He pressed his foot to the gas, and we shot forward. My hair flew behind me as Tony weaved the cart through the side streets. "This has a nice punch to it."

"Are you sure I can't drive?" I asked over the whooshing of the cart.

He shook his head. "Definitely no on that one, princess."

The men on this island never let me have any fun. Tony took a hard left, and I ran out of time to be upset about it as we flew off toward the beach access. We passed a woman stopped at a corner, and she beeped her horn at us.

We circled the island. I closed my eyes, letting the breeze hit my face and the sun warm it. Tony yapped about the new equipment Dalton and Broadrick were letting him play with now that he had official employee status. I smiled and nodded at the right time, taking mental notes for when I needed to borrow something.

Tony slowed the cart, and I peeked open one eye, glimpsing Main Street. We ended right where we'd started.

"You want a cupcake?" he asked me as he came to a stop in front of the bakery.

I thought about it for exactly half a second. "Are you buying?"

"There's no other way," he said with a light laugh.

We left the golf cart parked on the street with all the other carts and walked into the bakery together. Peggy, in her black apron and matching black shirt under it, met our entrance with a deep frown.

"Weren't you in here with someone else the other day?" she asked, flipping her gaze between the two of us.

My cheeks heated. "Tony is a friend."

She huffed. "You have a lot of friends."

What did that mean?

Tony walked to the counter with his same determined strut, leaving me to follow behind him with a scowl. He leaned his arm across the top of the display case, and Peggy pushed it off.

"Don't lean on my glass," she said, eyeing his elbow.

He crossed his arms, losing some of the bravado. "Right."

Peggy slapped her black dish towel over her shoulder and opened the back of the case. "What would you two prefer today?"

"Vonnie?" Tony asked, waving his arm out for me to make the first pick.

I scanned the area and sniffed, searching for my favorite smell. There were no fresh-baked cookie scents. When did Peggy make all this stuff? "I'll take the chocolate on chocolate with the blue whale sprinkles."

At the bakery in Pelican Bay, Anessa liked to match her cupcake designs to the seasons. Were the blue whales an ongoing theme because of our location or for the month of August? I wanted to know but not enough to risk asking Peggy.

Tony ordered two vanilla cupcakes with white buttercream frosting and no sprinkles. I stared at his lackluster selection as Peggy bagged them up for us.

"You know, you're allowed to have fun every once in a while," I said to him as he paid and accepted the bag from her.

Tony laughed. "I like vanilla. It reminds me of my sister's cooking when we were kids. It's the only thing she'd eat because she didn't like her tongue being weird colors."

I stared at him. "That is the strangest thing I've ever heard."

She couldn't even see her own tongue.

"She's a strange sister," he said with a shrug. Tony carried our bag to the opposite side of the building as I turned to walk out. I grabbed on to his arm but wasn't quick enough to stop him.

Peggy leaned over her metal counter. "No eating in the bakery."

"But you've got tables and chairs," Tony said, pointing at the place he'd been heading to sit.

"No eating in the bakery," she said again, this time a few octaves higher.

I pulled on his arm. "Come on. We'll eat in Ridge's new fancy golf cart. If he's lucky, I won't spill on his leather seats."

"I'm pretty sure they're fake," Tony said, letting me lead him outside. "Who has a bakery where you can't eat inside it?"

"Peggy is particular, but her cupcakes are decent." Not as good as Anessa's, but I tried to keep it positive for him.

Tony handed me my cupcake as I sat on the passenger side of the golf cart and stuck my feet against the dash. "I'm not going to tell Dalton or Broadrick about that," he said, eyeing my foot placement.

"Probably for the best." I picked off a whale sprinkle and chucked it in my mouth. "I've been thinking about my next job."

Tony tipped his head at me. "We've gone over this. You're a PI."

"Yeah, sure," I said, nodding. "But I could also be a secretary for the security office. Wouldn't I be great at that? You know, for a backup position."

Tony gave his cupcake a deep sigh as he stared at the fluffy white top. "No. You'd probably end up killing Dalton and I don't have enough assets to help Broadrick bail you out of jail for that high of a bond."

I licked a heap of frosting from the top of my cupcake, letting the chocolate flavor explode in my mouth. "What about a dog walker? I'd get lots of exercise."

"TB will let you walk other dogs without getting jealous? I've seen the way he looks at you."

"NB," I corrected with a head nod. Although he had a point. If I came home smelling like a hundred other dogs, he'd probably pee on something when I wasn't looking. "He can come along for the walks."

Tony snorted. "I've seen his little legs. He wouldn't make it one afternoon."

Ugh. Why did he have to be so logical about everything? And negative? Shouldn't best friends let you have your delusions? I ripped off the bottom of my cupcake and shoved it on the top piece, making a cupcake sandwich. Tony watched me and did the same with his.

"I could clean apartments. I bet these rich people will pay a lot to have clean toilets." Hell, maybe Barbie would hire me to look after her plants.

Tony bit into his cupcake, chewed, and then spoke. "Do you know how to clean?"

"Yes!" Pretty much. I had the basics down for sure. Everyone knew how to clean. How hard could it be? I pulled off a chunk of my cupcake and dropped it in my mouth. The cupcake was tasty, but not Anessa tasty. "I should ask Peggy if she needs help in the kitchen."

"Oh, yeah. You'd be a great fit for Peggy. Your personalities really mesh," Tony said with a huge eye roll. It looked extra scary when he did it. "I thought I told you to just get over it."

"What?" I shoved the rest of the cupcake in my mouth and chewed with my mouth open to get it finished.

Tony watched me with narrowed eyes and straight lips. "Shit happens. I'm not saying it doesn't suck, but our ability to move on makes humans the masters of the universe. It's who we are. Look at me. I'm already back on the job."

"Yeah, why?" I asked. Not only was he back to work after being shot, but he'd taken a paid job.

The edges of Tony's lips tipped up. "Health insurance."

"Really?" How much did the hospital stay cost on a gunshot wound?

Tony shrugged, his grin deepening. "I'm getting older, and Ridge made me a decent deal. Plus, the bikini-clad women thing."

His comment made it my turn to roll my eyes, and I dropped my feet from the dash, setting them flat on the floor.

"The point is," Tony continued, grabbing his second cupcake and offering me half. I accepted. "Are you going to sit around and bitch the rest of your life or do something? I can't always be here to give you a daily pep talk."

"It's not that easy, Tony." I left off the baloney part out of respect. That and I didn't want to hear him complain like he did every time I used it.

"Yes, it is, princess." He finished his cupcake. "You just have to put one foot in front of the other until you finish the walk. Now, didn't you tell me you wanted to practice stabbing?"

A woman on the sidewalk slowed her steps to watch us as she finished walking by. Tony waved his right hand at her in a "hurry up" fashion.

"Let's fill up the back of this piece with practice murder victims," Tony said, turning the golf cart on and reversing out of our space before I had my position secured.

I grabbed on to the side of the cart and held on for dear life as he jetted out into the roadway.