Cupcake Overload (Cupcakes 2)

Katie and the North Star (Children’s)

For KP, Jessica, Shanyn, and the entire team at Inslinger PR. Thanks so much for all of your help over the last few years. Through deployments, retirement, and numerous moves, you’ve been there to give me a little stability. I appreciate you all!

One night I was out with my girls, enjoying a much-needed ladies’ night, while wondering if one more dirty martini would push me over the edge. The next thing I knew we were in the middle of a situation that no group of mostly drunk women should be in.

It started when Bea said she needed to use the restroom, which led to Amy May saying she was about to burst, and Carmen and I deciding we might as well all go, so we could head back out onto the dance floor as soon as possible.

It was just our luck that from the stall in the back we heard a woman screaming “No” and a man’s voice telling her, “I know you want it.”

That asshole picked the wrong restroom, in the wrong club, at the wrong time.

Little did I know he was Cade’s VP. And, although we saved her from his clutches that night, a month later, she’d be found floating in a motel pool … which would cause the first bit of adversity that Cade and I would have to face as a couple.

Well, that and Branson Braswell.

Who would have thought that I’d miss the days where my biggest problem was my cheating, douchebag ex?

Running a PI firm was a lot harder than taking pictures for one, especially when your professional life spilled over into your personal one. And dating an alpha male who rode a motorcycle and looked good doing it, wasn’t always sunshine and roses.

I was going through cupcakes like our new puppy went through piddle pads, and if I wasn’t careful there would be a Cupcake Overload.

“Pee break,” Amy May called, tugging on my arm and pointing to where Bea and Carmen were already walking toward the restroom.

We were having a much-deserved ladies’ night, and after three dirty martinis, you couldn’t pull me off the dance floor. At the mention of the bathroom, however, I realized I really, really had to pee.

I nodded and let Amy May drag me after our friends.

“Hey,” I said, when some sweaty dude twerked his ass in my face, then gave him a playful shove out of the way as I laughed happily.

It had been a great night.

The craziest part of it all? Cade was home watching my kids.

Yup, you heard that right. My sexy, longhaired, semi-dangerous motorcycle man, was sitting at home with my eleven-year-old twins, eating brownies and watching superhero movies, while I was out with my girls having a blast.

If you had asked me a year ago if I thought this would be my life, I’d have said hell to the no. In all honestly, I’d never imagined life could be so good, at least now that everything that had gone down with my ex.

But here I was, out drinking with my friends, and giddy with the knowledge that when I got home later, tipsy and horny, there was a super-hot guy waiting to make my body sing like a symphony. And he was all mine!

“Long line,” Carmen explained when we caught up to them in the crowded hallway in the back of the bar.

“There’s no line in the men’s; let’s just go in there,” Bea suggested. Without waiting for us to agree, she pushed open the door and we all followed her inside.

I looked around, partially fascinated and fully disgusted.

“It stinks,” I said, trying to whisper, but failing.

Just then, we heard a commotion, and Bea held up her finger to her lips, then did some kind of motion with her hands toward the back of the stall.

Bea was a cop, but the rest of us were not, so we all stood there staring at her, with no idea what the hell she was trying to say.