For fans of Debbie Macomber comes Taste of Romance, the third installment in the Cupcake Diaries series. Kimberly Burke has avoided all types of risk since her mother's deadly plane crash—including risky relationships. Seems like everyone is always leaving her behind: her ex-boyfriend, her mother, and now her sister Andi and best friend Rachel—who have each found the man of her dreams. Then she meets Nathaniel when she mistakes his backyard for the new community park. He loves her passion, and when he learns of her wistful desire to travel, he takes her up in a hot air balloon, hoping to overcome her fear of flying so that she can accompany him abroad. But before he leaves, they must catch the Cupcake Bandit and replace the money stolen from Creative Cupcakes before the shop is shut down. Will discovering the thief's identity persuade Kim to take a risk on love ... or will she stay behind and let Nathaniel fly off without her?
Chapter
One
All I really need is
love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!
—Charles Schulz
Focus,
Kim reprimanded herself. Keep to the task at
hand and stop eavesdropping on other people’s conversations.
But she
didn’t need to hear the crack of the teenage boy’s heart to feel
his pain. Or to remember the last time she’d heard the wretched
words “I’m leaving” spoken to her.
She
tried to ignore the couple as she picked up the pastry bag filled
with pink icing and continued to decorate the tops of the strawberry
preserve cupcakes. However, the discussion between the high school
boy and what she assumed to be his girlfriend kept her attentive.
“When
will I see you again?” he asked.
Kim
glanced toward them and leaned closer.
“I
don’t know,” the girl replied.
The
soft lilt in her accent thrust the familiarity of the conversation
even deeper into Kim’s soul.
“I'll
be going to the university for two years,” the girl continued.
“Maybe we meet again after.”
Not likely. Kim shook her head, and her stomach
tightened. From past experience, she knew once the school year was
over in June, most foreign students went home, never to return.
And
left many broken hearts in their wake.
“Two
years is a long time,” the boy said.
Forever
was even longer. Kim drew in a deep breath as
the unmistakable catch in the poor boy’s voice replayed again and
again in her mind. And her heart.
How
long were they going to stand there and torment her by reminding her
of her parting four years earlier with Gavin, the Irish student she’d
dated through college? Dropping the bag of icing on the Creative
Cupcakes’ counter,
she moved toward them.
“Can
I help you?” Kim asked, pulling on a new pair of food handler’s
gloves.
“I’ll
have the white chocolate macadamia,” the girl said, pointing to the
cupcake she wanted in the glass display case.
The boy
dug his hands into his pockets, counted the meager change he’d
managed to withdraw, and turned five shades of red.
“None
for me.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “How much for
hers?”
“You
have to have one, too,” the girl protested. “It’s your
birthday.”
Kim
took one look at his lost-for-words expression and said, “If today
is your birthday, the cupcakes are free.” She added, “For both
you and your guest.”
The
teenager’s face brightened. “Really?”
Kim
nodded and removed the cupcakes the two lovebirds wanted from the
display case. She even put a birthday candle on one of them, a heart
on the other. Maybe the girl would come back for him. Or he would fly
to Ireland for her. Maybe.
Her
eyes stung, and she squeezed them shut for a brief second. When she
opened them again, she set her jaw. Enough was enough. Now that they
had their cupcakes, she could escape back into her work and forget
about romance and relationships and every regrettable moment she’d
ever wasted on love.
She
didn’t need it. Not like her older sister, Andi, who had recently
lost her heart to Jake Hartman, their Creative Cupcakes’ financier
and reporter for the Astoria Sun.
Or like her other co-owner friend, Rachel, who had just gotten
engaged to Mike Palmer, a miniature model maker for movies who also
doubled as the driver of their Cupcake Mobile.
All she
needed was to dive deep into her desire to put paint on canvas. She
glanced at the walls of the cupcake shop, adorned with her scenic
oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings. Maybe if she worked hard
enough, she’d have the money to open her own art gallery, and she
wouldn’t need to decorate cupcakes anymore.
But for
now, she needed to serve the next customer. Where
was Rachel?
“Hi,
Kim.” Officer Ian Lockwell, one of their biggest supporters, sat on
one of the stools lining the marble cupcake counter. “I’m
wondering if you have the back party room available on June 27?”
Kim
reached under the counter and pulled out the three-ring binder she,
Andi, and Rachel had dubbed the Cupcake Diary to keep track of all
things cupcake related. Looking at the calendar, she said, “Yes,
the date is open. What’s the occasion?”
“My
wife and I have been married almost fifteen years,” the big,
square-jawed cop told her. “We’re planning on renewing our vows
on our anniversary and need a place to celebrate with friends and
family.”
“No
better place to celebrate love than Creative Cupcakes,” Kim assured
him, glancing around at all the couples in the shop. “I’ll put
you on the schedule.”
