Page 126 of Knot Baked Out For This
"The best kind!"
My phone buzzes—my ancient, barely functional phone—with a text from Rowan:
ROWAN: Heard Levi's green. Need backup?
I text back:
ME: Always need backup with these two.
His response is immediate:
ROWAN: On my way.
ROWAN: With paint remover.
Of course he has paint remover.
Like this is a regular enough occurrence that he comes prepared.
"Rowan's coming," I announce.
"Excellent!" Reverie claps. "Full pack photo opportunity!"
"No photos!"
"Just one!"
"No!"
"What if I make you those fancy drinks you like?"
"...Maybe one photo."
"YES! Mila, get the ring light! Rosemarie, arrange them attractively! Hazel, stop looking like you're being held hostage!"
"I am being held hostage!"
"By love," Levi says sweetly, still dripping paint.
"By chaos," I correct.
"Same thing with us," Luca observes.
And he's right. With them, chaos and love are the same thing—messy, overwhelming, wonderful, and absolutely nothing like the simple life I thought I wanted.
But maybe simple was just another word for lonely.
The bell chimes, and Rowan walks in carrying industrial paint remover and looking like every firefighter calendar's wet dream in his uniform.
"Green's a good color on you," he tells Levi dryly.
"I'm starting a trend."
"You're starting a disaster."
"That too."
And as my bakery fills with bickering and laughter and the smell of coffee mixed with paint fumes, as Reverie directs us into increasingly ridiculous poses for her "one photo" that's definitely become a photo shoot, as my new employees cheer and suggest poses and threaten to start their own social media accounts just to document this chaos?—
