Taste of Romance (10 page)

Nathaniel couldn’t hide his disappointment. It showed through his eyes and was etched
in every muscle on his face. “
Ja,
I know. It’s too soon.”

She loved the fact he didn’t pressure her or argue with her, like Gavin. Her ex-boyfriend
hadn’t understood. Not like Nathaniel, who would be another ex, all because she wasn’t
brave enough to fly.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, and hoped he realized how hard it was for her to say that,
how hard it would be to let him go.

B
EFORE THE TRADITIONAL
cutting of the cake, or, in this case, the bride and groom feeding each other the
cupcakes, Kim circled around each table distributing cupcakes to each guest’s plate.
Then she stood beside Caleb, the young man Jake had recommended from the local media
crew to videotape the event.

Her pocket buzzed, and when she took out her cell phone to answer the call, she found
her sister in hysterics.

“Andi, calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”

“I lost my diamond engagement ring.
It fell into the cupcake batter!”

Kim glanced around at all the guests who each had a cupcake on their plate waiting
to be eaten. “The batter for the second set of wedding cupcakes?”

“Yes!”

“Are you sure? Maybe you misplaced the ring, took it off while you were baking or
to wash your hands?”

“We watched the security camera footage. Plain as day it shows me take off the food
handler’s gloves and the ring sliding off my finger and into the bowl of batter below.”

“How could you let something like this happen?” Kim demanded.

“It was an accident!”

Kim took a deep breath. It was because of the Cupcake Bandit. If he hadn’t stolen
the cupcakes, they wouldn’t have been in a rush. “What do you want me to do?”

“You have to
find
it.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Think of something, Kim. You can’t let them eat those cupcakes. Mike, Rachel, and
I are already on our way and will be there in three minutes. But if someone bites
into the cupcake with the ring and breaks a tooth or swallows it and chokes, we could
be facing a lawsuit.” Andi let out a choked cry. “Oh, please don’t let anyone swallow
my ring. I might never get it back.”

Kim hung up, but then her heart leaped into her chest as she saw that the bride and
groom had each picked up a cupcake and were preparing to give each other a taste.

Should she signal Nathaniel?

There was no time. She had to do something, and she had to do it
now.

“Stop!” she called across the crowd. “Don’t eat the cupcakes!”

No one heard her. The crowd had gathered in tight and were cheering the couple on,
hoping to see them smash the cupcakes into each other’s mouths.

Kim ran forward and shouted again. She pushed her way between two obese women and
shoved past a man who didn’t want to wait for the bride and groom. He opened his mouth
to take a bite of his cupcake, and Kim knew there would be no avoiding conflict this
time.

Stepping close, she knocked the cupcake to the ground. Five more steps and she knocked
the cupcakes away from the bride and groom. Then she ran toward every person in the
vicinity who lifted a cupcake to their mouth.

Several people gasped, others screamed, and suddenly everyone was in an uproar.

“I’ll sue you,” the mother of the bride hollered, her face contorted with rage. “You
won’t see a penny of profit from this wedding. I’ll sue Creative Cupcakes for everything
they’ve got!”

The bride took a napkin and tried to wipe cake off her icing-covered dress. Then the
bride looked up at her with horror-stricken eyes. “What have you done?”

“I’m sorry,” Kim said, her throat aching with tension. “I tried to warn you, but you
didn’t hear, and then there was no time. My sister lost her ring in one of the cupcakes.”

“What kind of catering company would do such thing?” Nathaniel’s mother demanded in
her heavy Swedish accent.

Kim shrank back from the accusations, and her gaze locked on Nathaniel’s face, filled
with as much shock as the bride and groom and the two mothers.

“No one eat the cupcakes,” he ordered, moving through the crowd toward her.

“We’ll make amends,” Kim added.

“Make amends?” the bride asked. “You ruined my wedding!”

The bride must have realized Caleb was capturing every second of the chaos on his
video camera, because she picked up another cupcake and smashed it straight into his
lens.

Kim realized she hadn’t found Andi’s ring and ran from table to table smashing all
the cupcakes with her hands, hoping to feel a piece of hard metal. After smashing
over two dozen cupcakes, something poked the palm of her hand.

