Free Sugar Rush by Rachel Astor Page B

for the competition. I just can’t believe I fell for it. Then on top of everything else, I let you get to me with your ‘I’ve tasted all these before, years and years ago’ crap. I felt pretty bad for a while. You’ve got a knack for making people feel like they don’t measure up, but you know what? You’re going to be the one who’s sorry in the end, because we have found a new recipe, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. The judges are going to be blown away!” She panted, her frantic speech looking like it took quite the physical toll on her.
    His mouth gaped and he had trouble finding a way to close it. He didn’t know whether it was because she actually thought he would do that, or because she thought the cupcakes were “to die for.”
    After a long pause, he slowly shut his mouth and cleared his throat. “I’m glad you found a good recipe,” he said. “I’m sorry I bothered you.” He gave her a half-hearted smile, having no idea what his next move was.
    But when he turned and walked out of the store, daring one last look back just before he lost sight of her, she was still staring.
    …
     
    Dulcie filled Lila in on everything the next morning as she sipped on her first cup of coffee. Dulcie was on her fourth.
    Of course, she’d already been up for five hours.
    “It seems to me you’re not giving this guy a fair shake.”
    This was not the kind of support Dulcie expected to hear from her best friend. She blinked at her, waiting for her to take it back.
    Lila rolled her eyes in her usual dramatic fashion. “Look, I was there when he supposedly ‘ripped your samples to shreds,’” she said, using the most sarcastic air quotes Dulcie had ever seen. “But what I heard was a bit different from what you thought you heard. That boy drooled all over your candies. He wouldn’t stop yapping about how he loved them and how they made a difference in his life when he was a kid or whatever.”
    “He did not! He went on and on about how he’d seen this one before and that one was so old—”
    “Oh my God, listen to yourself. Seriously, Dulce, sit and think about the words he used exactly .”
    So she did. She remembered them very well, in fact.
    “Now take into account that you asked for his opinion.”
    She nodded. “Yeah, so?”
    “And he is also totally into you and wants to help. I mean, what was he supposed to say? Even you knew the stuff we made wasn’t right for the competition, but he couldn’t come out and say that. He doesn’t want to upset you. Geez Dulce, do you not even see the way the fool looks at you?”
    Dulcie’s head shot back. The entire night of taste testing flooded into her mind again. The way Nick looked while he was eating her candies, a little like Grams first thing in the morning with her daily box of sweets. And he’d brought over those to-die-for cupcakes to try to apologize…
    Then last night he’d come to congratulate her, but she’d been in such a bad mood thinking about the shop and Jess and everything.
    Oh crap, what had she done?
    Lila was right; he had talked about how much he loved the candies. Cripes, he’d snuck to their store in the middle of the day to taste their treats, even when candy galore must have awaited him when he got home.
    Wait…did he think theirs were better than his?
    He had wandered around the kitchen a little bit in awe of everything.
    She shook her head. Now she was really being crazy.
    “Ah, methinks she’s starting to get it,” Lila said, studying Dulcie, her eyes sparkling.
    Dulcie’s mind sped back over the times she’d been with Nick, trying to go through it like Lila would—as an observer.
    “Shit,” Dulcie said under her breath, embarrassed she hadn’t seen what was right in front of her face. “I completely yelled at him. Even when he came all the way over to my store to make amends. Twice!”
    “Yup, you sure did.”
    Her head snapped to Lila. “Oh, gee, thanks for being so helpful.”
    But of