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“I’m glad to hear that.” Drake smiled before squeezing my hand. Then he turned to the rest of the class. “All the ovens have been preheated to 350. Remember, if you were to bake this at home you would want to set the temperature of your oven before you do the mixing and such. You want that oven to be preheated before you put the cake in.”
Drake turned back to me. “How were the students in the martial arts class?” He started to help one of the little boys pour some cocoa powder into a measuring cup.
I wished I was able to use my gift. I really didn’t want to gossip about kids in front of the other kids. I grimaced. “Most of them seemed to enjoy it, but I knew a few of them would have loved to have slept in and enjoyed their vacation.”
“Martial arts class was fun!” one of the boys stated loudly.
Drake and I laughed. “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” I commented.
“Will we be getting uniforms and belts?” one of the girls asked hopefully.
“Not sure,” I answered truthfully. “I guess we’ll have to see.”
Her face fell, but she shrugged. “Oh, okay.”
“What’s your plans after this?” Drake asked me once the kids got immersed into their baking again.
“Shopping.” I rolled my eyes. “Jemmy, Sierra, Dawn, Rachel, and I are running into town to get some wrapping paper and such to start wrapping gifts.”
The truth was I wasn’t terribly put out by it. We really did need the wrapping paper, and I had to swing by the post office to get Drake’s Christmas gift. I had finished his cookbook I had been working on. All of his recipes I could get my hands on I put on my laptop and then submitted it to a printing place. They had emailed me a few days ago confirming it had shipped, and I had just received the notification this morning that it was delivered.
We had less than four days until Christmas, and I still had so much to do. My family of just me and Ella had grown since last Christmas. I now had over twenty people to shop for. Not everyone on my shopping list was getting anything huge or significant, by any means. We had gotten oversized stockings, and I was getting some of them just stocking stuffers.
“I’m sure that was Jemmy’s idea,” Drake said dryly. The siblings were night and day. Drake was brilliant, a fantastic cook, and fundamentally introverted. Jemmy, on the other hand, was a subpar student, hated cooking or anything domestic, and was extremely extroverted.
I laughed. “How’d you guess?”
Honestly, it had been her idea. She would have preferred to have gone yesterday, but I couldn’t because of my stupid body, and because I didn’t want to go out twice before Christmas. I knew it would be a matter of time before Drake’s Christmas present came in. I had already talked to them after breakfast, and we had almost all the afternoon planned.
“It was a given. I think we plan on taking the boys into town tomorrow for the same reason.” Drake smirked.
I smiled at him as I helped one of the little ones crack an egg into a measuring cup. She had a lot of eggshells in the bottom of it, but it was a start. “They’ll probably like that. I’m starting to think they like shopping more than Ella and Nadia,” I stated. “Both of them showed no interest in coming along this afternoon.”
He chuckled. “For now. Just wait until Jemmy continues sinking her claws into them, and by the time they become teenagers they’ll be begging to go every weekend.”
I groaned. “I hope not. As it is, Ella’s been acting more like a cantankerous teen more and more each day.”
“Do you think it’s because…” he paused and shifted uncomfortably.
I didn’t need my gift to know he was referring to my birth mother, technically her aunt. After eighteen years I finally met my mother. She had given birth to Kade, Micah, Alex and me. She had just become part of our facility, and I truly believed it may have been one of the reasons why Ella was acting out. I still hadn’t told her that we were technically cousins, and I think she felt left out knowing the boys now had a mother—by blood, not actions—nearby.
“It may be,” I explained quietly. “I already asked Megan to talk to her, because Ella refuses to talk to me, but I think she does feel left out. She lived with her uncaring mother for seven years, and now the boys may have an opportunity to start a relationship with their biological mom.”
Drake’s brows knitted in concern. “Have you given it any more thought on when she can meet them? It’s been nine days since she came.”
I shook my head. “I’ve talked to them. Kade doesn’t seem to mind. He had a loving mother for fifteen years and doesn’t know any better. I think he has put her in a category of her own, so he’s not seeking a true relationship from her. Micah shuts down every time I try to talk to him about it. He doesn’t want anything to do with her.” I looked around to make sure our little charges were still engrossed in their recipes. “He says Megan and I are enough female figures in his life and he doesn’t need another one. Alex is… well, Alex. He’s curious about her, but he’s probably going to do whatever Micah wants to do.”
He nodded slowly. “Do you think it would help if I started to talk to them? I don’t want to push them, but I think it’s important if they deal with their emotions in a healthy way.”
Drake had once pursued a degree working with troubled children and youth. I knew he had been close to finishing his degree when he chose to drop school altogether and pursue his dreams to become a cook. He would have been amazing in that field, but there was no denying that his passion was in the kitchen. He was in his element here.
I nodded with a smile. “That may help. Ella is extremely receptive to Megan, but I don’t think it would hurt if you talked to her and the boys. Even Kade. He’s strong, but I still think he needs to know he can talk to any of us, not just me if he starts struggling with his feelings.”
“I’m ready,” one of the little boys piped up.
I looked down into his bowl and had to hide my smile. I could immediately tell something was off. It didn’t look like he had enough cocoa powder in there, and there definitely wasn’t any eggs. “How much cocoa powder did you add?” I started to grill him.
He shrugged. “I dunno… enough.”