Next,
the door opened, and a stream of romance writers filed in for their
weekly meeting. Kim pressed her lips together. The group intimidated
her with their watchful eyes and poised pens. They scribbled in their
notebooks whenever she walked by as if writing down her every move,
and she didn’t want to give them any useful fodder. She hoped
Rachel could take their orders, if she could find her.
“Rachel?”
No
answer, but the phone rang—a welcome distraction. She picked up and
said, “Creative Cupcakes, this is Kim.”
“What
are you doing there? I thought you were going to take time off.”
Kim
pushed into the privacy of the kitchen, glad it was Andi and not
another customer despite the impending lecture tone. “I still have
several dozen cupcakes to decorate.”
“Isn’t
Rachel there with you?”
The
door of the walk-in pantry burst open, and Rachel and Mike emerged,
wrapped in each other’s arms, laughing and grinning.
Kim
rolled her eyes. “Yes, Rachel’s here.”
Rachel
extracted herself from Mike’s embrace and mouthed the word “sorry.”
But Kim
knew she wasn’t. Rachel had been in her own red-headed, happy
bubble ever since macho, dark-haired Mike the Magnificent had
proposed two weeks earlier.
“I’ll
be in for my shift as soon as I get Mia off to afternoon
kindergarten,” Andi continued, “and the shop’s way ahead in
sales. There’s no reason you can’t take a break. Ever since you
broke up with Gavin, you’ve become a workaholic.”
Kim
sucked in her breath at the mention of his name. Only Andi dared to
ever bring him up.
“Gavin
has nothing to do with my work.”
“You
never date.”
“I’m
concentrating on my career.”
“It’s
been years since you’ve been out with anyone. You need to slow
down, take time to smell the roses.”
“Smell
the roses?” Kim gasped. “Are you serious?”
“Go
on an adventure,” Andi amended.
“Working
is an adventure.”
“You
used to dream of a different kind of adventure,” Andi said,
lowering her voice. “The kind that requires a passport.”
Kim
wished she’d never picked up the phone. Just because her sister had
her life put back together didn’t mean she had the right to tell
her how to live.
“Painting
cupcakes and canvas is the only adventure I need right now. I
promised Dad I’d have the money to pay him for my new art easel by
the end of the week.”
“Dad
doesn’t care about the money, but he does care about you. He asked
me to call.”
“He
did?” Kim stopped in front of the sink and rubbed her temples with
her fingertips. Her sister was known to overreact, but their father?
He didn’t voice concern unless it was legitimate.
With
the phone to her ear, she returned to the front counter of the
couple-filled cupcake shop, her heart screaming louder and louder
with each consecutive beat.
They
were everywhere. By
the window, at the tables, next to the display case. Couples,
couples, couples. Everyone had a partner, had someone.
Almost
everyone.
Instead
of Goonies Day, the celebration of the 1985 release date of The
Goonies movie, which was filmed in Astoria,
she would have thought the calendar had been flipped back to
Valentine’s Day at Creative Cupcakes. And in her
opinion, one Valentine’s Day a year was
more than enough.
She
reached a hand into the pocket of her pink apron and clenched the
golden wings she had received on her first airplane flight as a
child. The pin never left her side, and like the flying squirrel
tattooed on her shoulder, it reminded her of her dream to fly, if not
to another land, then at least to the farthest reaches of her
imagination.
Where
her heart would be free.
Okay,
maybe she did spend
too much time at the cupcake shop. “Tell Dad not to worry,” Kim
said into the phone. “Tell him … I’m taking the
afternoon off.”
“Promise?”
Andi persisted.
Oh,
yeah. Tearing off her apron, she turned
around and threw it over Rachel’s and Mike’s heads.
“I’m heading out the door now.”
Five
minutes later, Kim stood outside the cupcake shop on Marine Drive,
wondering which direction to go. The tattoo parlor was on her left, a
boutique to her right, and the waterfront walk beneath the giant
arching framework of the Astoria−Megler Bridge stretched straight
in front.
Turning
her back on it all, she decided to take a new path and soon
discovered an open wrought iron gate along Bond Road. This had to be
the side entrance to Astoria’s new community park, the one Andi had
been raving about the week before, and hadn’t her sister told her
to “smell the roses”?
Kim
walked through the gate toward a large circle of white rosebushes and
began to count off each flower as she leaned in to fill her lungs
with their strong, fragrant scent. “One, two, three … ”
After
smelling seventeen, she moved toward the yellows. “Eighteen,
nineteen, twenty … ”
Past
the gazebo she found red roses, orange roses, and a vast variety of
purples and pinks. “Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight … ”
Her
artist’s eye took in the palette of color, and imagining the scene
on canvas, she wished she’d brought along her paints and brushes.
“Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four … ”
Andi
had been right. The sweet, perfumed scent of the roses did seem to
ease her tension and help block out all thoughts of romance. Even if
the rose was a
notorious symbol of love.
