CHAPTER 4
Construction finished only a few days later than planned, despite some minor issues that cropped up at the last minute. It was, they were assured, a minor miracle, but the new shop was finally complete, at least structurally. That didn’t mean the stress had ended though, there was still plenty to do before they could open.
All the specialized equipment was installed in the huge kitchen area, and the shop was just getting the final interior touches, before they began moving in the cases and appliances. They were literally counting down the days at that point. Heaven Leigh had posted a calendar on the wall of their apartment, and each evening before bed they crossed off another day with a red marker.
At this stage, they were making daily trips over to the store to check on the progress. It was surprising the number of little things that could go wrong in the final lap.
Once the structural work was complete, they’d moved on to the cosmetics. Bare drywall was still being caulked and primed in the kitchen, but they’d finished painting the entire front shop before Heaven Leigh had pointed out that it was the wrong color. Small errors and mistakes were normal at this stage, or so he’d heard.
Of the sixty different shades of peach they’d considered, Angel couldn’t have told most of them apart, but his Little could. If it was solely up to him, he would have just gone with the wrong shade. He didn’t see what difference it would make, but Heaven Leigh did, and she was proving to be a bit picky about the final steps.
“Daddy, this one is too pink. We wanted a peach with orange undertones. It’s gonna complement the chocolate better,” she reminded him with a long-suffering sigh. She was tired; they both were. It had been a long day, and it showed in the bit of Little that had crept into her voice.
He did remember a discussion about that, he just hadn’t been able to tell from looking at the freshly painted walls. He knew nothing about undertones. “Does it really matter? They’ve already finished, chiquita .”
“It does . We want the pictures to pop .” She clapped her hands together in emphasis.
Right, the pictures. That had been Heaven Leigh’s idea, and it was a good one. He’d gone through his portfolio and picked out photos of his favorite creations over the years. He wasn’t a professional photographer, but he had a fairly good eye for capturing detail, and he felt the ones he’d picked really showed off his talents.
She’d had them touched up, enlarged, and framed for the walls of the shop, and he had to admit they looked amazing. He nodded, even though he still wasn’t sure why one color would be better than the other. “Well, it’s not dry yet, maybe it will settle more orange when it is?”
She shook her head. “It won’t; trust me.”
His girl knew more about color theory and mixing than he did. It was more important with frostings than it was with chocolate, so he bowed to her experience and they’d reported the problem. To his credit, the supervisor had taken it in stride with no sign of upset.
He’d pulled out his tablet and scrolled through their choices. “You’re right. This is the wrong shade. Sorry about the mix up, not sure how it happened, but we can repaint tomorrow. It’s light enough that we should be able to lay the new coat right over the top without an issue, but we’ll test it first. We can do a new basecoat if we have to.”
Obviously it added an extra day, but, in the end, Angel had to admit the new color was nice. And when they got around to hanging the frames, it would probably be an amazing backdrop for the photos. Whether one was really better than the other… he had no clue, but Heaven Leigh was extremely pleased.
“Worth it,” she’d gloated, with a smirk curving her lips. He just had to take her word for it.
There was about another week of interior work left, including the installation of glass cases and blinds on the large viewing window. The last was another of her ideas. It would allow customers to watch them create when they felt like being seen. He thought the Littles would love a chance to watch.
After all of that was done, there was still a long list of things that needed to be delivered and set up. Every time he thought about the list of tasks that had to be completed before opening day, his blood pressure went up another notch.
They didn’t actually have a firm date for opening yet. Angel wanted to plan something special, but he was worried about delays, so he was waiting until everything was complete to schedule it.
In the meantime, he’d decided, in spite of all the stress, to challenge himself. Or rather… Derek had decided to create a challenge, by hosting a party and asking for a centerpiece. “I understand your kitchen isn’t quite ready yet, but is there any way you can come up with one of your amazing creations for a party?”
One eyebrow went up. “How much time do I have?”
Derek winced. “I meant to ask earlier, but things have been a little hectic…” He trailed off and cleared his throat. “It’s in three days.”
“Three… days ?” Angel just stared at him. A week would have been tight normally. Two weeks lead time would have been better with everything they had going on, but three days?”
“I know, and I apologize. This is on me. I made a note to talk to you about it when you and Heaven came back from vacation, and somehow, I forgot to mention it to Erika. It was only this morning that I suddenly realized. You’ve been great pulling things together at the last minute before, so I was hoping…”
Angel frowned. That was… a lot. Of course he could manage something , but whether it would be art of his usual caliber was another story. “What’s the theme?”
