by Piper Rayne
“Please, Cat. You’ll understand once I’m done.”
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Dane isn’t on my mind.
Progress. At last.
News got out quickly after the first mother and daughter duo stopped by after school and saw the small piñata cakes. A layer of chocolate or vanilla cake, domed in chocolate with sugary treats relieved once you break open the chocolate.
A line is beginning to form for the first time outside the bakery. Kids and adults wanting to get my latest creation.
“I need more.” Cat’s eyes bug out of her head, and Lily sneaks in taking a handful of hammers.
“Thanks for helping, Lily. I put a special one aside for you.” I eye the rainbow candy dome in the corner. She smiles and I’m sure it takes everything in her not to break it open.
“Thanks, Miss Ava.”
She disappears into the front of the store and I carefully place Skittles and chocolate gold coins on top of the cake, positioning the chocolate dome over the top of it.
In the corner of my vision, a head pops around the corner with a mop of messy hair and warm caramel eyes as warm and inviting as his dad’s green ones.
“Miss Ava?”
“Come on in, Toby.” I wave him over, stepping away to wash my hands.
“These cakes look awesome.” He eyes the trays lined with piñata cakes. The only baked good I’ve managed to make today.
“Thank you. Would you like one?” I ask, grabbing one from the tray and placing it on a plate.
“Ya, thanks.” His backpack is still swung over his shoulder.
“Did you just get back from school?” I hand him the small hammer.
“Yeah.”
“You can take the cake over to your dad’s work if you’d like.”
He shakes his head. “Are you coming to my game this weekend?”
My shoulders sag. I forgot about his championship game I said I’d go to. The thought of sitting on bleachers with Dane only a few feet away weighs in my stomach like an anchor.
“Of course. What time is it?” I plaster a fake smile on my face.
“It’s at noon.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
His smile only grows and I can suck it up with Dane for one afternoon for Toby’s sake.
“Now, smash that cake,” I say.
He grabs the hammer and his teeth bite down on his bottom lip. The first time he doesn’t crack the chocolate so he goes at it a little harder the second time and it cracks open with small baseball bubble gum spread out over top of the cake.
“Whoa!” he picks one up and pops it in his mouth. “Thanks, Miss Ava.” He climbs down from the stool, rushes over and hugs me.
My hand lands on his back. Toby doesn’t show me a ton of attention, but this hug feels so good, I’m not ready to let him go yet.
“Anytime. Maybe we can make one together some time.”
He steps back, his eyes wide. “Really? Even with my dad being a jackass?”
“Toby,” I sigh, crouching down to get eye level with him. “Where did you hear that?”
“My grandpa. He said my dad’s being a jackass because he let you go.”
I do my damndest to suppress the smile trying to curve my lips.
“Well, sometimes people just don’t work out. It’s not your dad’s fault and it’s not mine. We just aren’t a good fit.”
“But you’ll let me bake with you still?” His eyes hold so much hope that even if I didn’t intend to, I’d say yes anyway.
“You are welcome here anytime you want.” This time I initiate the hug and it might be my imagination but his arms are a little tighter around me.
It’s right now that I realize, I didn’t just fall for Dane, I fell for Toby, too, and what was left of my diseased heart shrivels up and dies.
26
Dane
“Miss Ava is here!” Toby runs out of the dugout, right into her arms.
Since when did those two get that close?
The clipboard is limp in my hands as she hugs him tight and then she kisses the top of his head. Toby smiles and runs back in the dug out while Ava takes a seat on the bleachers with a pink box in her hands, not even sparing me a glance.
“Dad, did you say hi to Miss Ava?” Toby says, grabbing my hand, beginning to pull me out of the dugout.
“Toby, I have to get the team ready.”
“Come on Dad, she made us something. I saw the pink box.”
Before I know it, I’m standing in front of her. The girl I’ve fallen asleep dreaming about and woken up with a hard-on for since the last time I saw her.
“Oh, hey Dane.” She sounds surprised and not at all affected as I am by being this near to her.
“Hey, thanks for coming.” I roll back on my heels. Toby’s head looking from her to me and back to her like he’s expecting something.
“What’s in the box?” Toby breaks the uncomfortable silence.
“Cookies. Baseball ones.” She opens the box, granting him a smile that used to make my chest feel light when she gave it to me.
Inside the box are baseball cookies for each boy with his name and number.
“Oh, awesome!” Toby reaches in, but Ava closes the lid before he can grab his.
“For after. A congratulations on the win.” She winks at him.
“We haven’t won. The Cardinals are a tough team. They have the home run hitter.”
“Oh, I don’t believe they’re better than you and the Giants.”
She crosses her legs and I notice her outfit for the first time. She’s in jeans and a hoodie and somehow looks as good as when she’d strut around in her bra and underwear in front of me.
“Well, we better get to warming up.” I place my hand on Toby’s shoulder, pulling him to my side. “Thanks for coming.”
Just when I’m about to walk away, Charlie climbs the bleachers and takes a seat next to Ava.
“Hey, Toby, you’re gonna to rock this game. Point to the fence before you bat.” She laughs and I shake my head.
