You Belong With Me (Book 1 in The Love and Dessert Trilogy) Page 15

  Michael looked down into her face, not smiling as his eyes drank her in. “How can I listen to you tell me to back off? I can’t. It goes against everything my heart is telling me to do.”

  Layla felt like kicking him in the shins. “Take your hundred dollar bill and . . .,” she said, her eyes narrowing dangerously, before Michael put a finger over her lips as a grin split his face.

  “Temper, temper,” he said before glancing around the crowd. “I think she’s scared. Let’s give her some encouragement,” he shouted, clapping his hands and motioning for the crowd to join in.

  Layla rolled her eyes and then turned her back on Michael. She was going to win his hundred dollar bill if it killed her. And then she’d use it to buy the ugliest set of dishes she could find for his and Ashley’s wedding present.

  Kit and Jane smiled worriedly at her as she walked over to the pole. “Uh, sorry,” Jane muttered, as she put her twenty back in her pocket. “I forgot you hate attention,” she said, wincing as at least fifty people had wandered over to see what was going on.

  Kit winced and patted her sister on the back. “We’ll both kill Jane afterwards if it will make you feel better. I still owe her a mouthful of Crisco anyways.”

  Layla nodded her head. “It’s a plan. Okay, here goes major public humiliation,” she said and put her arms around the pole. She was in pretty good shape since she’d been doing yoga for the last two years. Sometimes it was the only thing that would help her relax after a stressful day on the job. Her toned muscles wouldn’t be able to help her though if she couldn’t get a grip.

  “You can do it sweetheart,” Michael yelled behind her.

  Layla turned her head and glared at Michael for using the endearment and when she saw his unapologetic grin, she felt a burst of anger ignite inside. She started to climb and envisioned the pole as Michael’s neck. Every time she grabbed hold of the warm metal she squeezed the life out of him. Within eight minutes she was within six inches of the top. She ignored the screaming and yelling and kept going. She felt her body slip slightly. Although the grease had been practically wiped off from the hundreds of people trying the pole throughout the afternoon, not many had gotten so high, so it was starting to get more and more slick.

  “Jump up and touch the top!” Michael yelled. “That’s all you have to do is just touch the top ring!”

  Layla, breathing heavy now from the exertion looked up, her muscles screaming and begging her to let go and slip down the pole. She looked down at the crowd below her and felt herself slip another inch. And then she saw Ashley, standing next to Stella and Michael. She was laughing. At her. Layla closed her eyes and bunched all of her muscles, ready to spring. She was getting that hundred dollar bill or she would die trying. She leaped up, her fingers stretched out.

  And touched it.

  She grabbed on to the ring, holding tight for a minute, so the crowd could see she had truly done it before sliding slowly down the pole. As soon as her feet touched the grass, she was grabbed in a double hug by Jane and Kit as the crowd roared in delight.

  “You are so disgusting,” Jane said gleefully, staring at the dirty grease all over her older sister.

  Layla laughed as she looked down at her ruined t-shirt and cutoff jeans covered in black greasy streaks. The short, bald man in charge of the pole climb walked over with a large stuffed teddy bear almost as big as her.

  “You’re the first winner today. You deserve it,” he said handing the bear to her. Layla stared down at the large bear and knew Bubba would rip it to pieces the first chance he got. She caught sight of Stella and smiled as she walked over to her.

  “Would you like this teddy bear Stella?” she asked, standing the bear beside the girl. The teddy bear was taller by three inches.

  Stella stared at her in awe. “Me? You want to give your teddy bear to me?” she asked, reaching out to touch the bear’s soft fur in awe.

  Layla laughed and nodded. “I want you to have him. What do you say?”

  “Um, we better not accept. It’s just too big to be honest. It’ll take up half her room,” Ashley said, coming to stand next to her daughter.

  Stella’s face fell immediately and Layla looked away, her smile fading at the pointless cruelty.

  “Stella, you may have the teddy bear. Tell Layla thank you. It’s time to leave.” Michael said, coming to stand next to Layla.

