Page 96 of A Hard Fit

Liz pulled back to stare into their eyes. “I mean it.”

The three of them waved to Liz’s car until it turned the corner. There was no time for awkward silence because Bryson started jumping up and down. “Frosted Flakes! Frosted Flakes!”

“Let’s do it,” Finn said. If all it took to make kids happy was food, this was going to be a piece of cake.

* * * *

“Can we bake cookies, Uncle Finn?” Cali asked before she had even finished her bowl of cereal.

“Um, sure,” Finn said, wondering if it was the best move to start baking cookies only a couple hours before dinner, but he wanted to give them a fun weekend, and if Cali wanted to bake cookies…they were baking cookies. Just like he used to do with his grandma. “What kind?”

“Peanut butter!”

“Excellent choice.” Finn looked up a recipe on his tablet and propped it on the counter for her. “Do you bake a lot at home?”

“Sometimes,” Cali replied. “Mom doesn’t like it when I make messes.”

“What’s in the freezer?” Bryson swung his legs under the chair like a puppy thumping its tail.

“The freezer?” Finn asked, looking over the cookie ingredients.

“You said there were more snacks in the freezer!”

“Oh, right. You can look,” Finn told him while he collected assorted boxes and containers from the pantry. “Can you come grab the baking powder and baking soda, Cali?”

Bryson hopped off the chair and pulled out the freezer drawer. “Freezies!” he exclaimed. “Please, please, please, can I have one?”

Finn dropped his armful of supplies on the counter then dug in a drawer for the measuring cups. Rory had recently rearranged all his drawers and he could never find anything now. “I don’t know, maybe after d—”

“Pleeeeease, Uncle Finn! Please! We never get to have freezies! It’ll count as my dessert! And I promise I’ll eat all my dinner too.”

That little pleading face…Fuck. “Okay,” Finn relented. “If you promise.”

“Yes!” Bryson screeched. He tore through the box of freezies and pulled out a grape one.

There was a bang from the pantry.

“Oops,” Cali said mildly. “I dropped the baking powder.”

Finn scurried to help her collect the rest of the ingredients and sweep up the white powder.

“Can you help me open it?” Bryson said, appearing at Finn’s side. He’d found the scissors somehow and held them up for Finn.

“Sure.” Finn snipped the end off the freezie and got him a paper towel to wrap around the bottom. “The peanut butter is in the fridge, Cali.”

Once they had everything they needed, Cali measured out the wet ingredients while Finn watched and Bryson sat happily slurping in a kitchen chair.

“Can we add chocolate chips, too?” Cali asked, leveling off the flour with a careful hand.

“Sure.” Finn retrieved them from the pantry and placed them next to her bowl. “Maybe use the quarter cup?”

“Umm…” Bryson’s legs had stopped swinging and he was holding up one purple, sticky hand, staring at it like it belonged to an alien.

Not only were Bryson’s fingers purple, so was his shirt, and…the upholstered beige chair he was sitting on. “Oh, no no no…” Finn gasped. He dove for a roll of paper towel and wrapped a few sheets around the leaking freezie, then lifted Bryson off the chair.

“I’m sorry!” Bryson wailed.

“It’s okay,” Finn said, blotting at the purple stain.

---