Sweet Dreams (The Bakery Romance Series Book 3)

by Cecelia Dowdy

“I’m twenty.”

  “You don’t have any roommates? You live here by yourself?”

  “I don’t do well living with other females.” This news was not surprising. Questions spilled into Misty’s mind. Was she close to her parents? Did she have siblings? She was curious about Latisha and figured if she wanted to know more about the girl, now was her chance. She highly doubted Latisha would be honest with her while in church, with her heavy makeup and short skirts, strutting around the sanctuary. But, Latisha volunteered at the soup kitchen, which showed that she at least cared for others. “Misty, while we were carrying in the groceries, I was thinking I could help you out. You know, since you helped me out with my car and everything.”

  This was surprising. “You can help me? How?”

  “Well, I noticed that you didn’t know how to cook at the soup kitchen. Don’t you think it’s time that you learned?”

  Chapter 24

  I can do this. I can do this. Misty focused on Adrian’s stove.

  Latisha sighed. “Misty, you can’t just stare at the stove. You have to turn on the burner.” The young woman chuckled, leaned against the kitchen wall. It still seemed weird, seeing Latisha dressed so modestly. Today she sported a denim skirt and a simple white t-shirt. Her hair was piled onto her head in a sloppy bun and tiny earrings winked from her ears. The bruise still scarred her cocoa-brown face. Misty figured it wouldn’t help for her to ask about the injury again.

  Misty swallowed, took a few steps closer to the stove, contemplating her day. She needed to think about something to get her mind off of cooking. Latisha had been absent from church that morning. No surprise about that. Misty figured that Latisha wouldn’t be coming to church since her car was in the shop, plus, she was sporting that huge bruise on her face. She figured the young woman wouldn’t want to draw attention to her injury. Hopefully, her cheek would be healed by Wednesday night, the night they were serving in the soup kitchen.

  Before she’d left Latisha’s house the previous day, they’d exchanged phone numbers. Latisha had taken the bus over to Adrian’s that afternoon. She said she’d help Misty to learn how to cook.

  Today was their first lesson.

  Misty didn’t know how she was going to manage to spend her Sunday afternoon cooking eggs.

  “Misty.” Latisha rolled her eyes, again pointed to the stove. “Turn the burner on.”

  Sweat popped on her brow. Goodness, it was hot and they hadn’t even turned the oven on yet. “Isn’t it a bit warm in here to you?”

  Latisha groaned. “No, it feels fine.”

  Misty wiped the sweat from her brow with her shaky hands. “I don’t know about this.”

  She could imagine the oven catching fire as soon as she turned on the burner. “What if there’s a gas leak or something?”

  Latisha chuckled. “Girl, stop tripping. You can’t have a gas leak if you’re using an electric stove.”

  Latisha was right. She took a few deep breaths. Lord help me. She reached over and placed her fingers on the knob. She turned it to the right. The soft ‘click’ of Adrian’s stove echoed in the kitchen. Adrian’s oven tended to click once when you turned on the burner.

  “See, that’s wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  Well, at least part of the battle had been fought. She breathed deeply, tried to find the courage to continue her chore.

  The theme song from Disney’s Frozen crooned from the living room. When she’d planned this cooking lesson, she’d wanted to make sure that Jennifer didn’t interrupt her. She’d left her in the living room watching her favorite movie. Adrian had gone out to lunch with some friends from church, so she had to keep Jennifer occupied on her own. She figured Jennifer would stay out of the kitchen for at least another hour.

  Latisha sighed. “Misty, you can’t just stand there.” Latisha placed an iron skillet over the burner. She then pressed a bottle of vegetable oil into Misty’s hands. “Open that. Pour some in the skillet.”

  “What if I pour too much oil?”

  “Just pour some in there.”

  Misty unscrewed the top and generously poured the oil into the pan.

  “Misty, that’s too much.”

  She snapped her head around. “I tried to tell you that.” How was she supposed to know how much oil to pour into the pan?

