As I walked through the open doors of my bright cheery store, I had to pinch myself. I couldn’t quite believe how lucky I was to be the owner of Betsy & Elsie’s Yummy Cupcake Store. It was like a dream come true. My nanna had put up most of the capital for the store and helped out occasionally, but essentially she left everything up to me. It was overwhelming, but it was my dream. Everything in my life was going according to plan—well, asides from Jefferson Evian having not yet fallen in love with me.
With his dark brown hair and eyes I could only call cerulean blue, he was absolutely the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in my life. I knew his eyes were cerulean because when I’d been a teenager I’d had several staring contests with him. One night, after one particularly long contest, I’d looked up the various shades of blue in an art book my mother had. His eyes weren’t aquamarine, or navy, or teal, but cerulean. I’d never even heard of that shade of blue before, but as soon as I’d seen it, I knew it was the same color as Jeff’s eyes. Not that I would tell him that. I could just imagine how a conversation between Jeff and I would go:
“Hey, Jeff, you have the most beautiful pair of cerulean blue eyes I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Go away, please, stalker,” he would reply, and then I would run away and cry because he was right. I was a bit of a stalker.
“Good morning, Betsy.” A deep voice welcomed me as I entered the store and I screamed out loud when I saw that it was Jeff. Oh God, I hadn’t been talking out loud, had I?
“You all right?” He had a puzzled and slightly concerned look on his face. Which, of course, made my heart race slightly. He was concerned about me?
I should tell you that I can be a bit of a nutcase at times, though I hide it well.
“Morning, ceru—I mean, Jeff,” I said weakly. I held my handbag close to my chest. He didn’t already know about the crotchless panties, did he?
“You all right?” he asked again. He took a step toward me, his expression curious as he took me in.
He, of course, looked completely normal and handsome as he stood in front of me in his police officer’s uniform. The black material seemed to cling to his every muscle, and my heart skipped a beat as I noticed the gun in his holster, big, black, and dangerous. In other circumstances, it would have scared me knowing that his job involved him carrying around a gun, but we lived in Canyon Beach where the crime rate was zero, so it didn’t make me too nervous. The biggest issue we had in town was teenagers drinking and getting high on the beach on a Friday night, and even then, they moved on quickly when the police arrived.
“I’m fine, I’m fine, would you like some—”
“Wine?” He cut me off with a grin. “Get it?”
“Yes, I get it, Jeff. It rhymes.” I made a face and laughed at him. “But you know I don’t have a liquor license, so would you like some coffee?”
“With Irish whiskey?”
“No, Jeff. I could add a shot of chocolate and make it a mocha, though.”
“Fine, fine. If you add a—”
It was my turn to cut him off now. “A red velvet cupcake.”
“You know me so well.” He grinned and leaned toward me and my heart skipped a beat. Not well enough, I thought. Not well enough.
“So, I was wondering,” he began. He paused, and I nodded for him to continue, but we were interrupted by a noise near the front of the store and turned to see what the commotion was all about. I groaned inside when I saw who it was.
“Did somebody call nine-one-one because I’m here?” Julia sailed through the entrance of the shop and walked up to the counter. “Hey, Betsy.” She smiled at me and then turned toward Jeff with a frown. “Hey, It.”
“Good morning to you as well, Jules,” he replied. “Didn’t somebody tell you to take off your face mask before you left the house? You’ll scare little kids looking like that.”
“What face mask?” Jules touched her cheek and then glared at him as he laughed. “You’re so immature, you know that, right?”
“Pot, meet kettle.” He rolled his eyes and turned back toward me. “How do you have such an immature friend?”
I walked toward the coffee machine to make his hot mocha coffee to avoid answering his question. If he thought Jules was immature, what was he going to think about my crotchless panties idea? My face reddened at the thought. I was twenty-six, for heaven’s sake, not sixteen—what had I been thinking? I could hear Jules and Jeff still sparring with each other as I grabbed his cupcake from the case, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. Those two had been arguing with each other ever since we were in high school. It had made me nervous at first because I’d wondered if Jules had a thing for him and vice versa, but she’d very quickly let it be known that she’d had a crush on Nolan, who also happened to be Jeff’s best friend, and I hadn’t worried about it anymore. Anyway, Jeff never seemed to be interested in long-term relationships. I’d never known of him to date anyone for more than a couple of months, and he’d never introduced any of his women as his girlfriend. That had made me happy, but also nervous. Did he just never want to have a girlfriend?
“What would you like to drink, Jules? A cappuccino?” Jules went back and forth between cappuccinos and lattes, depending on her mood.
“A caramel latte, please.”
“Sure, coming
