Page 15 of Sweets and Sycamores

YOU AND ME BOTH

“So if you have to stay there, let’s meet another day,” Dominic snapped into the bakery’s telephone. “No. No. Because I can’t. And also, I don’t want to.” He’d ended up huffing and puffing anyway, and Allie couldn’t tame her smile. “Fine!” he shouted and slammed the phone on the receiver.

Allie did her best to distract the elderly couple of customers in front of her, but they shot nervous glances at her boss. She made quick work of packaging their baguettes and slices of apple pie and sent them on their way before Dominic noticed he had an audience.

Allie didn’t get much sleep the night before, and she’d gotten a head start on the day.

It was about time she took responsibility for her tasks, and she was happy to do that instead of sulking around her room.

She’d also resolved to be more like herself around her boss, now that he had agreed to let her stay.

Less reserved, more…bubbly, her mother used to say.

She had nothing to lose and wanted to make the most of the time in Sycamore Falls.

Her nights would be entirely dedicated to magic practice, but she could enjoy her job and a few hours of strolling through the town here and there.

In a few weeks, she would be back with the Silverbarks, back to the rest of her life.

Her mature Witch life.

The thought sat wrong with her and made her feel like she’d swallowed a cactus.

Yet, once she mastered her power, she was sure the joy of being part of a coven, the sisterhood she had craved ever since she was young, would come more naturally.

She’d be accepted and acknowledged by her peers and would dedicate her life to Witchcraft.

A frustrated grunt grabbed her attention.

“Is everything okay, Mr. Ranford?” she asked loud enough for him to hear only if he wanted to.

Dominic threw exasperated looks around the bakery as if searching for the cause of his irritation, but found nothing and no one besides Allie.

“I have to go meet the brides on the other side of town,” he spat through his teeth, like that was a death sentence.

“I thought they were supposed to come here,” Allie offered pointlessly.

“They were, but—you know what, I don’t even want to get into that. I need to have words with my sister,” he muttered.

She had learned this morning about the upcoming wedding of Harper and Tina, who were apparently close friends of Dominic’s sister. Allie loved weddings, and as an official employee of Dom’s Sweets—as official as one could get—she was excited to cater this event.

It came as no surprise that her grumpy boss displayed zero feelings about this wedding. And now, it seemed he either hated leaving the bakery during open hours, or moving meeting places without enough notice, or both. Most likely both.

“I’ll cover the bakery while you’re away,” Allie offered with confidence. Everything on the menu for the day was in stock, the lunch hour rush was almost over, and she was ready to take charge if it meant Dominic could go to the meeting without worrying about things here.

He crossed his arms over his chest and assessed her with those shining green eyes, narrowing them slightly.

Allie saw the wheels spinning in his head, going through various scenarios of her being here alone.

She waited patiently, willing some confidence into her pose, and glanced at his tense arms only once.

Twice.

“I guess I don’t have another choice.” He deflated, letting his arms hang and hissing at the sudden movement. It seemed like the pain in his shoulder wasn’t completely gone. Dominic checked his watch and mumbled something to himself. “I have to leave now to make it in time.”

“Okay.” Allie nodded.

“There’s a flour delivery coming in about twenty minutes. It’s already paid for. If you’re busy when it gets here, tell John to leave it on a table.”

“Got it.”

Dominic looked her over, as if reconsidering his plans, but he ended up picking up the car keys and heading out of the bakery.

Allie spent some time wiping tables and rearranging the goods in the display case.

She noticed one too many lemon-flavored macarons lying on the tray in the kitchen and popped one into her mouth.

A few customers came and went, all of them pinning her with hostile looks in exchange for their orders.

But she smiled and served them, understanding that their prejudice was based on what Mia had mentioned.

She liked Mia. The Archivist had been the only person to treat her with kindness. Allie didn’t dare hope to make friends, but she would like to spend more time with Mia while she was in Sycamore Falls. Could she ask her to have tea or coffee together?

