She turns back to me again, her eyes full of interest. “What?”
“I can’t remember what you said about pies when I was sick.” Am I deliberately thinking up things to talk about to keep her here for a little longer? To let her know how I appreciated her thoughtfulness when I was under the weather? Or just now,when she brought me a warm drink because she was thinking of me?
Ruth-Ann pauses for a moment, considering. “You mean about freezing the butter?”
I snap my fingers. “That’s it! Why in the heck would you freeze the butter?”
She relaxes, taking a step back toward my cart. “Well, so it doesn’t leak out of the folds when you bake it.”
Uh oh. “Um, what folds?”
“You know, when you fold the dough to laminate it?”
I give her a blank look.
Again, she lets out another rusty-sounding giggle. “Okay, okay. Let me walk you through how to make the pastry dough.”
“Please do.” I smile at her and take a sip of the tea and discover maybe I have a little energy after all.
CHAPTER
NINE
Months Later
RUTH-ANN
“You’re not goingto tell me what flavor this one is?” I ask Simone as she wraps a cookie in a plas-film napkin and holds it out to me.
Her lips twitch with barely contained amusement. “Nope. It’s a new flavor I’m testing out. I want to know your thoughts.”
Uh oh. I sniff the cookie, my heart fluttering at the way she watches me so eagerly. Her dark eyes are bright with excitement, the wind blowing delicate tendrils of her hair around her face and making her seem even more beautiful than she already is.
I glance over at Pluto. “Is it a trick?”
Pluto just eyes me with disinterest. Classic cat.
For the past few months, my morning routine has changed. Instead of showing up to Simone’s cart to critique everything, I’ve been coming by to bring her a daily cup of hot night tea and to see how her sales are going. I’ve been giving her pointers on her baking, and she’s been making adjustments as she works.Her cookies are a thing of beauty now, perfect little discs with fluffy interiors and just the right amount of crispness to the edges.
The cookie she hands me is lovely, with flecks of green against the dark beige center and browned edges. Sniffing it produces no scent other than honey and a general sort of “cookie” smell, so I take a bite.
And immediately spit it out. The twin flavors of dirt and grass hit my tongue, and I suck down some tea to kill the taste. “Oh my god, that’s awful. Please tell me you haven’t been serving those all day.”
Simone giggles hysterically, clutching her apron to her waist. “You should see your faaaace.”
A prank. Instead of getting mad at it, I laugh and lunge for her, shoving the cookie toward her mouth. “You eat it, then!”
“No! No!” she squeals, scurrying away and trying to bap me with her ever-present tongs. I cling to her, trying to get her to eat her terrible cookie and laughing, because something about Simone’s delight makes me giddy. Pluto sees us playing and tries to join in, putting his front paws on me and nearly knocking me to the ground. It only makes Simone laugh harder.
Someone clears their throat nearby.
We both stop in our tracks. Dopekh stands there, a look of judgment on his face. “Ruth-Ann, Kaz told me to come get you. If you’re done, of course.”
My face gets hot. He caught us chasing each other like a pair of kids. They’re never going to shut up about this now. Bad enough that they already tease me about my friendship with Simone as it is. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Dopekh saunters away, and I inwardly cringe because I know he’s going to tell all the others about what he saw. The a’ani are great friends but terrible gossips. I glance over at Simone. She’sbiting back another giggle, and I find myself smiling again. Let them gossip. Right now I feel too good to care.
Pluto puts his paws on my shoe and starts to lick my ankle, as if he’s grooming me. He does this to me all the time, and Simone thinks he’s treating me like a kitten, which only makes her love it even more. I push the overly loving carinoux’s head away from my leg and hold the shitty cookie aloft. “Did you really make a whole batch of these just to prank me?”
