Page 75 of The Cupcake Cottage

Why had she even bothered with pageants?

“You know what?” Myles leaned back, studying her.

She glanced toward the barn. “You should go in and enjoy your party?”

“I think college would have ruined you.”

Daisy-Mae blinked. “What?”

“All those businesses you started. I know it was hard. But you always stood by your customers even when it meant you had to pay out of pocket because of someone else’s screw up. And you’ve always used your voice to make things better for those around you. I’m pretty sure business college would have molded you into someone you wouldn’t like.”

She waved off the absurdity of his claims. Of course she stepped up and did the right thing. That’s what you did for your community, your customers.

“Someone always needs something,” she said finally. It was the right thing to do, but it made it hard to get ahead.

“I love that about you. You step in when others won’t or don’t. It’s what I like about Maverick, too. You’re both great friends.”

“Thanks.” Myles hadn’t always been one for giving her pep talks, but he was kind of rocking this one.

“And you’re good together,” he said, giving her another nudge.

“Yeah.” They were. When they could eke out some time to actuallybetogether.

Myles moved like he was going to head back to the party, but hesitated. “Promise me something?”

She scrunched her nose. “Do I have to?”

“He loves you. For real. I know it started as a thing to help him. But what he feels is real.”

“Myles—”

“You need to open that big mouth of yours that you hate so much and fight for this one, Daisy-Mae. This is your one. Don’t give him up.”

She brushed her dress with shaking hands. “We’re fine.”

“He’s my best friend, and he just walked in there like someone gutted him and you’re standing out here alone. I might be dyslexic, but I’m not dumb.”

She stood straight. “I didn’t say you’re—” She caught his teasing smile and relaxed. “Myles, I told him what I wanted, but he can’t give it to me.”

“Daisy-Mae, didn’t you learn anything while dating me? You gotta tell us men things more than once.”

CHAPTER 13

His mom was practically buzzing around his house when Maverick got home from one of his whirlwind away games. She’d been delighted when he and Daisy-Mae got engaged, and he dreaded telling her they were fighting.

He dropped his duffle bag at the base of his recliner and fell into its cushions, exhausted. This whole being semi-famous thing wasn’t for the old.

It didn’t help that he hadn’t slept much since the wedding, tossing and turning both nights while thinking about Daisy-Mae. He rubbed his eyes, fully expecting a thirty-year lecture from his mother, who had surely heard all about the fight through the grapevine. These kinds of things never stayed private in Sweetheart Creek—especially when you fought outside a wedding.

He opened his eyes before he inadvertently took a mid afternoon nap, ruining his chance of finally having a good night’s sleep. There was a small table of plants in front of his living room windows that hadn’t been there yesterday morning when he’d dragged himself to the airport before dawn. “Since when do I have plants?”

“They make it look like someone lives here,” his mom replied, coming in from the kitchen.

“Someone lives here—me.”

She gave a harrumph that made him smile, patting his cheek as she moved past him, bustling about, adjusting the plants. At some point in the home’s history, the original living room windows had been replaced with two tall ones that stretched almost from the floor to the ceiling. When he sat on his recliner, he had a stupendous view of the rolling Texas hills out behind the house. And apparently, so too did the stray mama cat sitting on his windowsill, flicking her tail in irritation at having her peace disturbed.

“And since when does Kraken come in the house?”

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