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“I will,” he promised, and Ellen let him behind the counter.
“This is what it looks like in here?” he said, sounding awestruck when she led him into the back.
“This is where Talulah makes all her cakes and other treats. It’s called a commercial kitchen.” Ellen showed him the large refrigerator that stored the extra desserts, the giant ovens, the commercial mixers and the sprayer that washed the dishes. As she’d assumed, he was delighted with it all, particularly the sprayer, so she let him play in the deep sink with some soapy bubbles, washing pans and dishes she knew she’d just have to wash again afterward. She wasn’t sure why she was being kind enough to let Hendrix have time alone with his lady friend, but it got her out of the room with them. And she liked Leo. She told herself she was doing it for his sake.
She was just mopping up the water he’d accidentally gotten on the floor when Hendrix poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey, what happened to coming right back, bud?” he said, chastising his cousin.
“Sorry, Hendrix. I’ve been washing dishes. Ellen needed my help.”
Ellen grinned at his innocence as she finished mopping but didn’t correct him.
“Did you get the sack of flour moved?” Hendrix asked.
“It’s okay,” Ellen told him. “I can get that. Are you finished with your date?”
“It’s not a...” He looked behind him. “Never mind. Yeah, we’re done.”
Ellen handed Leo a towel. “Looks like it’s time to go, Leo. You’ll have to dry off and come back to help me another time when I’m standing in for Talulah, okay?”
Leo looked disappointed. “Do I have to go? Hendrix could come back and get me. Couldn’t you, Hendrix?”
“Maybe another time,” Hendrix said.
Sensing his cousin’s resolve, Leo heaved a sigh of disappointment. “O-kay,” he said with a heavy emphasis on the second syllable.
Hendrix held the door for his cousin to come back into the front, and Ellen assumed that would be that, but after Leo went out, Hendrix turned to her. “Thanks for...thanks for watching him,” he said tersely and left.
“Ellen’s so nice. Don’t you think she’s nice, Hendrix?” Leo asked after they’d said goodbye to Veronica and were pulling away from the curb in front of the dessert diner.
Hendrix barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Ellen hadn’t been nice to Leo out of kindness, he decided. Making his cousin her biggest fan was just another way to torture him. How did she know he’d never hear the end of how she’d let him lick the frosting from one of the bowls and turn on the big mixer? Or about the sprayer?
God, the sprayer. Leo’s shirt was soaked, but he’d had such a grand time Hendrix couldn’t even be mad at her for what she’d done.
“Do you think she’ll let me come back tomorrow?” he asked.
“I don’t think she’ll be working there tomorrow,” Hendrix replied and was irked enough to add, “She’ll be back at her regular job, where she’ll continue to steal more and more of our business.”
“She’s stealing our business?” Leo looked horrified, but before Hendrix could calm him down with some benign explanation that would take it all back, a confused expression replaced the shock. “What’s our business?”
“Never mind.”
“I could talk to her, Hendrix,” he offered. “I could tell her she’s hurting your feelings.”
“Shenothurting my feelings,” he clarified immediately. No way did he want Leo to get that in his head. If he did, Hendrix had no doubt he’d tell Ellen at the first opportunity.
“Whatever she’s doing, I bet she would stop. If I asked her to. She’sreallynice, Hendrix. Ellen is my friend.”
Hendrix nearly groaned aloud. “Oh, my God! How clever can you be?”
Leo seemed uncertain. “Me, Hendrix? What’d I do?”
Hendrix had been referring to Ellen, of course. “You didn’t do anything, bud. Just...forget it. Everything’s okay.”
Leo continued to watch him carefully. He knew he was missing something but couldn’t quite figure out what. “Should we go back? I bet Ellen would say sorry to you for...for why you’re mad.”
Hendrix knew it would be a cold day in hell when Ellen apologized to him for anything, especially after he’d tried to hire away her driller. Last nighthe’dhad to apologize toher. “I’m not mad.”
“You seem mad.”
