AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I, um, thanks,” Finn croaked.
Gany looked at him sharply. Did he need another hit of the EMT’s oxygen? Were the EMTs gone? He craned his neck to look over Finn’s shoulder, but Mr. Johnson cleared his throat, recapturing Gany’s attention.
“Mr. Mead, I’m Rusty Johnson, of Johnson Construction. My crew and I are here to install your new oven.”
Gany’s jaw sagged. “My what?”
Mr. Johnson’s eyebrows drew together. “Oven?” He nodded at a flatbed truck easing into the curb in front of the bakery.
“How did you know I needed one?Ididn’t even know until an hour ago.”
“Really?” Mr. Johnson rubbed the back of his neck. “Del put in the order three months ago. The unit’s been sitting in my warehouse for a week.” He exchanged a cryptic look with Finn and chuckled awkwardly. “To be honest, I was afraid it wouldn’t get here in time for the installation today. I had to call the vendor last week and goose them a bit. Do we have your okay to proceed?”
“I… Yes. Yes, of course. Do you…” Gany swallowed, hope kindling in his chest. “I don’t suppose you have a timeline for me?”
“We’ll be out of your hair in four hours or so. That’ll give us time to repair any ancillary damage and get things cleaned up a bit.”
“Th-thank you.” He cuddled closer to Finn. “I’ll be able to call for the inspections today, then. They always take some time to schedule, but—”
“Don’t worry about that. Del scheduled those too. You’ll be good to go by five o’clock, no problem.” He saluted with three fingers and strode over to his crew, his flannel shirt flaring around his narrow hips.
“How?” Gany breathed. “How is this happening? Is it even possible?”
Finn was staring after Mr. Johnson, an extremely odd expression on his face. “If Rusty Johnson says he can do it, you can take that to the bank.”
“You know him?”
“Yep. He’s the best GC in the state. So if I were you, babe, I wouldn’t worry about your oven anymore. Why don’t we head home? You can whip up your cake samples in the kitchen there, and once Mr. Johnson gives you the go-ahead, you, Peyton, and Melina can head into the bakery and crush it.”
“You really think so?”
“I more than think so. Iknowso.” He kissed Gany’s forehead. “Now I’ve got a Prius full of baking supplies with your name on ’em, so what do you say we get moving?”
Gany gave him a somewhat watery smile, but then straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. “Works for me.”
Screwthe meddling gods.With Finn beside me, I am absolutely going to crush it.
“Iknow he said I’d be good to go, Finn, but I never thought I’d bethisgood!”
Finn tucked his phone close to his ear, as though that would bring Gary and his adorable enthusiasm closer, and tossed the Frisbee for the dogs for about the four hundred and eighty-seventh time. They took off after it like it was their first shot off the mark, even though they’d been playing non-stop for hours. It was nearly three in the morning, but the dogs were no more concerned by the darkness than Finn—and showed no sign of tiring of the game. Luckily, they were eerily quiet when they played, so Finn hadn’t gotten any irate shouts from the neighbors.
He shook his arm out, flexing his fingers to ease their cramps, as the dogs played three-way tug-of-war with the Frisbee. Good thing he’d picked up half a dozen while he’d been on his bakery supply run.
“Like I said, if Mr. Johnson says something’ll happen, it’ll definitely happen.”
“I mean, the place isspotless. Literally. I mean no spots of anythinganywhere, including the freakingceiling. The appliances are sparkling, the cabinets positivelyglow. They even cleaned out the walk-in fridge, which was completely unnecessary—its doors are massive, so no way could smoke have gotten inside. Mr. Johnson’s crew must be magicians.”
“Mmmphmm,” Finn said.Not magicians. Finn had a strong suspicion that Rusty Johnson had brought along a brownie crew to handle cleanup. Nothing got past them. They took intense pride in the perfection of their work.
“Finn.” Gary’s voice dropped to a whisper, barely audible over Finn’s lousy phone speaker. “They even replaced everything in the pantry. I barely even need the extra supplies you bought earlier. I mean, they replaced things thatweren’t even there.”
Andthatwas another thing Finn couldn’t comment on. Because Rusty had saidDel. Del, who had ordered the new oven months ago. Del, who had arranged to send Rusty to the rescue the moment the firefighters departed. Del, who had scheduled inspections atexactly the right time.
In other words, Del, Hunter’s Moon’s manager.
The oracle.
The hope welling in Finn’s chest made him want to bounce around like the pups. What did it mean that Del and Rusty were so involved in Gary’s business? Could Gary be a supe? After all, Peytonwasa witch, so maybe…
