glass display case.
The boy dug his hands into his pockets, counted the meager change he’d managed to withdraw, and turned five shades of red.
“None for me.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “How much for hers?”
“You have to have one, too,” the girl protested. “It’s your birthday.”
Kim took one look at his lost-for-words expression and said, “If today is your birthday, the cupcakes are free.” She added, “For both you and your guest.”
The teenager’s face brightened. “Really?”
Kim nodded and removed the cupcakes the two lovebirds wanted from the display case. She even put a birthday candle on one of them, a heart on the other. Maybe the girl would come back for him. Or he would fly to Ireland for her. Maybe.
Her eyes stung, and she squeezed them shut for a brief second. When she opened them again, she set her jaw. Enough was enough. Now that they had their cupcakes, she could escape back into her work and forget about romance and relationships and every regrettable moment she’d ever wasted on love.
She didn’t need it. Not like her older sister, Andi, who had recently lost her heart to Jake Hartman, their Creative Cupcakes financier and reporter for the Astoria Sun. Or like her other co-owner friend, Rachel, who had just gotten engaged to Mike Palmer, a miniature model maker for movies who also doubled as the driver of their Cupcake Mobile.
All she needed was to dive deep into her desire to put paint on canvas. She glanced at the walls of the cupcake shop, adorned with her scenic oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings. Maybe if she worked hard enough, she’d have the money to open her own art gallery, and she wouldn’t need to decorate cupcakes anymore.
But for now, she needed to serve the next customer. Where was Rachel?
“Hi, Kim.” Officer Ian Lockwell, one of their biggest supporters, sat on one of the stools lining the marble cupcake counter. “I’m wondering if you have the back party room av
ailable on June 27?”
Kim reached under the counter and pulled out the three-ring binder she, Andi, and Rachel had dubbed the Cupcake Diary to keep track of all things cupcake related. Looking at the calendar, she said, “Yes, the date is open. What’s the occasion?”
“My wife and I have been married almost fifteen years,” the big, square-jawed cop told her. “We’re planning on renewing our vows on our anniversary and need a place to celebrate with friends and family.”
“No better place to celebrate love than Creative Cupcakes,” Kim assured him, glancing around at all the couples in the shop. “I’ll put you on the schedule.”
Next, the door opened, and a stream of romance writers filed in for their weekly meeting. Kim pressed her lips together. The group intimidated her with their watchful eyes and poised pens. They scribbled in their notebooks whenever she walked by as if writing down her every move, and she didn’t want to give them any useful fodder. She hoped Rachel could take their orders, if she could find her.
“Rachel?”
No answer, but the phone rang—a welcome distraction. She picked up and said, “Creative Cupcakes, this is Kim.”
“What are you doing there? I thought you were going to take time off.”
Kim pushed into the privacy of the kitchen, glad it was Andi and not another customer despite the impending lecture tone. “I still have several dozen cupcakes to decorate.”
“Isn’t Rachel there with you?”
The door of the walk-in pantry burst open, and Rachel and Mike emerged, wrapped in each other’s arms, laughing and grinning.
Kim rolled her eyes. “Yes, Rachel’s here.”
Rachel extracted herself from Mike’s embrace and mouthed the word “sorry.”
But Kim knew she wasn’t. Rachel had been in her own red-headed, happy bubble ever since macho, dark-haired Mike the Magnificent had proposed two weeks earlier.
“I’ll be in for my shift as soon as I get Mia off to afternoon kindergarten,” Andi continued, “and the shop’s way ahead in sales. There’s no reason you can’t take a break. Ever since you broke up with Gavin, you’ve become a workaholic.”
Kim sucked in her breath at the mention of his name. Only Andi dared to ever bring him up.
“Gavin has nothing to do with my work.”
“You never date.”
“I’m concentrating on my career.”
“It’s been years since you’ve been out with anyone. You need to slow down, take time to smell the roses.”
“Smell the roses?” Kim gasped. “Are you serious?”
“Go on an adventure,” Andi amended.
“Working is an adventure.”
“You used to dream of a different kind of adventure,” Andi said, lowering her voice. “The kind that requires a passport.”
Kim wished she’d never picked up the phone. Just because her sister had her life put back together didn’t mean she had the right to tell her how to live.
“Painting cupcakes and canvas is the only adventure I need right now. I promised Dad I’d have the money to pay him for my new art easel by the end of the week.”
“Dad doesn’t care about the money, but he does care about you. He asked me to call.”
“He did?” Kim stopped in front of the sink and rubbed her temples with her fingertips. Her sister was known to overreact, but their father? He didn’t voice concern unless it was legitimate.
With the phone to her ear, she returned to the front counter of the couple-filled cupcake shop, her heart screaming louder and louder with each consecutive beat.
They were everywhere. By the window, at the tables, next to the display case. Couples, couples, couples. Everyone had a partner, had someone.
Almost everyone.
Instead of Goonies Day, the celebration of the 1985 release date of The Goonies movie, which was filmed in Astoria, she would have thought the calendar had been flipped back to Valentine’s Day at Creative Cupcakes. And in her opinion, one Valentine’s Day a year was more than enough.