Pulling apart the remains of the traditional Swedish wedding cake, she pulled out
the diamond ring and held it up.

“See?” she said, and looked at the bride. “This is my sister’s engagement ring. Imagine
if your ring had fallen into the batter. What would you have me do?”

“Leave,” the bride’s mother said, pointing a finger toward the parking lot.

Nathaniel took her elbow. “I’ll take you home.”

She nodded and headed toward his truck. His family would never welcome her now, never
forgive her. Her stomach wrenched into fits of twisted agony. Would this change Nathaniel’s
opinion of her as well? She shot him a quick glance, but his expression didn’t reveal
an answer.

She opened the passenger side door, ready to climb in, and a doll fell out.
Mia’s doll.

Picking the toy off the ground, she held it up and stared at him. “How did Mia’s doll
get in your truck?”

Nathaniel’s eyes widened. “I have no idea.”

Could Nathaniel be the Cupcake Bandit? Her mind raced to place him at the scene of
every disappearance. He’d been at the fire. He’d been at the festival. The thief had
not switched the doll for the cupcakes at the Astoria Column. Maybe because Nathaniel
had been with her?

The security camera had caught sight of someone with pale hair, and Nathaniel’s hair
was blond. One of the women at the Scandinavian Festival had described the troll handing
out cupcakes as “tall” and “handsome.” Of course, the little old lady had been rather
short, so many people could be tall from her point of view, and who knew what type
of man she thought handsome.

“I’ve never seen that doll before,” Nathaniel told her.

Kim wasn’t sure she could believe him. Instead, she feared that while Andi and Rachel
had found true love, she’d lost her heart to a cupcake thief.

A loud, familiar clanking sound could be heard coming around the corner, and when
the Cupcake Mobile parked, Andi, Rachel, and Mike jumped out.

“Did you find it?” Andi asked, her face lined with worry.

Kim held up the ring. “Yes.”

“You are not welcome here,” the mother of the bride yelled, running toward them. “Go
away!”

Andi, Rachel, and Mike glanced at each other, their mouths hanging open, as if not
knowing what to do.

“Kim,” Rachel called, holding open the Cupcake Mobile door. “Are you coming?”

Kim hesitated, looked at Nathaniel for one agonizing moment, and then ran toward them
with both the ring and the doll in her hands.

“What happened?” Rachel asked, her eyes wide.

“Andi told me to stop them from eating the cupcakes, and so I—I smashed them. Now
the bride’s family is threatening to sue.”

“Sue?”
Rachel screeched. “Couldn’t you find the ring without smashing the cupcakes? Why
do you always do what Andi tells you?”

“I didn’t mean for you to ruin the wedding or cause a scene,” Andi said, taking the
ring from her and slipping it back on her finger. “If they sue, they’ll shut down
our shop.”

“It gets worse,” Kim said, her stomach squeezing tight.

“How could it be worse?” Mike asked, rounding a turn in the road.

“They’ve refused to pay us for the wedding cupcakes.”

“We won’t be able to buy the building without the profits from this event,” Rachel
cried, turning around in her seat and bracing her hand on the dashboard. “Creative
Cupcakes will be finished.”

“Maybe that’s what Kim planned all along,” Andi said, a harsh edge entering her voice.

Kim stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“While you were smashing cupcakes,” Rachel informed her, “one of your friends called
the shop and said they’d rented a space in town to open your art gallery. When were
you going to tell us? After Creative Cupcakes closed?”

“I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t want me to leave,” Kim said, glancing
around at each of them as they arrived at the cupcake shop.

“You’d abandon us for an art gallery?” Andi opened her door and climbed out. “Is that
why you haven’t been a team player this month?”

“I’ve always been a team player,” Kim said, her throat burning as she followed them
on to the sidewalk. “From day one I’ve worked long hours and backed you one hundred
percent. But did you ever ask me what I wanted? No, you just assumed you could drag
me into business with you. But the cupcake shop wasn’t my idea. It wasn’t
my
dream.”

“Did you sabotage Creative Cupcakes on purpose?” Rachel asked, pointing to the doll
in her hand. “Are
you
the Cupcake Bandit?”

“No.”

“Then where did you find Mia’s doll?” Andi demanded.

