Page 18 of The Grump

“The kitchen, probably,” Julian muttered.

“Let’s see what they’re up to.”

“Isabeau and Celine probably finished preparing dinner and everyone has already started eating,” I offered.

“Let’s go. I wouldn’t want you to be left starving,” Beckett said.

That had never happened in the LeBlanc-Broussard household, but you never knew with my family. We were all big on food.

As we went to the kitchen, my mind wandered to Bailey again. I knew I was right about the future of the confectionery business, but I’d gone about it all wrong. She was pissed at me—for good reason—and I felt guilty. Besides, this wasn’t the right way to conduct business, even if my family owned it. I wanted to make it up to her, and I knew exactly how to do it.

Chapter Six

Bailey

“’Dashing through the snow,’” I kept singing to myself as I moved around my kitchen. It smelled like mulled wine. I’d even propped up my iPad against the wall and put a video of a fireplace on it.

I truly did need all the coziness possible because I had a ton of work to do. We’d had a mishap at work today. The electricity went out for a couple of hours, which set us back immensely. In retrospect, Avery and I should’ve just gone home as soon as it happened and continued to bake from there, but I’d hoped the generator would kick in.

Long story short, it hadn’t, so I’d still had to take everything home. Now, it was six o’clock in the evening, and I still had enough work to keep me until well past midnight. I had more pralines to bake and package, but I was focusing on the positive—that tomorrow a lot of people were going to be happy to get the pralines on time. I didn’t like disappointing anyone.

My mulled wine was more diluted than usual because I needed all my wits about me, but it still put me in a good mood. I took a small break after I shoved the new batch into the oven. I was waiting for the others to cool off enough so I could package them, so I poured myself a cup and moved my hips about as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” came on.

My stomach started to rumble.Whoops.That didn’t go with the chorus at all. I had to order some food, or I was going to start shoveling pralines into my mouth instead.

As I grabbed my phone, I noticed that I had an unread message from a number I didn’t recognize.

Unknown number: Hello, Bailey. This is Xander LeBlanc. Listen, I apologize about the way thingsturned out last time. I’d love to meet up and make it up to you. Let me know when you get this.

Oh, that infuriating man.I was such a pacifist, and yet somehow he managed to make my blood boil. I was tempted to ignore the message, but then I’d spend the rest of the evening thinking about it. That would fill me with a lot of bad vibes, and I strongly believed that my mood affected the way food I made tasted. I wasn’t going to spread bad vibes around Christmas, so it was best to get this over with.

I called his number and put the phone to my ear. I was keeping my fingers crossed for Xander not to answer, but he did.

“Hello, Bailey.”

“Hi. Sorry, I just saw the message.”

“Don’t worry. Listen, do you have some time tonight to meet?”

I took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, no. We had some issues at the confectionery today, so I’m behind. Still need to finish some things.”

“You’re still there?”

“No, I’m at home. The ovens didn’t work. I’m elbow deep in making more pralines and packaging the ones we already have... and ordering dinner.”

“I can drop by with dinner,” Xander said instantly.

“At my house?” I asked incredulously.

“If you don’t have anything against it. Do you?”

I didn’t know how I felt about having this sexy yet exasperating man here in my house. Then again, perhaps it was better to meet him on my territory. Maybe the good vibes in my house would mellow his grumpy nature.

“Why not?” I gave him my address.

“Perfect. I’ll be there in half an hour, maybe forty minutes.”

My stomach rumbled again. “Sure.” That gave me some time to make up a few more boxes.

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