  “Don’t be tripping. Everything will be okay.” Latisha took charge and found a bowl and a potholder. She pressed both items into Misty’s shaking hands. “Just pour the extra oil into this bowl. Make sure you hold the skillet with that potholder. I know the handle of the skillet isn’t hot yet, but, we need to get you in the habit of using a potholder when necessary.”

  Lord, help me. Please make my anxiety go away. She placed the bowl onto the counter and grabbed the handle of the skillet using the pot holder. She poured all of the extra oil into the bowl and set the skillet back onto the burner.

  “Good.” Latisha’s voice had turned calm and soothing, almost as if she were speaking to a child. “Now, you did really well so far. You turned that burner on and you didn’t turn it up very high.”

  “What if I had turned it up too high?”

  Latisha shrugged. “It would’ve been okay. Don’t get so stressed.” Latisha handed her an egg and a clean bowl. “Break that egg into that bowl.”

  She cracked the egg and dumped it into the bowl. The egg’s shiny surface was littered with a few eggshells. “I got eggshells into my eggs.”

  “Don’t worry.” In seconds, Latisha had removed the shells. “Okay. Now break another egg into the bowl.”

  “Another one?” They weren’t making an entire meal.

  “Just do it.”

  Misty cracked another egg into the bowl. Miraculously, no shells got into the eggs.

  “Here, just beat the eggs with this fork. Once you’re done with that, just dump them into the skillet.”

  Misty slowly stirred the eggs with the fork.

  “Don’t stir it, beat it. Whip it up. Mix it really good.”

  She finally managed to mix the eggs, soon they were a nice yellow mass. Concentrating, she bit her lower lip. Latisha continued to give instructions. “Good. That’s enough. Now dump them into the skillet.”

  She followed Latisha’s orders. The sound of the eggs softly sizzling in the pan made her feel a bit better. Latisha pressed a spatula into her hands. “Just start pushing those eggs around.”

  She moved the eggs around in the skillet, mimicking what she’d seen Adrian and her sisters do numerous times. She couldn’t believe it, she was cooking eggs! She focused on her chore and minutes later, Latisha miraculously appeared next to her with a plate. “Now, go ahead and dump those eggs on this plate.” Using the spatula, she scooped the eggs out of the skillet and placed them onto the plate. Yes, they looked brown, overdone. They didn’t look as nice as Adrian’s eggs. But, she cooked these herself and for the first time that day, she smiled.

  “Mommy, those eggs smell good. Can I have some?” Jennifer appeared in the kitchen, grinning.

  *

  Two days in a row. Sterling scanned Adrian’s front yard as he popped his trunk open. He’d spotted Latisha going into Misty’s house while he’d gone for his afternoon run the previous day. As he removed his groceries from the car, he’d spotted her again, going into Misty’s home. It seemed kind of weird, the two of them getting together. He’d been shocked when Latisha had boldly called him, asking him if he knew what foods had been donated for the soup kitchen that week. Once he’d told her, she’d rang off with him, seemingly anxious to get off the phone.

  He continued thinking about the strange friendship, if you could call it that, while putting his groceries away. He left the tomatoes, ground beef and lasagna noodles on the counter. Louis was coming by for dinner and they were watching the game afterwards. He had just enough time to make the lasagna. Since he wouldn’t have time to make dessert, he’d brought a dozen chocolate chip cookies from the bakery.

  After he’d fished his herbs and spices fr
om the cupboard and had boiled the tomatoes for the sauce, he continued to dwell on what he’d learned over the last few days. He dumped the ground beef into the pan, the sizzle of the meat was like music to his ears. The previous day at church, he’d noticed Latisha was absent. Misty had told him that she’d helped Latisha get her car towed, and she probably wouldn’t get it back until Monday. She’d further explained that Latisha needed a friend and that she was determined to help her.

  He figured Latisha would need a kind, patient woman to help her. Misty was kind, but, she didn’t seem to be patient. He could imagine Misty losing her temper with Latisha. From his experience, Latisha did whatever she wanted without considering others’ feelings. He couldn’t imagine a friendship between those two ladies lasting for very long. Although Latisha had been attending church, he had to wonder how she stood with God. Was she attending their church because she was interested in hearing about God, or, was she merely on a man hunt?

