Page 137 of The Oscar Escape
She frowned. “No, I didn’t see any lollipops in there.”
“I told you, Landon,” Mr. Baker replied in a pseudo-surfer voice as he twisted his long hair into a man bun. “The medicinal lollipops are special order, dude. I don’t leave them lying around.”
Landon eyed the bakery manager.
“All right, all right! I don’t leave the lollipops lying aroundanymore,” Tanner offered, emphasizing the final word in his response.
“You’re sure you didn’t chomp down a sucker, Aria?” her uncle pressed. “You’re like your aunt when it comes to candy. You two literally have no self-control.”
She scoffed. “Are you kidding?”
“Your ninth birthday,” he lobbed back, then gestured to the delivery truck on the street. “Looks like you made good on that impulse.”
Shit!He had her there.
She schooled her features. “I haven’t had any lollipops, Uncle Landy.”
“Indulge me and look at that.” He pointed toward a towering evergreen.
Just when she thought this day couldn’t get any weirder, she found herself eyeballing a tree.
“Okay, I’m looking at it. It’s green. Hence, why it’s called an evergreen.”
“Do you want to eat it? Does it appear to be made of cake?”
Had the man gone mental?
She inspected her uncle, looking for any bruising to his head. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Just answer the question, kiddo. Years ago, your aunt Harper began acting peculiar. She’d ingested lollipops—some of Tanner’sspecial Coloradomedicinallollipops. They made her hallucinate. She thought everything was made of cake.”
Aria tiptoed out of the bush and set the bottles on the folding table. “I’m not hallucinating. I didn’t eat any lollipops. I did, however, eat some bonbons.” She zeroed in on the box with one lone bonbon sitting among a sprinkling of chocolate flakes. “Maybe three or four. No, half a dozen.” Her cheeks burned. “That’s not it. It had to be closer to a dozen. And my friends—the tipsy ladies, who were drinking wine spritzers. They each had a few.”
Tanner Baker’s easy-breezy expression disappeared. He scanned the area. “Are you sure you didn’t find a lollipop that might have fallen between the seats? I ask because I don’t see any tipsy ladies.” He waved her in and lowered his voice. “You’re the only lady here.”
What the hell was happening?
“Listen, guys, I didn’t consume any lollipops. I’ve eaten bonbons. Lots and lots of bonbons. And the ladies just left. That’s why you don’t see them. I told them I’d clean up,” she answered, injecting enough eat-worms energy for the men to realize she wasn’t out of her mind.
Her uncle and Tanner Baker shared a relieved look.
She glanced at the delivery truck. “I’m guessing you know what I did. How’d you find me?”
Her uncle shifted his stance. “Dom called and mentioned a hotel security tape. I called Tanner right away.”
She took a step backward. “There’s footage?”
“There’s always footage, kiddo, but Dom took care of it.”
“You’ve been all over town, driving for hours,” the bakery manager continued. “I get it. Driving’s a good way to clear your head. When you stopped at the cemetery, I called your uncle. Our trucks are equipped with GPS tracking and in-cab cameras. That’s how we found you.”
“In-cab cameras?” she repeated.
“Uh-huh,” Tanner Baker affirmed. “I suggest you try one of my medicinal lollipops. It’ll need to be when you’re not stealing cars. You can’t operate heavy machinery when you’re under their influence. They’ll open your mind and help you channel your road rage.”
She cringed. If there was ever a time to be swallowed by a sinkhole, this was it.
“You saw that?”
