Page 125 of Knot Baked Out For This
Luca sighs the deep sigh of someone who's been dealing with this for years. "Did you at least win the bet?"
"Obviously. I'm not a quitter."
"You're not a painter either, apparently."
"Painting is just aggressive brushing. I'm excellent at aggression."
"You're excellent at making messes," I correct, grabbing towels. "Come here."
I wet the towels and start wiping paint from his face, and he grins down at me with that sunshine smile that should be illegal before noon.
"Domestic," he says happily. "You're taking care of me."
"I'm preventing you from contaminating my bakery."
"With love."
"With violence, if you don't stop moving."
He stops moving, but his grin gets wider. "Rowan's gonna be jealous. You're touching my face."
"I'm removing paint!"
"Lovingly removing paint."
"I'm going to lovingly remove your ability to speak if you don't?—"
He kisses me. Quick, sweet, tasting like the cinnamon roll he definitely stole on his way in. When he pulls back, there's green paint on my nose.
"LEVI!"
"Oops?" But he's laughing, and then everyone's laughing, and Mila's filming despite my no-filming rule, and Rosemarie's making what she's calling "chaos coffee," and Reverie's documenting everything in her color-coded notebooks.
"My life used to be simple," I mutter, but I'm smiling.
"Boring," Luca corrects. "Your life used to be boring."
"I like boring!"
"No, you don't." Levi steals a freshly frosted cupcake. "You like us."
I do. Despite the chaos and the paint and the fact that my bakery has become some kind of reality show set, I really, really do.
"We still need to get you on social media," Reverie insists. "The people need to see this chaos!"
"The people can wait."
"The people are impatient!"
"The people can eat cookies and deal with it."
"That's actually a great slogan," Mila says. "Hazel's Bakery: Eat cookies and deal with it."
"I'm not using that."
"You should," Rosemarie agrees. "It's very authentic."
"Authentically unhinged."
