Read Online If Fried Chicken Could Fly by Paige Shelton - Free Book Online Page B

had wrestled her way through my dad, which was a possibility, I’d be making the cupcakes by myself. Gram’s recipe for red velvet cake and cupcakes wasn’t difficult, but after the practice session the day before, I couldn’t remember if we still had enough of her “secret” ingredient. Gram would skin me alive twice and then pinch me hard if I didn’t include it in the cupcakes. After a quick detour to the grocery store, I was still close to being on schedule.
    I didn’t know if it was the coffee or the sunshine of a new day, but a zip of optimism ran through me as I pulled out of the grocery store parking lot. I was deeply sad and sorry about Everett, but I knew Gram wouldn’t be under suspicion for long. Everything would get worked out quickly and we could get back to mostly normal.
    And then, as I was looking both ways before exiting onto Massacre Lane, I caught sight of Cliff. His return to Broken Rope had been something I’d driven out of my mind; I’d literally forced myself not to think about him since last night.
    Seeing him surveying a parked car in front of the local herb supplement specialist’s establishment caused another wave of dread to rock my stomach.
    “Why did you have to come back?” I slapped the steering wheel.
    Cliff glanced at the front license plate of the car and then walked around to the driver’s side and peered into the window. He pulled out a pen and a notebook and started to write something. He looked great in a uniform.
    This was not good.
    Why hadn’t I made a better effort to find someone else? Why wasn’t I married with two children and Saturday afternoon soccer games? Why hadn’t I let go all those years ago? Why hadn’t I recovered from Cliff Sebastian, and even more important, why had I allowed him to be something I needed to recover from?
    Even when we dated, I wasn’t all about Cliff. I had my own life, my own dreams. My brother tells me the problem was that I never considered that Cliff might have plans of his own and wouldn’t want to be a part of
my
future dreams.
    “You set yourself up, sis,” he’d say. “You expected too much from him and when he couldn’t give you exactly what you wanted you wouldn’t compromise. You two would still be together if you hadn’t told him you should cool it while you were getting your ‘educations.’ ”
    I wasn’t sure if my brother was right about whether Cliffand I would still be together, but I
had
been the one to tell Cliff that we should put our focus on school.
    I just thought he’d do what I did—dive in and ignore the social world around him until we could get back together.
    I should have known better. Cliff was a much better multi-tasker than I was.
    Thankfully, a horn beeped and pushed me on my way and out of my unpleasant stroll down memory lane.
    I pulled into the school’s parking lot at about 10:00 a.m. I had plenty of time to bake the cupcakes and get them delivered. And, the bicycle leaning against the front door told me I would have help after all.
    Jake Swanson’s bike was a modern version of old-fashioned. It was bright green with a thick and curvy middle bar. The seat was cushioned and comfortable, and the handlebars were set high—sissy bars, my brother called them. When he was the fake sheriff, Jake kept a child’s stick horse in plain sight, but when not in character Jake rode his bike all over town. It was what he attributed his trim build to. I thought he was just blessed with a metabolism that the rest of us would pay to have. He ate whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it and didn’t gain a pound.
    Though he was one year older than me, we met in high school when he moved to town at the beginning of his sophomore year. He was the new kid, neither big nor athletic, and had been a prime target for the bullies at the school. It was Cliff who’d come to his rescue, but it was me he’d really hit it off with. We shared a love of cooking and the law. We’d been in home economics and