“There’s no theme for the event, so it’s up to you. Whatever you can manage. We’re going to have a lot of Littles there and also some prospective Caregivers who want to take a peek into how it all works. I’m hoping some matches might come out of it, eventually.”
Until the store opened, Derek was still his boss. And even after, they had a contract to continue to supply Rawhide Ranch with all their chocolate needs. The Ranch would be, in fact, their only steady client, which basically meant Derek would still be the boss. So, the only acceptable answer was, “I’ll see what I can do.”
And it actually seemed like a good idea at the time. One more grand creation, with limited space, and the bare minimum of necessary equipment, before they made the move. A last hurrah before everything got so much easier. He’d managed before and he could do it again.
However, with everything else on his plate, it turned out to be even more complicated than he’d anticipated. Small things kept going wrong. Normally nothing he couldn’t deal with, but with all the changes happening, it seemed to be more difficult this time.
And not only did he have to deal with his own stress, but he also had to help Heaven Leigh with hers. The sign hadn’t been the only outburst, just the biggest one. There had been plenty of snapping and pouting and sulking, mostly brought on from being overwhelmed, he expected.
They were in this together, but he was the Daddy. He was the one who was supposed to keep everything going. He was supposed to help her with her struggles, but his patience was growing shorter every day. Not because of her needs, but because of all the little stressors that were nibbling at him like a pack of hungry ducks—and if it continued, he was going to go quackers.
Angel was starting to envy the Little ability to have a meltdown and get it all out. Of course, as a Dominant… he was supposed to be able to control himself a little better, and he was, but it wasn’t easy, especially in the kitchen.
He hissed a curse under his breath as he banged into the edge of the counter, while trying to navigate around Heaven. The heavy metal pan he was carrying made moving in their little area difficult, and he nearly dropped it. She quickly grabbed the other end, while he caught his balance.
“What happened to moving out of here lowering stress,” he muttered under his breath.
Her mouth twitched, but she knew better than to laugh. “Um, I think that comes after we’ve actually moved, and opened, and settled in.” She paused, considering, and then added, “And then maybe after we collapse and sleep for a week.”
A sound that was half-growl and half-snort burst from him. “I can’t wait until we have room to work without tripping over each other.” He sighed as he carefully eased the pan down. On it, the chocolate had hardened into a perfect smooth sheet, and he didn’t want it to crack.
Heaven flashed him a grin. “Soon, Daddy. Soon.”
For a while, just knowing they would be moving into their dream space had lightened the stress load, but as the day of completion grew closer, the excitement and anxiety seemed to expand into every corner of their lives. To say that their moods were on a hair trigger was putting it mildly. And then things took a turn that left Angel scrambling for every ounce of patience he had left.
Littles were supposed to be safely contained within the Littles’ Wing where they could be supervised, but sometimes all the supervision in the world wasn’t enough to keep them out of trouble. His Heaven was an example of that. Before she’d been given a job with him, she’d gotten into trouble so often that Derek joked about wearing a paddle out on her backside.
For her the fix had been simple. She wasn’t really trying to get in trouble, she just needed to breathe and stretch her legs outside of the Littles’ Wing. Her younger side was getting plenty of nurturing, but her adult side was feeling stifled by having to follow so many rules all the time. Once she’d been given a job with responsibility, things had gotten better.
But sometimes Littles just needed to be naughty. Mischief was exciting and when you put a bunch of Littles together, they were prone to encouraging bad behavior and chaos. Things could escalate quickly.
He knew that. Every adult on the grounds was well aware of that.
Littles loved chocolate. The attraction to the sweet treat was so strong, most of them lost all willpower and simply couldn’t help themselves. Angel knew that too.
So, when his frustration over the tight quarters had gotten the best of him, he should have realized that moving the chocolate pieces to the multi-purpose room to assemble it there… was a bad idea. In Angel’s defense, he really just needed room to work and wasn’t considering the possible issues it might raise.
He wasn’t thinking about the downside of bringing large slabs of chocolate into the Littles’ Wing and leaving them unattended in a room while he went back to the kitchen. And, to be fair, the event room did have a lock on it. If the door had closed properly, there wouldn’t have been an issue.
If.
