Page 36 of Leo and His Love Bunny

Leo shifts. “I think it’s a scam.”

Ah. That explains the protective vibes I am getting.

“Don’t listen to him. He just pledged to support a whole family of anteaters.”

“Do anteaters live in family groups?” I ask, handing Cal his drink. I hate to admit that I know absolutely nothing about anteaters.

“No. Female anteaters might have their baby with them.”

“Just one?”

“One per year.”

“All I know is that they have long tongues.”

“Their tongues have barbs on them, to better catch their prey. They also have sticky saliva.”

Leo looks annoyed. “They also have sharp claws that can kill a panther, and they’ve been known to kill their keeper in captivity.”

“But they’re mostly docile,” Cal adds, giving Leo a look like he couldn’t believe his friend could say anything unkind about anteaters, even if it was true. “In fact, they have the lowest body temperature of any mammal and sleep up to fifteen hours per day.”

“I had no idea,” I say, which is true. I can’t say that I ever thought much about anteaters before. “Where do they live?”

“You know what?” Leo cuts in as Cal opens his mouth. I feel like Cal could talk for a long time about anteaters. “SendNora the link. When she gets time, she can pick out whatever anteaters she’d like to support and I’ll pitch in to pay for it. That way, if it’s a scam, she won’t be on the hook for anything.”

“How can it be a scam?” Cal asks. “We paid securely.”

Leo’s lips flatten. “Maybe they’re using our money to support themselves rather than the anteaters.”

Cal’s eyes widen. Then he gets thoughtful. “The people who care for the anteaters have to eat too. So it makes sense that they’d use some of our money for themselves. I’m okay with that.”

To my surprise, Leo’s brows draw down, but then he smiles. “I think it’s your ability to get along with anyone that has allowed us to be friends for such a long time. Putting up with me is not easy.”

Cal clamps Leo on the shoulder, a grin on his face, but before he can say anything, the door opens and the bell jingles.

I bite back a groan. Sometimes being a business owner is inconvenient. There is obviously a bond between these two, and I had been enjoying their byplay as Cal and I talked about anteaters. I feel like Leo is not nearly as annoyed as he let on, and I also think he’s only trying to change the subject to protect me and keep me from getting sucked into a scam. Which is interesting and shows how loyal he is, if he’s supporting Cal’s anteaters even though he doesn’t think the money is actually going to the anteaters.

I think that’s what true friends are.

“What kind of R-rated cupcakes do you have today?”

I hear the voice and cringe internally. It’s Sophia, my nemesis. I suppose most small towns have epic feuds, and somehow Sophia and I are one in Whisker Hollow. I don’t even remember how it started, exactly. I just know she’s hated me since about second grade. To everyone else, she seems like a verynice person, but she seems to take great delight in trying to make my life miserable.

Just the person I wanted to see this morning.

“Can I help you?” I ask as Leo and Cal move out of the way. Sophia walks in like she owns the place, giving Leo a second, interested, look as she makes her way to the counter. I notice, even though I don’t want to, that Leo nods a greeting but does not return her interested stare. Leo hasn’t returned any of my interested stares, but it really makes me feel happier than I want to admit that he isn’t the slightest bit interested in Sophia. I want to hug him.

I don’t usually see her in my shop, and I’m fairly certain she’s not here to buy anything.

She smirks as she steps up to the counter. “Well, aren’t you going to answer me?”

I open my mouth, trying as I do so to remind myself to be kind, to answer with kindness, to treat her with kindness. That’s one of the things that is supposed to make Christians different from other people—we don’t treat people the way they treat us, we treat them the way we’d like to be treated. I want people to be kind to me, so... Here goes.

“I hope to have all my cupcakes be PG in the future.”

She snorts. “My cupcakes will be all PG, all the time.”

“You want a PG-rated cupcake?” I feel a little confused. That’s not quite what she said.

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