Page 57 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

With an effort, I dragged my gaze away. ‘Right, I’d better go in and see everyone. Are you two staying here?’

‘Caleb is going to build me a house for the hedgehogs and we need to find a place to put it,’ said Maisie.

Caleb smiled at her. ‘You haven’t shown me the back garden yet. Maybe we’ll find the perfect spot there?’

‘Okay. Follow me,’ she instructed happily.

I caught Caleb’s eye again and we exchanged a smile.

‘You’ve made one little girl very happy,’ I commented, watching Maisie skipping off and opening the gate to the back garden.

He looked as if he was about to reply. Then he glanced away.

‘See you inside,’ he said, raising his hand to me as he followed in Maisie’s footsteps.

I watched them in a trance until they disappeared into the back garden.

This was bad. Really bad. I was actually starting to like Caleb.

Morethan like him.

I had to stamp these feelings out otherwise I’d be in deep, deep trouble...

*****

Zak answered the door with a tea towel over his shoulder.

‘Hi! I said to Ellie I’d come early to help out.’

He grinned. ‘That’s great. Come on in.’

‘Thanks. Ellie was looking really tired the other day so I thought I could make myself useful? Is she okay?’

He gave me a rueful smile. ‘You know what she’s like. Always needing to be busy. I ordered her to lie down for a while before the party officially starts. We haven’t officially moved in yet but there’s a bed in one of the rooms. Can you taste this punch for me? See what you think? I’ve been trying to get the balance right but maybe it needs more orange juice?’

He poured some into one of the glasses that were lined up on the table and handed it to me. Then he poured more into his own glass.

‘Cheers.’ Smiling, I took a sip. ‘Nice.’ I nodded.

‘So I don’t need to add anything?’

‘No. It’s perfect.’ I glanced upstairs. ‘When did Ellie go up?’

Zak looked at his watch. ‘Is it that time already? I’ve been concentrating on getting things ready according to Ellie’s instructions, I didn’t realise. She went to lie down a couple of hours ago.’

‘Right.’ I’d been worried about her the other day on the cake run when she mentioned the spotting, but she’d assured me since that everything was okay. ‘Can I go up and see her?’

Zak whipped a pan of chilli off the hob and frowned into it. ‘Hope I haven’t burned it.’ He looked up. ‘Yes, go on up, Katja. Every time I check on her, I just get told to stop fussing so much.’

I chuckled. ‘That sounds about right.’

Upstairs, I listened outside the bedroom door that was closed, assuming Ellie must be in there. Then I heard a sound from along the corridor. A tap running. She must be in the bathroom.

‘Ellie? It’s Katja. I’ve come a little early to help out?’

There was only silence from inside.

‘Ellie? Are you okay in there?’

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