Page 35 of Taming the CEO

"Thank heavens for small mercies."

“—but I’ll get to the bottom of it soon. I have to go now, though.” She kissed my cheek. "But be a dear and volunteer gossip from now on, okay? It’s weird finding out stuff about my best friend from someone else. And good luck.”

“With what?”

“Running into his holy hotness again.”

I laughed, shaking my head.

After she left, I sat down at my dining table again. I loved my place so much. It was tiny and only had two rooms: a bedroom and another space where the kitchen, living room, and dining room were all together. It was cozy.

I was working on the park's website at home today. Dad was manning the front desk and the stations with our employees at the park. In the afternoon, I wanted to replace two leaky tiles on my roof. Busy, busy day.

As I was about to close the laptop, my phone rang. It was an unknown number. Maybe someone was calling for a booking, although I didn’t list my personal number anywhere. I’d gotten way too many scam calls in the past.

"Hello, this is Cami Hughes," I said.

"Hi, Cami. This is Jeannie.”

"Hi! This is a nice surprise."

"I'm glad you think so."

"How did you even get my number?"

"I found a phone number on the park’s website. And then that lovely boy answered." I snickered. That "lovely boy" was forty-five. Though I understood why he seemed like a young man to Jeannie. "I told him I wanted your number. Mind you, he put up a good fight in the beginning, but then I told him I absolutely need your recipe for your banana bread, so he took mercy on me."

"Oh." My heart filled with happiness. "Of course. Let me get my cookbook." I had all of Mom's cookbooks on my bookshelf except the one containing the banana bread recipe. I kept it on the counter for quick access even though I knew the recipe by heart.

"You have cookbooks? Did you write them?"

"No, they belonged to Mom." My voice sounded wistful even to my own ears.

"Oh, you're so lovely."

"She and I used to bake banana bread together twice a week. We'd take it to the park for the guests."

"And you kept that tradition," Jeannie said.

"Exactly. Okay, here it is. I'll read off the ingredients as well as the steps."

For the next few minutes, I dictated the recipe, repeating some of the steps to make sure Jeannie got everything.

"All right, I wrote everything down," she said.

"Are you going to bake it right now?"

"No, I'm going to make it tomorrow morning for Abe. Maddox is taking me to lunch in a bit."

"That's so thoughtful. Does he do that often?"

"Yes. Our boys are so nice to us. They take us places, get us out of the house routinely."

"That sounds lovely."

"I heard he's going to Essex after our lunch. He’s got some business there."

"Oh," I replied softly. Miriam’s voice was playing in my mind. "Running into his holy hotness again."

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