Page 48 of The Grump

“Whatever. Can you?”

“Sure, why not? I don’t have anything else to do. All for dear Bailey, huh?”

I growled. “Beckett, don’t start.”

“Oh, come on, man. You mauled that poor woman in our parents’ kitchen. I thought some alien had snatched your body and replaced it, because that is definitely not like you.”

“I know,” I replied.

“Oh, okay, you do know. I figured you didn’t even realize you were acting out of character—which, by the way, is a good thing, okay? So, keep doing it.”

“Duly noted. Maybe Anthony has time too.”

“You think there’s that much damage?”

“Again, the more of us there are, the faster we’ll finish.”

“Sure. We should call Zachary there too. He’s always good at these types of things.”

“Good idea. Can you check if both have time?”

“But see, that would put me in a conundrum because then they’d ask, ‘Why the hell are you even doing this?’ And without your permission,” he said very sardonically, “I can’t tell them about the eggnog incident.”

“Beckett, you’re getting on my last nerve,” I gritted out.

“Yeah, I had the feeling that I was on thin ice already. Sure, count on me. I’ll ask them if they have time and tell them to direct any questions to you. How about that?”

“That’s perfect,” I replied, knowing full well that both Zachary and Anthony would instantly put two and two together. But at this point, I didn’t really care. What did it matter if they did? Why should I hide? Hell, maybe they could even chip in with advice—although Julian and Chad were probably the best at this dating thing.

Chapter Thirteen

Xander

The second I reached the confectionery, I realized that I could’ve gotten the whole family here to help and we would still be here for hours. It wasn’t just a branch that fell off—the whole tree sort of disintegrated. I knew for a fact that the place had an inspection a few months ago, inside and out, so this was a little alarming. There were huge tire tracks, probably from the firefighters. A window was smashed in too. At least the roof was untouched.

Normally, all I’d think about was the financial impact in a situation like this. But oddly enough, my only concern was for Bailey and how I could help her. Thank God she was physically okay.

I walked inside to a cacophony of sounds. Everyone was inside the storage room, cleaning: Bailey, Avery, and two guys.

“Hello,” I called to announce my presence.

Bailey immediately straightened up. “Xander!”

Avery spun around too. They both looked exhausted.

“I’m here to help out,” I told them. “Beckett will be here soon. Possibly Anthony and Zachary too.”

I turned to the two guys, who looked really young. They seemed to be in their early twenties. “I’m Xander LeBlanc.”

“Hi, sir. Such an honor to meet you,” one of them said. “I’d shake your hand, but I’m covered in dust and debris.”

“Don’t worry about it. What do you need me to do?” I asked.

“We have a lot of shelves here, and the branch fell right through the window, completely smashing them,” Bailey explained.

“We’re trying to gauge which shelves we can reuse,” the second guy said.

“And if any of the big boxes have intact praline boxes inside,” Avery added. Now that she mentioned them, I noticed five huge carton boxes under the window. “But first we need to clean this out properly.”

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