Page 39 of Leo
“I’m hungry and you said I couldn’t use the hot appliances without you.I want toast and cheese.”He paused.“Please.”
I closed my eyes and blew out a long, rough sigh.“Thanks for saying please, Edward.Okay, give me a sec and I’ll be right there.”
Ambrose leaned over the edge of the bed to peer down at me, one eye half-closed with sleep and his hair a wild bird’s nest of tangles.“You good?”
“The only thing hurt is my dignity,” I muttered.“You?”
“Kinda cold, but I’m alright.What time is it?”He tried to see my alarm clock and frowned.“Fucking contacts are all futzy.Does that say six?”
“Eight.”
“Shit,” he groaned, flopping onto his back.“Thank god it’s not a baking day, but I still need to get there to do inventory and start some batches of dough for the rest of the week.And Bethany is getting dropped off at nine.”He sighed.
“Who’s running it while you’re here?”Pushing to my feet, I tried to keep the comforter around me but a wicked grin and a tug from Ambrose ruined that plan.
Not that I minded much.
Or at all, really.
“Ira’s opening the shop and Catherine takes care of the register on days when I come in late or have a big bake to get out.”He flopped back onto the bed and sighed gustily.“I should hire a second baker.I keep telling myself this is my business, my responsibility, I don’t want to make someone else get up at oh-god-o’clock when I’m capable but…”
I gave his foot a sympathetic stroke, making him jerk and giggle.Noted.“I understand.With the home, and Edward…”
“You’ve been determined to do it on your own, not want someone else to step in to help because you’d feel like you were fobbing off your responsibilities.”
I nodded.“Are you a mind reader now?”
“Just really good at reading context clues.”He grinned and rolled onto his stomach.“How about I make a deal with you?You talk to your part timer—”
“Natalie.”
“—Natalie about coming on full time, and I’ll start putting out feelers at the community college’s pastry chef program to see about getting someone into help out at Nice Buns.”
“Hmm.Less sexy than I was hoping for this morning but I’m game…”
He kissed me back when I leaned in, and we got lost in making out like excited teenagers until the clatter of pans in the kitchen made me shoot to my feet.“Shit, Edward!”
“Get some pants on and go make breakfast.”He stretched again, arching his back and making a display of the semi barely hidden by his very brief briefs.
“You’re making it very difficult,” I groused, reaching for a clean pair of pants and a t-shirt.
Ambrose smirked, trailing his fingers down his chest when I glanced back from the door.“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Oh, you bastard…”
“Dad!”
I sighed.“Duty calls.”
“Go.Make me toast too, please!”
I found Edward in the kitchen, perched on the edge of one of the chairs, waiting for me.“I didn’t use the toaster oven,” he said.He fixed me with a very grown-up look, one brow lifted in what I knew was an imitation of my ownI know you’re hiding somethingexpression.“Why didn’t Ambrose stay in the guest room?Is something wrong with it?Is that squirrel back again??I thought you were having slumber party or something but when I called Aunt Naomi to ask if she’d come make me toast because you’re being a sleepy head, she said to give you a minute because you had a friend over and sometimes grown-ups have special sleep overs and that’s all she was saying about it.Also, you’re supposed to call her.She said it was really important and she’d come find you if you didn’t.”He glanced up at me from the stack of cheese slices he’d been carefully arranging.“Can I have four pieces?”
Oh god.I moved to the bread box and grabbed out the thick-sliced loaf of brioche Ambrose had brought over the night before.Some guys got flowers, I got fresh bread and fancy cupcakes.Dating a baker definitely had perks.I got the container of sliced fruit from the fridge, trying to buy some time and hoping against hope that Edward would decide he was more interested in literally anything else before I had to answer him.
I’d just gotten the bread and cheese onto the toaster oven’s rack when he piped up again.“I told Aunt Naomi you were in your room with Ambrose, and she said to let you rest because you’d probably been up late.”
“Well, I’m going to head on out,” Ambrose said from the kitchen doorway, looking pale except for the two high spots of color on his cheeks and the wide, startled blue of his eyes.“See you later, bye!”
