I stare at her. “I have one more batch to make once those cool enough to leave the tin.”
“Harper,” my sister says, exasperated. She holds her arms out. “The kitchen is covered. You cannot make any more until you do something with all these.”
“Fine. Start eating.” I shove a cooled cupcake in her hand and then yank it back. “Wait, I still have to frost them.”
“And people think you’re the sane sister.”
But no one thinks that, not anymore. Sure, they used to, but that was before the bake-off, before Mason, before leaving college to confess my undying love to a boy who didn’t want me.
Before I started filling the kitchen with thousands and thousands of test cupcakes for my cookbook.
My parents don’t know what to do with me, so they stock the pantry with sugar, flour, and chocolate and stay out of the kitchen. In exchange, I promised to keep going to classes, even if I don’t know what I want to be “when I grow up.”
Peyton Barnes’ newest song fades from the little speaker attached to Riley’s phone, and a new one comes on. My sister’s eyes go wide, and she scrambles across the kitchen to skip it. She’s too late. Mason sings about the girl who got away, and my stomach knots, just as it does every time I listen to the brand-new hit single.
It’s been three months, and I think about him every day.
Every. Single. Day.
I figured he moved on months ago, but then that song began playing on the radio. It’s our story, all wrapped up in four minutes and twenty-four seconds. I cried the first time I heard it. It still destroys me.
Riley finally manages to hit the pause button and looks at me, her face pale. “I’m so sorry, Harper.”
“You have it in your playlist?”
She gives me a guilty shrug. “It’s really good.”
I go back to my cupcakes and stack the cool ones on top of each other to make room on the counter for frosting supplies.
A chime sounds on Riley’s phone, and she frowns at it. “Lauren says Brandon’s home for spring break.”
“Is Sadie here too?”
If she is, I’ll stick all these cupcakes in the freezer and wait until she comes over to help me frost them. I think I can trust her. She’s an HBN bake-off champion after all.
“Harper…”
Riley sounds so odd, I look up. “What?”
She returns to her seat at the counter. “Brandon and Sadie broke up.”
The kitchen goes quiet after the admission.
“When?” I finally ask.
“About a month ago.”
I let the news sink in, but even after several moments, I don’t know how I feel. So instead of facing my emotions, I avoid. After I’ve piled all the cupcakes into precarious cupcake towers, I wash the mixing bowl and beater I’ll need for the frosting.
“Do you think that maybe…” Riley trails off.
“Our timing is finally right?” I ask as I dry a rubber spatula. Even I flinch at the dead tone of my voice.
Wisely changing the subject, she says, “Lauren thinks we should all go bowling tonight.”
“Bowling?Have fun.”
“Harper.”
