“Cake,” I blurt out. Clearly my mouth isn’t working right because why did I say that?
“Yes, I still owe you a cake.” She sighs like she’s stressed and I’m another chore on her list. “I had to remake the one I brought to you last night, and the new one isn’t ready yet. But I promise I’ll drop it off this evening if that’s not too late.”
“That’s acceptable.”
For whatever reason, I’m going out of my way to be a jerk to her, and I don’t know why. Is it because my chest feels funny when she looks at me? Maybe she’s the reason it feels like I’m going to pass out, and this is my body’s way of protecting me.
Yeah, that has to be it. It’s definitely not because I like it when she looks at me.
Chapter Three
MOLLY
“What’s up with the Jolly Giant?” Mia asks.
“What?” I’m arms deep in the display case, refilling the trays because we keep getting cleared out. It’s getting harder and harder to keep items stocked. This should be exciting, but it’s getting exhausting.
“She’s talking about Mr. Cloud Kidnapper,” Lucy responds, making Mia laugh.
I close the display case, having no clue what they are talking about. But they're both highly amused with themselves.
“You mean Mount Everest," Mia fires back.
Mount Everest? Has Mia landed on that side of TikTok too? I don't know how I got there, but I can't look away from it. All those people paying a crap ton of money to climb a mountain, only to possibly die while doing it. That is not how I’d like to spend my hard-earned money.
“Stilts!” Lucy half shouts.
“Okay, what’s all the commotion?” Tilly asks when she comes in from the back of the bakery. The hardware store is right next door, so she uses the back alley to come over. As my best friend, she has free rein to do so.
“We’re talking about the not-so-Jolly Giant,” Mia snickers.
“Oh.” Tilly puts it all together at the same time I do. “You’re talking about Lankenstein.”
“Lankenstein,” Lucy repeats through laughter. “That’s a good one.”
"His name is Noah," I tell them all, but I don't think they care. They're having too much fun coming up with names on their own.
"Wait a second," Tilly says, and hearing his name gets her full attention. "The Noah with the cake? Asshole Noah?" Her eyes narrow. Shit, I shouldn't have said his name. Tilly knows all about the cake incident last night. "That was him?"
"Ahh, no?" I don't need her chasing after him, so I hope his grumpy ass is halfway back up to his cabin at this point. He didn’t appear to be happy being down here.
"Are you done with his new cake?" Tilly asks, her tone sugary sweet. "I'd love to deliver it for you." Hell, I too would love nothing more than to take her up on that offer, but I don’t have time for another cake to be destroyed.
"Not happening," I tell her, making her lips press together in a firm line. "Tilly, seriously."
No one is better at being petty and getting revenge than my best friend. We really balance each other out. I keep her out of jail, and she keeps people from walking all over me.
"What's going on? I'm missing something here," Mia asks. I didn’t tell them about the cake incident. I’ve embarrassed myself enough.
"It's nothing." I wave them both off. "I need a count of each item sold." I give them a task to get their focus elsewhere. "Tilly." I nod for her to come to the back with me.
"Wait, are you guys going to go talk about the giant hottie?" Lucy isn't ready to let this go.
"The count," I repeat, annoyed about the "hottie" comment. The other nicknames were kind of amusing.
"Come on." Now it's Tilly pulling me toward my kitchen in the back so we're alone. "You look like shit."
"What the hell?" I can only let out a ridiculous laugh at her comment.
