Page 7 of The Baby Dragon Bakery (The Baby Dragon #2)

Genevieve was looking for someone who was her match, someone who challenged her.

She was such an exceptional woman that it was hard to find such a person, but she didn’t seem bothered by such tediousness.

Whereas Lavinia was downright exhausted by all the failed romances of her life—the way hope and excitement always slowly but surely gave way to rejection and heartbreak.

She would rise from the ashes like a phoenix, ready to start again, and now she was getting tired of it.

She didn’t know how much more she could take, and she was running out of time. She had three months before her deadline. If she didn’t find love by the winter, she never would.

Which reminded her of last night with Theo. Pain sliced through her.

She was fine, she reminded herself. She was always fine, even if it hurt. She kept her chin up and kept hoping—even if she was afraid that one day she would get knocked down and she wouldn’t have the strength to pick herself up again.

Lavinia didn’t believe she was that picky. She just wanted someone to genuinely like her. Was that so hard? Was it?

Apparently, yes.

She had dated or liked many guys, and it always ended up the same: with her either dumped or rejected.

The confounding part of it was that guys always liked her in the beginning—she was a likable person!

—but then, once the novelty wore off, they got tired of her.

There was something about her that made her easy to like but not enough to commit to.

With a sigh, Lavinia took a bite out of the sandwich Calahan had brought her. Genevieve watched, dark eyes intense.

“This tastes really good,” Lavinia admitted. There was nothing bread couldn’t remedy.

“And it doesn’t even have any tomatoes in it,” Genevieve pointed out, brows raised. “You hate raw tomatoes.”

Lavinia narrowed her eyes at Ginny. She usually brushed her friend off about Calahan, but today the gears in her mind were turning a little bit. Maybe it was time to pay attention.

Especially since she was on a time crunch. For the past few months, she hadn’t even worried about such a thing. Because she had feelings for Theo, and thought he might feel the same, there had been nothing to fret over. She believed she already had her person.

But now, she most evidently did not have her own person.

Which meant she needed to find love more proactively.

Her gaze strayed over to Calahan, to where he was reaching up into a nook to pet an opala baby dragon. The white-scaled creature cooed, leaning into Calahan’s touch. Gorgeous, kind, attentive, good with animals . . .

Now that she had resolved not to think about Theo, she realized what a great catch Calahan was.

“The gears are turning,” Lavinia told her friend. Genevieve gave her a triumphant smile.

They continued talking, but eventually Genevieve realized no studying was going to be done as long as she was in the cafe with Lavinia, so she finished up her coffee and headed off. Left alone to continue her work, Lavinia began paying closer attention to Calahan.

The way he popped over every little while to check in on her, to ask her if she needed any help, and the easy smiles he offered her. She was beginning to see him in a new light.

Of course, it helped that he was incredibly handsome. He had that bookish look going for him, eyes behind thin-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a sweater vest, for god’s sake!

And he was clever, she knew that already. He was also uncomplicated. Most importantly, it did seem as if he liked her—arguably, the most important thing.

Hmm .

Later in the day, things slowed down quite a bit. The cafe was less busy, just a few tables of seated patrons. A peaceful hum settled over the Baby Dragon, and even the usually mischievous dragons were relaxed, comfortable in the arms of their owners or asleep in little beds.

There were no orders to be made, nothing to do. Lavinia drummed her fingers against the bar, contemplating a fourth coffee just to have something warm to hold and sip on, but she knew she would be bouncing off the walls if she had more caffeine.

Then, Calahan came up to her at the bar, working around her as he took out a mug and tea bag.

“What are you having?” Lavinia asked, turning to face him. He showed the tea bag label: jasmine green tea. “Oooh. Is it good? I’ve never had it.”

“I like it,” he replied, pouring boiling water over the tea bag in his mug. He set it aside, letting it steep. “I try not to have too much caffeine on the weekend since I already have way too much during the week.”

How responsible of him. She also had way too much caffeine during the week, but that didn’t stop her on the weekend. The way she saw it, she deserved a treat for making it through the week, and flavored lattes were the perfect fit.

“I doubt you’re having as much as your students,” she replied. Since there was nothing to do at the moment, it was fine to have a little chat.

“Probably not,” he said, dimples making an appearance in his cheeks. He tossed the tea bag then added honey into his mug. Another responsible choice.

“How’s the old PhD going?” she asked as he stirred the spoon. He was studying Folklore and Mythology, and had been for as long as she’d known him. “How many years do you have left, anyway? I feel like you’ve been doing that forever.”

He took a sip of his tea. “Trust me, it feels like that to me, too.” He smiled. “I have another two years, then I’ll be free.”

“Will you though?” she asked, tone teasing. “Aren’t you going to be a professor?”

“That is the plan, which, yes, fair point, then I won’t be free.” He laughed. “I’ll be teaching more classes and grading even more papers.”

He didn’t seem to be stressed by the prospect. Actually, she realized that she never saw him tense or burdened. He had a serene energy, and being around him made Lavinia feel calm, as well.

Maybe that could be good for her. She could be hyper and too loud. Maybe it was time to find someone mature and steady—to grow up and stop believing in fairy tales.

(It was just so hard not to believe when she saw the evidence of storybook romance right in front of her! Most recently, in Saphira and Aiden, but originally, in her parents. But perhaps love like that was rare—not meant for her.)

“I’m already a teacher’s assistant in a few lectures this semester, and I thought the workload would be tedious, but actually I’m really enjoying it,” Calahan continued.