Since the event was going to have so many Littles in attendance, Angel wanted to do something they would find fun, but would still impress everyone else. A castle, complete with princesses and knights on tiny chocolate horses, was probably a little ambitious, given his schedule and limitations, but the idea was full of whimsy, and his creative side latched onto it with excitement.
Knowing it would be the last time he had to struggle with the space issue, also made it a bit of a personal challenge, so he decided to go with it. Best of all, he’d done castles before, so he had reference photos ready to use and could skip that step. It would be tight, but he could manage something presentable in the time he had.
All the flat wall sheets were cut, pressed with a stone pattern, and labelled before going into the chiller. With a small torch, he could assemble it in the multi-purpose room later and then paint the chocolate to make the castle walls look more realistic.
Then he set to work making the smaller pieces. The people, the horses, and an assortment of odds and ends would help add a bit of life to the piece. He took his time carefully painting on the clothes and features. There would even be a moat, filled with warm liquid chocolate that would be circulated by a hidden fountain.
While he made all the individual pieces, that would bring the scene to life, Heaven was busy with her own share of the work. She was making a treat buffet to go alongside the castle. There were racks of cake pops, and bite-sized pieces of cake that could be dipped into the moat. Chef Connor’s staff were contributing trays of fruit for dipping as well.
It would provide the necessary nibbles for the party, while keeping up the spirit of whimsy.
He loved it when everything came together. He was so pleased with how things were going, that he was able to push aside his frustration when a tiny wheelbarrow kept falling apart, and when Heaven accidentally knocked over one of the horses and its legs broke off. These were small things and easily fixed.
But between trips from the kitchen to the event room, something happened that washed away the last of his patience. Heaven discovered it first and the expression on her face wiped the smile off of his. She was just coming out of the room when he arrived with another wheeled cart full of chocolate pieces.
He could see instantly that there was a problem. “What’s wrong?”
She quickly pulled the event room door shut and put her back to it. “Daddy… I think you need to um…” She paused, clearly struggling for words. “Maybe take a deep breath and count to ten… or a hundred.”
His eyes narrowed. “Heaven Leigh, what is going on?” There was a sinking feeling in his stomach and he straightened and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for her answer.
“I—I think, maybe… there was an accident.” Her eyes were abnormally wide, and her expression looked pinched, worried.
“An accident?” His first thought was that she’d broken another horse. They were so fragile, standing there on legs not much thicker than a pencil. He would never be angry at her for something like that, and chocolate was forgiving, most things could be fixed with a judicious application of heat.
He shook his head. “ Chiquita , if you broke something, we can probably fix it, and we have plenty of time. Don’t worry,” he assured her.
“No, um… it’s not that.” But she didn’t seem ready to explain further.
“Then what is it?”
“Daddy, why don’t you leave the cart here and go back to the kitchen. I can take care of it and then you don’t?—”
He cut her off by firmly moving her away from the door. Despite her protests, he unlocked and pushed it open. He wasn’t more than two steps inside before it became obvious why she was acting so skittish.
Aside from sexy bedroom talk, Angel didn’t swear much, especially at work. It didn’t look professional in front of guests, and Littles were like mimics when it came to repeating things they shouldn’t. But there was no holding back this time, and “What in the absolute fuck happened in here!” burst from him at full volume.
Heaven inhaled sharply and then, “Daddy!” The shock in her tone was obvious. She sent an anxious look over her shoulder at the classrooms across the hall, but Angel wasn’t concerned with who might hear him.
“The seams didn’t hold. I thought for sure they were solid when I…” He trailed off, shaking his head as he approached the round table in the center of the room with tentative steps. Even master chocolatiers made mistakes, and it did happen sometimes that pieces didn’t hold together properly, so he’d assumed it was his mistake.
And then he got a better look at the disaster. He kept hoping he was imagining things, but the closer he got, the more obvious it became that his chocolate castle had been assaulted.
The formerly pristine white tablecloth was now smeared with blobs of chocolate, fingerprints, and in one case, even a handprint. It wasn’t from him, and he was sure it hadn’t been from Heaven either. All the messy work was being done on a side table, and then moved over, to keep everything neat.
“I don’t understand. How?” He carefully righted a tiny chocolate goat as he tried to assess the damage. When he’d left the room, everything had been tidy. The castle was only half-constructed, but stable. Now one wall had fallen, flattening several villagers and it had broken into large pieces.
