“Hey, you’re back.” Ashley finished ringing up a customer. Once the woman left, she faced Heather. “I’ve been so busy. You’ve already sold out of your King Cake cupcakes.”
Shock left Heather a little floored. She hadn’t been gone all that long. “Are you kidding me? I made three dozen of those today.”
“I know. I sold the last dozen to the woman who just left.”
“Wow.” Heather didn’t know what to say. It was the first time she’d actually sold out of a flavor in less than an hour after opening. If she kept this up, she’d start turning a fair profit.
Ashley went to the sink and washed her hands before turning and facing her friend. “So word has it you’re going up again Lila Deveraux for the Krewe of Bacchus contract.” She smiled. “That’s quite a coup if you can swipe it from her.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” The bell over the door rang and Heather took a moment to sell the customer two cupcakes and a cup of latte before she turned back to Ashley. “That’s an enemy I don’t need to make.”
Lila Deveraux was a member of one of New Orleans’s leading families and she was making great waves within society with her new catering business. Everyone knew she wasn’t the one responsible for the culinary wonders being served at some of the finest events the city had to offer; she was just an organizer. Lila was more interested in her nail and hair appointments. After all, it didn’t do too have her gracing all the tabloid covers not looking her best. But she wasn’t helping her reputation any by being known as the New Orleans party girl. Her father had set up the business as a way of cleaning up his daughter’s reputation and hopefully, Heather figured, to give her a reason to go to bed at a normal hour. However, no one was going to say anything negative about the party girl heiress and she was the first called when a party needed to be a Party with a capital P.
“I have a meeting with the Krewe leader in a couple of hours and I still need to finish the cupcakes for the tasting. I had plans to do that before the smoke alarm started going off.”
“You do know who the Krewe leader is, don’t you?”
Heather was busy straightening the boxes, “Hmmm, some guy named Seth.”
“Yeah, Seth Harrison and his partner, Alec Carlisle.”
Heather dropped the box she was holding. No! No way was it the same Alec she’d crushed on in high school. Was he the Carlisle in the well-known firm Harrison and Carlisle, Attorneys at Law? She groaned to herself. Alec had been the typical all-American, beyond handsome football star. And she was the good girl who was friends with everyone but didn’t belong to any certain clique. She was almost positive Alec never knew she existed. This could be awkward since, in her heart, she knew she compared any guy she contemplated dating to Alec—which was admittedly ridiculous since she hadn’t seen him since they graduated ten years ago.
