The Cupcake Diaries Recipe For Love Part 10

"You're still my best friend," Andi told her.

"And mine," Kim added.

Jake appeared in the doorway, gave everyone a big grin, and held up the cupcake trophy. "Look what Officer Lockwell found in Hollande's French Pastry Parlor."

"Gaston took it?" Rachel asked.

"He also released the rat," Andi informed her. "Your YouTube clip caught him standing by the shop's side door and releasing the thing from a cage. As a result, everyone we've talked to in Astoria plans to boycott his bakery."

Kim smiled and quoted their motto borrowed from The Three Musketeers, "'All for one, one for all.'"

"I'm glad we don't have to worry about any more thieves," Rachel said and frowned. Didn't she set a plate of Hidden Berry cupcakes on the back table? Her gaze swung from the empty s.p.a.ce to the outward swing of the front door, then back to the group.

"Nothing is going to tear us apart," Andi vowed, her voice firm. "Or you and Mike. You need to go after him and tell him how you feel."

Kim nodded. "I saw him down by the waterfront. If we move fast-"

"Wait," Bernice said and placed a handwritten check in Rachel's hand. "Take this for your grandpa's treatment."

Rachel gasped. "It's too much-"

Bernice shushed her. "I'm old and rich. Very rich. Now, go. And don't let anything stand in the way of true love."

"I won't," Rachel promised. And with the other women's promise to watch over the cupcake counter, and Andi and Kim by her side, she rushed out of the shop.

Chapter Ten.

To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart, and to sing it to them when they have forgotten.

-Arne Garborg OUT OF BREATH, Rachel reached the waterfront walk. "I don't see him, do you?"

Andi shook her head. "No."

"He can't be far," Kim encouraged.

The sky was dark and churning and held the threat of a storm moving in. The wind whipped their hair back, and a foghorn blew somewhere in the distance. Then, appearing out of the gray landscape, the pale yellow-green-and-maroon restored 1913 Astoria Riverfront Trolley jingled as it came up the track and stopped in front of them.

"If we board the trolley, we can look for him along the whole two-and-a-half mile stretch," Andi suggested.

"Do you have a dollar for the fare?" Kim asked.

Andi looked in her purse. "I'm broke."

Kim's pockets came up empty. "So am I."

"I have some singles," Rachel offered, but when she opened her purse, all of the contents fell out on the ground.

Andi and Kim bent to help her scoop up her large array of lipstick, mascara, apple-blossom perfume, nail polish, hairbrush, keys, mints, and other miscellaneous items.

"We have to leave," the white-bearded conductor told them. "It's a holiday weekend, and we're on a tight schedule. You can catch the trolley on our next trip back."

"No, please wait." Rachel held up three singles. "I've got it."

Andi and Rachel took seats on one side, while Kim dropped onto a deep-polished wooden bench opposite them so they wouldn't miss Mike if he was on either side of the tracks.

The bell sounded, and as the trolley moved forward, the conductor began to recite its history. Rachel scanned the dozens of people they pa.s.sed, but Mike was nowhere in sight.

"Up ahead the trolley goes over a stretch of water," the conductor continued. "We haven't had an accident yet, but be advised the person sitting next to you is your nearest floatation device."

Rachel prayed the trolley wouldn't fall into the water this time either, but with her luck, she wasn't too sure. A few minutes later the trolley returned to dry land and stopped for a long line of people waiting to board. Not willing to waste any more time, she got up out of her seat.

"What are you doing?" Andi called, jumping up to follow.

"I can't wait," Rachel said. "I might miss him. I'll go the last stretch on foot."

As they hurried down the waterfront path, she feared she'd missed him anyway. They were almost to the end. The trolley was catching up to them, and Rachel moved into one of the three-by-six-foot railed, wooden deck cut-outs to get off the tracks. Andi and Kim followed, and the trolley pa.s.sed by and stopped a few yards ahead.

Rachel looked out over the wide mouth of the Columbia River, toward the red and green lights set to guide the ocean-bound s.h.i.+ps in the right direction, and wished she had such a beacon.

She shook her head. "I've lost him."

A card swirled into the air in front of her, and she reached out and grabbed it. A Creative Cupcakes business card?

She spun around, and Mike, dressed in a suit and tie, stood in front of her, his dark hair ruffled and a bright smile lighting his handsome face. Rachel drew in her breath. He didn't seem to be unhappy with her at all. In fact, he seemed mischievously pleased, like he knew a secret she didn't.

Andi and Kim also wore huge smiles on their faces as if they also knew something. What were they keeping from her?

"I was online less than an hour ago, replying to a job inquiry when I saw you," Mike said, his voice calm.

"Me?" Rachel asked. "From the video clip filmed last night?"

"No," he said with a grin. "From the video clip filmed today."

"Today? What do you mean today?"

