Page 24 of The Alpha and the Baker

If it was a serious conversation, it might have been a bit alarming, but I could tell the two were having great fun.

It was nice to have the banter as I went about getting their order ready.

Although I liked the quiet just fine, there was something special about having the shop so full of noise and life.

I knew if my mother was there, she’d be eavesdropping in the corner, absolutely tickled to death.

Eventually, I got them settled at one of my tables with their snacks and some tea, and they chatted quite a while. I didn’t mind, however, as it gave me time to finish cleaning up and then fully close the shop, so it was just the three of us.

“Those were just lovely,” Penny said, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with her napkin.

Another thing I’d always liked about midwestern country folk; they had a lot of sensibilities and habits of Southerners, but were a bit more relaxed about certain things.

At least, that was the impression I’d gotten with my limited exposure to Southern ladies.

“Now, about the baby shower. This is their first baby, and they’ve been trying for around three years, so we really wanna make this special. ”

“Yes, you see, we McCallisters are a fertile bunch”—Not exactly surprising news considering the sheer number of people I’d seen at their family reunion, but still kind of out-of-the-box to hear a country soccer mom say so blatantly—“so they thought it might not happen for them.”

“Their names are Wisdom and Charity. Crazy matchup with those names, right? They really have a storybook romance…”

And that was how I spent another twenty minutes being regaled with the lovely backstory of the parents-to-be. Maybe another time I’d be annoyed, but honestly, I was having too much of a good time enjoying the company to be bothered.

If I didn’t think about it too hard, it was almost like I was with two aunts of my own and gabbing about a cousin without a care in the world.

It wasn’t like me, but I was almost disappointed when the conversation turned back to business.

However, that vanished entirely once I started mentally calculating the price tag for the whole party.

While it was no six-hundred-dollar emergency-cake order, they decided on a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, two dozen dark chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry jam filling and a chocolate ganache frosting, three dozen cake pops—half cookies and cream, the other half strawberry—both dipped in white chocolate, but the latter half having that chocolate dyed pink. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.

As I printed out the contract, a knock sounded at the door. Confused, I left my computer to go to the front of the shop, only to see Penny letting a young girl in.

“Is this your daughter?” I asked, noticing the red hair and similarities in facial structure.

“Sure is,” Penny answered before returning her attention to the young girl. “What are you doing here, sweetie pie? I thought you, Declan, and Katarina were all going to the bookstore.”

“They were out of manga,” the young girl said matter-of-factly before looking at me. “You’re the cake lady!”

I didn’t know why, but for some reason that startled a laugh out of me. “Yeah, I guess you could call me that.”

“Saoirse, mind your manners. This is Felicia, and she’s going to help us with Wisdom and Charity’s baby shower.”

“You are?”

Maybe I was completely off base, but the young girl almost sounded disappointed about it. “Yeah, that’s the plan. We were just about to finalize things.”

“Oh…”

“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, Arietty was 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 the next thing 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.

My silver necklace.

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.

Maybe…

No.

I had to be taking crazy pills, because what I was thinking literally wasn’t real. Clearly, I’d read far too many of my mother’s paranormal romance books since she’d passed.

But still, maybe I needed to do a little research. After all, it never hurt to be informed.

To the internet!