The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe (36 page)

Sam strode to the counter, and all I could do was follow him.

“May I help you?” asked Patricia, gliding to the counter. “Oh, hello there! You came in after all!” said Patricia to me.

I blushed furiously. Now I was going to have to explain it all in front of my brothers.

“Hey! It was you!” said an indignant voice behind me. I whirled around to find Sydney Whitman standing there with her mother and cousin, the tarty Brandi.

“Wh-wh-at?” I said.

“You were the one who hadn’t bought the dress! But then why are you here now? I came to get it!” Sydney’s eyes flashed angrily.

I felt mad all of a sudden. That was my dress. And Sydney was not going to take it from me. Sam and Patricia were in an intense conversation, their heads nearly touching. Then Patricia waved Sam to the back of the store to Mona’s office.

I just stood there, not knowing what to do.

“I guess they’re going to get the dress for me
after all,” said Sydney smugly. “So who’s that hottie?” she asked, flipping her hair.

“My brother,” I said. “And he has a girlfriend.” Sam did not have a girlfriend. Not one I knew about, at least. But it sure wasn’t going to be Sydney.

Before Sydney could say anything else, I saw Alexis, Katie, and Mia walking from the back of the store. With Mona, Sam, and Patricia!

“What is going on?” I almost cried. I was so confused.

Mona had the dress on a hanger, and she crossed behind the counter, hung it on a pole, and waved me over to her.

I was so embarrassed. Now everyone was going to hear me turn down the dress, and they’d all witness Sydney’s glory as she purchased it. I felt like I was walking off a cliff as I walked over to Mona.

“Honey,” whispered Mona. “You have a lot of people who love you. You must be a very special person.”

I didn’t even hear her. I just started to cry. “I’m sorry, but . . . I can’t buy the dress.” I started crying really hard then, and I couldn’t stop.

“Oh no, sweetheart. Please, don’t cry. Everything is all right.” She gestured at Patricia for a Kleenex,
and Patricia scurried to grab one from one of the many nearby boxes.

“I have your dress all ready for you,” Mona continued, as if she hadn’t heard me at all. “We’ll just have you try it on and then we can fit it.”

“But you don’t understand. . . . I can’t afford it,” I said. “I’m sorry I let it go on so long. I didn’t know how to tell you. Any of you,” I said, turning to look at the Cupcakers.

“Oh, Emma!” cried Mia, and she ran over and hugged me. Alexis and Katie piled on.

“I know you all hate me. I’m so sorry,” I said. “I couldn’t go to the meetings because I was trying to make extra money dog walking. And I had to babysit. And . . . and . . . well, I guess I just couldn’t do it all.” I didn’t even mention the order for Mrs. Mellgard.

“We don’t hate you!” said Mia.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” said Katie. “We could have helped you.”

“They did help you!” interjected Mona. “These girls came down here today to negotiate a reduced rate for your dress. And we’ve struck a deal!”

Alexis smiled. “Mona is knocking ninety-nine dollars off of the dress in exchange for four weeks of mini cupcakes!” said Alexis.

“This one drives a hard bargain,” said Mona, gesturing at Alexis. “She’s coming to work for me one day.”

Alexis beamed.

“But how did you know I was . . . that I couldn’t afford it?” I asked.

“I e-mailed your brother last night,” said Alexis. “When I didn’t hear back from you, I knew something was really wrong, and well, I knew about your mom’s job. I asked Matt if he knew about the dress, and he put two and two together.”

I remembered Sam was there, and I turned around to look at him. He smiled and shrugged.

“Matt e-mailed me and told me that he and Sam wanted to chip in for the dress for you, but we still didn’t have enough,” said Alexis. “So I decided to see if we could work out a deal for you. And, well, I told Katie and Mia. Please don’t be mad. I just wanted them to know the real reason you hadn’t been around.”

“You should have told us!” said Mia. “I just thought you didn’t care about the wedding and didn’t want to be in the club! We could have helped you figure it out. Or I wouldn’t have cared if you wore an old dress!”

“I don’t know what to say,” I said. I really didn’t.
So many people helped me: Alexis, Mia, Katie, Sam, even Matt.

“Well, instead of saying anything, let’s go get that dress on,” said Mona. “We need to make sure it fits you perfectly.”

“Wait! That’s my dress!” shrieked Sydney.

We turned to look—we had completely forgotten about her.

“Now, dear, we have a lot to discuss,” said Mona smoothly, and she steered Sydney away from us as she cast a strong look at Patricia to manage the rest of the situation.

I was on cloud nine as I stumbled into the dressing room, and once the dress was on, I felt even better. I still couldn’t believe my brothers had done this. I mean, Matt? And my friends. It was amazing. I thought for a second about how much heartache I would have saved myself if I had just told them from the start. Live and learn, as Dad always says.

I smiled in the mirror. The dress really was gorgeous.

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I said.

Jake stuck his head around the corner. “Wow, Emmy! You look like a princess fairy!” he said breathlessly.

I laughed. “Thanks, Jakey.”

The door opened wider. And there was Mom. “Oh, honey,” she said, and she burst into tears. “I saw Sam when I was leaving work, and I was so confused. . . . You look beautiful!”

I laughed as Alexis handed Mom a Kleenex from one of three nearby boxes.

“Doesn’t she look divine?” asked Alexis, and all of us started giggling.

T
hat night all of us (minus Jake, who was asleep in his bed) sat in the kitchen, a plate of bacon cupcakes on the table. It was late and everyone was tired but very, very happy.

Mom was happy because the director of the library had called to say that the new grant funding would cover reinstating her job, and that she’d be back on board as of the first of the month, which was in only eight days.