He drew a deep breath in and let it out. Then did it again several more times before he began to clear away the wreckage so he could see exactly what he was dealing with.
When he did the math, it became clear that a fairly hefty amount of chocolate was missing, including some of the people figures he should have found under the wall. Judging by the mess, he was going to have to assume a horde of Littles were responsible.
He turned back to Heaven. “Did you see what happened?”
She shook her head quickly. “No, Daddy.”
“No one was in here? You didn’t see anyone nearby?”
“No one was inside, but the door was cracked a little.” She bit her bottom lip, and her glance slid to the side.
One eyebrow went up as he examined her expression. She was hiding something, and she wasn’t good at it. “Did you see anyone near the door?”
She hesitated for a long moment. “There were some Littles in the hall, but they moved away fast when they heard me coming.”
He couldn’t help but notice that she was phrasing things very carefully to imply she didn’t see who they were, without actually saying it. “Who was it, Heaven Leigh?”
His Little girl shifted, looking uncomfortable. “Daddy, I don’t want to be a snitch.”
“Heaven Leigh.”
She looked up, bottom lip pouted, eyes showing a glitter of tears. “It’s not nice to tattle, and honestly, I don’t even know if they did anything. This hall is always busy.”
He had an urge to snap at her, but he bit it back. He was stressed, and understandably upset, but she hadn’t done anything wrong. Wanting to protect her friends was admirable. It wasn’t going to work, but he’d let it slide and try to do this another way.
“Fine.” He rubbed at his temples. “Head over to Master Derek’s office please. See if he’s available to come see…” Angel waved a hand vaguely at the damage.
Heaven perked up when she realized he wasn’t going to force her. “Yes, Daddy.” A second later she was gone, hurrying off as if very happy to have an excuse to get away.
While she was gone, he was going to use some old-fashioned detective work, to see if he could track down the culprits. Besides the evidence on the tablecloth, a closer inspection turned up some crumbled bits on the carpet, and another smeary brown fingerprint on the inside doorknob.
With that much mess, it was unlikely that his Little saboteurs had managed to avoid getting any evidence on themselves. And with two classrooms right across the hall, it was fairly obvious where he should start looking. He knocked once on the nursery door and then let himself in.
A few Littles were sitting on the floor building with giant foam blocks. The others were sitting at plastic craft tables. Most of them looked up curiously, and then went back to what they were doing. There was no sign of worry or guilt that he could see.
Nanny J also looked up when he came in, and started to smile, but must have noticed something was wrong in his expression, because it faltered and vanished. “Uh-oh. Did something happen?”
Angel moved over to her, leaned in and gave her a quick, condensed version of the situation in a voice too low to be heard. Behind him he could just make out the low murmur of whispering from the class.
When he straightened, she looked appalled but a quick glance around the room had her shaking her head. “No one has left this room for at least half an hour, and no chocolate to be seen. I assume you’ll be checking the other rooms?”
“That’s the plan. I’m pretty sure whoever did it has to be in one of them.”
“I would expect so…” She frowned. “I would come with you to search, but as you can see, I’m a bit shorthanded at the moment. Why don’t I try to get Miss Samantha in to take over, and then I can help you track down the guilty parties.”
Angel hesitated and then shook his head. The last thing he wanted to do was make her day more difficult. He could only imagine how much work landed on Nanny J’s shoulders on a daily basis. “Master Derek is hopefully on his way over right now, so I think we’ll be okay.”
“Well, let—” She paused, her expression turned stern as her head snapped around. “Eloise! Stop that right now, or you’re going to be spending some time in the naughty corner on a sore bottom.”
Angel followed her line of sight to see a girl with dark pigtails sitting up immediately. He had no idea what she’d done to attract attention, but whatever it was had ceased in an instant. In fact, the entire class had suddenly developed perfect posture. Nanny J really had the stern teacher voice down to a science.
“My apologies, Angel. If you take your attention off them for a moment, they start looking for mischief.”
“I’ve noticed,” he said, wincing as he thought of his castle, and how much work it was going to take to repair it.
Her mouth softened, losing the stern lines as she placed a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry about your chocolate. What you do is an artform. It must be devastating to have it ruined. Will you be able to fix it?”
He shrugged. “I hope so. It will probably be less majestic, but once we sort everything out, I’ll get back to work.”
She nodded. “Well, let me know if you need me.”
Nanny J’s skills might end up being necessary by the end of things, and he nodded before he left the classroom.