Ellie's boyfriend kissed her goodnight and disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again... until now.
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A week before their high school graduation, Austin and Ellie parted ways with a goodnight kiss, thinking they'd be seeing each...
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Friday Evening
"We need more pink," Brielle declared from where she stood next to me on a stool by the kitchen island. She had a spatula in one hand and an empty tub of pink icing in the other. There were both decorated and undecorated cupcakes in front of her.
"We have twenty," I paused to count the decorated cupcakes, "twenty four pink ones. I don't think we need more than that."
"But," her bottom lip pouted. "They're not done."
She was right. There were more plain ones. Another fifteen or so to decorate. I had stress baked during the week and even though I'd brought some to the office; I had plenty left.
I took the remaining ones with me to my sister's so Brielle and I could "bake." But also so I wouldn't eat them all by myself. My work pants were already getting snug from all the stress eating I'd been doing.
Now we had a dilemma. We had cupcakes to decorate, but we were out of pink icing. My sister had green and white in the cabinet, but that wasn't good enough for Brielle.
"How about I ask your mom to put the undecorated ones in the freezer? That way, you can decorate them when these are all gone?"
She nibbled on her lip as she thought about it.
"That will give your mom time to buy more pink icing," I argued in my attempt to convince her.
"Thanks a lot for that one," Aubrey hissed under her breath. "Now she's going to tell me we have to go to the store."
I swallow down a chuckle because it sounded about right.
We didn't have to wait long.
"Okey." Brielle agreed and nodded with a serious expression on her little face. Then she turned to her mom. "We have to go to the store, Mama."
I bit my lip as Aubrey glared at me.
"Not tonight, Brielle," Aubrey said. "We have enough decorated cupcakes for dessert and daddy has already started the grill. I'll buy some the next time I go to the store."
"But, mama..."
"How about we use the white icing and put colorful sprinkles on them instead?" I suggested.
"No," she shook her head like it was the worst suggestion ever given. "Pink, Aunt Ellie. We need pink."
She was so damn cute with the stern expression on her pouty little face with pink icing smudges across her forehead. Hanging out with my niece was just what I needed even if it lead to an argument about pink icing.
"Brielle," my sister began in her stern mom voice, but stopped when the back door opened and Brian walked in from the backyard. Brielle immediately turned to him and said with the whiniest voice she had, "daaaaddddyyyyyy..."