  Stella’s eyes went wide again and she reached out to hold the bear, her arms only able to reach half way around the bear’s back it was so big.

  “Michael, is that wise? You know we’ll just end up giving the thing to Goodwill anyways,” Ashley said, sounding irritated at being countermanded.

  Michael looked like he wanted to say something but bit his lip. “I believe this is yours,” he said, holding the one hundred dollar bill out to Layla.

  Layla raised an eyebrow at Michael and took the bill, slipping it into her pocket. “Thanks.”

  Michael smiled at her and then lifted the large stuffed animal and sticking it under his arm. “I knew you wouldn’t give up,” he said quietly and then took his daughter’s hand and walked away as Stella shouted her joyful thanks.

  Ashley waited until Michael and Stella were a few feet away before stepping closer to her, twitching her nose distastefully at all the dirt and grease Layla was covered with. “Bribing a little girl with a stupid stuffed animal to like you is pathetic. You’re wasting your time. Stella is my daughter. Remember that,” she spit out and stomped away.

  Layla frowned after the angry woman as her sisters came to stand beside her.

  “She’s right Layla. Bribing Stella in order to get her to like you better than Ashley is really low,” Kit said with a sad shake of her head.

  Jane snorted but jumped in. “Yeah Layla. Kind of tacky. If you really want to bribe Stella, just give her Bubba.”

  Layla grinned and shook her head. “Come on you two brats, let’s go take down the booth. The show is over.”

  After cleaning up and taking down their signs, Jane’s date for the night showed up and helped them stow all the coolers in the back of her car. They waved to Jane and Trevor and then she and Kit hurried home, both exhausted. After showering, they ended the night sitting on beach chairs on their top deck, watching the colorful explosions paint the sky. But when it came time to go to bed, she lay there, not sleeping. All she could think of was Michael’s face right before she’d walked away from him. He’d looked so lost and hopeless. But there was nothing she could do about it. This thing between him and Ashley needed to play out. If she manipulated anything, it would just come back to hurt them in the future.

  Chapter 17 – Sabotage

  Max came by on her way out of town at eight o’clock, just as the sisters were turning on the kitchen lights. Since it was Sunday, they’d had the rare privilege of sleeping in. Max surprised everyone by giving each sister a big hug and a surprisingly sweet smile.

  “I’m so glad I can leave Fircrest knowing you girls have everything in hand. Everyone I talked to at the parade yesterday was excited for you girls to take over. This town is happy to have Belinda’s up and running again, they’re behind you. I won’t have to spend any time worrying about ya. Belinda would be proud. Yes she would.”

  Layla stepped forward, noticing Max’s eyes turning red. “Oh Max, thank you for everything you’ve done for us and for our grandmother. She must have loved you very much,” she said, putting her hand on Max’s arm.

  Max burst into tears, completely horrifying herself. “That’s it. You had to do it. I’m out of here,” Max said and left the bakery with a slam of the door.

  Kit grinned and shook her head. “What a softie. How embarrassing.”

  Jane threw a towel at Kit, laughing, “I think its sweet. She was really starting to grow on me.”

  Layla nodded in agreement and walked over to the cupboard to grab the white binder that held all their recipes. She needed to double check her list of ingredients to make sure they were ready for Monday. “M
ax is one of a kind,” she said, standing on her tip toes to look on the shelf. Nothing there. She frowned and turned around, searching the counter for the white binder.

  “So do you have any interviews set up for counter help tomorrow?” Kit asked as she started doing an inventory of the pantry.

  Jane nodded as she added up the receipts from the booth. “Yeah, tomorrow I have four people coming in later after the bakery is closed.”

  Layla glared at the kitchen. Where was the binder? “Hey guys, do you think Max might have taken the white binder with her by accident?” she asked, turning in a circle while she looked up and down.

  Jane looked up and Kit paused to stare at her. “No, of course not. Besides, she already made copies of all the recipes she wanted for herself. That was last week. We’ve been using the binder every day since then. It’s always on the middle shelf,” Jane said, standing up and walking over to look at the empty shelf.

