Baked with Love

by Erin Wright

  Except Grandma, and I’m not touching that bucket of worms with a ten-foot pole—

  “Why doesn’t your grandmother like me?” Cady asked as a few more leaves twirled down from the maples lining the street. “I swear I didn’t do anything to her, but…”

  She drew in a breath and continued on before Gage could say anything. Could think of what to say.

  “And don’t tell me that it’s all in my imagination. She hasn’t liked me from the word ‘go.’ She was shooting me frosty looks at Emma and Sugar’s birthday party back in April! Your grandfather seems all right – at least, he hasn’t said much – but your grandmother…makes me think that there’s something to multiple lives after all, because I sure as hell didn’t do anything to your grandmother in this life. I must’ve pissed her off in the last one.”

  Gage let out a belly laugh at that, surprising Creamy into stopping her attack of the leaf that had had the temerity of swirling and twirling through the air to land on Cream Puffs’ back. Staring up at Gage for a moment, Cream Puffs debated whether this noise had anything to do with the possibility of getting a treat or pettings or a belly rub, and finally, deciding that it did not, went back to tearing the deserving leaf into shreds.

  Gage stopped walking, pulling Cady to a stop next to him, giving the time necessary to Creamy to decimate her opponent that was somehow staying defiantly in one piece despite the tiny puppy’s best ferocious attempts.

  “So, I think I mentioned that my dad was in the Marine Corps for twenty years, right?” Deciding that if he was going to stand still, he might as well be holding Cady by more than just the hand, he pulled her into his arms, feeling her melt against him, bending over to bury his nose in her curls and breathe in deep. Her hair somehow smelled just like what he imagined sunshine would smell like, if such a thing could have a smell.

  She nodded yes against his chest, and so he continued, forcing his lust-addled brain to string words together.

  “My grandmother was pissed about it, to put it lightly. My father has two siblings – my uncle Dean and my aunt Patricia – but Dad was the oldest and he was supposed to be the one to take over the Dyer Bakery. He’d spent his whole childhood in that bakery, though, and had just wanted the hell out of Long Valley. He saw the Marines as his one-way ticket out of town. He was leaving, and he was never coming back. My mom was his high school sweetheart but a year behind him in school, so he waited around until she graduated and then they left Sawyer together on graduation night.”

  Creamy started pulling at her leash and Gage looked over and realized that she’d given up on her plans to destroy the leaf and instead had started back down the sidewalk without them.

  “You’re killing me, smalls,” he told the puppy but still, he pulled back, letting his arms fall away from their natural position around Cady’s tiny waist and instead snagged her left hand in his. If he couldn’t hold her against his body, he would at least hold her hand. They began to wander up the street again, stopping every couple of feet or so, so Cream Puffs could attack another one of her enemies.

  “She’s going to be ready for a nice long nap when we get back to your parents’ house,” Cady said with a laugh as they watched Cream Puffs dive into a small pile of leaves, biting and snapping as she rolled in circles.

  “Good thing we have such a fierce protector on our hands,” Gage agreed dryly. “She’s going to be sawing logs here in a minute. Anyway, my grandma…she didn’t want to admit that maybe her obsession with the bakery and the long days every kid had spent in it had just perhaps caused problems, and instead decided that my father joined the Marines because my mother pushed him to do it. Her reasoning went something like, ‘He didn’t join until Donelle graduated from high school, therefore it is Donelle’s fault he joined.’”

  Cady opened her mouth to object – to point out the obvious flaws in that argument – and Gage held up a hand to stop her.

