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“She would?”
“She doesn’t…approve. She says it’s a silly dream.”
I take a bite and groan. “Oh my God, Preston,” I say, garbled.
He grins, the knife still clutched in his hand. “Good?”
I can’t reply. I just take another bite.
He takes a pinch of his half and pops it into his mouth. “Damn,” he agrees. “Not bad.”
I nod and shove the rest of the cake into mine.
His eyes dance as he chuckles. “Want me to give you two a minute?”
I hold my finger up. Maybe. When I have it all swallowed, I savor the taste it leaves behind. “Sorry,” I confess, running my tongue along my teeth to feel for stragglers. “I definitely approve.” Even if your mother doesn’t.
He shoves the rest in his mouth with a sigh, the light in him dimming, and he leaves me for a moment. Something else that reminds me of Jake.
“What would she have you do, then?”
“What doesn’t she have me do?”
His reply throws me back to dinner and his conversation with Ruby. How he suggested his time is eaten up with their tasks for him and that’s why he can’t do online courses. Courses that probably would lead to a career Magnolia would approve of. Correction, that makes Magnolia look good. Cupcake baker doesn’t make the cut with her.
Waiting for him to elaborate, I perk in my chair but grab my coffee cup and take a casual sip so I don’t look too interested. Like a journalist would. The temperature is perfect now. “Like what?” I prod, impatient.
It takes him a minute, and he almost answers, but realization sweeps across his face and he turns to tend to his cupcakes again. Sets down the knife and picks up a bag filled with icing. He squirts an artful mint-colored swirl on top of a chocolate one. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” He says it teasingly, even winks at me again over his shoulder, though this one was weaker, to make sure I know he’s kidding. But something tells me he’s not. Could be the shift in his mood when he contemplated his answer. The evasiveness.
Or maybe it’s all the scars.
He does his mom’s dirty work. On the down-low.
