Page 49 of Bittersweet

The happiness she felt over her conversation with Logan had her feeling inspired. Most of her time was usually spent on special orders, but for a while, she’d been wanting to come up with some unique specialty items for their shop—signature sweets, if you will.

She began gathering the basic ingredients for another batch of cupcakes, thinking about what she could add to make them different from anything they normally sold, different from what other area shops sold.

Coffee and cupcakes belong together.

Logan’s words suddenly came back to her, and the idea of adding a little coffee to the cupcakes popped into her head. Coffee cupcakes. Creamy mocha buttercream frosting. Chocolate covered espresso beans on top. The perfect combination.

She pulled out her phone. Logan would know the best kind of coffee for her to use in her recipes.

“Fire!” cried a little boy standing with his mother at the checkout counter.

“What?” Harper whipped around to see smoke billowing out of the oven just as the smoke detector went off.

I forgot the timer! Fudge!

She bolted across the room, threw on the oven mitts, and whipped open the oven door, letting all the smoke out into the shop as she yanked the pans of burnt cupcakes from within and tossed them into the sink.

Savannah stood at the ready with fire extinguisher in hand, but there were no flames to douse. Harper used one of the cupcake pans to fan away the smoke, while Ginny corralled their customers outside, leaving the front door open to allow ventilation.

The sound of the smoke alarm made Harper groan, and she fanned harder, hoping to dissipate the smoke enough to get it to turn off. Savannah grabbed a cookie sheet and joined in the fanning. It was beyond embarrassing that she had forgotten to set the timer.

The phone rang.

“That’s probably the alarm company.” Savannah rushed to answer it, explaining that there was no fire.

Harper was mortified and angry with herself for risking their shop for a little daydreaming.

“What’s going on?” Brett stood in the doorway, and Harper’s stomach sank.

Savannah went back to fanning and waved her toward the door.

Harper set the pan down and walked outside with Brett.

“Are you okay?” He drew her into his arms.

“Fine.” She hoped he didn’t notice the way she tensed up. “I forgot to set the timer and burned some cupcakes. There isn’t even a fire.”

Some onlookers, obviously there out of morbid curiosity, heard her answer and wandered away.

The smoke alarm finally stopped, and Harper sighed, relieved by the silence.

“Did you get the flowers?” Brett asked.

Harper nodded. “I did. Thank you.”

“It was crazy for me to get so jealous when all of that is ancient history. I agree with what you said. You’re my present, and I hope you’ll want to be my future.”

She was about to tell him they needed to talk, when Savannah stuck her head out. “It’s okay to come back in now.”

Harper addressed the customers waiting on the sidewalk. “I’m so sorry about that, and we appreciate you waiting.” She led them back inside. “We apologize for the inconvenience. Go ahead and choose one item each. It’s on us.”

Brett followed Harper, stopping when she went behind the counter. He glanced around, as if confused. She knew he was noticing the absence of the gigantic flower display he’d sent her.

“They’re in the office,” she told him before he had a chance to ask. “Took up a lot of space on the counter, that’s all.”

“Oh.”

She motioned for him to follow her, and once he was inside the office, she closed the door behind them and leaned against it with arms crossed.

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