  “You don’t have to tell me she had it wrong. I saw it with my own eyes. My father just doesn’t like to bake. It completely skipped his generation – him, Uncle Dean, and Aunt Patricia all detest being in the kitchen. You can’t pay them enough to spend their days slaving over a hot stove. But me? I’ve loved it since I was old enough to walk. I was the kid who made my own treats to bring to the bake sale at school. I was the kid who made my own cookies for my own after-school snack. There are some pictures of me when I was like three or four in frilly aprons of my mom’s that she’d tied onto me…I tripped over the hem one time and split open my lip.” He stopped and lifted Cady’s finger to the tiny hairline scar that ran along the top of his lip. He kissed the tip of her finger and then forced himself to start walking down the street again before he made an utter fool of himself. “My mom made me kid-sized aprons to use after that. I was into GI Joes as a kid – after all, my dad was in the Marines, right? So I had to love military stuff too, obviously – and so I had probably the only GI Joe apron in existence. I wore that thing until it fell apart.”

  They followed the curve of a cul-de-sac that led them, inexorably, back in the direction of his parents’ house. Cream Puffs, perhaps realizing that her walk was heading towards finished territory, finally decided to get on with it and squatted in a bright green clump of grass. They stopped and waited patiently for her to finish, Gage more than happy to let the dog take all the time in the world that she needed.

  “Although I now really, really want to see pictures of you in frilly aprons with flour all over your face,” Cady said with a teasing grin, “what does any of this have to do with your grandmother not liking me? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t there for any of this.”

  “Yeah, but you’re a girl in case you didn’t notice,” Gage said wryly, “and the last time the apple of Grandma’s eye fell in love with a girl, she lost him to the military and she didn’t get to see much of him or of us grandkids for the next twenty years. It didn’t matter that we were coming back here for most major holidays and every summer; we still didn’t live here. And maybe my dad moved back here after he got out of the service, but that doesn’t make up for the time lost. At least, not in my grandmother’s eyes.”

  “So, she’s afraid that you’ll fall madly in love with me and that’ll cause you to join the military?” Cady asked, wide-eyed.

  Gage let out a frustrated sigh and tugged his hand away from Cady’s to run it through his hair. “I know it sounds a little nuts. And to be fair to my grandmother, I don’t think she worries about me joining the military. I’ve bought the bakery. I’ve been running it for four years now. I’m 30 years old, which is a bit long in the tooth to be a new recruit. So, it’s not that.”

  Creamy began kicking her back legs as hard as she could, intent on covering up the tiny brown pile on the grass, but Gage pulled a poo bag out of his pocket instead and scooped the shit up inside of it, twisting and tying it closed.

  “Ready to go back?” he asked the tiny pup, but she was already at the end of her leash, straining to smell a nearby fire hydrant. They moved a little closer so Creamy could smell it and pee all over it without choking herself to death in the process.

  “She’s just…” Gage started again, and then sighed. How did he make his grandmother appear to be the loving, caring woman that he knew her to be, while also admitting that she had faults just like everyone else?

  “It made her really possessive, you know? She isn’t this way about Emma or Chris – just me. She’ll eventually get over it; she and my mom get along great now, even though they didn’t speak to each other for years. My grandma said some pretty nasty things about my mom to my father, and he didn’t come visit them for the longest time. Wouldn’t bring us grandkids home either. Finally, for the first and probably last time in her life, my grandmother apologized. Things started to get better after that. We began coming back to Long Valley for short visits when I was in elementary school; they became longer as I got older. My mother and grandmother became thick as thieves, and my mother started bringing us back to Idaho even when my d
ad didn’t have any leave he could take. When they were fresh out of high school, they’d sworn that they’d never come back to this one-horse town, and now look at ‘em – living here. On purpose.” He chuckled a little at the irony, and then looked up to realize how close they were getting to his parents’ house.

  He slowed his pace to a crawl, not willing to give up the singular company of Cady just yet.

  “With my grandmother, just…be polite, don’t rise to her baiting, and wait her out. She’s at least proven that she will eventually ‘get over herself’ and stop treating people like crap if given enough time. She simply takes a while. My mom, on the other hand, will love a person straight out of the gate. She’s never met a stranger in her life. Until you prove to her that you’re a jackass and not worth a bucket of warm spit, she’ll be as friendly and kind as can be. But if you ever piss her off…boy howdy. Watch out. My grandmother will ice you out if she’s angry; my mom will scream you out. Just duck and cover because things are probably going to go flying through the air when my mom’s mad. Thankfully, she doesn’t lose her temper now like she used to. In fact, I wish she’d lose her temper a little more with Chris, honestly. I don’t miss the screaming fests, but she lets him walk all over her and Dad. He gets away with shit I could never have even dreamt about.”

