Page 28 of Bittersweet

“I thought you were exaggerating.”

Harper moved her head from side to side. “I looked up that shooting—multiple people were shot in that incident and one person was killed. Gang related. They chased the shooter on foot to another neighbor’s house where he was holed up for hours, and he ended up killing himself before the police could get him.”

“Oh my gosh.”

“That’s where I went on lunch. I drove through there to check it out.”

“Harper!” Savannah stared across the room at her.

“It’s not a good area, Van. Seriously.”

“Then you shouldn’t have gone there.”

“It was the middle of the day. I figured it was safe enough.”

Savannah shook her head. “I can’t believe you.”

“I was concerned … for Kayla. I looked for apartments available in other parts of town, nicer areas with good schools.”

Savannah stopped what she was doing and gave Harper a serious look. “That’s sweet and all, but it’s really none of your business, is it?”

“That was a little harsh.”

“He’s a grown man, Harper. And you’re not in his life anymore. So let him live it.”

“You’re not the least bit concerned for that little girl?”

Savannah wore a look of disapproval. “Of course it would be better for her to live in a nice, quiet, safe neighborhood, but you don’t know their situation. You don’t know where he’s at financially. Maybe it’s all he can afford, Harper.”

Harper hated that she was right. She also hated not being able to help, and the control freak in her was shining brightly in that moment. A part of her felt helpless. She still cared what happened to Logan. Very much. More than she probably should have. And now that she had met Kayla, she longed to make sure she was safe too. If it had been Savannah or any of her other friends, she would have felt the same protective instinct. But with Logan and his little girl, it was especially strong.

She nodded to let Savannah know she had heard her and went back to work.

When the timer sounded, she went to the oven and removed a batch of sugar cookies, golden brown on top. Their aroma filled the room with the smell of comfort and warmth, if those things could possibly have scents. More cookie sheets were placed in the oven with another batch of unicorns for the party.

Once the cookies had cooled, Harper began the decorating process, lining the edge of the unicorn’s head in white royal icing then flooding between the lines with thinned icing for a perfectly smooth surface. While she waited for the icing layer to set, she worked on another batch she had started earlier, adding the rainbow mane, meticulously drawing on the unicorn’s eyes and eyelashes, making a little work of art that would probably be devoured in about a minute flat. Time passed without her noticing. She lost herself in the details, her mind clear and void of anything other than what she was doing.

She admired the finished product, pleased with how they had turned out. “I should set aside a few of these for Kayla.” The image of Kayla’s little ringlet curls and hazel eyes crossed her mind. “Maybe you could take them to Logan, along with the list of apartments I found.”

“If you want Kayla to have special cookies, you’ll have to take them yourself.” Savannah smirked.

Harper’s mouth fell open. “You said you’d be the point man, remember?”

Savannah turned her attention back to the cake. “Fine. I’ll take her the cookies. But I’m not taking the list.”

“Fine,” Harper agreed, but she wasn’t happy about it. She wanted Logan to have that list.

12

Preparations were in high gear for the local end-of-summer food truck festival, which was happening in a little more than a week. Logan’s coffee truck was among the forty or so trucks taking part. It was his first big event since relocating to Grand Rapids, and the pressure was on to make it a success. Having Harper and Savannah’s tasty baked goods to offer would surely help.

Although Wendy was in charge of all the food orders, he felt the need to stop by Sweets on the Grand to go over everything in person. And the chance that he might see Harper there may have had something to do with it.

He’d been so happy since getting the call from Savannah a few days ago, letting him know they wanted to work with him—both of them. He wondered how that conversation had gone. What had Harper said to her friend about them staying the night at her place? Was Kayla the reason Harper had decided to do this? With all her questions about where they were living, he wondered if she did it because she felt sorry for them. Maybe he should have been offended by that possibility, but he wasn’t. He only cared that he would be working with Harper. And he hoped this meant she had forgiven him for leaving.

He parked his car at a meter a couple blocks away and walked straight to the shop, running his fingers through his hair as he noticed his reflection in the window of a neighboring building. As soon as he opened the door to Sweets, he knew something wasn’t right. A woman’s raised voice filled the space. She was clearly upset and pointing a finger in Harper’s face.

Harper clicked around on the computer. “Ma’am, I’m so very sorry. We have no record of your order in our system. Do you know who called it in?”

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