Page 11 of Harmonizing with Little Heaven Leigh

“Daddy, this one istoopink. We wanted a peach with orange undertones. It’s gonna complement the chocolate better,” she reminded him with a long-suffering sigh. She was tired; they both were. It had been a long day, and it showed in the bit of Little that had crept into her voice.

He did remember a discussion about that, he just hadn’t been able to tell from looking at the freshly painted walls. He knew nothing about undertones. “Does it really matter? They’ve already finished,chiquita.”

“Itdoes. We want the pictures topop.” She clapped her hands together in emphasis.

Right, the pictures. That had been Heaven Leigh’s idea, and it was a good one. He’d gone through his portfolio and picked out photos of his favorite creations over the years. He wasn’t a professional photographer, but he had a fairly good eye for capturing detail, and he felt the ones he’d picked really showed off his talents.

She’d had them touched up, enlarged, and framed for the walls of the shop, and he had to admit they looked amazing. He nodded, even though he still wasn’t sure why one color would be better than the other. “Well, it’s not dry yet, maybe it will settle more orange when it is?”

She shook her head. “It won’t; trust me.”

His girl knew more about color theory and mixing than he did. It was more important with frostings than it was with chocolate, so he bowed to her experience and they’d reported the problem. To his credit, the supervisor had taken it in stride with no sign of upset.

He’d pulled out his tablet and scrolled through their choices. “You’re right. Thisisthe wrong shade. Sorry about the mix up, not sure how it happened, but we can repaint tomorrow. It’s light enough that we should be able to lay the new coat right over the top without an issue, but we’ll test it first. We can do a new basecoat if we have to.”

Obviously it added an extra day, but, in the end, Angel had to admit the new color was nice. And when they got around to hanging the frames, it would probably be an amazing backdrop for the photos. Whether one was really better than the other… he had no clue, but Heaven Leigh was extremely pleased.

“Worth it,” she’d gloated, with a smirk curving her lips. He just had to take her word for it.

There was about another week of interior work left, including the installation of glass cases and blinds on the large viewing window. The last was another of her ideas. It would allow customers to watch them create when they felt like being seen. He thought the Littles would love a chance to watch.

After all of that was done, there was still a long list of things that needed to be delivered and set up. Every time he thought about the list of tasks that had to be completed before opening day, his blood pressure went up another notch.

They didn’t actually have a firm date for opening yet. Angel wanted to plan something special, but he was worried about delays, so he was waiting until everything was complete to schedule it.

In the meantime, he’d decided, in spite of all the stress, to challenge himself. Or rather… Derek had decided to create a challenge, by hosting a party and asking for a centerpiece. “I understand your kitchen isn’t quite ready yet, but is there any way you can come up with one of your amazing creations for a party?”

One eyebrow went up. “How much time do I have?”

Derek winced. “I meant to ask earlier, but things have been a little hectic…” He trailed off and cleared his throat. “It’s in three days.”

“Three…days?” Angel just stared at him. A week would have been tight normally. Two weeks lead time would have been better with everything they had going on, but three days?”

“I know, and I apologize. This is on me. I made a note to talk to you about it when you and Heaven came back from vacation, and somehow, I forgot to mention it to Erika. It was only this morning that I suddenly realized. You’ve been great pulling things together at the last minute before, so I was hoping…”

Angel frowned. That was… a lot. Of course he could managesomething, but whether it would be art of his usual caliber was another story. “What’s the theme?”

“There’s no theme for the event, so it’s up to you. Whatever you can manage. We’re going to have a lot of Littles there and also some prospective Caregivers who want to take a peek into how it all works. I’m hoping some matches might come out of it, eventually.”

Until the store opened, Derek was still his boss. And even after, they had a contract to continue to supply Rawhide Ranch with all their chocolate needs. The Ranch would be, in fact, their only steady client, which basically meant Derek would still be the boss. So, the only acceptable answer was, “I’ll see what I can do.”

And it actually seemed like a good idea at the time. One more grand creation, with limited space, and the bare minimum of necessary equipment, before they made the move. A last hurrah before everything got so much easier. He’d managed before and he could do it again.

However, with everything else on his plate, it turned out to be even more complicated than he’d anticipated. Small things kept going wrong. Normally nothing he couldn’t deal with, but with all the changes happening, it seemed to be more difficult this time.

And not only did he have to deal with his own stress, but he also had to help Heaven Leigh with hers. The sign hadn’t been the only outburst, just the biggest one. There had been plenty of snapping and pouting and sulking, mostly brought on from being overwhelmed, he expected.

They were in this together, but he was the Daddy. He was the one who was supposed to keep everything going. He was supposed to help her with her struggles, but his patience was growing shorter every day. Not because of her needs, but because of all the little stressors that were nibbling at him like a pack of hungry ducks—and if it continued, he was going to go quackers.

Angel was starting to envy the Little ability to have a meltdown and get it all out. Of course, as a Dominant… he was supposed to be able to control himself a little better, and he was, but it wasn’t easy, especially in the kitchen.

He hissed a curse under his breath as he banged into the edge of the counter, while trying to navigate around Heaven. The heavy metal pan he was carrying made moving in their little area difficult, and he nearly dropped it. She quickly grabbed the other end, while he caught his balance.

“What happened to moving out of here lowering stress,” he muttered under his breath.

Her mouth twitched, but she knew better than to laugh. “Um, I think that comes after we’ve actually moved, and opened, and settled in.” She paused, considering, and then added, “And then maybe after we collapse and sleep for a week.”

A sound that was half-growl and half-snort burst from him. “I can’t wait until we have room to work without tripping over each other.” He sighed as he carefully eased the pan down. On it, the chocolate had hardened into a perfect smooth sheet, and he didn’t want it to crack.

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