Best Served Cold

I wanted to feel it against my jaw.

I wanted him to kiss me, and it was wrong.

But he was Chase.

“Rae…” His voice was so gentle, but it was his eyes that killed me. They were raw and open and warm, and the lump in my throat was so thick I couldn’t even swallow it.

He leaned down, and I took a deep breath, my fingers twitching against his chest.

A loud bang sounded outside, and we both jumped, coming apart as if we’d just been caught in the act. I pressed my hand against my stomach as Chase went to the door and opened it.

“It was just a car backfiring,” he said, closing the door again.

Our eyes met.

He moved his foot, and for a minute, I thought he was going to come over and finish what had almost just happened. Instead, he shuffled back, lifting his hand to his hair. He ran his fingers through it, so it was all messy and sticking up in all different directions, then rested his hand at the back of his neck, rubbing it slightly.

“I should go.” He wrapped his fingers around the door handle, and it squeaked as he twisted it.

As much as a part of me wanted him to stay, I knew this was bad with a capital B. My stomach clenched with butterflies and my heart was going insane, so I simply nodded.

He opened the door and left.

He didn’t even look back.

I covered my mouth with my hands and fell onto the window seat. My hands literally shook as I leaned forward and buried my whole face in them instead of just my mouth.

Holy shit.

What was I thinking?

CHAPTER ELEVEN – RAELYNN

I mixed.

And I mixed.

And I mixed.

It was a good thing I had a ton of ice cream makers, because I’d given up painting after Chase had left two hours ago and I was creating it on a nationwide scale. I had no idea what I was going to do with it all when it was done, but I didn’t care.

I had unicorn ice cream. Mermaid ice cream. Princess ice cream.

Best Served Cold was going full-fairytale.

The unicorn ice cream was the mix of beautiful pinks and purples and blues. The mermaid ice cream was purple and greens, a la Ariel, and the princess ice cream was white and red and pink.

Each tub came out differently. I threw sprinkles in one. Stars in another mix. Edible glitter in another.

I was winging it. Some people winged their eyeliner; I winged ice cream. I had time to practice and taste and make sure everything was right—make sure I had the mixing down. Make sure that, by the time the store reopened, I could do it all perfectly with my eyes closed.

That, and I needed to not think about Chase.

I couldn’t think about him or what had happened. There was no way to describe what had happened, so I simply wasn’t going to. I was going to ignore it. Pretend it never happened.

It didn’t happen.

It was as simple as that.

Nope. Never. Not once.

I poured green, purple, and lilac ice cream mixtures into one tub and, grabbing a metal skewer, used it to swirl them all together. The colors mixed and swirled like marble until it was a psychedelic mix that would look amazing on a cone or in a bowl.

Oh. In a bowl.

I pushed the lid onto the tub and set it into the freezer. After quickly clearing off the countertop, I pulled out a tub of the unicorn ice cream that was already frozen and set it on the stainless-steel surface.

I didn’t have to go far to get anything since I’d moved everything from the main store through to the kitchen before I’d started decorating. I grabbed a sundae glass from the shelf above where I was working and, after a quick rinse, set it down.

It was like a goldmine in here with everything laid out. I grabbed glitter and sprinkles, candy stars and white chocolate. A wafer cone and strawberry sauce completed my collection.

I sprinkled the inside of the sundae glass with edible glitter, then scooped three balls of unicorn ice cream into it. I kept it chilled while I melted white chocolate in a glass bowl over hot water on the stove, then dipped a cone into it. In turn, the cone went into a bowl of candy stars, and I drizzled a small amount of the cooling chocolate over the sundae, sprinkling it with glitter and stars in turn.

Then, I added the cone on top, giving it a unicorn horn.

Stepping back, I surveyed my handiwork.

It wasn’t the best I’d ever made, but the idea was there. It just needed some work. The cone was too big, for a start, and it could really do with some ears.

I wondered if I could buy the ears. They’d have to be icing, and that wasn’t something I was great with. I grabbed my phone and made a quick note to search online for those later when I was home.