Page 83 of Home Sweet Home

The game was set in a kitchen, a big mixing bowl on a counter filling up most of the screen. There was a recipe pinned to the edge.

“Three cups of flour,” Evie said, narrowing her eyes.

Ingredients flashed above the mixing bowl. They were only there a few seconds at a time before they faded away and another ingredient replaced it. Some of the ingredients were part of the recipe. Some were not. So far, she’d spotted socks, underwear, glue, and sawdust. The sawdust looked dangerously like flour.

“Yikes.” Josh inhaled sharply as Evie clicked the sawdust for the second time. The screen went black, and a red message spread across the screen. ‘You failed.’

In this game and in life.“Why are you showing me this?”

“I made it.”

The game had gone back to the title screen, and there it was. “Baking Bonanza by Josh Cauley.”

“This is what you’ve been working on?”

“For a year.”

“Who did the music? And the graphics?”

“Me.”

“How?” Evie asked, unable to comprehend. She tried to think back to Josh being musically or artistically inclined, and she couldn’t conjure up a single instance of him drawing or playing an instrument.

“Looked up tutorials online. You can learn how to do anything. And then I just kept practicing.”

Evie was still in shock, and her heart soared at the subject of the game, which was baking, the thing Evie cared most about, and that their mom had loved too.

As if he could read her mind, he added, “I got the idea when you made that soufflè… You kept messing it up and getting frustrated and starting over. Remember when you put in salt instead of sugar? And the last time, it came out delicious.”

It had been her first time making a soufflè. She’d thought her baking experience would make it easier, but it was a difficult undertaking. It had taken her the better part of a weekend, during which she’d used enough swear words that Kayla might have even blushed, and she’d had to start over multiple times.

“It’s incredible.” Evie wasn’t a gamer, but the game was something special—the art, the music, the sense of humor. It was fun to play, even if she wasn’t good at it.

“I put it on Steam. I’ve sold a few copies. Not a lot, but enough that I can help with some of the bills.”

Evie smiled, squeezing Josh’s shoulders. “Why don’t we put it in a savings account for college?” She paused before adding, “I know we had a deal, but you don’t have to play out the rest of the season if you don’t want to.”

A tiny part of her hoped he wouldn’t. If she didn’t make things right with West, games would be awkward, her heart breaking anew each time she saw him out on the field.

“It’s been fun,” Josh said. “I’ve been sleeping better.”

Evie managed a smile. “Whatever you want. Now, how do I play again?”

Josh pointed at a button on the screen, and when Evie pressed it, the ingredients started flashing again. She was grateful for a release from her thoughts, even just for a few minutes.

* * *

As Evie knockedon West’s front door, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich she’d slapped together for lunch felt heavy in her stomach. All morning, as she’d baked what she could barely refer to as bread, she’d practiced what to say, trying to string together the right words to convey how desperately sorry she was. It wasn’t the first time in her life she’d had an imaginary conversation with herself instead of having it with West Hawthorne. It was that thought—that she didn’t want to make the same mistake twice—that got her out her front door.

She made it five steps across the lawn before she turned and walked back to her front door. Inside, she tried to shut off the part of her brain that told her it was pointless and that she’d already done too much damage. The next time she stepped out, she kept convincing herself over and over to put one foot in front of the other. After enough times, she was standing at his front door, the brass knocker taunting her. She glanced toward her house and wondered how quickly she could be back inside the safety of those four walls, then West’s front door opened.

“Well hi there,” Della said with a smile much warmer than Evie felt she deserved.

Evie bit her lip, her insides churning as she craned her neck to look inside. “Is West home?”

She already knew the answer because she’d been watching the driveway all day, waiting for West’s Jeep to pull in. After he finally did pull in, she’d taken over an hour to work up the courage to leave her house. Still, Evie was relieved when Della nodded and opened the door wide, gesturing for her to come inside.

“How’d you know I was out there?” Evie asked as she stepped into the living room.

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