Read Online When Only Cupcakes Will Do by Daisy James - Free Book Online Page B

her proposal that she felt like herself again and she experienced a surge of confidence, quickly followed by a sharp dip when reality stuck its nose into her plans.
    â€˜I can’t start up a business without any capital, Jess, even if it has been my dream since I was five years old. Do you remember when we used to drag the wallpaper table out to the front gate and sell our butterfly buns to passers-by?’
    â€˜I do! And yours were always the first to go! Those were happy days, weren’t they?’
    â€˜Remember the race to spend our hard-earned pennies on 99s and lollies from the ice-cream van that used to come along the street on Sunday afternoons? Every time I hear ‘Greensleeves’ I think of that little pink ice-cream van. I wonder where they have all disappeared to? I haven’t seen one for ages. Hey! I’ve just had an idea!’
    â€˜What? Start a mobile ice-cream business?’
    â€˜No, but what about running a mobile cupcake business?’
    Lucie leapt up from her chair and grabbed the plate of iced gems she’d been making inroads into. Was that possible? She felt the slab of concrete that had lain heavily on her chest since Alex had rained on her dreams shift and lighten. She flicked her eyes from Jess to the cakes and back again, a sparkle of excitement beginning to coil around her stomach.
    â€˜It’s less risky than leasing a shop or taking on a market stall. I bet there’s plenty of trade for cupcake pyramids for weddings and christenings. Oh, oh, and what do you think about catering for children’s birthday parties? I could spend the week baking a stack of cupcakes – different flavours and colours depending on the child’s age and the theme they choose. Pink will be popular, I bet! Then, armed with bowls and bags of buttercream icing and jars of toppings from sprinkles to glitter, chocolate buttons to Smarties, I could set up Mum’s old wallpaper table and the kids are entertained – with the added bonus of being able to eat whatever they make!’
    â€˜That’s actually a fabulous idea,’ said Jess as she scooted to the edge of her seat, her eyes shining in animation. ‘It’s fun, it’s safe and it’s different from the usual soft play scramble or trip to the cinema. There’s definitely a market for it here, too. A couple of the other mums at Lewis and Jack’s school have been lamenting the absence of anything new and different for their daughters’ birthday bashes. I think you might just have found your first customers.’
    Lucie sat motionless, allowing a kaleidoscope of ideas to rotate around her exhausted brain. Her synapses had been fired and a helix of questions and myriad possibilities had begun to form. A surge of excitement blasted into her chest. She leaned forward to grab one of the cupcakes she’d baked and decorated that morning and considered it with a critical eye.
    â€˜It wouldn’t be just another run-of-the-mill cake-making business. I’d be a party planner of sorts, and not only children’s parties. It’s a concept that could actually work really well for adult parties or hennights with the cocktail cupcakes tie-in, or perhaps girls’ nights in, or summer garden parties, or a school fayre even. It’s an ideal way to express creativity in any way I like. And if you truly love what you do for a living then it’s not like going to work at all, is it?’
    â€˜It most certainly isn’t!’ agreed Jess, her face wreathed in a smile.
    â€˜So you’re on board too, then?’
    â€˜Me?’
    â€˜Well, I can’t deliver all that by myself. I’ll need someone I can trust to be my occasional sous chef, and to control the juvenile masses at the parties.’
    â€˜Oh Lucie, I’d love to help out!’
    A wave of emotion rippled through Lucie’s abdomen as she saw the sparkle of joy in her sister’s eyes, along with the