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“Really? How is putting googly eyes on all the items in the fridge nice?”
“I didn’t say all my pranks are nice.”
“That’s for damn sure. There’s nothing nice about dressing up a goat like a princess.”
“How do you know about the goat?”
“Or removing a battery from a police vehicle.”
“Hey, now. There’s no proof it was me.” She lifts her eyebrows and stares at me. Fuck. I can’t lie to this woman. “Shouldn’t we get going?”
She checks the oven clock. “Shit. We’re late.”
She dashes for the door, but I catch her hand. “Slow down. We’re not late.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t know the pressure of running a business and depending on a single weekend to bring in a significant portion of your revenue.”
I don’t? If my company doesn’t do well at Christmas, my balance sheet cries red ink. I don’t tell Soleil about my business, though. Someday I will. But not today when she’s in total stress out mode.
I lace my fingers through hers. “Let’s go.”
She blows out a breath. “Okay. I got this.”
We arrive at the community center less than five minutes later. Another ten minutes and all the pottery crates are unloaded.
“I’ll unbox the pottery and you can set it up however you want,” I say as I open the first crate with a crowbar.
“You can go. My friends will help me.”
I cock an eyebrow. “They will?”
“Moon can help.”
“She’s busy running the diner all day.”
Most of Soleil’s friends also depend on the influx of revenue from the festival weekends. Thanks to Riley, I know Moon, in particular, is anxious about making enough cash at her diner from this weekend.
“Eden then.”
“She’s got her shop to run.”
“Harmony! Harmony will help.”
I cough to hide my smile. Harmony would help, but she’s been given quite the incentive to claim baby Robin is sick. Incentive as in a nice wad of cash. Cash she promises she won’t tell Elder or my other brothers about.
“You can phone her while I unload the pottery.”
“Be careful,” she orders before fishing out her phone and walking away.
In less than a minute, she returns with a scowl on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Baby Robin’s sick.” She bites her lip. “Maybe I should go check on her and Harmony since Elder’s working at the brewery all day.”
The struggle of what to do is clearly visible on her face as she glances around at the pottery I’ve laid out. Fuck. I didn’t mean for her to worry. I just wanted her to need me for once. The way I need her.
I approach and grasp her hands. “There’s no need for you to check on the baby.”