Hm.

After twenty minutes on the dot, a middle-aged man with thick, round glasses and a red puffer jacket entered the bakery with a box in his arms. Allie had three customers in line then, so she followed her boss’s orders.

“Hello! Please leave the box on the table there.” She pointed to the one closest to the window. The man nodded and did just that, then bid her goodbye and walked out.

See? She got this. She could cover for her boss for a couple of hours whenever he needed. Her pride inflated to the size of a hot air balloon.

When the last customer left, Allie wiped her hands on her apron and went around the counter to pick up the box and take it to the storage room.

The box moved.

Allie stopped in her tracks, gluing her eyes to the package to check if she had hallucinations. She really should spend her nights sleeping rather than overthinking magic practice.

The box moved again.

Right then, the bell at the door rang, and a young man with bright brown eyes and a clean shave came in, a box in his hands.

“Hi there,” he said in a chirpy voice. “I’m John, I’m looking for Dominic.”

“The…flour delivery?” Allie asked, feeling her heart climb into her throat. The boy nodded. “I’ll take that, thanks.” He placed the package in Allie’s hands and left quietly.

Allie dropped it on the nearest table and turned to the moving box. It shook again, and a chittering sound came from it. She hurried to it and opened the lid without checking the label, thinking there was something in there looking for air.

A creature jumped on her, claws and wings digging into her sweater.

“Whoa, whoa.” She grasped the thing with both hands around its belly and brought it to eye level.

A purple baby dragon stared back at her with wide, curious eyes.

“Hello.” She hadn’t seen one in so many years, since the time her mom took her to see street performers in a bigger village close to Pearls Fields. The dragon fluttered its tiny wings in response, not fighting to get away from Allie’s grip.

“Let’s see who you are.” Allie wanted to put the baby dragon back inside the box to check the label, but as soon as she set it down, it flew up and perched on her shoulder. The dragon was the size of a cantaloupe, so it couldn’t have been older than ten years.

Allie fumbled with the box and found a paper inside. She took it out to read it and noticed the dragon leaned forward, as if wanting to read it too. The document had just a few details about its…contents.

Name: -

Age: 7 years

Type: Male

Breed: Tree dragon

Color: Purple

Diet: Fruits, vegetables, seeds, leaves

Notes: Rejected by its kind. Cannot spit fire.

“How come you don’t have a name?” Allie asked, frowning at the paper. How did it—he—end up here? No way Dominic had just, what? Adopted him? Allie scoffed, and her eyes fell on the last line again.

Cannot spit fire.

“You and me both,” she whispered. A strong feeling of pity blossomed in her chest, but she reigned it in. Allie hated being pitied for her shortcomings. Why wouldn’t the dragon feel the same way?

She took the dragon back to her room after popping by the kitchen and slicing an apple and a banana. The creature wanted to fly around and inspect his surroundings, but Allie warned him that would only land him back in the box. He deflated but stayed quietly on her shoulder.

She put the plate of fruits on her desk, and the dragon flew over and sat next to it. He looked between Allie and the plate with large, hopeful eyes.

“You can eat everything on the plate,” she chuckled.

“Just don’t ruin anything around the room, okay?

” To her surprise, the dragon nodded. So he could understand her.

Interesting. “I should give you a name. Everyone should have a name,” she muttered.

The creature watched her expectantly, her wish to name him echoing in his beady, dark eyes.

Echo… “How about Ekko?” The dragon’s eyes sparkled, and he flew up and around Allie, briefly brushing her cheek with his wings. “Ekko it is.” She laughed.

Allie went back to the bakery, hoping her new friend would not ruin anything while left alone. Ekko was too tiny to do much damage, but his claws were sharp enough.

She took the box full of flour bags to the storage room and spent the next two hours serving, packaging, and cleaning.

Mercifully, no noise came from her room, and she could only hope Ekko was behaving.

