Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mystery) Read Online Free Page B

don’t think I can go through that,” Mel said. “I know it’s wimpy and pathetic, but if I let myself love Joe as deeply as I want to, well, if he was taken away from me, Charlie, I’d die. I’d just die.”
    “So, you’d rather keep him at a distance and never know what it’s like to be one with your true love?”
    Mel pulled back and looked at him. He gave her a dark look and said, “If you ever tell anyone I said anything that sappy, I’ll join ranks with Mom and never speak to you again.”
    Mel smiled and then teased, “I won’t, but gosh, that was sweet.”
    The tips of Charlie’s ears turned pink, which Mel knew meant he was embarrassed. He cleared his throat and frowned.
    “Do you think that all of this may be because you’ve had an unusual preponderance of dead bodies popping up in your life over the past two years?” Charlie asked. “I mean it’s just not normal.”
    “Oh, ‘preponderance’—big word,” Mel teased.
    “From my word-of-the-day calendar,” Charlie confirmed with a superior look. “But seriously, do you?”
    “Maybe, but it’s not like I go looking for them,” she said.
    “No, but they certainly know how to find you.”
    She watched as Captain Jack hooked an empty cupcake liner off of the tray and then flicked it. As it fluttered to the ground like a butterfly, he wiggled his haunches and launched. He overshot and the breeze he created made the cupcake liner skitter across the floor. He skidded to a stop and turned around, giving the paper chase.
    “So what should I do about Mom?” she asked. “I’ve tried talking to her, but she won’t listen.”
    “I don’t know,” Charlie said. “She loves dear Joe.”
    Mel rolled her eyes. Her mother always called Joe “dear Joe,” making it very clear how she felt about having an assistant district attorney dating her daughter.
    “She’s sponsoring a girl in the Sweet Tiara Beauty Pageant, which her friend Ginny wants us to make cupcakes for. Do you think I should do the pageant to force us together?” Mel asked. “Maybe if she has to be around me all the time, she won’t be able to stay mad.”
    “Mom is a lousy grudge holder,” Charlie said. “Frankly, I’m amazed she’s lasted this long. I say do the pageant. You’ll wear her down.”
    “Even though it goes against everything I believe in?” Mel asked.
    “It’s a bunch of girls in poufy dresses competing for a sparkly crown and some scholarship money,” Charlie said. “How bad can it really be?”

Four

    Mel spent the afternoon and the next morning brood ing about what her brother had said. Was he right? Was it silly of her to refuse to do the pageant, especially now that her mother was going to be helping Lupe?
    There was no doubt this would make it pretty impossible for Joyce to keep ignoring her. Ugh, the things she did for her family.
    “Mel, we have to go!” Angie called from the front of the bakery.
    “I’m almost ready,” Mel called back. She had just finished frosting a batch of Classic Chocolate Cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Yes, it was an old-school cupcake, but judging by her sales numbers, it was also the most popular cupcake, beating out every other exotic flavor hands down.
    She hefted the tray onto her shoulder and carried it to the walk-in cooler. She was dreading today’s meeting with Cici Hastings, the Sweet Tiara Pageant coordinator. She could not imagine what she would have to say to the woman. Even though she knew this was an opportunity to mend the rift with her mother, she really struggled with the whole pageanty thing.
    “Come on!” Angie barked from the door. “We’ve got to go or we’re going to be late.”
    “I’m coming,” Mel said. She stood in the chiller for a moment to assess the array of cupcakes. Maybe she should stay and bake more and let Angie take the meeting.
    “I’ve seen desert tortoises that move faster than you,” Angie said, appearing in the doorway to the walk-in. She reached out and grabbed