Page 50 of Leo and His Love Bunny

That’s where I want to be with Nora, but it’s too soon. And I don’t know how she feels. I definitely don’t want the bird reading my mind and ruining everything. Sometimes when you get pushed in one direction, you have a tendency to push back harder, and I don’t want to scare Nora before we both decide that is the way we want to go. Plus, I have all of these blocks, thisidea that I don’t have time for a relationship because of starting a new business, plus my last year of hockey and all the other changes in my life. It’s going to be a turbulent time. I don’t want to drag her through that.

And there are a few things she needs to know about me before she makes a decision on anything as important as a relationship.

Thankfully Trixie doesn’t say anything else, and he and Goalie go back to ogling each other.

“I hope this wasn’t presumptuous of me, but I’ve been wondering how I’m going to transport the number of cupcakes that you’re going to need at the various speaking engagements this summer. So, I rented a refrigerated truck for the next three months.”

My brows go up, and my attention is fully on Nora. I hadn’t meant for this to be an additional expense for her. But I hadn’t considered the fact that she couldn’t just haul five hundred cupcakes in her car.

“I should’ve thought of that.”

It’s time for her to look surprised. “Why? This isn’t your business. It’s not your job to get the cupcakes there.”

I can’t tell her that it is all my fault that she’s doing it. I don’t want her to know. And I’m not exactly sure why I’m so careful to make sure that she doesn’t. I suppose it would say more about how I feel than I want her to know right now.

But I want to be honest too. “I didn’t want this to be more trouble for you.”

“It’s not more trouble!” she says, and I love the way she holds her hands out and is surprised too, like she truly is happy for the opportunity. I had hoped that she would be, but I wasn’t sure. “It’s a huge business opportunity. I’ve had price lists and flyers made so that people who get the cupcakes will know who madethem. And most of your speaking engagements are within an hour of my shop.”

“I wanted to start local. I know that eventually I want to be national, but the people here have supported my hockey career and I thought the best place to launch my speaking career was right here.” I hadn’t even thought that of course that would be best for her. How in the world was she going to travel with cupcakes? I feel like an idiot for not thinking about it, but it has all worked out. Mostly. There are two speaking engagements that will require travel.

“I’m just shaking my head because I realized that I never even thought about how you were going to transport the cupcakes.”

“There were two that you have this month that I don’t think I’m going to be able to make cupcakes for. I said that in the email that I sent to you.”

I had seen the email and knew she wasn’t going to be providing cupcakes for those particular engagements, but I hadn’t realized the reason.

Anyway, it’s too late to change now. “So you think it’s going to be cost-effective for you to rent the van?”

“Yes. I think within two trips, it will have paid for itself. Just with the amount of money that I’m going to be getting from providing cupcakes for the speaking engagements. That’s not even including any of the business that’s going to bring to my shop.”

She looks so happy, and I want to reach out and touch her. To run my finger down her cheek or put my arm around her and bring her close.

“I’ve been really worried about losing my business. I had worked so hard and borrowed money from people. And that was the biggest thing. I wanted to be able to pay them back. The idea of not being able to ate at me. It wasn’t really the fact that Iwould fail in business,” she uses air quotes around the word fail, “it was more the fact that people who had invested in me and believed in me might not get their money back.”

“That sends a chill down my backbone too. Although I haven’t borrowed money from people, I know what you mean.”

She smiles. I love what that says about her—that she wants to make sure her bills are paid. Some people don’t really seem to care or aren’t able to put themselves in other people’s shoes.

But then another thought occurs to me. “Are you going to drive the van?”

“Matt is going to drive it the first time. I’ll be loading it. It came outfitted with shelves in the back, and I think our cupcakes are going to ride very nicely, but I still want to pack them myself. And then I’ll follow him in my car.”

“Would you like to ride with me?”

Her eyes widen, like that hadn’t even been a consideration. And I realize I’m holding my breath. I want her to say yes. The whole idea of me doing this is for me to be able to spend time with her. At least, that was what I was thinking when I offered it.

She takes a breath, and a smile hovers around her mouth. “I’d love to.” Then she deflates just a bit. “I can this time. But I did tell Matt that if he drove the first time, I would drive from there on out. He’s just going to work out any bugs.”

“Maybe I can ride with you then.” I’m inviting myself, and I know it’s rude, but I want to be able to see her.

“Of course!” Her eyes light up again, and she looks me right in the eye. “I would love it if you would do that.” She laughs a little. “It’s already so nice of you to have included me in your schedule, I can’t believe that every person that you’re speaking for has agreed to pay me to provide the refreshments. It almost seems...too good to be true.”

That’s getting a little too close for comfort to the actual truth. In fact, not a single person I asked was interested in paying herto provide cupcakes. I had to pay for them every time, and the people didn’t turn that offer down. I certainly don’t mind, and that’s what I wanted to begin with, but she is right. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be to just tell them that I wanted her and her cupcakes and have them pay her to do it.

Even as I try to think of a way to shift the conversation to a different subject, I feel guilty for hiding that from her. I’m not lying, but I am hiding the truth, which is probably about the same thing, although right now I don’t want to split hairs.

But on the other hand, I can flip it and think about the fact that I’m just giving to someone to help her business and encourage her. After all, we are supposed to give without reserve. And that’s really what I’m doing. I’m just...not telling the person I’m giving to that they’re not earning the money they think they are, it’s a gift.

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