She reached a hand into the pocket of her pink apron and clenched the golden wings she had received on her first airplane flight as a child. The pin never left her side, and like the flying squirrel tattooed on her shoulder, it reminded her of her dream to fly, if not to another land, then at least to the farthest reaches of her imagination.
Where her heart would be free.
Okay, maybe she did spend too much time at the cupcake shop. “Tell Dad not to worry,” Kim said into the phone. “Tell him . . . I’m taking the afternoon off.”
“Promise?” Andi persisted.
Oh, yeah. Tearing off her apron, she turned around and threw it over Rachel’s and Mike’s heads. “I’m heading out the door now.”
Acknowledgments
* * *
I WOULD LIKE to thank my editors, Lucia Macro and May Chen, and everyone else at Avon Impulse for their continued support, and also my new agent, Nicole Resciniti, for cheering me on and lending her guidance. You have all made this a wonderful experience.
About the Author
* * *
DARLENE PANZERA writes sweet, fun-loving romance and is a member of the Romance Writers of America’s Greater Seattle and Peninsula chapters. Her career launched when her novella The Bet was picked by Avon Books and New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber to be published within Debbie’s own novel, Family Affair. Darlene says, “I love writing stories that help inspire people to laugh, value relationships, and pursue their dreams.”
Born and raised in New Jersey, Darlene is now a resident of the Pacific Northwest, where she lives with her husband and three children. When not writing she enjoys spending time with her family and her two horses, and loves camping, hiking, photography, and lazy days at the lake.
Join her on Facebook or at www.darlenepanzera.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
By Darlene Panzera
Bet You’ll Marry Me
The Cupcake Diaries: Sweet on You
The Cupcake Diaries: Recipe for Love
The Cupcake Diaries: Taste of Romance
The Cupcake Diaries: Spoonful of Christmas
Give in to your impulses . . .
Read on for a sneak peek at four brand-new
e-book original tales of romance from Avon Books.
Available now wherever e-books are sold.
RESCUED BY A STRANGER
By Lizbeth Selvig
CHASING MORGAN
BOOK FOUR: THE HUNTED SERIES
By Jennifer Ryan
THROWING HEAT
A DIAMONDS AND DUGOUTS NOVEL
By Jennifer Seasons
PRIVATE RESEARCH
AN EROTIC NOVELLA
By Sabrina Darby
An Excerpt from
RESCUED BY A STRANGER
by Lizbeth Selvig
When a stranger arrives in town on a vintage motorcycle, Jill Carpenter has no idea her life is about to change forever. She never expected that her own personal knight in shining armor would be an incredibly charming and handsome southern man—but one with a deep secret. When Jill’s dreams of becoming an Olympic equestrian start coming true, Chase’s past finally returns to haunt him. Can they get beyond dreams to find the love that will rescue their two hearts? Find out in the follow-up to The Rancher and the Rock Star.
“Angel?” Jill called. “C’mon, girl. Let’s go get you something to eat.” She’d responded to her new name all evening. Jill frowned.
Chase gave a soft, staccato, dog-calling whistle. Angel stuck her head out from a stall a third of the way down the aisle. “There she is. C’mon, girl.”
Angel disappeared into the stall.
“Weird,” Jill said, heading down the aisle.
At the door to a freshly bedded empty stall, they found Angel curled beside a mound of sweet, fragrant hay, staring up as if expecting them.
“Silly girl,” Jill said
. “You don’t have to stay here. We’re taking you home. Come.”
Angel didn’t budge. She rested her head between her paws and gazed through raised doggy brows. Chase led the way into the stall. “Everything all right, pup?” He stroked her head.
Jill reached for the dog, too, and her hand landed on Chase’s. They both froze. Slowly he rotated his palm and wove his fingers through hers. The few minor fireworks she’d felt in the car earlier were nothing compared to the explosion now detonating up her arm and down her back.
“I’ve been trying to avoid this since I got off that dang horse.” His voice cracked into a low whisper.
“Why?”
He stood and pulled her to her feet. “Because I am not a guy someone as young and good as you are should let do this.”
“You’ve saved my life and rescued a dog. Are you trying to tell me I should be worried about you?”
She touched his face, bold enough in the dark to do what light had made her too shy to try.
“Maybe.”
The hard, smooth fingertips of his free hand slid inexorably up her forearm and covered the hand on his cheek. Drawing it down to his side, he pulled her whole body close, and the little twister of excitement in her stomach burst into a thousand quicksilver thrills. Her eyelids slipped closed, and his next question touched them in warm puffs of breath.
“If I were to kiss you right now, would it be too soon?”
Her eyes flew open, and she searched his shadowy gaze, incredulous. “You’re asking permission? Who does that?”
“Seemed like the right thing.”
“Well, permission granted. Now hush.”
She freed her hands, placed them on his cheeks, roughened with beard stubble, and rose on tiptoe to meet his mouth while he gripped the back of her head.
The soft kiss nearly knocked her breathless. Chase dropped more hot kisses on each corner of her mouth and down her chin, feathered her nose and her cheeks, and finally returned to her mouth. Again and again he plied her bottom lip with his teeth, stunning her with his insistent exploration. The pressure of his lips and the clean, masculine scent of his skin took away her equilibrium. She could only follow the motions of his head and revel in the heat stoking the fire in her belly.
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