  Cady tugged him to a stop at the head of the sidewalk that meandered up to the front door, lined with the orange and red and gold of mums and marigolds.

  “Now that I’ve met this no good, terrible younger brother of yours, I have to say, I don’t know why you hate him so much,” Cady said bluntly. “He didn’t seem half bad at dinner. Volunteering at the fire department? Helping out at the farmer’s market? Not hardly the actions of a teenage delinquent.”

  Gage opened up his mouth to tell Cady exactly why it was that Chris “volunteered” at the fire department and farmer’s market when Emma opened the front door. “There you two lovebirds are!” she called out. “I’ve been waiting for you to come back. Cady, if I’m going to go over things at the store with you, we better get on it. I need to get going for Denver soon.”

  “Where’s Sugar?” Cady asked.

  “Went home. Said Jaxson was probably in desperate need of help by now with Rose. He still doesn’t like changing diapers.”

  “I don’t think that’s an activity that becomes more pleasurable as time goes by,” Gage muttered under his breath, and then, “Do you want me to come with you guys?” He was holding tight to the leash for Cream Puffs as she did her best to lunge towards Emma, clearly dead set on loving his sister – ie, lick her from head to toe. Realizing he was still holding onto the used baggie, he opened the trash can on the curb, ready for pickup the next morning, and tossed it in. Speaking of poop…

  “I can stay out of it or I can come,” he told Cady, keeping his voice studiously neutral. He didn’t want to butt in where he wasn’t wanted. “I’m good either way.”

  “I’d love to have you there,” Cady said firmly. “After all, how are you supposed to know what your jobs are if you’re not there to see what Emma thinks needs to be done?”

  “Oh, my jobs, eh?” he said with a teasing laugh, and then leaned down and whispered, “And how, exactly, do you plan on paying me for all of my hard work?” He was a puff of breath away from her, wanting nothing more than to make her want him as much as he wanted her, and was rewarded with a sigh and a flick of a pink tongue across pink lips.

  Pink, he decided just then, was his very favorite color.

  “Well, I can’t,” she whispered breathlessly, “pay…uhhh…much, but…” She trailed off, apparently incapable of speech, her eyes drifting closed as she moved up on tiptoe, that delicious pink mouth finally coming into contact with his and his heart stopped and soared and the world flashed by and nothing existed, nothing at all except for Cady, her tiny, warm body snuggled up against him, every delicious curve on her pressing—

  It was the wolf whistle that finally got through to him.

  He pulled back, bleary-eyed, staring around him, trying to remember who he was and where he was and—

  “If you two are done mauling each other in public,” Emma said loudly, as if talking to a very deaf and very slow old man, “we really do need to get going. I have to leave for Denver in 45 minutes if I’m going to make it home at a decent hour.”

  “Emma, I do hate you,” Gage said mildly, cupping Cady under the elbow and steering her towards the passenger side of his truck. “When you finally find a guy worth a hill of beans and bring him home, I plan on making your life miserable. Just so you know.”

  “As any good older brother would,” Emma said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Any less, and I would think you’d taken ill and would need to go see a doctor. See you over there?” she tossed over her shoulder, heading for her car. “Oh, whoops,” she muttered, doubling back and sticking her head through the front door. “Bye, Mom! See you guys later!” She pulled the door shut and headed for her car again. “See you over there?” she asked rhetorically, and pulled her driver’s side door shut.

  Cady had settled into the passenger seat, her eyes still glassy with lust as she snuggled Cream Puffs onto her lap. Her swollen lips, her mussed hair…Gage had never seen such a delicious sight in all his life. Out of all of the tasty desserts that he’d made, he’d never wanted to eat anything as much as he wanted to nibble up one side of Cady and down the other in that moment.

