Page 66 of Returning to Everton

“Okay, I can do that,” she reluctantly agrees. “Do you think we have time?”

“We’ve got plenty of time. There’s twice as many cooks today. While you make our coffee cake, I’ll get started on muffin mixes,” I reassure her.

She smiles and nods at me, then we both get everything we’ll need and start mixing. I keep watching her out of the corner of my eye while I mix my muffins. She looks so happy to be baking. It’s like she’s a different person when she bakes. She’s so carefree. I see her adding her magic to the mix. There are blue sparks flowing into the bowl from Rowen’s hands. She has her eyes closed concentrating on her spell, so she can’t see me staring at her with admiration. She’s doing great and I’m so proud of her. To go from not being able to use magic at all to being able to use it freely is abigchange. But Rowe is just so damn tough, she’s adjusting better than could be expected.

After she puts the coffee cake in her oven, and I put the first round of muffins in mine, we sit down and take a little break.

“So, how’d that feel Rowe? You look like you never left the kitchen.”

“It was amazing Hud, I mean I have been baking still. Violet loves it when we bake, but it’s not the same. Plus, we’d only use our magic to move things. It’s different when you’re adding your magic to your recipes. It’s like, you’re already putting a piece of yourself into what you bake, but with the magic you’re putting in, it becomes literal.”

“I saw you adding your magic. It was amazing to watch. I don’t doubt at all that your coffee cake is going to boost our health. But if you want to wait and try it before you add magic to any more recipes, we can mix up some that I don’t add magic to before baking.”

“Thanks, Hudson. I appreciate your faith in me and my magic, but I think I wanna wait and see how it turns out.”

I smile at her reassuringly. “No problem Rowe. Here’s some recipes that don’t use magic.” She thanks me and gets to work mixing up a batch of cookies.

About an hour later, Rowe is taking her coffee cake out of one oven and I’m taking my second batch of muffins out of the other. We set them on the counter to cool, then load the ovens with our next batch of goodies. We’ve already got more muffins and cinnamon rolls ready to go in the oven, so we decide to take a break.

We’re sitting there in silence for a while, both of us thinking about what we want to say. All of a sudden Rowen just blurts out, “I’m sorry I kissed Declan.” I look over at her in shock. I was not expecting that.

“Why are you sorry Rowe?”

She sighs. “Because I know it upset y’all. Hell, Ayden got so mad he stormed off. I didn’t mean to make any of y’all mad by kissing your friend. I’m sorry Hud. It won’t happen again okay? I don’t want to lose you. Ijustgot you back.” She looks up at me pleadingly with tears in her eyes.

“Oh baby, you’re not going to lose us. Not any of us. We weren’t mad atyouRowen. We were mad at Declan.”

“Oh... but if you’re mad at Declan for kissing me, you should be mad at me too. I’m the one that asked him to kiss me.” She chews on her bottom lip.

I shake my head. “We weren’t mad that he kissed you, Rowe. We were mad because he had clearly kissed you before, and he never told us.That’swhy we were mad. If you want to kiss Declan you should feel free to do so Rowen.”

“Really?? It doesn’t hurt you or make you mad for me to kiss your friend?” she asks.

I run my hand through my hair. “We were all jealous as fuck Rowen, but not mad. We wanted to be the ones kissing you. But for some reason, you’ve got it in your damn head that we don’t have those kinds of feelings for you. Well, I’m here to tell you wedo.”

She stands up and walks towards me shaking her head. “No, I would know if you had feelings for me, Hudson. We’ve always just beenfriends,” she asserts.

“Yeah, well that’s because we couldn’t figure out if you felt the same, and we didn’t want to risk losing you.”

She just stands there shaking her head at me. I pick her up and put her on the counter. I step back and pace back and forth in front of her. Running my hands through my hair. I stop and look at her.

“Shit. Did you really not know, Rowe? We were all crazy about you.” I walk up to her and put my hands on her thighs. “We still are.”

She gasps. “No,” she stammers.

How can she not believe me? We weren’t that good at hiding our feelings, were we? I lean down to look in her eyes. “Do I need to prove it to you? Shouldn’t be too hard,” I say with a sly grin.

She stares at me like she doesn’t know what to say to that. Then she whispers, “Yes, I think you should.”

I surge forward and kiss her. I slide my hands up her sides, then over her back, and finally get my hands on her hair. She wraps her arms around my waist and slides her hands up my shoulders, while I deepen our kiss. We hold each other tight and kiss until we have to come up for air.

I pull back, and we both suck in a breath. “Is that proof enough?”

She just stares at me, like she can’t believe that just happened. I let go of her hair and step back. Before I can go far, she grabs me. I stop, and look at her.

“Truly Hud? You really think about me like that?” She sounds so unsure of herself.

“Of course I do Rowe!” I step back into her and cup the side of her face. “I mean do you really not know how amazing you are? You’re gorgeous. You’re a great friend. You’ve always been there for us.”

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