"When you stood up and poured your heart out in the Creative Cupcakes party room, you were being filmed," Mike told her.

Andi nodded. "Caleb set the camera on a timer to film the same hour every afternoon and evening," she explained. "After the chaos at the party, he didn't turn it off, and someone must have knocked the lens because today it zoomed in on the party room. Caleb came in the shop, thought it was a leftover clip from the party, and had it uploaded within seconds."

Rachel's stomach locked down tight. "And you . . . all saw me . . . and how many others?"

Mike laughed. "The whole world."

"It's gone viral!" Andi exclaimed and held up her smartphone to show her the images. "You've already got 20,000 views on YouTube."

"You were an instant sensation," Kim added. "All of a sudden the phone started ringing with calls from women asking to be part of the cupcake club."

Rachel frowned. "Why?"

"Because you were honest and connected with women on a personal level," Andi told her and nodded to her phone. "Orders for cupcakes are pouring in. Three weddings, two birthday parties, and a booking for the Scandinavian Festival next month. There won't be any problem paying our rent on time."

"What I said was personal," Rachel said, trembling from the thought of being utterly exposed.

"Did you mean it?" Mike asked, turning her to face him. "What you said about never wanting to wear a mask again?"

"From now on, you will only see the real Rachel," she a.s.sured him. "I'm through with masks."

"So am I," Mike told her. "Right before you arrived, I met with the director of the new movie set to film in Astoria next month. He hired me to build a model of the Peter Iredale. I told him I knew a beautiful redhead who might like to play the part of one of the stowaways living an enchanted life at sea."

"I'm already living an enchanted life here in Astoria," she told him, "with you."

Mike dropped down on one knee. "Rachel Marie Donovan, I knew how uncomfortable you were at the party and only backed off to give you s.p.a.ce. You never 'lost' me. I love you and promise to always love you." He paused, then grinned. "Will you marry me?"

Rachel gasped. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Andi and Kim clutch each other's arms and heard them gasp, too.

"You'll love me even when I'm not 'stupendous'?" she asked, giving him a big teasing smile.

"Yes," he said, his eyes still locked on hers. "Will you love me even if I'm not always 'magnificent'?"

"Yes, Mike, I will!" Throwing her arms around his neck, she found she was laughing, crying, and deliriously happy all at the same time.

Mike stood up and lifted her off her feet. As he swung her around, a cheer rose into the air. Rachel looked toward the tracks and realized it came from the people on the trolley.

Mike also saw them watching and grinned again. Then he bent her backward and swept her up into a kiss so sweet, so tender, so magnificent, she lost all sense of her surroundings.

For at least two minutes. Until Mike pulled his mouth away to place a light kiss on the tip of her nose.

"I thought I was the impulsive one," Andi said and clapped as she jumped up and down. "After your wedding you can drive away in the Cupcake Mobile!"

"We can tie tin cans and tinsel to the b.u.mper!" Kim added.

Rachel laughed, and Mike captured her lips again, this time holding nothing back, but drawing her in deep for a kiss that held the promise of never ending. She smiled inside, her heart soaring, as she dreamed of their new life together.

A life as sweet as a beautiful s.h.i.+p in full sail toward a horizon of blue sky and open sea.

Recipe for

DEEP CHOCOLATE CAKE.

From Merrilee Shoop of Allyn, Was.h.i.+ngton Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix on slow to medium speed until well blended and smooth.

3 cups flour 2 cups sugar 2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 6 Tbsp. cocoa 1 Tbsp. vinegar 1 tsp. vanilla cup vegetable oil 2 cups water Pour into a 13-by-9-inch pan (no need to grease and flour pan). Bake at 350 for 5 minutes and reduce heat to 300 for 45 minutes.

Frosting:

5 tbsp. flour 1 cup milk Cook in a pot over low heat and continue stirring to avoid lumps. When it forms a thick paste, set aside and let cool. In a medium bowl, mix: 1 cup sugar 1 cup b.u.t.ter 1 tsp. vanilla Beat until fluffy, then add the flour and milk paste and beat until spreading consistency.

Keep reading for an excerpt from the first book in THE CUPCAKE DIARIES series, SWEET ON YOU.

now available from Avon Impulse.

And catch a sneak peek at the third book in THE CUPCAKE DIARIES series, TASTE OF ROMANCE.

available from Avon Impulse May 21, 2013.

An Excerpt from THE CUPCAKE DIARIES: SWEET ON YOU.

Forget love . . . I'd rather fall in chocolate!

-Author unknown ANDI CAST A glance over the rowdy karaoke crowd to the man sitting at the front table with the clear plastic bakery box in his possession.

"What am I supposed to say?" she whispered, looking back at her sister, Kim, and their friend Rachel as the three of them huddled together. "Can I have your cupcake? He'll think I'm a lunatic."