Cupcake

I didn’t know much about Rhys’s mom. In fact, I could list everything I knew on one hand.

1) She loved English things.

2) She loved chocolate.

3) She was a romantic (I vaguely remembered Rhys saying something about her liking Hallmark).

4) She’d raised Rhys (which meant she had to be an awesome mom).

5) She’d called me pretty…

…and I desperately wanted to impress her.

Okay, so I guess technically that was six things.

Since Rhys was already baking the cake, I had to go another route. I’d met his mom only the one time, but she’d been so kind. I liked her and wanted to give her a great gift. After much thought, I finally decided what to bring.

I just hoped she would like it.

When her birthday finally rolled around, I had wavered, rethinking the gift about a million times on the drive over. But the truth was I couldn’t think of anything better.

“Glad to see you, Princess,” Rhys said as he opened the door to let me in. Hercules came barreling over to see me, and I bent down to pet his tummy and say hi. “Come on in—I’m in the middle of baking.”

“How is it?” I asked as I straightened. “Did you remember to add the coffee?”

He rolled his eyes but grinned. “Yes.”

“Did you put in enough cocoa?”

“Yep.”

“Did you grease the pans and put flour in them, so the cake won’t stick?”

His eyes went wide. “Oh my God.”

“Rhys!”

“Just kidding,” he said with a laugh. “I did all that, Princess. You taught me well.”

I shot him a frown. “Not funny. You had me worried for a second.”

“Ah, don’t be mad. I need all the good vibes I can get.”

Grandma D’s words came back to me then: you eat with your eyes first.

She’d been so right about that one. My favorite chef had drilled it into me over and over as I sat in her kitchen, watching her put together some of the best food I’d ever eaten (or seen), the Food Network playing in the background. The weird thing was the saying could be applied to a ton of things. Looks counted for a lot—in food and in life.

If she could’ve seen the cake Rhys baked for his mom, I knew Grandma would’ve said it was love at first sight.

“There’s no way you made that by yourself,” Zach said to his brother. “You can’t even boil decent pasta.”

Rhys shot me a smile. “I had a good teacher.”

“Ah, I get it now. Ariel, tell the truth.” Zach turned to me. “You made the cake, didn’t you?”

I shook my head. “Nope, it was all Rhys. I gave him the recipe, but he did the baking.”

“Seriously?”

At my nod, the kid groaned.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go upstairs and redraw the artwork for my card.” Zach frowned, shooting Rhys a glare over his shoulder. “You’re lucky you have a girl who can cook, bro. My handmade card is going to make Mom’s heart melt. It would’ve been the clear winner if it wasn’t for her.”

“It’s not a competition,” Rhys called to his brother’s retreating back.

Once he was far enough away, though, Rhys turned to me.

“But if it was, our cake would definitely win.”

My heart warmed at his use of the word “our.” Rhys really had done all the work. The pans were already in the oven when I arrived, but I could tell he’d followed Grandma D’s recipe to the letter, and the result was a delicious-looking chocolate cake now covered in vanilla frosting. Rhys’s parents were currently out while the boys got everything ready for her birthday.

“Rhys, your Mom is going to love it,” I said. “Awesome job.”

He shrugged. “I couldn’t figure out how to do those fancy letters, so I bought a cake topper from the store. Pretty sure it’ll taste good, though.”

“Oh, I know it will. Maybe you should stop playing football and become a chef.”

“Yeah, right,” he said. “You’re the baker, Princess, not me.”

I pointed to the counter. “That cake says otherwise.”

If I didn’t know better, I would’ve sworn he was blushing.

“Okay, I have a confession. I bought a backup cake from Publix,” he admitted. “It’s in the fridge.”

“Why?”

“To be prepared in case I failed.”

I laughed as Rhys grinned. “Well, luckily you won’t need it.”

“Like I said, I had a good teacher.”

“I really shouldn’t like you so much,” I said. “It’s not fair. You’re good at everything.”

“Not everything,” he said.

I raised a brow as he held out a hand.

“Dance with me, Princess?”

Heart pounding, I placed my palm on top of his and let him pull me in.

“I could say this is practice for Homecoming,” he murmured, “but that would be a lie.”

The kitchen was silent as we swayed together.

“I just wanted to hold you.”

Rhys’s words caressed the top of my ear as I shivered.

“You’re really good at that, too,” I said.

“What?” he asked.

“Making me want you.”

“Ah, but if I was good at that, you would’ve said yes to the date.”

I bit my lip. “I am,” I said.

Rhys pulled back a bit. “You are what?”

“Saying yes. I want to go out with you, Rhys.”

His eyes looked brighter than they had a second ago. “Is that right?”

I nodded and pressed my cheek against his shoulder.

“Don’t make me say it again,” I mumbled. “It was hard enough the first time.”

Rhys laughed. “But I loved hearing it.”

I nudged him instead of answering.

“I know this may sound odd, considering we were already paired up,” he said. “But I’ve wanted to ask you this for a while.”

My heart was beating triple-time as Rhys placed his hand gently under my chin and lifted until I met his eyes.

“Will you go to Homecoming with me?”

And there it was.

The question, that one question I hadn’t realized I’d been waiting for, wanting him to say for so long until he actually said it.

“Yes,” I said.

“One more time, Princess.”

“Yes, Rhys! I’ll go to Homecoming with you!”

I laughed as he twirled me around, feeling dizzy and wonderful at the same time.