  Kit frowned worriedly. “Please tell me we didn’t just lose all of our recipes,” she said, hurrying into the front shop. Layla ran upstairs and walked through every room, looking for the large white binder. Nothing.

  She walked slowly down the stairs and back into the kitchen just as Jane hung up her cell. “That was Max. She said she saw the binder on the shelf yesterday morning. She doesn’t have it,” she said quietly as Kit came back in the room, looking grim and angry.

  “Now what?” Layla asked feeling sick to her stomach.

  Jane tapped a pen on her chin. “I think we were robbed. Someone who doesn’t want this bakery to succeed just tried to sabotage us. Lucky for us, I’ve already transferred half of the recipes to my laptop. I thought it would be easier to have a large screen size recipe, instead of looking at faded pieces of notebook paper. Max has already agreed to fax me the other half of the recipes when she gets to San Antonio, but that’s at least two days away. Good thing today is Sunday which means, best case scenario we’ll only be one day without all of our recipes. It’s not like we baked everything every day anyways. And fortunately, I transferred my favorites.”

  Layla sighed in relief as she stood over Jane’s shoulder and watched her pull up a document list of all the recipes she’d transferred. She had over one hundred.

  “Email those to me Jane. That way we’ll have a backup in case someone decides to sabotage us again.”

  Kit leaned against the counter, frowning darkly. “Who would want to sabotage us?”

  Layla and Jane looked at each other. “Alex Foster,” Layla said quietly.

  Jane opened her cell and dialed 911, her fingers tapping madly on the counter top. Within ten minutes, Tate was standing in their kitchen with his partner, Officer Marquette, a short, dark haired man in his forties with a dour, serious cast to his face.

  Tate walked them through the events of the previous day, over and over before walking around the house, looking for a forced entry. Layla blushed bright red when he asked about the security system he had told them to get just a few days ago.

  “That would be my fault Tate. I had it on my to do list, but I just had so much going on this last week with the grand opening and the booth at Fircrest Days.”

  “There’s no sign of forced entry so that means one of you ladies must have left a door unlocked,” Officer Marquette said, looking at each sister one by one.

  Layla groaned and felt like screaming. “I can’t be positive I locked the door after I came back yesterday afternoon to get the rest of the cookies and cupcakes,” she said, looking guiltily at Kit and Jane. Kit looked surprised and Jane looked crest fallen. “But I always lock up. I’ve lived in Seattle for the last four years and I lock everything that has a lock to lock. I don’t even take a step outside without my pepper spray. I must have,” she said, looking at her feet and wondering if she had been so stressed and anxious to get back to the park that she would have forgotten something so important.

  “My fault, I guess,” she said, wishing she could just disappear.

  Tate shook his head at her and reached for his laptop. “Okay, tell me everything,” he instructed.

  The sisters spent the next hour going over everything again including the people most likely to want to harm their chances at success. Since all of their valuables had been left alone up stairs and even the petty cash was still intact, that meant that someone had a very specific motive in breaking in.

  Tate and his partner left shortly after with promises to let them know if they found out anything. By Tate’s expression that wasn’t likely to happen.

  “Well, at least we have a police report on record, so if anything else funky happens they’ll have to take us seriously,” Kit said, massaging her temples.

  Layla nodded and sat down at the counter. “You know what the worst thing is? We don’t have even one bread recipe. We’re supposed to have a delivery of sour dough and focaccia ready for Rob tomorrow morning,” she said, looking at Kit wide eyed.

  Kit looked newly horrified and turned to Jane to verify. Jane nodded sadly. “We’ll look something up on the internet. All we have to do is Google the best sour dough recipe in the world.”

  Kit didn’t look so sure. “Well, I’ve made so many loaves of bread lately I can probably remember most of the recipe. If I have something to work with, I can make a few loaves right now, and tweak things here and there. It won’t be the same, but it might get us through tomorrow,” she said, pacing the small kitchen frantically.

