Page 53 of Half Baked

It’s not that I want to avoid them, it’s that I want to avoid the fact that I had wanted him to aim lower, specifically for my lips. And if I admit that to them, it makes the urge something tangible.

“I haven’t been avoiding you, I’m just busy,” I counter halfheartedly. When none of them buy my excuse, I give in. “Fine, but I’m putting you to work if you want to talk.”

“Deal.”

I reach into the open trunk and pass each of them a basket. Then I lead the way out to the strawberry fields. I love the strawberry fields, with their neat rows of green and their lush red berries just waiting to be turned into my strawberry and cream filled croissants.

Which I can now make thanks to Hayden.

I’d been turning both conversations over in my head. The first on the beach, and the follow up yesterday when he implored me to let him help.

“Okay, it’s time to spill. What did we interrupt the other night?” Ivy gets straight to the point.

“We… talked.”

“That didn’t look like talking,” Wren points out.

Stevie hushes her before turning to me. “Talked about what?”

“Hayden bought me a new appliance for the bakery. He replaced my sad old mixer with a five-figure version.” I reach for a strawberry, avoiding the eager gazes I just know are on their faces.

“Well, that was generous of him. But honestly not surprising,” Stevie mulls. “I think he would have dropped six figures on your bakery if you let him.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“The fact that he is crazy about you.”

“There’s definitely something there,” Ivy agrees.

“Well, we fought about the mixer and then—it turned into something else we were fighting about. I think I’ve been misjudging him.”

I make the mistake of looking up in that moment. They are all staring back at me in mock surprise.

“What makes you say that?” Wren asks.

“Remember the field trip we took where he made fun of me for being poor? He says that’s not what he was doing.”

“None of us actually witnessed it. But, honey, is it possible you were feeling heated, and the details came out… a certain way when you told us about it?” Ivy suggests cautiously.

I throw back my head in laughter. “Are you suggesting I overreacted and overexaggerated? Yes, that’s a safe bet. I appreciate how you put it though.”

“So, what did he say happened then?”

Ducking once again, I pretend to focus on a ripe strawberry. I’m having a hard time admitting the next part because I know it’s going to make me smile and blush. “Um, something about how he was just trying to get my attention.”

“Poppy.” Stevie grabs my arm. “Did Hayden admit to liking you? Is that why you were about to do it on the beach?”

“Now who’s exaggerating,” I mutter.

“Oh, come on, we all saw how you were wrapped up together,” Wren points out.

“What have you been feeling about all of this?” Ivy asks, plucking a berry and depositing it in her basket.

“Confused, mostly. I spent years thinking he was this stuck-up, better-than-everyone-because-I-have-money type of guy. Thinking he was mocking me as I struggle to make my living. But he was honestly horrified by how I remembered that first time we spoke. And then what Stevie’s told me about why he was in town after his parents disappeared… I am just seeing things differently. And it is terribly confusing.”

“That would be. You’re having to rethink years of interactions now,” Ivy says softly.

“On top of that,” I start to add, waving a strawberry in the air as the words continue to pour out of me. “He wants to do more. Help more. And that’s making me want to run away and also run towards him at the same time.”

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