Page 40 of The Alpha and the Baker
“Saoirse loves to bake. She and Melodie worked hard on the cakes for the reunion before Arietty—” she cut herself off, a habit I was noting more and more with the quirky McCallisters. “Well, we don’t need to go into that. Because if it hadn’t happened, we never would have met you. So, I view it as a win-win.”
Wait,Ariettywas the one who messed up the cakes? I could have sworn that Cas said it was one of his nieces… And hadn’t other people also implied the same? Was I crazy? Also, how did a dog burn three cakes?
I supposed it didn’t matter. I was flattered that they were supporting my business—I suddenly understood why the girl was disappointed. She was probably looking forward to a redo at making something for her family after it got ruined.
“Since you’re here, Saoirse, would you like to have a tour of the place? I don’t mind showing you around, maybe answering any questions you might have about baking.”
The young girl’s eyes lit up, and all trace of disappointment fled from her face. A warm, fuzzy glow filled me. I couldn’t fix a lot of things in life, but if I could cheer up a kid who was interested in baking, I would try my hardest to do so.
“Really? Would that be okay?”
“Of course it would. And if you want, and these lovely ladies here don’t mind waiting around a bit, I still have a little bit of prep to do that you can join in on.”
You’d have thought I’d told her she had won the lottery. The girl actually clapped, and the grin that broke out across her young features was downright adorable.
“Yes! Yes, I’d love to.”
It was unexpected, but not unwelcome, so I finished printing out the contract, handed it to Penny and Polly to review, then went about showing Saoirse her way around her first professional kitchen.
It turned out she had a great head on her shoulders and quite an impressive knowledge base for someone so young. Obviously, we probably could have spent several more hours doing various things, but eventually the Penny and Polly’s duties called them back home as two other young ones appeared at the door and knocked.
I wasn’t too proud to admit to myself that I was sad to see them go, but lovely goodbyes were said all around.
“And if you ever wanna stop in on a Saturday to learn some more stuff, I usually have the most prep then, if you want to learn some things.”
“Oh-em-gee, that’d be awesome!” the young girl said before looking to her mother. “That would be okay, right?”
“We’ll have to organize it ahead of time to get you a ride to and from the city, but I don’t see why not.”
“Yay!”
“But we really do have to go.” Penny gave me an apologetic smile, and the next thing I knew, I was being pulled into a hug. “It was so goo—Ow!”
And then thenextthing I knew after that first next thing, I was being pushed away with a surprising amount of strength. If I wasn’t standing firmly, I might have toppled backward.
“What is it?” I blurted, brain scrambling at the sudden disruption. “What’s wrong?”
Again, I had a weird feeling of what I was seeing not being entirely possible, when I noticed a red imprint near the woman’s collarbone.
An imprint that looked almost exactly like the silver cross I wore on my neck.
Like it had been burned into her very skin.
But that wasn’t possible! Right?
My hand went to my necklace, and Penny laughed hurriedly.Nervously?
“You gave me a bit of a shock! So much static. What were you doing back there with my daughter, running around on carpet?” Although the corners of her eyes crinkled, her laughter sounded false. I didn’t know her well, but I felt like I could pick it out considering how so incredibly genuine their entire family had been with me up until that point.
“Well, we really must be going now,” Polly said, hurrying the other out the door. “We look forward to picking up that order in three weeks!”
With that, they left, and I was alone in the shop once again. Before that last scene, my mood might have been a bit melancholy at their sudden absence, but I couldn’t get that flash of an image out of my head of the brand I’d left on her skin.
From my necklace.
Mysilvernecklace.
Out of nowhere, my mind was suddenly connecting little tidbits that I had only half noticed before. As lovely as they were, perhaps there was something a bit more than quirky about the McCallisters.
