Page 43 of Pursued By My Grumpy Fiancé
“No, I know, it’s just—I have a sweet tooth, and that was the last of the sweets I have,” she sighs.
“You know, I think I know just the thing to help with that sweet tooth,” I say.
I move past her to the fridge door and pull out some peaches and butter.
“What are you doing?” she asks, hopping off the counter.
“You’ll see,” I say as I shut the fridge door and preheat the oven. I rinse the peaches then set them on the counter in front of me. Grabbing a cutting board and a knife, I make quick work of cutting them into quarters.
“Oh, you’re making something,” she says over my shoulder. “Can I help?”
I set the knife down as I look around the kitchen.
“Yeah, actually. Can you find the brown sugar? And a casserole dish?” I ask.
She salutes me and starts going through the various cabinets. I cut chunks of butter off the stick and take the pits out of the peaches, moving them off to the side, making a mental note to give them to my mom’s gardener. Hailey sets the casserole dish next to me.
“Perfect, thank you. Now, I’m going to butter the dish. Can you open the brown sugar?” She nods and starts pulling the plastic bag apart as I take the stick of butter and run it all around the casserole dish.
I hear a ‘pop,’ and suddenly, there’s brown sugar everywhere, covering me, Hailey, and the sticky casserole dish. I turn and slowly look at her.
“Sorry.” She says, her voice small. “I used a little more force than I needed to.”
I smile and roll my eyes.
“That’s okay. We can make this work.” I take a look down at myself, taking note of my sugar-covered clothing. I take my shirt off, and before Hailey can react, I start shaking it off above her head. Her jaw drops open, stunned at my action. “Payback.”
“What— I— Seriously? It was an accident!”
I ignore her as I arrange the peaches in the casserole dish and toss the butter chunks over them. I’m rolling the rest of the peaches in the brown sugar when something cold and smooshy is smeared onto my nose. I blink and wipe it off.
“Butter?” I ask as I turn to her.
She’s triumphant as she starts wrapping the stick back up.
“Payback,” she says simply.
I give her a mock offended look.
“You can’t do payback for payback!”
“Um, you can’t do payback for an accident!” she shoots back.
I shrug my shoulders in concession.
“Alright, fine. Here, you put this,” I hand Hailey the casserole dish, “in the oven and set the timer for twelve minutes. I’m going to change really quick.”
I head off to my room and take my pajama pants off before she can say anything else. I pull out a new pair of pants and throw on a robe before strolling back out to the kitchen.
“My turn!” Hailey chirps as she runs from the room, almost tripping on the dusting of brown sugar covering the floor.
She’s back in a flash, now donning an oversized sweater and some fuzzy plaid pants.
“Stop!” I call to her just before she enters the kitchen.
“What?” Her eyes bulge out of her head. “What now?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t want you to step in the brown sugar. I’ll grab a broom, and you wait out there.”
