The Diva Frosts a Cupcake Read Free Page B

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    If Myra thought she would lose Maurice by leaving, she was dead wrong. He turned on his heel and hurried to catch up to her.
    “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about Myra.” Poor Humphrey had the worst luck with women. It probably didn’t help that he looked like the proverbial ninety-pound weakling and that he was as timid as he was pale, a shrinking violet, really. Totally clueless about women but painfully knowledgeable about many other things. We’d grown up together in a small Virginia town. When we were in school, he’d had a huge crush on me. Immersed in my own childhood issues, I had no idea about his young love until a few years ago when he confessed. Humphrey reminded me a little bit of a dog, in a good way—a loyal friend, on the ball and protective but prone to making a mess in the wrong yard.
    Now that I looked at him more carefully, it dawned on me that his fleece pullover was hiding a little paunch. He’d put on some weight in his face, too. It filled him out a little bit and looked good on him.
    “A woman is interested in you? Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Myra works at the funeral home with me, but she’s not my type. She’s nice enough, but she’s rather boisterous. Draws too much attention to herself.”
    What a shame. Finally, a woman who liked Humphrey, and he was being picky? “Have you gone out with her? Maybe she’s not so bad. She certainly seems to like you.” I returned to work, placing cerise cloths over two of the tables.
    “At the office Christmas party last year she drank too much and started slinging her bra over her head like it was a rodeo lasso.”
    Ouch. I bet she regretted that in the morning—in more ways than one. “Maurice certainly seems interested in her.”
    “I loathe that man. He’s as cheap and tawdry as they come. He hangs around at the funeral home all the time to be near Myra. She hates it. Half the time she hides from him.”
    “Can’t you put a stop to that?”
    “He claims he’s there for the viewings that are open to the public.”

    Humphrey was setting out the stack of adoption forms when Renee Gatewood rushed over. Every bit as petite and sweet as the cupcakes she baked, even her ruffled pink apron with chocolate polka dots and the Sugar Baby Cupcakes logo on it screamed sugar. “Humphrey, sweetie, could you do me a big favor? I’m short-handed and, as you well know,
everything
,
just everything
, has gone wrong.”
    Sweetie?
Had I entered some alternate universe where Humphrey actually attracted women? I lifted the box for best cupcake votes and took my time placing it on the table next to the adoption forms so I could watch what happened.
    She brushed hair the color of light brown sugar out of her eyes. Her pixie face wrinkled with worry. “I found a desk for sale that I really need.” She gazed my way and angled toward me. “It’s so cute and dainty, with a fold-down writing area and the most darling little cubbyholes. I’m stuck here all day, and I have to bake cupcakes tonight. Could you be a dear and pick it up for me?”
    “Of course!” Humphrey agreed fast. Too fast.
    “Oh! You’re wonderful. Just wonderful!” She flitted back to her booth, sold a box of cupcakes, and returned. “Here’s the check to pay for it, and this is the address. I’ve asked Muffin to unlock the back door for you at the bakery, so you can swing it by whenever you have the time. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.”
    From the look on Humphrey’s face, I had a pretty good idea that dating him would be thanks enough. Or were they already dating?
    “It’s nothing. Glad to help.”
    The second she flew back to her booth, Humphrey turned to me in a panic. “May I borrow your car? Mine isn’t big enough to transport a desk!”
    I shouldn’t have laughed, but he was so desperate and earnest. “Yeah, sure. So what’s going on between you and Renee?”
    His pale face flushed again. “Nothing.”
    I dragged a dog pen to the open