“Only great?” Noah shot his friend a challenging glance. “We should be going for savage craic at the least.”
“What are you two talking about?” Max asked.
“Craic can mean a couple of things,” Noah said. “‘Tis a way of asking about what’s happening with your friends or describing a good time. And there are degrees.”
Heath grinned. “Let’s shoot for savage craic then.”
“Who wants to be the two team captains?” Caitlyn asked.
“I’ll lead one, and you can lead t’other.” Noah’s gaze held a challenge.
“All right,” she said. “Finn.”
Noah gave a soft grunt. “Zoe.”
“I get Heath.”
“Max, you’re with us then.”
“What base do we want?” she asked her team.
“Vanilla is more versatile,” Heath said, and Finn only shrugged.
Caitlyn sighed and looked to Noah, who’d been talking with his team.
“We’ll be wanting the vanilla base,” he said.
“Nothing says we can’t both have vanilla, if we want,” she told her team.
“It’s all good.” Heath rubbed his hands, his expression contemplative as though faced with a challenge, something she found encouraging. “Chocolate might be the tougher of the two. Let’s take that one.” He pulled out his phone and started texting.
Caitlyn stepped up and placed her order. The three of them then went to the wall full of potential ingredients. It looked like a candy shop with tubular dispensers.
“A lot of people like brownies.” Finn pointed to the bin with tiny chocolate pieces.
“I do too, but do we want to make a typical ice cream? I prefer dark chocolate,” Caitlyn said, scanning the selection to see if there was any additional cocoa powder.
“Ah, yes. Dark chocolate’s a great idea. Be sure to get some candied pecans. I’ll be right back.” Heath strode from the restaurant, his phone now to his ear.
“I wonder what that’s about,” Finn said. “How much of that cocoa powder will you be wanting us to add?”
“This is an experiment. We’ll just have to guess.” Caitlyn reached for a small plastic cup to hold the candied pecans.
They took those and a small container of cocoa to their table. As the server appeared with a machine and a pitcher of the ice cream base, Heath hurried back inside.
“Go ahead,” he said to the server, a little breathlessly like he’d been running.
The young man handed the pitcher to Finn, set up the machine, and left. Finn poured the liquid inside, and Heath pressed the Start button.
“Sprinkle in the extra cocoa, Caitlyn.” Heath then whispered something softly into his phone before putting it away. It was only then she realized he’d still been on a call. He pulled a small bag from his pocket, keeping it out of sight of the parlor employees. “And then add this.”
“Who were you talking to?” she whispered.
“My sister back home.” Heath studied the swirling ice cream. “Lia owns a dessert café called Highly Confectious, and she’s brilliant at putting together unexpected flavor combinations.”
“That’s great, but I have a couple of concerns.”
He pushed up his glasses. “Such as?”