  Cursing his sister under his breath, he slammed the passenger side door closed and stalked around to the driver’s side. A part of him wanted to just drive Cady to his house, his sister be damned – a very large, very hard part of him – but he wouldn’t put it past his sister to drive to his house and knock on his door if he didn’t follow her to the shop.

  A living hell. I’m going to make her life a living hell when she finds a boyfriend. Please, dear God, let it be soon. I’d really, really like to exact revenge already.

  Tomorrow would work fine for me, God. In case you were curious.

  Chapter 20

  Cady

  Cady’s head was spinning as she looked at the frantic notes and ideas she’d scribbled as Emma had talked, their pace frenetic as they’d tried to get through everything as quickly as possible. She was sure they’d missed some things. Probably a whole lot of things, actually, but Emma had been firm about her deadline and had left with a promise to make it back to Sawyer “soon” to go over things again if Cady felt like she needed the help.

  Cady was very, very sure she would. How had it not occurred to her that she would need the shop to be wheelchair accessible? Somehow, this oh-so-obvious thought had completely passed her by. This totally changed the layout of the shelving that she’d put together before, and—

  “It’s going to be fine,” Gage said soothingly, plucking the scribbled-on paper out of her hand and tossing it onto the counter next to them, pulling her up against him. “You came into this smart, with a nice, big cushion. You can make the changes you need to. It’ll take a little longer, but I promise to help every step of the way.”

  She snuggled against his broad chest, feeling his muscular arms around her with the strength of two men contained in them. Instead of terrifying her like it would have a year ago, his muscles were comforting instead. He could carry the whole world on these shoulders.

  She felt like he was carrying hers, at least.

  She didn’t like to be needy; she wanted to do it all on her own, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know enough; she wasn’t strong enough; she wasn’t well-versed enough in the law and building techniques and who to hire and—

  “I’m damn proud of you, you know,” Gage said softly, rubbing her back in small circles, going up and down her back, stroking the stress of it away. Cady snorted in disbelief, but Gage continued on as if he hadn’t heard her. “Between Jackass the Football Player and then your parents…these are the kinds of things that by themselves would ruin a person’s life, let alone both of them happening to you. Yet here you are, wor
king so damn hard to make a go of the Smoothie Queen, instead of pulling in on yourself and hiding from the world. Speaking of all that…therapy. How do you feel like that’s going?”

  “Really well, actually,” she said honestly. The prideful part of her wanted to hide the truth – that he’d been right, that she had needed the help – but she swallowed that pride. He deserved to know what a difference it’d made. “The Wellbutrin’s been helping, too. I feel more stable, less…likely to fall apart at any moment, I guess. I used to feel like I was only just barely hanging onto the edges of my life, trying to stitch it together, trying to keep my life from flying to pieces. It’s more manageable now. Life. You know? But it isn’t just Dr. Wethersmith and the Wellbutrin. It’s…you.” She pulled back just a little to crane her neck and see up past the square jaw and into the handsome face of Gage Dyer. “You’re so solid, so stable. You’re here, always. I don’t know what I’d do without you—”

  “Then let’s never find out,” Gage broke in, but instead of kissing her like she’d thought – all right, hoped – he would, he stroked back an errant strand of hair, pressed a kiss to her forehead, and pulled away. She watched, stunned – a kiss to the forehead? Did he see her like he would view an elderly aunt?! – as he scooped up the discarded leash from the top of the counter and snapped it onto Cream Puffs’ collar, waking her from what appeared to be quite the dream. She slowly blinked awake, staring up at Gage in confusion, but he still didn’t share his plan with the dog or Cady.

  “C’mon, Creamsicle,” Gage said, tugging lightly on the leash. The puppy sprang to her feet, finally awake enough to realize that she was about to go outside again, making this a most auspicious day.

  “Creamsicle?” Cady repeated with a laugh as she knew he’d intended, watching as he walked back towards her, scooping up her purse and list off the counter as he went, stuffing the list inside of the purse. “Cream Puffs isn’t going to know what her real name is if you call her—”