Page 53 of Single Teddy
“Thanks. I’m glad you like them.”
“No. Really, these are so good. I mean, I know I’ve spent a month eating frozen pastries for breakfast, but these are so fucking good.”
“What can I say? I love baking.”
“You should do it for a living,” I told him.
“Well, I am.” He laughed. “I’ve got a bakery truck. The Wandering Bundt.”
“I’ll definitely have to pay a visit.” I stuffed the rest of the cupcake in my mouth very ungracefully, and Zach’s smile widened.
“No need to visit when you have me right next door,” he said.
And did that sound like an invitation for something more than cake?
“If all your cakes are like this, you’ll have to kick me out,” I told him, which was so unlike me, but maybe it was the sugar high.
Zach blushed and ran his finger behind his ear, even though his hair was too short to tuck behind it. He looked a little shy all of a sudden.
“If you tell me your favorite flavors—and Bear’s—I’ll bake you guys a welcome cake.”
“I thought thiswasthe welcome cake.”
His confident smile returned with a little bit of snark when he said, “Is there such a thing as too much welcome cake?”
SIXTEEN
WESLEY
Despite the fire I thought I’d lit under Goodman’s men’s asses, a week later, I still had no update. And while I had been too busy throughout the week to do anything about it, come the weekend, I couldn’t forget it.
Part of it was probably the fact that I was going through this week’s homework assignments, and while Bear was all caught up and on time for all of them, the Barnes twins were behind. Like very behind. I usually didn’t care about homework performance and assessing students solely on how they did outside the classroom, but Valentin and Niko were struggling.
They were adorable and sweet, no doubt about that, but they always looked lost and distracted during class. They couldn’t finish their math exercises, even though only a few weeks ago they were doing great, and their reading skills were nonexistent. If it were any other kid, this wouldn’t be so much of an issue. I could call up their parents, give them some exercises to do with them, like adding stuff up when shopping or reading picturebooks before bedtime, but I didn’t think the twins’ father would appreciate my suggestions.
Their father was a suspected drug mule. Connected to an even bigger operation.
“Agh!” I huffed and pushed the paperwork aside.
This was too frustrating. I hated having my hands tied. I couldn’t stand seeing a problem and not trying to solve it. And this was one that wouldn’t stop bugging me, no matter what I did.
I sighed and looked around my house.
“I need a break,” I told the room. I got up, took the watering can out of the cabinet, along with my gloves and shears, and went to work on the garden to escape reality for a little while.
Some of the lavender that lined the path to my house was starting to wilt, but most were surprisingly intact, considering fall was well underway. Not that you would know it. The sun was still giving us high summer temperatures, and we were nearing October. I pruned the wilted ones in hopes of getting some new flowers to bloom. I cut some of the fresh ones and took them into the house until I decided what to do with them. Definitely more lavender perfume, but perhaps I could make some lavender ice cream or some simple syrup for more adventurous concoctions.
“I could also dry some,” I told the flowers as if they could respond.
Yeah. I’d definitely dry some and make little key ring pouches for the kids. Lavender was great for calming and concentration.
“Ooh. I need to order some keyrings. And pouches.”
Before I went back out, I ordered some of both and returned to pruning, watering, and caressing my plants and flowers. I even found some new beach plums to pick from my trees in the backyard.
“Maybe I can bake another pie,” I said, and immediately, images of Teddy and Bear accepting my plum pie and wolfing it down overtook me, which gave me new purpose.
So I washed my hands, rinsed the plums, and got to work.
