Page 42 of The Soulmate Bakery

OK. Don’t knock on the door. Here’s a video of Inspector Vale putting on a candlelit play version of his love story with Ivy. Imagine having to watch this every day, Reverie. Every. Day.

That was all the encouragement I needed. I pulled the knocker and waited. The door swung open moments later, and there was a man in the doorway. A man who looked like Silas, but a little older and far more rugged. It must have been one of his older brothers.

‘Si!’ the man called, his voice booming. ‘Your girl’s here!’

I wasn’t sure whether I should correct him or preen at the assumption. I was saved from doing either by Silas appearing behind his brother.

‘Stop being annoying, Cassius,’ Silas said, elbowing the other out of the doorway. He stepped aside to let me in. ‘Maya, you made it.’

‘Well, I mean, it wasn’t really hard to find the place. I’ve lived here my whole life,’ I teased, and stepped inside the Moon house.

It was nothing like I imagined; for one, it was even bigger on the inside. The house had a massive foyer, off-white walls and a living room that had a gorgeous forest-green couch. Pictures filled the wall next to the staircase, showcasing all the brothers and their lone sister at different stages of their lives. It was so obviously a home that had been well loved.

‘Your home is amazing,’ I said, and my voice was filled with genuine warmth.

‘Well, that’s awfully sweet of you,’ a feminine voice called from behind me.

I turned to find Lyra Moon, second eldest of the pack and only daughter, standing at the top of the stairs.

‘Hi,’ I waved, gingerly. I’d known Lyra a little; she used to volunteer during the bake sales, and we’d been teamed up before.

‘Si, we’ve left the dining room for you,’ Lyra said, sweetly.

‘Which is directly below my room,’ another voice called, from somewhere in the house. ‘So, you know, whatever you talk about, we can hear you.’

Silas’s ears turned pink, which made my heart stutter, and Lyra shouted something back to her other brother, I assumed. A squabble broke out between the siblings, the cacophony of raised voices so natural here. It wasn’t until someone came out of the kitchen, opposite to where Silas and I were standing, that there was actual silence.

‘Would you all please be quiet?’

Silas’s mother was well known in the community; Mrs Moon was tall and willowy, and she ran the theatre in town.

‘Maya,’ she said, when the noises of her children finally quietened down. ‘Welcome to our home – I’m so sorry for all of them.’

She enveloped me in a hug. I had to be careful of the muffins, which Silas kindly swooped in and grabbed. When his mother finally let me go, she saw the muffins and made a noise of delight.

‘They’re moonlit blueberry muffins.’ I explained their magic properties, and Mrs Moon’s mouth turned into a perfect ‘o’.

‘Well, aren’t you talented,’ she said, jovially. ‘Silas, thank you for finally inviting someone who doesn’t just want to talk about rugby.’

He rolled his eyes affectionately, his ears still pink. ‘Yes, yes, now that I’ve been thoroughly embarrassed, can we please go?’

His mother waved us off, and Silas led me to the dining room, where there was a large cherry-wood table in the centre and china cabinets stacked against the wall. There must have been an unspoken seating arrangement, because Silas moved automatically to one of the chairs right at the end of the table, and I took the one opposite him.

‘Sorry about them,’ Silas started, looking genuinely embarrassed. ‘They just like to tease. A lot.’

I laughed a little, glad to be the one who wasn’t on the back foot for once. ‘It’s nice. It comes from a place of love, right?’

‘Right. Some call it love, others call it attempting to humiliate me,’ Silas retorted. ‘You should’ve seen them at the last game – they came with banners, and they kept screaming my name.’

‘Everyone was screaming your name,’ I said, lightly.

His gaze narrowed on me, a smile tugging on his mouth. ‘You weren’t. Not in the beginning, at least.’

‘You were watching me?’

The words flew out of my mouth, intoned with the kind of edge I didn’t know I possessed.

‘Hard not to,’ Silas remarked, his voice like a pebble skipping on the surface of water. ‘You’ve always caught my eye.’