Page 38 of The Baby Dragon Bakery (The Baby Dragon #2)

O n Monday at the Animal Hospital, Dr. Quan pulled Lavinia aside after a patient meeting. She had been out of it all morning, so unlike her usual self, and even Dr. Quan had noticed.

“Are you feeling well?” he asked, eyes concerned.

Where Lavinia would usually automatically reply with a reassuring smile and an “Of course!”, today she hesitated. Dr. Quan nodded, understanding.

“Why don’t you take it easy and do some paperwork in the office?” Dr. Quan suggested.

“Mhm.” Head hanging, she went to the office and spent the rest of the day doing little tasks until the day was over. Then, she went to class, and most of the week passed in a dull gray.

She barely replied to Theo’s messages—just enough that he wouldn’t worry and ask her what was wrong. She did not answer his calls. She couldn’t hear his voice.

This was all his fault, in a way, but she couldn’t even blame him entirely when she knew, mostly, the fault was all her own.

Love wasn’t meant for her. She wouldn’t have what her parents had. She wouldn’t get the grand romance she’d always dreamed of. And there was an acute grief with that realization, the loss of that hope.

She focused on school. After class on Friday, she was in the library studying when Theo texted her: I heard cal broke up with you, I’m sorry.

Who told you??? She sent the text just as she realized. Her mother.

Beena told me since you weren’t answering my calls.

Lavinia’s eye twitched; she needed to have a word with her mother. She texted back: It’s fine.

His response was immediate: Do you wanna hang out? Watch a movie? Should I bake you brownies? Anything I can do to make you happy?

Yes , she wanted to reply. You can fall in love with me. That will make me happy.

She didn’t respond. She couldn’t deal with him at the moment, she was too miserable.

But she couldn’t avoid Theo. The next day, while she was at work at the Baby Dragon, he came in, and her heart all but crashed at the sight of him. Lavinia stalked up to him, her chest hurting.

“Hey—” he started, but she cut him off.

“Can you go?” she asked. She couldn’t deal with him, not now and especially not in front of Calahan, who was in the kitchen at the moment.

Theo’s face wrinkled with confusion. “Lav, what . . .?”

“Please,” she said, voice low and defeated.

Theo swallowed. “Okay,” he said.

He turned around and left, but she knew that wouldn’t be the end of it. She would need to face him eventually, to tell him what was going on, but she had no idea how to, and she didn’t want to.

It hurt too much.

That evening after work, Lavinia was in the living room with Biter, throwing the baby dragon into the air and watching as her little red wings flapped before Lavinia caught her again.

The little draggo was significantly helping Lavinia’s mood—until she heard a car door shut outside.

She shot up, already knowing who it would be.

Heart beating fast, she ran to the front of the house, peeking out the window, and sure enough, it was Theo.

“Daddy, watch Biter!” Lavinia called, setting the baby dragon down. She sprinted up the stairs, going to Alfie’s room, where he was sitting on the floor, building a model airplane.

“I’m going to sleep,” she said, trying to sound normal. “Make sure no one wakes me up.”

Alfie didn’t look up. “’kay,” he said.

“Alf,” she repeated, tone warning. “I mean it.”

He gave her a weird look. “Okay, okay.”

“Thanks.”

Knocking sounded downstairs, and Lavinia hurried to her room, making it there just as Beena opened the front door.

Lavinia closed her bedroom door, getting into bed.

“Lavinia!” Beena called from downstairs, and Lavinia screwed her eyes shut. “Lavinia, Theo’s here!”

A few moments later, Lavinia heard someone coming up the stairs, and she tried to slow her breathing, to make it truly look like she was asleep. Alfie had better stop Theo from coming in; she was counting on him.

“Lavinia’s sleeping,” she heard Alfie say outside her bedroom door, and she mentally cheered for her little brother. “She said to make sure no one wakes her up.”

“I don’t think she meant me,” Theo replied. It was quiet.

Alfie knew that, for Lavinia, Theo was always the exception.

“Oh, yeah,” Alfie said. She heard him skip away. For god’s sake.

Light knocking sounded on her door. “Lavinia?” Theo’s voice. Under the blanket, Lavinia pressed a hand against her chest, curling into a ball against her extra pillows.

The door opened. “Lavinia,” Theo whispered. “Are you awake?”

Her heart pounded. She hoped he didn’t come any closer, or she was going to have a breakdown.

“Lavinia?” he asked again.

The room was silent.

He let out a long breath, then went, closing the door behind him, and she sighed. Her face broke, tears welling in her eyes, and she squeezed her eyes shut. The tears fell out, and Lavinia cried until she finally did fall asleep.

She woke up about an hour later to the noise of them eating dinner downstairs. She could hear that Theo was still here; he must have been waiting to see if she would wake up to eat, and now she had to skip dinner because she was avoiding him.

Lavinia groaned, reaching over to rummage through her side table drawer. She found some candy and half a granola bar, which she ate, throwing the wrappers onto the top of her side table.

It was another hour before Theo finally left, but by then she was too tired to go downstairs to find food, and she knew her parents would interrogate her about not waking up when Theo was here, so she stayed in bed, pouting. She should have brought Biter up here with her for company.

Lavinia fell back asleep, then woke up a few hours later to the sound of tapping. She thought at first that it might have been one of the tree branches bumping against the side of the house, but it was coming from a different direction than where the trees were.

She looked at her door, but the sound wasn’t coming from there either.

Then she realized. Her window.

She got out of bed, heart hammering. It was the middle of the night now, and she felt like she was hallucinating as she pushed aside her curtains to find Theo perched outside her window.

“Are you insane?” she hissed, sliding her window open.

But she couldn’t help the jolt of joy that ran through her to see him, which only made her angrier. Her stupid, stubborn heart, like a weed that kept growing no matter how many times she had pulled it out.

Theo was hanging off a ladder outside her window, dressed in a flannel shirt and dark jeans. His brown eyes were vivid.

Wind tousled his hair. A chill came in through the window, and she shivered in her pajama shorts and cropped sweatshirt.

“Let me in,” he said. Who was he, coming in here and ordering her about?

“And what if I don’t?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Hurt flashed over his face. “Why are you avoiding me?”

Lavinia wanted to pull her hair out. She groaned and moved aside. Theo slipped into her room, shutting the window behind him.

“Lavinia, talk to me,” he said. “What did I do? Why are you angry with me? Are you okay?”

The truth was she wasn’t okay; she hadn’t been since that first night, at Aiden and Saphira’s engagement party.

She had spent all this time burying her feelings for Theo, but they wouldn’t be buried. They were bursting out of her now.

She whirled on him, unable to bear it any longer.

“You’re my person!” she cried. “But you’ll never be what I want you to be. I’ll never be what you are to me.” The words ripped out of her, leaving her chest feeling hollow.

His eyes were wide. “I don’t understand,” he said. God, he could be so stupid .

“I’m in love with you!” she snapped. “Now go away!”