Honey Pie (Cupcake Club) - By Donna Kauffman Page 0,22

toward the seat. When Honey wavered, she said, “Don’t make me hug you.”

Which made the laughter threaten all over again. Honey sat. “You have no idea, but this is so not how I pictured this going.”

“Is it going worse, or better?” Lani said, amusement in her words.

“Better. I think.” Both smiled at that, and Honey finally got her tears to stop trickling and her heart to stop racing.

Lani refreshed her coffee and pushed the chocolate cupcake toward her. “Have a bite. Everything makes more sense with cupcakes. Especially ones filled with dark chocolate. And the sugar buzz doesn’t hurt, either.”

Honey peeled off the paper more for something to do than because she really wanted a bite. But peeling off the paper released the rich, decadent scents of chocolate and spicy ginger, so she gave in and took a bite. Her eyes widened, even as her body hummed. When she swallowed, she looked at Lani with a whole new level of understanding. “It’s no wonder you all are so ridiculously happy. God, these are like . . . what do you put in them?”

“Love,” Lani said simply. “Works every time.” She handed Honey another Kleenex to catch the crumbs. “What did you mean, ‘you all’? Have you met more of the crew?”

Honey’s cheeks warmed, but she was so far past mortification at this point, she honestly couldn’t let herself care. “I was sitting over behind the auto repair shop yesterday, and I saw you all come in for some after hours baking.”

“Ah, Cupcake Club. You should have come over, introduced yourself.”

Maybe I should have, she thought. “Cupcake Club?”

Lani grinned. “You know, like having a book club. Some women bitch and knit, or bitch and read, we bitch and bake.”

Honey found herself smiling again. “I like it.”

“You’ll have to come next week. It would be a good way to get to know folks here. We’re a good bunch. A little eccentric, maybe.”

“Well, I think it goes without saying, I have you all beat on that score.”

Lani laughed again and Honey found herself laughing with her. Seriously in Wonderland, she thought.

Any minute she’d wake up and this wacky dream would all be just that. Except, she realized, she didn’t want to wake up. Because, as dreams went, this one was a little odd, okay a lot odd, but had the potential to be pretty awesome.

“Besides, if you really do own half the place, I could hardly keep you out,” Lani said on another laugh.

Honey’s smile faded, as, true to form, cold, harsh reality crept right back in. “Yes, that. I still don’t know about, well . . . any of it, I guess.”

“Do you want to go next door and see it?”

Then some other realization struck Lani because her face paled, just a little. “Oh my God. If you thought Bea still lived upstairs over the shop when she passed, then, did you—? Were you planning on living there?”

“Kind of.”

“Oh, shit.”

“That, too.”

Lani’s mouth quirked at that. “You can’t know this yet, but I promise you’re going to fit in here just fine. I can’t wait to introduce you to Charlotte. And Kit. You’ve already met Alva.”

Lani picked up a pencil, tapped it on her desk, her expression growing serious. “We’ll figure something out. We will. I mean, we have to get it all sorted out legally, of course, but—” She stopped and looked up at Honey as another thought apparently struck her. “Double shit. Were you planning on reopening her shop? Are you a tailor, too? I thought Bea said you were an artist.”

“I am an artist. But about the shop space, yes, I was planning to use it. Bea wanted me to open up a storefront. I’ve had a mail-order business for years, but she knew it was time to get out of the barn and into a real life, and she was right.” Honey stopped, knowing it was pointless to explain further. The bakery adjunct was built and ready to open for business. Even if she had the legal right to take the space back, she didn’t have the funds to reconstruct it from a kitchen to her little artisan shop. It wouldn’t have taken much to shift it from the way Bea had had it to meet her basic needs; then, as the shop progressed, she would have made further improvements until she had it the way she wanted it.

And kicking the cupcake ladies out wouldn’t exactly be the way to endear herself to her new customer base or her