Please know this has nothing to do with you. You were the easiest person to fall in love with. You’re deserving of a beautiful love story, Camden Hunter. I want it to be me and you, but I can’t completely give my heart to you until I know I haven’t lost the one last piece I have of my mom.
I have to go back to Sutten. I have to find a way to keep Wake and Bake. Please forgive me for leaving. I have to fix this, and I can’t ask you to put everything on the line for me.
I love you. Don’t ever forget that. I’ll cherish your love forever. It was fun tempting fate with you, even if our fate isn’t what we’d hoped for.
If you love me, give me time to fix this.
Yours,
Pippa
I read it so many times that it becomes permanently etched into my mind, and once I’ve angrily committed it to memory, I toss it to the side.
For once in my life, I’m going to put someone else before myself. I’m going to prove to Pippa there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her in my life forever.
55
PIPPA
“I think my fingers might fall off,” Lexi complains from my side as she twists the top of another piping bag.
“We just have six dozen more to ice, and we’ll be done.”
Mare whines from my other side, accidentally squeezing her bag too tight, and icing plops down onto the cupcake in one giant glob. “I never want to look at another cupcake again,” she announces, trying to cover the glob of icing with even more icing.
“Same,” Cade pipes up from across the counter. He proved to be terrible at icing cupcakes dozens and dozens of cupcakes ago, so instead, he’s been given the job of neatly arranging them in boxes for presentation. “And I normally love Pip’s cupcakes,” he adds.
“We’re almost done,” I assure them, taking a moment to appreciate all of them showing up to help me. I’d arrived in Sutten early in the morning yesterday, and the only time I slept was on the way back from the airport when Cade and Mare picked me up.
I’d spent the entire plane ride coming up with ways to try and save not only Wake and Bake but our entire block. It started with a bake sale to raise the funds to come up with as much money as possible to take it to the people selling our block. But one thing led to another, and eventually, it ended in all of us coming together to create one huge fundraiser with everyone donating items to sell and simply donating money to the cause. People from all over town have donated items and services, trying to help in any way to help us raise as much money as possible.
Our town has been brought together in ways I never imagined. Everyone in Sutten really rallied around us when Mom died, but they’ve done it all over again with this.
My eyes get glossy when I think about all of the hard work everybody’s put in for the last day. The vendor fair is tomorrow, and we’re hoping that we’ll get a lot of people to visit from the rodeo that’s happening two towns over.
The bell chimes to Wake and Bake. Lexi pops up with the sound, letting her icing bag drop next to the rack of cooled cupcakes. “I’ll go see who it is!” she cheers, trying to use any excuse to get a break.
She’s gone for a moment before she’s pushing the door open, the outline of a man in an expensive suit appearing behind her.
My heart skips as I wonder if it’s Camden. I know I’d told him not to come back, but for a small moment, I was hopeful he did and he’d somehow come up with a solution that ended with us both happy and together.
It isn’t Camden, and I hate the way my stomach drops with disappointment. I should’ve known better than to get involved. I should’ve thought about how different we were and never let him kiss me. Because the moment his lips hit mine, my heart was destined to be his. There was no use fighting it. It didn’t care that we weren’t compatible, that we were as opposite as two people could get. It wanted him regardless. And now we’re both left with an ache in our chests because of it.
Maybe once I know I’m not going to lose this company I worked so hard to create, I’ll be able to figure things out with Camden. But until I’m not threatened by someone from his world, I can’t even think about it. It’s no use.
“Mr. Livingston is here for you,” Lexi announces, taking a step to the side to reveal Dean Livingston. He’s still tall, dark, and handsome. But it’s the wrong figure, the wrong face. The wrong man. And disappointment runs through my bones when I realize how badly I’d hoped for it to be Camden.
The toddler holding Dean’s hand would’ve been my next clue that it wasn’t Camden here to see me. Clara pops her head around the doorway, her eyes lighting up when she sees the rainbow of cupcakes lining my entire kitchen.