  After church, he’d had a short conversation with Adrian while Misty had gone to fetch Jennifer from the nursery. She’d mentioned that Misty had taken Jennifer to a birthday party the previous day. She told about how Misty had met some parents who attended that fancy school while at the party. Good grief. Misty needed to wake up and face reality. He’d been mulling over Misty’s interest in that school for a while now. He honestly hoped that Jennifer was accepted into Juliette’s, but, if she didn’t get in, he’d hate to see what the news would do to Misty. He could imagine her being highly upset, sad, and emotional. He’d hate to see her like that.

  After layering his lasagna, he shoved it into the oven and set the timer. Soon, the delicious scent of tomato sauce and cheese filled his kitchen. He sniffed, relishing the wonderful odor. Curious, he pulled out his phone, and looked up Juliette’s website. He spent the next half hour looking through the entire site. The last page on the site stated the tuition. Holy moly! This was preschool, not college. Since when did schools start charging so much to teach kids basic things like colors and the alphabet? This school was taking advantage of the parents, that’s what they were doing. He guessed the parents didn’t see it that way, though. He knew some of them bragged about the fact that their kids were going to this prestigious preschool. But, Misty wasn’t one who was prone to brag. Why was she so desperate for her daughter to get in?

  Chapter 25

  This was their third cooking lesson. With Latisha’s help, Misty had managed to bake a pan of chicken thighs for dinner. They’d kept it simple, seasoning the meat with salt and pepper. Latisha has mentioned that she didn’t want to overwhelm Misty with too much information. The chicken had been tender and edible and Misty’s heart thudded with pride when she eyed the half-eaten pan of chicken.

  She’d actually cooked an entire meal and nobody had gotten sick. They’d rounded out the meal with bread and butter and cherry tomatoes. Latisha cut Jennifer’s cherry tomatoes into bite sized pieces. Misty still didn’t want to handle a knife and Latisha said they could work up to that later. For now, she was doing a great job.

  Jennifer had been put to bed and Adrian was in her bedroom. Misty sat with Latisha in the kitchen, enjoying a late-evening cup of coffee. It seemed strange and unexpected that after three days, she’d developed a cooking routine with Latisha. She still sensed the young girl craved friendship, but, was afraid of letting others see how vulnerable she really was. Misty felt somewhat comfortable asking Latisha a few questions about herself.

  “Latisha, do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  The girl blew air through her lips. “If you want to call it that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I got some brothers and sisters, but, we don’t see each other. We were split up when we were young. I was a foster kid. Been living on my own since I was eighteen.”

  Well, that explained a lot. “I was a foster kid, too, but, only for a couple of years.” She told Latisha about her mom’s drug addiction. “I’m glad she was able to clean her life up and get us back into her care.”

  Latisha nodded. “Thank goodness you didn’t have to stay in foster care as long as I did. I hated it.”

  “I hated it, too, the little bit if time I was stuck in that system.”

  Latisha studied her frosted nails, before looking at Misty. “Since you asked me a question, can I ask you one?”

  “Sure.”

  “Are you working in the soup kitchen just to be close to Sterling?”

  Whoa, she had not expected her to ask such a blunt question. Well, she needed to be honest with her. No way did she want the girl to think she was using the soup kitchen as an excuse to spend time with Sterling. “No.” She took a deep breath, told Latisha the same information she’d told Sterling during their ice cream date. She again mentioned her foster care years, her hunger, and her years of working in the Lehigh Acres’ soup kitchens. She then told of the battle of finding a soup kitchen in which to volunteer in Miami. She finally mentioned Juliette’s and the food service hours she needed to apply for the scholarship. “So, you see, I really want to do this. Sterling has nothing to do with it.”

  The young girl tilted her head, sipped her coffee. “But, you do like him, right?”

  Of course she liked him, but, she honestly didn’t think it was a good idea to tell Latisha something like that. The girl obviously had a crush on him. But, wait a minute, maybe Latisha really didn’t like Sterling. Misty had to wonder how well Latisha even knew Sterling. He seemed so easily annoyed with Latisha and Misty figured that the bruise on Latisha’s face had come from some kind of abuse. The girl probably had a boyfriend – a boyfriend she needed to get rid of quickly.