“Way to make him look cocky and arrogant,” I remark.
She lifts the box. “Like father like son, right? Maybe he’ll die alone like his father will, too.”
Fucking A. Seriously, she’s going to hammer this shit she’s been spouting all week in front of Ava now?
Charlie leans over and looks in the box. “Baseball cookies. Does this mean we can go back to the Eat Me cookies instead of the broken heart ones?”
Ava scoffs. “Charlie.” She glances at me and her face flushes that beautiful pink color it would when I’d kiss her sometimes.
Charlie looks up to me. “Oh, sorry.” Although her apology sounds genuine, I can tell Ava is mortified.
Not sure why? This is Climax Cove and things get around this town. I’ve known about her piñata smash cakes, two halves of a heart cookies, and how she’s purposely declared the week, red free, using black icing instead.
I get it, I hurt her but I wouldn’t change what happened between us. One thing Garrett got right is that I enjoyed my time with her more than any other girl. I regret the hurt she’s going through now, but it’s just better this way. Eventually, things won’t be so awkward.
“Well, we better get going.” I place my hand on top of Toby’s hat and he runs off into the dugout.
“Go, Giants!” Charlie pumps her fist in the air. “FYI, I’m only cheering on Toby and his teammates. Not you.”
I can’t believe I take this much shit from my employee. If her brother and I weren’t friends I might actually be able to fire her.
Ava pulls out her phone, burying her head in it.
“Good to know. Obviously, you’re forgetting who signs your paychecks.” I hide in the dugout, watching the rest of my friends sit down on the bleachers next to Ava.
The umpire calls me out to home plate, I shake hands with the Cardinals coach and when I walk back to the dugout, I can’t help but let my gaze wander over in the direction of Ava. It’s all I can
do to keep walking forward because there she sits with my mom right next to her.
The game is over two hours later with a win for us, thanks to Toby’s catch at shortstop and getting our third out in the game.
All the players gather their things and grab a cookie from Ava who is handing them out before they scurry off to their moms and dads.
“Thanks again for the cookies,” I say to Ava.
“Here.” She hands me a cookie with Coach on it.
“Thank you.” My eyes instinctively close when I take the first bite. The woman has talents that extend far outside the bedroom.
“You’re welcome. Congratulations.” She smashes the box and then disposes of it in the recycling bin, and grabs her purse from the bleachers where all of what I guess are now our friends sit.
I never realized how interconnected our lives are until I see Cat swinging Lily around in circles, Charlie talking to Sydney and Marcus and Garrett shooting the shit. My parents stand, my dad talking to a couple of the other grandparents at the game.
“Dane,” my mom approaches, swinging her arm through mine. “How come I never met Ava? She’s wonderful.” She thinks she’s whispering, but based on the fact that Ava’s turned around and that pink flush to the apple of her cheeks, she heard.
“She is,” I agree, watching the pink turn full out red.
“Then how come you’ve never said anything?”
Are my mom and I close? Yeah. But she knows nothing about my female companionship and I think I’ll keep it that way.
“Celebration at the bar!” my dad yells and the kids go crazy.
“Dad?”
I have nothing set up for a group this big.
“This is what’s great about owning your own place.” He clasps me on the shoulder. “Why did you put that arcade in for anyway?”
He walks past me to his car. My mom gives my forearm a tight squeeze and knowing eye and then follows my dad.
“I’m going with grandma,” Toby screams and runs after my mom. I wait by my car to see her wrap her arm around his shoulders, leading him to the car.
My eyes search the parking lot, and all that’s left of Ava are her taillights driving away.
Suddenly, alone doesn’t feel as good as I thought.
Later that night, I’m in the office going over orders and shipments when a knock sounds on my door.
“Come in.”
My dad steps in and the hope that had my heart beating extra fast falters seeing that it’s not her.
I’m surprised he knocked. Usually he barges in with a comment about how it was his office first.
“Mind if we talk?”
“Are you asking me permission?”
“Cut the bullshit.” He closes the door and sits down across from me.
“I thought you and mom left.”
“Your mom and Toby are watching some Galaxy movie, so I came back when I saw you weren’t home yet.” He leans back in his chair, his ankle resting comfortably on his knee.
Some say I’m the younger version of my dad. He’s tall and although his daily workouts have been exchanged with scenic walks, he’s fit and I wouldn’t want to run into him in a dark alley.
I remain silent because I’m still baffled by him initiating conversation and the fact that he didn’t start it by questioning a decision I’ve made with the bar.
“I’ve been hard on you,” he pauses for a second, seeming to collect his thoughts before he continues. “Your mom knocked me on the forehead today and I realized that maybe I’ve failed you in a way.”
“Failed?” I ask, a little stunned to hear these words coming from my dad’s mouth.
“Made you question yourself and what you can handle.” He diverts his gaze from mine.
“I don’t think I lack in self-confidence,” I say in the cocky way I’m accustomed to.
He chuckles. “Not to others, no. But I think maybe when you’re alone you do.”
I say nothing. Mother’s intuition is never wrong.
