Lei'd With Cupcakes (Cupcakes 3)

Darn, I’d thought I’d covered everything up pretty well with concealer. Leave it to my bestie the cop to sniff out the faded yellowing spots.

“I may have, kinda, worked a case while I was over there,” I admitted, then took a big gulp of my red wine and told them the story. When I was done, they wore matching expressions of shock and anger.

“I can’t believe you went through that.”

“Those poor girls.”

“I’d like to rip those guys dicks off.” This last was said angrily by Bea, and we all agreed with the sentiment.

“Doesn’t sound like a very relaxing vacation,” Amy May said with a pout, her dreams of me lying on the beach naked dashed.

“It wasn’t all sex trafficking and sea sickness,” I assured them. Next I told them about the volcano, the pig roast, and all the fun stuff we did. Finally, I told them about Cade’s mom, her obsession with my child-rearing hips, and our sexcapades and near misses.

We were all laughing so hard we were practically rolling in the aisles of Tapas.

“Cade’s mom sounds like my kind of woman,” Amy May cried. “I love how she had a sixth sense and knew when you were doing the dirty with her son.”

“Or the thing with the dildo?” Carmen added, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. “She sounds awesome.”

“Only you would try and tell a man like Cade that you weren’t going to have sex with him while on a Hawaiian vacation,” Amy May said. “I wouldn’t care if we were at the Pope’s house, I’d be takin’ care of business.”

Okay, maybe it’s time to switch Amy May from Long Islands to water…

“I’m sure Cade just took it as a challenge,” Bea put in, and when I thought about it, she was absolutely right.

“Well, don’t feel bad for Cade, he did get some after all.”

Of course, right then our waiter decided to pop over to see if we needed anything else.

“Another round,” Amy May said happily.

“Are you sure you want another?” I asked, thinking she was already feeling pretty good, and not wanting it to turn to feeling bad.

“Yup,” she replied with a sloppy smile. “My girls are all back together and Bea’s my ride home. I’m good to go.”

“All right, you heard the lady,” I said to the waiter, then added, “Could you bring some more food too? Maybe some more chips and salsa, and an order of street tacos?”

I figured maybe I could at least get some more food in Amy May, so she wasn’t hurtin’ tomorrow morning.

“Okay, enough about me, I want to hear about what’s up with you guys…”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about opening up another storefront,” Amy May said, her face conveying her excitement.

“And, Shannon and I have been talking about starting a family,” Bea added.

“Bran and I went on that date,” Carmen said quietly.

I looked at my friend, my jaw hanging wide open and asked, “How long was I gone?”

I don’t know if I’d thought time would stop while I was away, but those seemed like three big, possibly life changing events in my friends’ lives, and I knew nothing about them. I tapped down the feelings of regret and decided to focus on the now, and be a part of it all from here on out.

“Wow, another bakery? That’s huge,” I said, truly happy for my friend.

“Well, just a storefront really. So, everything would still be made where we are now, but every morning we’d deliver to the mall and sell products there as well.”

“The mall? That’s amazing!”

“Yeah, it’ll mean more production and hiring more staff, but I think it’ll work out really well.”