Page 81 of Callahan

All the more reason to take advantage of the time I had with him.

I laid Conor in his crib, then went into the living room and sat next to Adam on the couch where he was watching TV.Rightnext to him.

“Well, hello there,” he said as he put his arm around me.

I rested my head against his shoulder and whispered, “Hi.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” I replied with a big sigh. “But I have to go down to the bakery and bake for tomorrow.”

“You need some help?”

“I feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”

What I could only describe as a pirate’s grin spread across his face, and he replied, “Feed me a croissant, and you can have your way with me, baby girl.”

****

Adam

If I thought we were going to fool around once we got downstairs to the bakery, I was sorely mistaken.

She tossed a hairnet at me, and I tilted my neck and pointed to my head. “You’re kidding, right?”

“You have to wear one no matter how short your hair is,” she replied as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, then snapped one on her own head. “Health code requirements.”

I followed suit, convinced I looked ridiculous. Maybe it was for the best. We wouldn’t be sidelined playing grabass.

Except I couldn’t help myself. Her bossiness and self-assuredness as we worked was a fucking turn-on. I’d been walking around the kitchen with a chub for the past twenty minutes.

The second we got the first batches of croissants in the ovens, I came up behind her, wrapped my arms around her middle, glanced at the timer she’d set, and murmured in her ear, “What should we do for fifteen minutes?”

Lainey turned around in my arms and raised up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on my cheek, then patted my shoulder and stepped back.

“We’re going to prep the tarts.”

“My god, you’re worse than a drill instructor.” I did my best impression of Sergeant Laramie, who I frequently saw yelling at recruits around the base when I was in San Diego. “No breaks! You’ll get a break when you’ve earned it, recruit!”

She rolled her eyes and replied, “Look at it this way, the sooner we get done, the sooner we can go back upstairs and kill some time before Conor wakes up.”

“Say no more. Tell me what to do next.”

~~~~

My ass was dragging when we finally did make it back upstairs, and I collapsed on the couch.

“You do that every night,andget up at the crack of dawn to serve customers all day?”

“Good lord, you sound like Granny O’Brien. The only time I’ll be up at the crack of dawn is in the wintertime when the sun doesn’t come up until after seven. And I only have to do it six evenings a week.”

“Not the point.”

And she took care of a newborn between all of that.

With a devilish smile, she stood before me with her hands behind her back, then produced a fresh croissant.

“You said if I fed you a croissant, I could have my way with you.”

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