“Listen. I’m not into this heart to heart, psychoanalyze every little thing bullshit. I just want you to know, I appreciate you taking over the bar, keeping it in the family. And though you’ve made some questionable decisions—”
“Gee, thanks, Dad.”
His gaze meets mine. “You’ve made good ones too. Not only with the bar, but with Toby. You could have run off like Sara.”
“You know I love Climax Cove.”
He nods. “I saw Sara in town. Did she not want to see us?” There’s a sadness to his voice I haven’t heard in years. In general, we don’t talk about my AWOL sister, ever.
My chest tightens. I had wanted her in and out as fast as possible.
“We were just taking care of some business.”
“The adoption? She signed the papers?” I can see the agony my sister’s choice of lifestyle has had on my father. It’s probably given him the majority of his gray hair.
“She did.”
He nods his head a few times slowly, his eyes on the floor and his mind far, far away.
“Well, that’s done then.”
My dad’s never been one to talk about his feelings.
“Last thing. You’re a good man, Dane, and I’m proud to be your father. I’m not sure why you can’t find a woman to settle down with. Why you insist on not giving Toby a mother figure in his life, but your mom says you think you’re not good enough. So, I came here to tell you, that you are. Good enough.”
“Thanks, Dad.” It’s strange. I’ve longed to hear my dad say something along these lines most of my adult life, but now that he is I find I have a hard time accepting it.
“Well, your mom likes the cupcake girl. She thinks she’s the one.”
“She had one conversation with her,” I deadpan.
My dad chuckles again. “Son, you of all people know your mother. She’s been seeing you and her a lot more than you think.”
God, my parents’ house is pretty close to mine, I can only hope to hell my mom didn’t see Ava between my legs on the deck.
He knocks on my desk. “I’ll try to be more encouraging with what you’ve done here. It’s hard to see everything you built change with the times. Reminds you you’re getting old. Because whether you like it or not, Dane, time doesn’t slow down. Life will just pass you by if you let it.” He smiles and then he’s out the door before I can even respond.
My dad leaves the door open on his way out.
“Good night, Mr. Murray,” Charlie says as she passes by my office and flips me the bird. “Good night, jackass. Front end is closed.”
My mind is swirling with everything I said to Ava, everything she said to me, and everything everyone else has been saying since we split.
The spreadsheets are a blur for the next fifteen minutes while I try to process it all, but the roar of a fire truck breaks through the silence, sounding so near it has me sliding my chair out to inspect on what’s going on.
I figure it has to be some drill the fire department was conducting, or maybe some false alarm, but when I get out to the bar area and look out my front window, the one truck Climax Cove owns is parked outside my place, and firefighters are busting down the door of the Mad Batter.
My heart’s never felt squeezed so tight. I’m surprised it didn’t pop out of my chest.
27
Ava
I was happily enjoying my sulk fest in my bed with a bag of potato chips when I heard the sirens. In the months I’ve lived here full-time, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard them before.
My phone vibrates a second later and I glance over to see my dad’s name on the screen. Again. Figuring I can’t continue to avoid him any longer I slide my thumb over the screen, propping the phone in the crook of my neck continuing to move my hand from the bag of chips to my mouth.
“Where are you?” His voice is panicked.
“In bed.”
“Thank goodness. Ava, I need you to come down to the bakery.”
I sit up. “Why
?”
Rubbing the remnants of salt and vinegar on my yoga pants, I stand up to look out the window to see if I can see anything in the downtown area, but except for the red lights in the dark night sky, nothing.
“Just please. I’ll meet you there.”
“Dad, is this because of the sirens?”
A long stream of breath is the only thing I hear through the line. “All I know is Hank from Nail Me called and said he saw smoke coming out of the building, but no flames.”
“What? I gotta go.”
“Av—”
I click my phone off, and I’m running down the stairs when Charlie walks through the front door.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
I whiz by her right out the front door, stopping briefly to throw on my chucks.
By the time I reach downtown the entire street is filled with people, the windows and door of my bakery shattered. My footsteps slow outside the circle of people, gawking like the rest of them at the scene in front of me.
A warm arm wraps around me and my head falls to their shoulder for the comfort.
“Oh, Ava.” Charlie’s hand rubs up and down my arms. “We’ll fix it.”
I hadn’t even realized she’d followed me in my panic to get here.
Unable to watch my dreams go up in flames in front of my eyes, I bury my head into the crook of her neck. She soothes my cries, but a few minutes go by and her body tenses, all movement stopping.
“What is he doing?” she murmurs.
“Did you find her?” Dane’s voice rings through the noise of the spectators and my head lifts to find him covered in soot panic over every one of his features as he yells in a firefighter’s face.
“No. I don’t think she’s in there.”
“Did you check the storage room? She’s here night and day.” He moves to run back into the building.
“Dane!” Charlie screams and Dane looks over, relief immediately washing over his face.
He runs over, causing everyone’s eyes to follow his movements.
“Thank God.” He pulls me into his chest, his hand weaved in the strands of my hair pressing me to him. “I thought you were in there.”