Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
“It’s all right,” Sunny said. “I made plenty of icing. I got out of bed this morning when I wasn’t supposed to and made extra,” she said to Brody.
“Bet you got into trouble over that,” Brody said as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.
“Yep. Let’s just say I’m not looking forward to sitting down while I’m doing the cupcakes. I might try to stand. Do you think anyone will notice if I’m standing?”
Brody nodded. “Yep, I think they will. But don’t worry, you’re not the only one who got spanked this morning.”
“You too, huh?” Sunny said with commiseration.
“Oh, yeah, and so did Tutu.”
“Zippy, don’t you use all that icing. It’s for everyone!” Betsy called out.
“Yeah, everyone like us, Zippy,” Baron called out. “Save some for us.” He rushed over toward the table that had been set up for the cupcake decorating, while Royal strolled behind him, his hands in his pockets.
Royal looked relaxed, but his gaze was moving around the surroundings, as though he was keeping an eye on things, too, or as though he was up to something.
The twins were usually up to something.
Hopefully they didn’t plan on blowing anything up. Now that would be a Fourth of July to remember.
Autumn walked up beside Brody and slid her hand into his. “What are you guys talking about?”
“How we’re going to decorate cupcakes while standing up,” Sunny said with a grimace.
“You too, Sunny?” Autumn said with sympathy.
“Yep. Turns out that when you are doing something sneaky, you always need to check that your dog doesn’t stand on the evidence and that you wipe it off your face. Either one would’ve gotten me caught. Both were just the nail in the coffin of my sore bottom. I’m going to go help set up.”
Sunny headed over to the table, leaving the two of them.
“Was that supposed to make sense?” Autumn asked.
“I have no idea,” Brody replied.
“Are you going to decorate a cupcake, Brody-bear?”
“Oh, um, I don’t know.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Autumn said.
Shoot. If he wanted to help her relax, then he should insist that they both go decorate a cupcake. Even if he had absolutely no skill with decorating, or icing, or cupcakes.
“Come on, let’s do this. I bet I can make more of a mess than you can.”
Autumn gave him a grin. “Challenge accepted.”
Fifteen minutes later, both of them were a mess.
Brody swore that there was more icing on his hands and his T-shirt than there was on the actual cupcake he was attempting to decorate.
“What do you think?” Autumn asked as she showed him her cupcake.
“I think that looks amazing.” And it really did. It looked like it had been expertly decorated.
She’d used this little piping bag to pipe bits on, and she’d even managed to get all three colors on the cupcake without the icing all mixing together. Brody’s icing had all mixed together, and now it just looked purple.
Purple wasn’t a very Fourth of July color, was it?
“Ooh, you made purple!” Tabby said from his other side.
“Um, yeah.”
“It’s so pretty!” Livvy said as she leaned across the table from where she was sitting between Jewel and Emme.
All of their men were kind of gathered around them, chatting. He’d been keeping an eye on the Fox, and even though he didn’t move closer to join any groups, people kept going to talk to him.
Right now, he was involved in a conversation with Spike, who wasn’t really much of a talker.
So Brody wondered how that was going.
“Um, yeah, I guess.”
“What do you think of mine, brother?” Baron held his up so Royal, who was seated across from him, could see it.
It looked as though he’d created two balls with his cupcake and covered them in blue icing.
“Remind you of anything?” Baron asked slyly.
Uh-oh.
Brody sensed that something was about to happen. He moved closer to Autumn, ready to grab her and run if shit went down.
“What is it? What’s going on?” she asked.
“Just watch.”
“I don’t know what you mean, brother?” Royal drawled. “Do you like mine?”
Royal’s cupcake looked even better than Autumn’s. The piping work was stunning and he’d even created a large flower on the top with more icing.
“Whoa, Royal, that’s amazing,” Betsy said.
“Yes, Royal is very good with his hands,” Baron said. “He has to be.” He held a ball in each hand, rocking them up and down. “Or these would be so cold they’d probably drop off.”
Was he . . . was he trying to imply something?
About Royal having blue balls.
“Baron!” Betsy cried. “You can’t say things like that!”
“It’s all right, Ma. I have this,” Royal told her.
Then, before anyone had any inkling of what he was going to do, he’d thrown a cupcake right into his brother’s face.
“Cupcake war!” Zippy cried before she jumped up with her cupcake in hand and ran away.
Someone didn’t want to risk her cupcake ending up as a weapon.