“I promise I won’t push her to talk.”
Uh-huh. “Okay. Well, I need to go.”
Another lie—I didn’t need to go anywhere. I had no job, no wedding to plan, and no fiancé. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my mom… I did. We were very close. Elaina was always a Daddy’s girl and I was always closer with my mom. But that didn’t mean I didn’t see Kathy Dyker’s faults. She was an attorney in Boston for years and gave up a corporate city life to move here with my dad. She was strong, smart, and resilient. A lot like Elaina, which was probably why they butted heads so much.
“Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up and sent a quick text to Elaina.
You should come here and stay with me for a while. We’ll have the whole place to ourselves and you won’t have to deal with the wrath of Mom and her truth serum brownies.
I tried to get Elaina to move in here months ago when she and Brad first broke up, but she thought it would be too weird to live with Dan and me. Which… maybe she was right. That could have been weird, especially since they never particularly got along.
Her response came back quickly.
You don’t have to twist my arm. I’d love to stay with you for a while. We can lick our wounds together. My plane lands at 4:00 p.m.
I smiled down at the phone and sent her an emoji in response.
4:00. That left me with a few hours to do something really nice for her. To take care of her in the way she’d always taken care of me. Not for the first time that day, my mind shifted to Liam. Liam and his cupcakes. Liam and his donuts. Liam and his sugarlips…
Crap. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. I needed to stop thinking of him that way. Forget the fact that he’s my sister’s ex-boyfriend’s brother and how sticky that would be… but he’s Liam Freaking Evans. He’s the sweet boy who grew up two streets over from me. The boy my mom warned me to stay away from… not because he was bad news but because she knew I would break his heart. You’ll walk all over him, Chloe and you know it! She said to me in high school. She wasn’t wrong… I wasn’t the nicest to boys back then. My mom’s friendship with Liam’s mom, Linda Evans, was too important to risk that.
Tasmanian Chloe, my parents called me. I came in like a whirlwind and left utter chaos in my wake. It wasn’t that I meant to be that way… it was just sort of who I was. Even when I tried not to create chaos, it still happened. Like I was some sort of chaos magnet. Even with Dan, I did everything I could to be the perfect fiancé. I wore pearls and cardigans and joined him at his fancy dentist networking events. At his insistence, I quit my job and used the last year to plan the ‘perfect’ wedding. The ‘perfect’ wedding for the ‘perfect’ couple … only one damn problem. Perfection didn’t exist. And Dan was a lying sack of shit. Okay, I guess that’s two problems.
Regardless, Mom was right. I am a Tasmanian devil. And that was fine for my own life, I guess. But not for Liam’s. With his mother’s cancer and running her bakery, he had enough turmoil already without me.
But I did truly want to be his friend. I was drawn to Liam. I always was, even back in high school. Fascinated by the quiet, brooding, handsome guy who sat in the front of the class, still came out to all the parties, but usually hung back in a corner and watched the rest of us let loose. He was buttoned-up, and a part of me—probably the chaotic part—wanted nothing more than to wrinkle his shirts and scatter those buttons across the floor.
My mind wandered to what Tanja said. If Liam and I were friends… would Elaina and Neil have to talk? Eventually make up?
I grabbed my purse and ran out the door, toward the one person who’d been able to help me last night.
4 Chloe
It only took me ten minutes to walk into downtown Maple Grove where Beefcakes was situated. Even though its location was once at the epicenter, the bakery was now right on the outside edge of what was considered downtown. Regardless of that little fact, ever since Neil’s and Elaina’s photo from my bachelorette party went viral months ago, it was constantly slammed with customers. I entered and slid my sunglasses to the top of my head, scooping my hair back like a headband.
Finn saw me first over the sea of bachelorettes in line waiting to pick up their erotic cupcakes. The grin he gave me told me two things: 1) Liam must have mentioned that we’d been together last night, and 2) The stories Liam told must not have been altogether unpleasant. Otherwise, wouldn’t he be scowling at me?
Chloe: 1. Tasmanian devil: 0.
“Well, well, well.” Finn called out to me as I nudged my way to the front of the line. “After what Liam told me, I didn’t think you’d be joining the land of the living today.”
My nose scrunched. “What? What did he tell you?”
I ignored the dirty looks some of the other women were giving me. Whether they were for pushing to the front of the line, or talking to the hot beefcake behind the counter, I didn’t know or care.
“That you and Jose Cuervo had quite the little run-in last night.”
Feigning shock, I pressed my palm to my sternum. “I’m insulted. It was Herradura Silver.” I snorted. “Jose Cuervo is for amateurs and college kids.”
“Touché.” Finn smirked, then jerked his head to the kitchen. “He’s in the back if you want to say hi.”
I did want to say hi. It was
