Epilogue
“Icing - a sweet glaze made of sugar, butter, water, and egg whites or milk, often flavored and cooked and used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies.”
Olly
The pink cup slid across the counter toward me and I gave it a dubious stare.
“What’s the matter, Olly?” Frankie taunted from the other side. “Is pink not your color?”
I grinned. “You tell me,” I said and picked it up and took a drink. “Does it match my eyes,” I asked, batting them.
“I knew you were gay,” she muttered.
“That’s not what you said last night.” I wagged my eyebrows at her and a feeling of smugness came over me when her cheeks turned pink.
“Olly, I’m at work,” she hissed.
“Just like last night,” I drawled, pointedly looking behind the counter toward the floor where all the naughty events took place after closing.
“That’s the last time I let you sample my new icing recipe.” She sniffed, her cheeks still pink.
“Give me a cupcake, woman.”
She gave me a surprised look. “You want a cupcake. Something filled with sugar?”
“Someone once told me food should be enjoyed.”
She reached in to pull out the Iced Princess’s signature cupcake. “Oh no you don’t,” I said. “I want one of your creations.”
Her hand moved past the signature one and grabbed up a pink cupcake piled high with white frosting and sprinkles that looked like pearls. Frankie called it “The Marilyn.” She handed it over on a very pink plate and shooed me away from the counter. “You’re holding up my line.”
I took the very girly cupcake, the pink plate, and the pink cup and went to sit at the empty pink table near the back. If a guy wasn’t careful, he might find himself turning into a pansy in this place.
One bite of the cupcake and I forgot about all the pink. My God, she was good at baking. And she was right; food was a lot better when you actually enjoyed it.
I could get used to this living thing.
The chair across the table pulled out and Piper dropped herself into it. We regarded each other for long, silent moments. She was the first one to break the silence. “You bought this place for her,” she said. “She looks really happy. Happier than I’ve ever seen her.”
I glanced over at Frankie. She was putting several cupcakes into a large pink box and she was laughing.
“About what I did to you…” I said, not really knowing what to say.
Apologizing seemed stupid, especially when I wasn’t really sorry.
I’d been doing what I had to do. I knew I had to say something, though, because this was Frankie’s best friend, her family, and Frankie was, well… my life.
Piper held up her hand. “That’s not what I want to talk about. That’s in the past.”
“Then what?” I asked, setting the cupcake down and giving her my full attention.
She took a deep breath. “Give me your hand.”
“My—” I stopped because I knew exactly what she wanted to do. There was only one reason she would want to touch me.
She wanted to see what my future entailed. She wanted to be guaranteed that I wasn’t going to do something awful to Frankie.
I actually wanted to know too.
Slowly, I stretched my hand across the table. She looked at it for long moments, no doubt deciding if this was really what she wanted. We both knew whatever she saw might not be good.
I heard something clatter to the floor and we both looked. Frankie was staring at us with a pale face and round eyes.
I was about to pull away, to change my mind, when her hand covered mine.
Maybe I would get lucky and she wouldn’t have a vision. Maybe nothing would happen.
I knew from the look on her face the instant a vision overwhelmed her.
Her hand covered mine for several minutes and then she pulled away, her eyes coming back into focus and looking at me.
I couldn’t read her. Her face was closed off, tight. I knew it was bad.
I swallowed. “How bad is it?” Maybe there was a way to somehow change whatever she saw.
Her face softened and a small smile played on her lips. “Well, that depends. How do you feel about kids?”
Kids?
I stared at her dumbly. Was she saying Frankie and I were going to have kids?
She nodded. “With green eyes just like his daddy.”
A boy. I was going to have a son.
A huge grin broke over my face. It hurt my cheeks because I was positive I had never smiled so big in my entire life. After everything—after the fighting, the killing, the heartache—I was finally going to get a chance to live.
And damn, living was so much better than death.
The End