Kim cringed, wishing she were anywhere but here at this moment. “In Nathaniel’s truck.”

Their father had always condemned a show of emotion, especially when their mother
died. Emotion was weak. That’s why he thought Andi was weak. Andi always gave in to
her emotions, but not her. She kept her feelings under control.

But she couldn’t control the stinging in her eyes, or the tightness in her chest,
or the widening hole in her stomach now.

Turning tail, she ran outside, stepped into the bushes . . . and puked.

Chapter Nine

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the
Titanic
who waved off the dessert cart.

—Erma Bombeck

K
IM CRIED
. S
HE
cried for her mother. Cried for the loss of her dreams to travel the world. Cried
over Andi’s and Rachel’s accusations. Cried over Gavin, whom she never really loved,
and over the loss of Nathaniel, whom she feared she did.

And she cried when she lifted the little blackbird into the air, and it flapped its
healed wing and flew off into the early morning sky.

“Goodbye,” she whispered. “I’ll never forget you.”

“And we’ll never forget you.”

Kim spun around and saw Andi and Rachel standing behind her, no longer angry, but
smiling.

“You were right, Kim,” Andi said, wrapping her arms around her. “I was so desperate
to make my dream of a successful cupcake business come true that I didn’t realize
you may have had a different dream. Rachel and I never
asked
if you wanted to go into business with us. And if you want to leave, then . . . we
have to let you go.”

Rachel came forward to wrap her arms around her as well. “We have to let you make
your own decisions.”

“Thank you,” Kim whispered.

“We’ve decided to hold a ‘Save the Shop’ sale tomorrow to sell off whatever we can
to raise money to buy the building,” Andi told her.

“I’ll help,” Kim offered. “I never meant to harm Creative Cupcakes’ reputation.”

Pop!

Kim darted with Rachel and Andi from the party room into the main shop hoping they’d
finally caught their thief. Guy had helped them install the radio-transmitted dye
pack under the cupcake a few hours earlier.

“Grandpa Lewy!” Rachel exclaimed.

The old man stood by the front door with his arms, chest, and face splattered with
red dye and frosting. In his hands were what looked like the remains of an Oreo brownie
cupcake.

Andi laughed. “Grandpa Lewy is the Cupcake Bandit?”

Kim laughed, too. Like Nathaniel, Grandpa Lewy had also been at the cupcake shop every
time there had been a theft. His white hair was pale, and older women like Bernice
considered him handsome. And the assisted living center where he lived was located
between the community park where Nathaniel’s brother got married and Nathaniel’s private
property. It would have been easy for him to have dropped Mia’s doll into his truck
if a door or window was open.

And if Grandpa Lewy was the cupcake thief, then that meant that Nathaniel was
not.

“Grandpa,” Rachel scolded, her face flushed, “why did you steal our cupcakes?”

“I didn’t steal. You said I could have one any time.”

“Why did you steal Mia’s doll?” Andi asked.

The old man shook his head as if confused. “I found a doll. It looked familiar, so
I put it in that thing that holds my memories.”

“Your memory box?” Rachel prompted. “Is that where you hid all the cupcakes?”

“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes lacking focus.

“You wrote a ransom note in the Cupcake Diary,” Kim said, handing him a towel to wipe
his face.

“Your poster said you’d give a cupcake to anyone who found a doll,” Grandpa Lewy said
and frowned. “I found a doll, and I like cupcakes.”

“But you didn’t show up at the Astoria Column,” Kim pointed out.

“I forgot.” He wiped his face and stared at the smeared ink and icing on the white
towel.

The phone rang, and Andi went around the counter to answer it. “Rachel,” she said,
holding the phone away from her ear, “the assisted living center says we need to bring
your grandfather back right away. There’s been an incident they need to discuss with
us.”

“What kind of incident?” Rachel asked, gripping her grandfather’s arm.

Kim smiled. “Maybe they found the cupcakes.”

The nurses were not happy campers. Kim didn’t know who was worse—them or the bride’s
mother at the wedding.

“Do you see these boxes?” one nurse exclaimed, holding up a pink box with the Creative
Cupcakes logo. “Last night we found half the residents on a sugar high that had them
bouncing around like kids on a bouncy ball.”