And the flower that garnished the most sales over romantic
holidays. With petals used for flower girl
baskets at weddings.
Who
needed romance anyway? Not her.
She
bent to smell the next group of flowers and noticed a tall, blond man
with work gloves carrying a potted rosebush past the ivy trellis. As
his gaze caught hers, he appeared to pause. Then he smiled.
Kim
smiled back and moved toward the next rose.
“Can
I help you?” the gardener asked, walking over.
Oh, no.
He had a foreign accent, Scandinavian, like some of the locals whose
ancestors first inhabited the area. And she had an acute weakness for
foreign accents.
“I
think I need to do this myself,” Kim replied. “My goal is to
smell a hundred roses.”
“Why
a hundred?”
“That’s
the number of things on my to-do list. I thought stopping to smell
one rose per task might balance out my life.”
“Interesting
concept.” The attractive gardener appeared to suppress a grin. “How
many more do you have to go?”
“I’m
at sixty-seven.”
“I
didn’t mean to interrupt.” He set the rosebush down, took off a
glove, and extended his hand. “I’m Nathaniel Sjölander.”
“Kimberly
Burke,” she said, accepting the handshake. His hand, much larger
than her own, surrounded hers with warmth.
“I
have to load a couple dozen roses into my truck for the Portland Rose
Festival tomorrow, but by all means—keep sniffing.”
Kim
pulled rose number sixty-eight toward her, a yellow flower as buttery
and delicately layered as a … freshly baked croissant.
Hunger sprang to life inside her empty stomach, and she realized
she’d been so busy working, she’d forgotten to eat lunch.
She
watched Nathaniel Sjölander move between the potted plants. Was he
single? Would someone like him be interested in her? Maybe ask her to
dinner? And why hadn’t she
dated anyone in the past few years? She could argue that good-looking
single men were hard to come by, but the truth was, she just hadn’t
taken the initiative to find one.
Nathaniel
made several trips back and forth between the greenhouse and the
gate, his gaze sliding toward her again and again. Oh,
yes! He was definitely interested. Her pulse
quickened as he approached her a second time.
“I
think you missed a few.” Nathaniel pulled a cut bouquet of red
roses from behind his back and presented them to her.
“Thank
you.” She hugged the flowers against her chest and lifted her gaze
from the Sjölander’s Garden Nursery business logo embroidered on
his tan work shirt to his warm, kind … blue
eyes.
Oh,
man, why did they have to be blue?
Blue was her favorite color. She could get
lost in blue. Especially his blue,
a blend of sparkling azure with a hint of sea green. Reminded her of
the ripples in the water where the Columbia River met the Pacific
Ocean just a few miles outside Astoria.
“Sjölander.
Is that Finnish?” she asked.
“Swedish.
Most of my family resides in Sweden, with the exception of my brother
and a few cousins.”
His
name was incredibly familiar. Where had she come across the name
Sjölander before? The Cupcake Diary!
“I’m
co-owner of Creative Cupcakes,” Kim informed him. “Didn’t you
book us for an upcoming event?”
“Must
be for the wedding.”
Wedding?
She held her breath. “Yours?”
He
flashed her a smile. “No. My brother’s.”
“Of
course.” She breathed easy once again.
“They’ve
decided to have the ceremony in the new community park.”
Kim
looked around, confused. “Isn’t this
the new community park?”
Nathaniel
laughed. “The park is two blocks down the street and much larger
than my backyard.”
“Your
backyard?”
Kim’s
mouth popped open in an embarrassed O.
Heat seared her cheeks. No wonder he’d been watching her. He was
probably wondering what crazy chick was wandering around his
property!
And as
for the flowers? She doubted he meant them to symbolize anything
romantic. Why would he? She was an idiot! The guy was probably just
trying to be nice. Or maybe he thought giving her flowers would
encourage her to leave. Worse—she would have to face him again in a
few weeks at his brother’s wedding.
With an
inward groan she squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could start the
day over. Or maybe the whole last decade. Then without further ado
she set her jaw and looked up.
“Thanks
for the roses,” she mumbled. And before she could embarrass herself
further, she hurried out the gate and back to the cupcake shop—where
she belonged.
About
the Author
Darlene
Panzera is the winner of the “Make Your Dreams Come True” contest
sponsored by Avon Books. The win led her novella, The Bet, to be
published with Debbie Macomber’s Family Affair. The award-winning
novella (chosen in a blind-read by Debbie Macomber) was then
published as a full length novel retitled, Bet You’ll Marry Me.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Darlene is now a resident of the
Pacific Northwest where she lives with her husband and three
children. When not writing she enjoys spending time with her family,
two horses, and loves: camping, hiking, photography, and lazy days at
the lake.
Author
Links
@DarlenePanzera
https://twitter.com/DarlenePanzera
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