Page 92 of Secrets Bared
A hand clapped down on his shoulder, and Felix jumped. “Dude! Not cool.”
“You need to roll a perception check, Game Master.” Luke snickered.
“No, now I need to roll a constitution check. You almost gave me a heart attack,”
Luke followed Felix’s line of sight and shook his head. “Come on, man. Just shoot your shot.”
Felix’s stomach dropped. “I can’t. She doesn’t see me that way.” Dancing with her at the Spring Fling had proven that. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s always, ‘You’re such a great friend, Felix.’ Although I think your girl is going to takemy place as her best friend soon.” Grace and Maggie had clicked right away, though Grace had never met a stranger.
“If she does, then you could move into boyfriend town.”
He shook his head. “I’ve known her forever, Luke. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now.”
Luke scoffed. “Like when? Before she left for school? You and I both know you weren’t going to tell her then. You never wanted to hold her back.”
Felix rolled his eyes. “It’s been two years since she moved home.” He’d missed his chance.
But Luke wasn’t giving up. He hummed thoughtfully. “You know, there was something Coach used to tell us when we were working on game strategy.”
Felix smirked. Luke hadn’t played football since high school. “What’s that?”
“You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” He patted Felix’s shoulder again and moved away. “I’ll see you down there.”
“Yep.” What Luke didn’t know was Felixhadtaken the shot. And missed.
The angel of Too Sweet Bakery was closing in, now, a pink bag in hand. She pulled the door open, and the bell rang over her head.
“Hi, Felix!”
“Hey, Grace.” She greeted him with a hug, like she always did. And like he always did, he took a surreptitious sniff of her strawberry shampoo. A hit to last him until the next time. “Whatcha got there?”
“Leftovers from my latest round of test baking.” She grinned, her smile lighting up the crevices of his darkened mood. “I’m working on a lemon lavender cupcake.”
“Sounds delicious.” He locked the door and flipped the sign to “Closed” before following her down to the basement, where she was passing out goodies.
“What’s the occasion?” Joe asked, taking a pale yellow cupcake.
“I’m working on July’s flavor of the month. What do you guys think?”
Maggie set hers down after taking a bite. “It’s good, Grace. I love it. But it doesn’t scream summer to me. It feels more like spring with the lavender.”
Felix peeled back the paper and took his own bite. Lemon danced across his palate, with a hint of the floral to soften it.
No, he hadn’t been watching baking shows in order to communicate better with the object of his obsession. Just don’t ask his Netflix account.
“Rats.” Maggie slumped into her chair. “I really like lemon for summer.”
“Save it for the spring rotation,” Maggie suggested. “July is fireworks and barbeques. You want something that explodes with flavor.”
“Like those bomb popsicles?” Joe chewed thoughtfully.
Grace’s eyes lit up and Felix died a little inside, wishing she’d look at him like that. She immediately pulled out her phone and started making notes on flavors, colors, how to combine them.
“Thanks, Joe. You’re brilliant!”
Felix choked down the rest of his treat, wiping his hand off on the napkin she’d brought.
“Whenever you’re ready, we’ll get started.”