“I know a lot of students these days are lazy and don’t really care about what the professor’s teaching—a lot of them really only take the class to cover a general credit—but then there are some students who are passionate, who are interested, and they ask such good questions.

It’s just nice that the love for learning isn’t entirely dead.

” He stopped, a little sheepish. “Sorry, went on a bit of a rant there.”

“No, it’s nice to hear you talk about it!”

“How’s your school going?” He pushed back his glasses. “You’re in your second year now, right?”

“Yup,” she replied, leaning against the counter.

“I also have two years left, but luckily this is my last didactic year, and then we begin rotations shadowing different vets for the last two years, which will be exciting. I’m lucky that I intern at the Animal Hospital, so I get to have some experience already. ”

“Do you know yet what you want to specialize in?” he asked, taking another sip of tea. “You get to choose an animal, right?”

“Yes, I can choose from dragons, chimeras, phoenixes, and griffins, or I can do pediatrics and cover all the species, which is what I primarily do at the Animal Hospital right now with Dr. Quan. I really like it! So for now, I’m thinking of that.”

Starshine Valley was large and divided into different sections: the dragons enjoyed the hills around the valley, while the chimeras preferred to be down by the lake; the griffins lived in the dense forests, and the phoenixes built their nests up high in the mountains.

Though each species had their own part of the valley, all baby animals came to the Animal Hospital on Main Street.

“That’s so great,” he said. “You’re gonna be amazing at it.”

“Aw, thank you.” Lavinia beamed. She really hoped she would be. She loved all animals, but the babies in particular held a special place in her heart.

A large part of that was thanks to Sparky—he was impossible not to love!

It was special, too, to see the way Saphira and Aiden had bonded with the baby, how the three of them were their own little family.

Lavinia knew how important the baby animals were to their owners, and it would be wonderful if she could help the animals who were ill and preserve that bond.

It was nice talking to him. She had, of course, talked to him loads of times before, but this was the first time she had noticed just how lovely it was. Were those butterflies fluttering in her stomach?

Then, she heard someone clear their throat, and she remembered they were in fact at work. She turned, and her eyes widened as she realized who it was.

“Theo!” She jolted. His wavy hair was tousled from the wind, curling against the nape of his neck above his flannel shirt. She hadn’t even noticed when he’d gotten there. Her heartbeat quickened, and she grew hyper-alert.

“Hey, Theo,” Calahan said, lifting his free hand in a wave.

“Hey.”

“See ya,” Calahan said, touching Lavinia’s elbow as he walked past her and headed back to the kitchen. Theo made a face.

“Everything okay?” she asked, confused.

He blinked. “Uh. Yeah.”

They both stood in silence then. It was awkward, painfully so, and she hated this. She needed to get over her feelings for him immediately ; there was no use holding onto the idea of them, an idea that would never happen.

Theo looked at her carefully, as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how.

Her thoughts spiraled to the worst, embarrassment making her skin heat.

He must have been considering how to let her down easily, and mortification shot through her at just the thought.

She did not think she would recover from such a confrontation.

Thoughts frantically jumped around her mind until an idea broke through, surely inspired by Genevieve and her chaotic advice. But there was no time to lose. Theo opened his mouth to speak.

“Theo, I need to tell you something,” Lavinia quickly said, nerves buzzing through her. His eyes went wide with surprise.

“What is it?” he asked.

Lavinia looked over her shoulder, though no one was around. Even so, she leaned over the counter. He did the same, until they were eye-level with one another, their faces inches apart.

She gazed up into his eyes, which were a perfect chocolate brown, framed by criminally long lashes. She inhaled the scent of dough from his skin, momentarily distracted. Her chest ached.

“I wanted to talk to you, too,” Theo said, his throat moving as he swallowed. His face was white and he looked . . . nervous. Anxious. She knew that look; it was the look he got before he had to bring up something uncomfortable.

He was going to bring up last night. He was going to reject her again.

She needed to take control of this situation, fast .

“I like Calahan,” she blurted out.

Theo’s mouth jutted open. He blinked. “Oh?”

“Yeah. I have for a bit now.” ( A bit being five minutes.) “And I don’t know what to do!”

He stood utterly still, unmoving. Slowly, his eyebrows furrowed, first with confusion, then with a deeper emotion as his lips turned down into a frown.

He looked upset.

Oh god. He was probably upset because she said she had liked Calahan for a bit and she was only telling him now. She always told him everything the moment it happened.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ears.

He moved back, snapping his mouth shut. He worked his jaw, eyebrows still crinkled. He was very quiet, and she could see his mind working as he processed this information.

Then, strangely, his hand went to his front pocket, as if to pull something out. She saw the imprint of his hand curl into a fist, but when he removed it from his pocket, his hand was empty.

Theo took a deep breath, a determined expression on his face. “So. What’s the plan?”

Now it was Lavinia’s turn to go quiet. Her eye twitched.

It was their usual line, whenever one of them liked someone in the past; they always helped the other figure out how to get together.

But it had been some time since Lavinia had liked someone and told Theo about it—she hadn’t realized that if she told him she liked Calahan, this would be his response.

But of course it would be. He was her best friend. She was so stupid! She hadn’t considered what a precarious situation this would become.

She felt like throwing up, but that might have been due to the three coffees she’d had today.

It was too late to turn back now.

And that was how Lavinia found herself enlisting the help of her best friend (who she had feelings for) to help her get with someone else (to get over aforementioned feelings).

Which wouldn’t be complicated. Or messy. And that wasn’t a bad idea.

Not at all.