Page 5 of Frosting and Flames

Sydney sniffs, her gaze on the floor, and I’m about to tell her we can talk about it later when she nods and meets my gaze, expression clear now. Maybe I only imagined how vulnerable she seemed for a moment there.

“I was frosting the cupcakes for Mrs. Griffin’s baby shower and had the cake in the oven for Mr. DeCosta’s retirement party. It’d only been in there maybe ten minutes before I smelled something burning. I looked up and…” She falters, swallowing hard. “There were flames in the oven.”

I lay a hand on her shoulder, knowing exactly what she’s remembering. The smoke rising from the bakery below into our apartment upstairs. Grabbing everything we could in a blind panic to take with us. Standing outside in the street, watchingthe crackling flames burn our family’s livelihood and home as the firefighters rushed in.

Behind her, Hailey’s face is twisted in a frown, maybe reliving her own memories.

“I should have called 911,” Sydney continues. “Obviously. Everything seems so obvious now.”

“You didn’t?” I ask. Then how did Nick show up?

“I… I panicked and ran out the door. I didn’t even realize where I was running until I got to the fire station.”

“You left Hailey alone with a burning oven?”

Sydney’s mouth drops, as if she hadn’t made that connection, and turns back to look at our youngest sister.

“It’s fine,” Hailey says, disinfecting one of the stainless steel islands in the center of the room. “I’m fine. Really.”

Sydney makes a noise like she wants to argue but Hailey cuts her off.

“Continue the story. You were only gone five minutes. Nothing bad happened.”

Sydney turns back to me, a mixture of shame and guilt on her face. “Anyway, Nick was there. I tried explaining but it was coming out so scattered. Once he understood, he asked if you were okay. He seemed so worried. And when I said yes, he ran out the door.”

He was worried about me? No, she must mean the bakery. “He didn’t bring the fire truck? Or, I don’t know, another firefighter?”

She shakes her head. “He dropped everything and came straight here. Didn’t even change his clothes.”

Hailey says, “He burst in the front door and asked where the fire extinguisher was. I didn’t even realize there was a fire.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Shouldn’t our smoke alarm have gone off?

“He put it out in about two seconds,” Hailey continues. “And then was trying to find the source of the fire when you came in.”

I nod, digesting all this information. “Come here.” I spread my arms wide and motion for them both to get closer, wrapping them in my embrace when they do. “We have the bakery and we have each other. That’s all I care about.”

“Me, too,” Hailey agrees.

“Same,” Sydney mumbles.

We keep the bakery closed for the day since it’s already two in the afternoon and we normally close at three, open all the windows to air the place out, and clean it to within an inch of its life, getting rid of all traces of the fire. Out of sight, out of mind.

Thankfully, we have two industrial ovens, so we can put the malfunctioning one out of commission until I figure out what’s wrong with it. I put a big X with duct tape over the doors for now.

When we’re done, Hailey goes back up front to count the register while I help Sydney remake the baby shower cupcakes that are scheduled for pickup first thing tomorrow.

As she’s piping flowers onto one, she asks, “Why didn’t you tell Jae about Nick?”

I shrug, not wanting to examine that too closely. “You know her. She’ll make a big thing out of it.”

“That he burned down our bakery?”

Yeah. That.

CHAPTER TWO

NICK

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