  Layla sighed as she stood behind Jane, who was already clicking on Google and typing in the words: Sour Dough Bread. Within minutes they had a recipe from a mom blog, one from a restaurant in California and a gourmet online magazine for food and wine fanatics.

  “Let us help Kit,” Layla said, grabbing an apron.

  Kit shook her head. “No, you guys go to church. I need total quiet so I can concentrate. But thanks,” she said pulling her red hair back in a ponytail and looking as if she were going to war.

  Jane frowned but nodded. “Okay Kit. You’re awesome for trying you know. Even if it doesn’t work and we have to tell Rob what happened, you’re amazing.”

  Kit grinned quickly and then shooed them out of the room.

  Layla grinned as she and Jane walked up the stairs to get dressed for church. “You know I don’t think Kit’s been to church in years. She probably planned this just so she wouldn’t have to go with us.”

  Jane laughed and shook her head. “Nah, I don’t think so. I think she’s changing Layla. She used to be so wild and rebellious but now there’s something’s different about her. Haven’t you noticed? It’s like she’s really trying to be better. Well, not better. . ., different. Oh crud, what word am I looking for Layla?” Jane asked as she paused at the door to her room.

  Layla smiled and thought about her fiery little sister. “She’s becoming the woman she was always meant to be. That’s what I think,” she said, knowing it was true.

  Jane grinned. “You’re right. Beat ya ready,” she said and then disappeared through her door.

  Chapter 18 – Snagged

  They went to church twenty minutes later and sat in the very back. After the service was over, Layla was surprised at how many people came up and introduced themselves to her and Jane. Everyone seemed to already know who they were too. She smiled at Jane and squeezed her arm. Jane was in her element. She’d spent so many years shy and reserved but she was making up for it now.

  As they walked home from church, Jane chatted about all the people she’d met. The sisters had been invited to go boating with all the singles next weekend. Jane was determined to be there. Layla was determined to be busy that day. She was done with the single scene.

  “Did you see Michael and Stella sitting with Ashley?” Jane asked her as they walked up the front steps to the bakery.

  Layla nodded trying not to let her smile slip. “I did.”

  Jane’s eyebrows snapped together. “The way she kept running her hands through his hair was kind of annoying and super inappropriate. Hello, we’re all i
n church,” she said irritably.

  Layla shrugged. “If he didn’t like it he could have told her to stop,” she said dryly with just a hint of anger.

  Jane rolled her eyes. “I think he was telling her to stop. She just kept doing whatever she wanted to though. And poor Stella. She kept wanting to sit on her mom’s lap and Ashley kept pushing her off. Who does that?” Jane asked grumpily, opening the door.

  Layla sighed, able to see that maybe Ashley wasn’t very comfortable yet with all the physical affection that came with having a child. Jane was being a little harsh. But still.

  “Jane, she can’t just jump into motherhood within days of being around her child for the first time in years. It’ll take time,” she said calmly.

  Jane snorted. “That woman is a witch. Period.”

  The smell of fresh baked bread hit them in the face as they stepped through the door and Layla had to pause as she closed her eyes and breathed in. “If it tastes half as good as it smells, then Kit just pulled out a miracle.”

  Jane squealed in delight and ran back to the kitchen. Layla followed more slowly, walking in just as Kit pulled out a metal tray of bread, smiling triumphantly.

  “Check it out guys. This is what a masterpiece looks like,” she said, grinning proudly.

  Layla joined Jane at the counter as they stared at the beautiful golden brown loaves of bread. “They look perfect, but there’s always the taste test,” she said looking around for a knife.

  Kit pulled off her oven mitts and leaned against the counter. “I made a few experimental loaves, but I wanted to test the amounts in a bigger batch. We can test this one in a few minutes, but I can already tell you it’s going to be heavenly.”

  Fifteen minutes later as they tasted slices of the sourdough, Layla grinned in amazement. “The texture is incredible and the flavor is so intense. How did you do it?” she demanded.