Page 17 of Go Cook Yourself

Cookie jumps up as we do. We rush down the stairs to Flora’s jeep. Within seconds, I click Cookie into his doggy seatbelt. I give him one last kiss and cuddle and remind him how much I adore him. My throat feels thick with the sobs trying to rise tothe surface. I don’t know when I’ll see him again. He might stop loving me.

“Stay safe, Flora,” I stutter. “And don’t get into trouble for me. We’ll find a solution.”

Flora swipes my worries away with her hand.

“Apologise to Ruby,” she yells as she tears out of the car park.

Gravel flies, and I remember I blocked Ruby’s car earlier. Plastic bits of a broken light cover reveal she must have knocked it on the sign while trying to leave. Did she do a fifty-point turn to get away without asking me to move my van?

The tears that brimmed my eyes after saying goodbye to Cookie disappear, and instead, I’m tempted to apologise to Ruby no matter what.

Or maybe I should avoid her and hope that will solve everything. I have rules I need to stick by.

But rules are made to be broken.

Chapter Ten

Ruby

“And then he had the audacity to flirt with me! After everything, he thought, yeah, I’ll give her my sexy eyes and make her fancy me.”

I’m storming back and forth across the living room floor. I told Amber about Flora, who Amber thinks is his friend, and then I filled her in about Cookie, and my skirt mishap. Well, technically, it’s her skirt and my accident. I didn’t tell her I broke my car light because I was too nervous to return to the cookery school and ask him to move the van. It took me ten minutes to move my car.

“You think his eyes are sexy?”

I freeze before glowering at Amber. She’s in the cuddliest pyjamas. Her vomiting has subsided, and she’s spent the rest of her day reading spicy romance under the comfort of a blanket.

“Not the point.”

Her laugh is music to my ears. I’ve missed her so much. She beckons me closer, knowing what my look means. I tuck myself under the blanket and cuddle up to her. She smells of the cookie dough and marshmallow brownies I baked for her late last night. I rest my head against her shoulder and sigh. Garett’s eyes are sexy, and this afternoon, I realised I’d missed laughing and teasing someone for years. And the time he took to redress my cut was full of care. The loving yet sexy alpha way he was with hisdog also got me. But he was still an arsehole for nearly the entire day.

“How are you, really? You must be exhausted after vomiting all morning before devouring the brownies.” She hums her non-reply. A sexy bodyguard fills the front cover of her book. “Have you heard from him?”

“No,” she replies, instantly understanding that I mean Kalen, her husband. “His operations, especially secret ones like these, can go on longer than expected.”

“I guess that’s the life of the wife whose husband spends months on submarines.” I’ve only seen Kalen a handful of times since their wedding, although I’ve spoken to him on the phone.

“Yeah, I know. He was a sexy stranger who saved me from an impossible situation when we met,” she says with a sigh before her voice muffles. “I don’t know how long he’ll be away, and I’m scared he won’t return before the babies come. I can’t do this alone.”

Tears slip down her cheeks. My sister is hard as nails, but the last months have taken their toll. She’s struggled through a lot of sickness during the pregnancy. “I’m not the same as a strapping naval husband, but you’ve got me. Mum and Dad aren’t far away and there are lots of people in this small town who could help.” She cuddles me tighter.

“And you’re okay with keeping the cookery school going until Christmas? Kalen is leaving the navy soon, hopefully. We’re going to shut down the school in January when it’s quieter, and with Garett’s skills, Kath running the back room, one of the admin team I was training, and Kalen and me in the background, I should be able to make it work from February onwards. Mum and Dad will look after the twins on days I need to work, but the key thing is we won’t need a full-time person at the cookery school. It’s just to help us out right now.”

I could stay longer and want to, but she’d say if she felt the same. I don’t know what I’ll do from January.

“We’ve got enough money to keep going until then. Kalen’s health insurance means I can do this pregnancy privately, so he’s not too worried while he’s away.”

I nod. “That reminds me. Clive Macdonald, the owner of Balencia, who Garett once worked with, is running a competition, and the closing date is tomorrow. I’m thinking of entering. The winner gets ten thousand pounds and a job developing a baked goods option at his restaurant. I probably won’t even get shortlisted, but it would be fun to try out. The competition day is on Christmas Eve. Is that okay?”

Amber smiles. “Of course. Be wary of Clive, though. Mum said something about him when I last visited. She was the one who convinced me to take on Garett, not that I’d say no to a skilled chef like him. But she was adamant.”

“She is the wisest person we know.”

Amber nods. “Do you remember catching her talking to Dad about how Neil wasn’t the guy for you in the first months of your relationship?”

“Yeah. It was partly what convinced me to leave to be with him.” And because I was a fool and decided I needed to be independent.

I squeeze my hands, making fake dough, until Amber’s cheekiness draws me out of overthinking. “Maybe Garett won Mum over with his sexy eyes.”

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