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Alex picked then to wake up and wail out his displeasure.
“So much for that forty-minute nap.” Ally sighed. “He’ll be a bear all afternoon.” She swung the baby up on her shoulder with ease and hummed to him absently. He wouldn’t be deterred. “Okey doke, looks like that’s my cue.”
“Aww, really?”
“Yeah, I need to get back home anyway.” She smiled up at Macy. “Thanks for letting us come and crash for a bit.”
Macy’s eyebrows were beetled together at the scowling baby. A minute later, Alex let out an even louder bellow. “Is he okay?”
“Oh, yeah.” Ally took another drink from her coffee. “One more, because hello, this is so good. Okay, pal. We’re going, we’re going.” She stood up and settled him back into the carrier.
Sage hefted herself out of the chair. “Thanks, Macy.”
“Do you want me to drive you home?” I asked Sage.
“No, I’ll go with Ally. You go on up and relax. You look like you’re going to drop on the spot.”
The two of them swiftly packed up and headed out. Sage was happily picking through the large bag of goodies on her way out the side door.
I was tired, but even more than that, I was restless. I had Sage’s doctor’s phone number burning a hole in my planner. And an ache in the pit of my stomach I didn’t know how to fix.
I wandered over to the counter where Macy was talking to Gideon, but I backed away before I could interrupt. Macy spotted me and patted the bag in front of her. “I’ve got some stuff for your kids.” She screwed up her lips. “You know, the ones in your classroom, not the one you’re brewing up in there.” She made a little circle in the air.
Gideon’s eyebrows went up. “Congrats.”
I pasted on a bright smile. I’d come from a pretty small town, but it had nothing on the very involved Crescent Cove. God, I needed to talk to my mom about this too.
I just wanted to hide in my apartment.
“Got anything super chocolatey?” I asked brightly.
“Lava cake?”
“Sold. Or begging, whichever. Just hand it over and no one gets hurt.”
Macy gave me her usual sardonic grin. “You got it.” Her eyes trailed over Gideon one more time before she disappeared into the back.
“I’m getting the feeling Macy isn’t sure what to do with the kid thing.”
“I think you’d be correct. I teach them and I’m not sure what to do half the time.”
Gideon shoved his hands into his pockets. “Right. Me neither.”
Before I could say something else regarding that little nugget of information, Macy came sailing through her swinging door with a little white box. “Fresh from the oven. Hope you like cherries.”
My stomach growled. “I do. Let’s see if the new intruder does too.” I accepted the box with a little wave. “Thanks, Macy. Can’t wait to see what else you come up with for drinks. I’m your happy guinea pig.”
“Well, we’ve got two weeks until opening day so I’ll be sure to be extra annoying, don’t you worry.”
Before I was a few steps away, the deep timber of Gideon’s voice lowered and I heard a smoky chuckle from Macy in reaction. At least those two were finding their way.
And that made me miss Dare even more. I wasn’t supposed to. And if I did miss him a little bit, it was supposed to be the womanly flutters kind of missing. Okay, so they were a little more than flutters. More like my own version of lava cake where he was concerned.
The man could tend my gardens like a master…well, gardener.
Nope, now I had a snake in the garden. Or was he the snake? God, this metaphor was going off the rails. Like my life.
I trudged up the stairs and set the bag for my class on the entry table because something was also wrong with my memory since I’d become a new fledgling member of Babyville. I needed my planner for simple things I’d been doing most of my adult life. Because I could not keep a thought in my stupid brain.