  She needed to be diplomatic about how to voice her thoughts. “I like working with him, but, right now, I don’t have time to date anybody. I’m thinking about going back to school and getting my bachelor’s degree. With taking care of Jennifer, going to work full time, and then church and soup kitchen duties, my life is full right now.”

  “Did you tell Sterling about wanting to get Jennifer into that school?”

  Misty rolled her eyes, recalling Sterling’s laughter when she’d told him about her dream of sending Jennifer to Juliette’s. “Unfortunately, yes. He laughed. He thought the whole idea was ridiculous. Even Adrian doesn’t seem to support my decision.”

  Latisha playfully slapped Misty’s shoulder, her face splitting into a huge grin. “Girl, don’t pay them any attention. You’re just thinking about your baby. You want what’s best for her. I can understand that. You go ahead and get your baby into that school. I think it’s nice that you want to do this.”

  Finally, somebody who actually supported her dream! Hearing Latisha’s words was like music to her ears. “Do you really feel that way?”

  “Heck yeah. If my momma thought about my future just half as much as you think about Jennifer’s, then my life wouldn’t be so messed up. You do what’s best for your baby, and don’t let nobody stop you from doing that.” She finished her words with a little nod. She then took a sip from her coffee cup. She set her cup down. “Oh, I almost forgot. I brought you something.” Latisha opened her big carryall and removed a paperback book. “I had this at my place. You can have it. I haven’t used it in a long time.”

  Misty accepted the book. It was a cookbook for beginners. She smiled. She wanted to pull Latisha into a hug, but sensed the girl didn’t want her getting physical. Latisha had scooted her chair away, her eyes turned toward the wall, as if she wanted to resist affection. Well, she’d just take a more conservative approach. She patted her hand, told her the truth. “This is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.”

  The girl raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

  She nodded. “Really.” Oh, what the heck. She pulled Latisha into her arms. The girl needed a good hug, even though she didn’t realize it.

  *

  Misty tried to catch Sterling’s eye while he opened the door to the soup kitchen. He held the door open for her, didn’t return her smile. “W
hat’s wrong?”

  He’d been quiet during the ride over to the soup kitchen. He seemed like he’d been mad, but, he couldn’t be mad at her, could he? During their commute to the soup kitchen, she’d told him all about the success she’d had at the birthday party. The party had been great! The parents had been friendly, eager to offer her advice about getting into Juliette’s. Jennifer had had an awesome time and their hostess had suggested they set up future times for play dates. Sterling had not shared her joy, and his lack of enthusiasm had bothered her. Couldn’t he be happy for her?

  She entered the soup kitchen. Sterling appeared to be thinking, as if he wanted to make sure he said the right thing. Latisha breezed into the soup kitchen behind Sterling, smiling. She still wore her short skirt and tight shirt, but, at least her makeup wasn’t so heavy. “Hi, Sterling.” She gave him a quick wink, but Sterling simply rolled his eyes, gestured toward the kitchen.

  “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’d better get started.”

  Misty had been eager to tell Sterling that in three evenings, Latisha had taught her how to cook! Granted, she couldn’t make everything, but, she’d be able to make the mac and cheese they were serving for tonight’s dinner. She put the noodles on to boil and removed the Velveeta cheese from the refrigerator. Sterling was in the back, chopping veggies for the salad. Latisha was slicing the loaves of fresh bread that Sterling had donated. Latisha sidled up to Misty. “What’s wrong with him?” she whispered.

  Misty shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he had an argument with his brother or something.”

  Latisha furrowed her brow. “An argument with his brother?”

  Misty shook her head. “Never mind.” She didn’t want Sterling to think she was blabbing his business.

  After their service shift was over, and they’d cleaned up, Sterling escorted Latisha to her car before he drove home. Misty sat in the front seat beside him. “Are you mad at me?”

  His mouth dropped open. “No.”

  “You’ve acted like you were mad the entire night.”