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“It is, but I can’t take all the credit for it.”
“No?”
Since I was in a sentimental mood all of a sudden, I decided to tell her about the curiosities and how my mama had shared the gift with me.
“I didn’t realize your mom had the same ability,” she said, minutes later, a thoughtful look on her face, as she went about unboxing pastries. “It makes sense now.”
“What does?”
“The sea glass,” she said hesitantly.
“What sea glass?”
“The piece I used for Junebear’s nose. It came from a tin inthe attic.” She took a deep breath. “There’s something I should tell—” She cut herself off, shook her head, and then muttered, “Fantastical.”
“I’m confused. What’s fantastical?”
She studied my face for a long second before saying, “It’sfantasticthat I finished Junebear.” She smiled. “And I’m working on a new project, too.”
Her smile was something else when it radiated joy, but I couldn’t help thinking there was something troubling hiding behind this one. “I can’t wait to see them.”
She carefully set donuts into the bakery case. “Did I hear that Sienna also dropped off yesterday’s bakery order?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes, she did.”
She slid me a look. “I hope Donovan’s feeling okay.”
“I’m sure he’s just busy.” It was obvious he was avoiding me, and even more obvious that Ava was trying to get me to talk about it. But I wasn’t ready to share how I’d blown things with him, all because I didn’t want to accept that I was stretched thin. I was. I didn’t even want to look at my blood pressure numbers right now.
Instead of answering her, I flipped the tables. “Did I hear that Norman spent part of yesterday afternoon with you?”
Her cheeks turned a lovely shade of rose pink. “He’s scared of thunder and Sam had an appointment, so I brought him over to Dez’s. You should’ve seen Molly with him. At first, she was hissing to wake the dead, but no sooner had I put him on my bed than she was right next to him, snuggling up.”
“Get out.”
“I’m serious. I took a picture.”
She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and pecked at the screen for a second before turning it toward me.
Sure enough, Molly was snuggled up close to Norman, practically lying on top of him. Perhaps she was trying to suffocate him, since to my eye, she was slightly bigger than he was.
“And she got in a huff when Sam showed up to take Norman home.” Ava slipped the phone back into her pocket.
“That Sam is a nice guy.”
Her cheeks turned from pink to red. “Sure is. Do you know much about him?”
“Hardly anything. He keeps mostly to himself.” I filled a tray with sweetener packets. “Makes small talk but nothing deeper. Doesn’t seem to have a job but seems to have enough money to get by. No one visits that I know of, but he does leave for long weekends every now and again. There’s a rumor that he’s divorced but I don’t know if it’s true—to my knowledge he’s never confirmed it.”
At the sound of a noise, a tap, on the front window, we glanced over in time to see Titus with his face against the glass, peering inside, a hand acting as a visor.
I shook my head at him.
He frowned and walked off.
Ava smiled. “Apparently drip coffee is only tolerable if it’s Rose serving it to him.”
“I’m not sure whether to tell her about his sulking or not.”