She didn’t know much about dragons, only that some of them were friendly, and some enjoyed human company.

But what about her boss? Allie doubted he would welcome the presence of a mystical creature under his roof. She hoped he would allow her to keep Ekko for a few days until she figured out what to do with him.

The door swung open as Dominic came inside.

The bun she’d tied for him had loosened a bit, wild strands of hair framing his face.

Allie suspected he wasn’t going to let her near him again anytime soon by the way he had stiffened like a board on that chair.

But she could not not help him, or force him to accept her help, even with the risk of making him more testy than usual.

“How did the meeting go?” Allie jumped into the conversation, pointlessly prolonging when she’d tell her boss she was hiding a baby dragon in her room.

“We need more of everything,” he grumbled.

“And how is your shoulder?”

Dominic narrowed his emerald eyes at her. “Fine. What’s wrong?”

The man wasted no time.

“Everything is fine,” Allie said, clasping her hands behind her back. “Except…”

Dominic tensed, his back going ramrod straight. He stopped by the counter and raised his brows, bracing his hands on the edge. Allie chuckled awkwardly, considering how to go about the unusual news.

“Except?” Dominic demanded.

“We got two deliveries today.” He frowned, jerking his head back. “I put the flour box in the storage room,” Allie went on slowly, as if she was approaching a freezing lake and was about to jump into it headfirst. Naked.

“What was the other delivery?” he asked in that low, thick, alarmingly calm voice.

Allie gave him a big smile, wanting to say this casually, like it was just two boxes of flour instead of one.

Except it wasn’t.

“A baby dragon?” She shrugged.

“A baby dragon,” Dom parroted the words Alecsandra had uttered. “You let a fire-spitting creature inside the bakery?” The Witch winced, and the weight of his words hit him in his idiot head. “I didn’t mean—”

“He can’t spit fire,” she interrupted him with unexpected force. “It says so on the document.” She glanced at something behind him: an empty box on the table by the door.

Dominic crossed the distance in long strides and grabbed the open box, putting the lid together. He read the address and—

“This says 73 Mable Street.” Alecsandra was right behind him, reading the label with a lot of interest for someone who was supposed to know what it said.

Dom didn’t feel like he needed to voice that the bakery was on 73 Maple Street.

“It’s also addressed to the Mystical Creatures Institute.

” A puff of air that could have been a sigh or a chuckle tickled his ear.

“I didn’t exactly read the label,” she declared. Dom set the box on the table and turned to fully face her.

“What?”

“The box was moving as if there was something inside it, and I guessed it could be something alive, and I was scared it wasn’t getting enough air, so I just went and opened the box, and then the dragon jumped on me and I didn’t get to read the label and—”

“Whoa.” Dom put his hands up. Her eyes were wide, her breathing labored from the intense speech she sputtered. She bit her lip and fixed him with expectant brown eyes. Waiting for him to say something. Anything.

Dom didn’t know what to say. Honest to the gods, he had no idea what he would have done if he had received a moving box. Well, he would have at least checked the label. But he wasn’t heartless, or so he liked to think. Unpleasant, grumpy, and easily inconvenienced, sure. But not heartless.

And it was impossible to blame the beautiful Witch when she licked her dry lips before speaking again.

“Please let me keep him for a few days,” she sputtered. A boy? “I’ll go to the Institute and ask them about him. I promise Ekko will not bother you once.”

“You named him?” Somehow, Dom found this was the most natural outcome, and he had to fight the smirk that tried to crawl on his face.

“Everyone should have a name.” Alecsandra said this with so much poise and conviction that he was embarrassed he’d asked. He took in her determination, the soft pink flush under her freckled cheeks, and the lock of hair that had broken free from her bun and hung by her ear.

“Keep him for a few days,” Dominic agreed on a long breath.

What else would this woman convince him to agree to? He was afraid of that answer.

Then again, what was one more fire hazard under his roof?