Matt was happy because the bacon cupcakes had been a huge hit at his team dinner; his coach had even implied that someone with the great idea of bringing such delicious cupcakes to a team dinner ought to be captain next year. Matt was thrilled.

Sam was happy because he could have his Friday
nights back once Mom went back to work at the library. He had been missing out on the best shift at the movie theater and hanging out with his friends afterward.

Dad was happy because Mom was going back to work and because his kids were happy.

And I was happiest of all. I had amazing friends, generous brothers, a dad who had revoked my punishment once he heard the reasons why I was so overworked, and a mom who was going back to a normal work schedule. I also had a gorgeous dress that was being altered to fit me and permission to run the dog-walking business one weekday and one weekend day each week for two hours. Plus, Mrs. Mellgard had just called to place a very large order and was referring the Cupcake Club to all her friends. I had come clean about that order earlier. No one was angry, and Alexis was really happy we had another client.

“This has been a crazy few weeks,” said Mom.

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“Honey, I’m so sorry that Dad and I were so out of touch with what was going on in your life. I just feel awful about it,” Mom said.

“That’s okay,” I said. “After all, I can always handle . . .” And I trailed off.

Dad looked at me.

“Emma, you know we’re always here for you. Please don’t let things get that out of control again without asking one of us for help or at least filling us in on what’s going on, okay? You’re lucky you have such great brothers, kiddo.” He nodded toward Matt and Sam.

“The greatest,” I said.

“Just don’t stop baking, even if all else fails,” said Matt, laughing as he peeled the wrapper from a cupcake he’d just snagged.

“Yes, cupcakes should be the last thing to go, after schoolwork and flute,” agreed Sam through a mouthful of cupcake.

“I just can’t wait until the wedding,” I said dreamily.

“Speaking of weddings, who was that cute girl in the bridal salon? The blonde?” asked Sam.

“Aaargh!” I groaned. Maybe Sam wasn’t the greatest brother ever!

On the day of Mia’s mom’s wedding the Cupcake Club, minus Mia, was meeting at my house to put the final touches on the bridal cupcakes and the groom’s cake, which was the bacon cupcakes, of course. I now thought of them as my lucky recipe.

Mia’s mom had decided to go with the sheet of minis in the shape of a heart for her wedding dessert. She had sampled some at Mona’s during her final fitting and found them irresistible. The club decided to do them just like Mona’s: angel food cake, white fondant frosting, and white sugar flowers as decoration. There would be a heart made of raspberry cupcakes with pink frosting in the center of the sheet of cupcakes on the buffet.

At eight thirty that Saturday morning, I heard a quiet knock on the back door. It was Alexis. She had already been to The Special Day and dropped off Mona’s cupcakes that we’d made the night before. Now she was ready to work some more.

“Hi,” she whispered.

“Hi,” I whispered back. “We don’t have to whisper. There’s no one here.”

“Where is everyone?” whispered Alexis.

“Practice,” I said in a normal voice. We both laughed.

There was another knock on the door. It was Katie.

“Hey,” she whispered.

“No whispering,” whispered Alexis. We started laughing really hard. Katie gave us a look that said she thought we were cuckoo, and she came in.

We each ate a big bowl of cereal and then got down to business. I was making the bacon, and Katie was making the fondant frosting for the white minis; she would set aside a bit of my buttercream frosting and tint it pink with raspberry jam for the pink cupcakes. Alexis was working on the edible sugar flower decorations, which were kind of hard, but Alexis did them perfectly, of course.

“Anyone talked to Mia yet?” I asked.

“I e-mailed her this morning to say good luck,” said Katie.

“I think they were going to a spa this morning with her aunts and cousins,” said Alexis. “Group rate, I bet. Probably a wedding package.”

I rolled my eyes at Katie, and we both giggled.
Oh, Alexis.

The bacon was done, nice and crispy. I set it on paper towels to dry and turned to make the buttercream. We were tripling the recipe, which meant three boxes of confectioners’ sugar, six sticks of softened butter, three teaspoons of vanilla, and almost a half a cup of milk. The hand mixer groaned and strained against the ingredients and gave off a light smell of burning plastic. This was nothing new, but it was all part of the reason I still wanted that new pink mixer.

It felt so good to be with my friends again. But I guess we were talking so much that we kind of lost track of time.

“Oh no!” cried Alexis as she looked at the clock. “How will we get this done?”

I started to panic. “I can . . . I will . . .” Then I stopped.

Mom, Jake, Sam, Dad, and Matt came in.

I took a deep breath. “Mom!” I cried. “Mom, we need help!”

Mom smiled. “Okay, whatever it is, we can handle it. Come on, guys,” she said, gesturing to the boys. “Everybody’s in on this one.”

“We can do this!” said Alexis, and she smiled at me. “Emma and I can figure out a plan.”

And we did. Mom whipped up the buttercream, Dad began packing frosted minis, Jake crumbled the bacon (“Yes, you can taste it. But only once, or I’ll arrest you!” I said), Matt helped Katie frost the bacon cupcakes as soon as they were ready, and Sam started carrying boxes out to Dad’s station wagon. Alexis and Katie rushed to help him.

With everyone else running around I suddenly realized I didn’t have much to do. The kitchen was a hive of busy activity, and everyone was doing his or her job well. I went to check my e-mail. Mia had
sent all the club members an e-mail asking us to be at her house a shade earlier. I also had an e-mail from Williams-Sonoma, announcing a new version of the stand mixer. It cost $199! A price reduction! I smiled. The day just kept getting better and better.
Someday,
I thought,
you really will be mine!