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How they’d gotten what seemed to be cocoa powder over every surface in the kitchen was a mystery, but it was the mix of ingredients that made it impossible to figure out what they were doing. There were fruits and nuts on the table, and the counters were covered with everything from chocolate chips to rainbow sprinkles I hadn’t known we had.
“I’m not sure if this will look like the caked pooped, Miss Tabitha, but we can try.” The fact that Harper had made the statement very seriously as they both looked down into the bowl with the mystery contents didn’t make me feel any better. “Do you think the rainbow ones would look less concerning? I don’t know what this will end up looking like. I’ve never made a cake with sprinkles in the batter before.”
Well, that answered a few questions.
And raised a few more.
What could they have been thinking about putting in a cake that would look like feces?
“I don’t even know what to say about this but I’m not pleased that Ender had to be the one to out you.” No point in not throwing him under the bus. He was family, so it only seemed fair.
“Oh, bad Endy.” Tabitha scowled and started shaking her head as she wandered over to the table to grab Harper’s phone.
“Where’s her phone?” It should not have been my first question but there were too many to know where the best place to start was.
Harper looked at me like I was stupid. “She’s too young to need a phone. That’s just not good parenting.”
Of course.
“But she’s old enough to play on yours.” As he nodded, I realized whatever they’d been cooking had melted his brain.
“With supervision, of course. I found some fun games for her.” His utterly serious reply as he looked back at the bowl and frowned left me trying not to laugh. “Ender is a good influence, so I’m not worried about him doing something irresponsible with her.”
As he glanced over at Tabitha and sighed, though, he finally made me laugh. “I should’ve worried more about him tattling.”
Yep.
“That’s not the point.” Well, not at the moment. “What are you two doing?”
“Cake, Poppy.” Tabitha’s cheerful answer as she made an exaggeratedly gentle gesture to set the phone down had me smiling. “Pretty cake.”
She tried bouncing over to me, but one look at her hands had me shaking my head. “Oh no, pretty girl. We’re going to wash your hands first before you get hugs.”
She was covered in… everything.
She was covered in everything from cocoa powder to what might’ve been powdered sugar, based on what I knew of the contents of the bowl.
I was not going to be the one to clean up this mess.
“Sink.” Pointing in the right direction and making sure to keep a stern glare so there would be no mischief, I followed a fairly obedient Tabitha over to the sink and came up behind her. “Good girl.”
Giving her head a kiss as I washed her hands, I had to chuckle as the manipulative little thing looked over her shoulder at me and gave me an utterly innocent smile with wide eyes and everything. “Surprise, Poppy.”
“Oh, you were making me a surprise?” Her eager nod made me just want to melt, but since I was the real grown-up here, I had to stay strong. “Thank you for the surprise, but I think next time I should help supervise.”
She looked around the room as I dried her hands off and couldn’t seem to argue with me. “Poppy help.”
Now or next time?
There would definitely be a next time and we all knew it.
Kissing her head was a better option than agreeing to anything she said at the moment, so I hugged the slightly cleaner cutie and looked over at her guilty-looking Daddy. “So, tell me about the surprise.”
“Cake.” Tabitha seemed to think that explained everything and bounced back over to her Daddy and the bowl.
“Well, she wanted to make a surprise for you.” Harper’s gaze bounced over the disaster. “This was an educational way to do it.”
Considering her cooking skills were slim to none, he wasn’t lying.
