Chapter 2
Chapter Two
DANIKA
It felt like I’d been thrown back in time when I glanced out the window and spotted Leo Drake climbing out of his truck across the street.
Sure, I was standing in a different room and staring out a different window, and back then there hadn’t been two children with him, but the feelings I was suddenly experiencing were all the same.
It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that an occasion such as this would arise. I knew from talking with Jed when I’d check in on him that his son and grandkids visited frequently but I still hadn’t been expecting it, as ridiculous as that seemed.
I’d seen the Drake children around town plenty. They’d come into Muffin Top with their mom or dad on plenty of occasions, and before their parents’ divorce, it wasn’t uncommon to see the four of them out as a family. They were two of the most beautiful kids I’d ever laid eyes on.
I was pulled from my trip down memory lane by the sound of my mother’s frustrated voice ringing from the back of the house. “For the love of all that’s holy, Cal, will you just step the hell away from my stove?”
My father’s voice carried after, just as loud. “I’m just tryin’ to help, woman.”
I pulled my lips between my teeth and bit down to hide my smile as I moved down the hall to the kitchen.
“The day I ask you to help me cook is the day you need to check me into a mental hospital, ’cause clearly, I’ll have lost my damn mind.”
“Table’s all set,” I said, interrupting the argument they’d had almost every single night for as long as I could remember.
My father, God love him, had a gift for numbers, making him one of the most sought-after accountants in town.
However, he was a disaster in the kitchen.
That didn’t mean he didn’t try on a nightly basis to help Mom out wherever he could.
Unfortunately, he usually ended up wrecking the entire meal in the process.
Personally, I always thought it was the sweetest thing.
When I was a teenager, if I wasn’t wishing for Leo Drake to notice me, I was hoping to find a guy who’d love me enough he’d want to help me with something as simple as making dinner just to lighten my burden .
. . even if he was unbelievably bad at it.
“Dad, why don’t you grab drinks, yeah? I’ll have a sweet tea. ”
“Good idea, Button. I’ll get right on that.” Dropping the spatula he was using to stir the contents of the sauce pan—man, he was lucky he was handsome—he started toward the fridge, pausing long enough to bend his neck and place a kiss on my temple before making everyone’s drinks.
“Thanks, darlin’,” Mom said once we were alone in the kitchen.
I grinned and shook my head good naturedly. “I don’t understand why, after all these years, you two still fight over this almost every night. I figured one of you would have just given up by now.”
“Keeps things spicy,” she replied, stirring the contents of the sauce pan with the correct utensil. “Tiny arguments like that can be healthy. Keeps a relationship from going stale.”
My eyes went wide with bewilderment. “So you guys fight on purpose?”
She turned to me with a cheeky grin. “When you’ve been married as long as we have you do whatever you can to keep that fire alive. You’ll understand one day.”
On cue, my dad reentered the kitchen, moving straight to my mom and fitting his front to her back. His hands hit her hips, and she let out a little giggle as he bent to press a kiss against the side of her neck.
On top of the daily arguments about cooking, they’d been like this as well, openly affectionate and loving, for as long as I could remember. That was another thing I’d always wanted; someone who just had to touch or kiss me whenever I was close.
I loved seeing my folks as they were just then; I wished I had someone who looked at me the way my father looked at my mom.
“All right,” Mom said, clapping her hands. “Dinner’s ready. Let’s eat.”
I was comfortably full thanks to my mom’s incredible pork roast with mashed potatoes and green beans. Not to mention the soft, silky cream puffs I’d provided for dessert.
Dinner had been just as enjoyable as always, with one small exception.
As it happened every couple weeks when I came to visit my parents, Mom talked about setting me up with some man or another, going on about wanting me to give her grandbabies before she got too old to enjoy them.
This week it was another accountant who worked for my dad.
She swore up and down he was just my type: young, handsome, well educated, with a great sense of humor.
There was just one problem. As terrible as my dad was at cooking, my mom was just as bad at fixing me up.
I could count the number of bad dates I’d had on one hand, but that was more than enough.
Fortunately, Dad was skilled at changing the subject without her even realizing, and the rest of the evening went off without a hitch.
“All right, guys. I’m off.”
“Night, Button,” my dad called from the living room where he was, no doubt, camped out in front of the TV watching some game. “Love you.”
“Love you, back.”
I’d just slipped my arms into the sleeves of my light green puffy down jacket when Mom came rushing from the kitchen, clutching the plastic container against her chest that held the rest of the cream puffs we hadn’t eaten.
It should be said that I might have had a teensy problem baking on a smaller scale, so there was always way too much left over.
“Before you take off, do me a favor, would you? Run the rest of these over to Jed. If they’re in the house, I’ll eat every damn one, and my thighs can’t afford it.”
“But . . .” I trailed off as I shot a panicked look out the window, although I didn’t need to. I was perfectly aware of the fact that he was still across the street, because I’d been sneaking glances all evening. “Maybe you should do it later. He has company.”
She waved off my objection with a firm, “Oh, nonsense.” But I could see something working in her expression.
The woman was up to something, and I didn’t have to wait long to find out what that was.
“You know Leo; I’m sure it would be no big deal.
By the way, I hear he’s finally put himself back on the market. ”
Oh, I was well aware he’d entered the dating game.
The rumor was, up until just a few months ago, he’d gone outside of town to get him a little somethin’, somethin’, and it became clear to everyone when his attention shifted from one-night stands to something more, because the first woman he turned his attention to was my friend.
It hadn’t worked out, mainly because she was still crazy in love with her husband, and they were now living their happily ever after with their adopted daughter, but it had still stung like hell.
I mean, after all, I’d been standing right there when he first made his move on Tessa, and I hadn’t even been a blip on his radar.
“What’s that have to do with anything?” I asked, lifting a skeptical brow.
“Oh, nothing,” she replied, her tone light and airy. “Just stating facts. You’re single. He’s single. . .” She trailed off, lifting a brow.
“Mom, don’t start,” I groaned.
“Fine, fine. I’ll stop. I’m just sayin’ .
. . he’s grown up into a very fine man.” She lifted her hands in a placating gesture when I opened my mouth to snap at her.
“And that’s the last I’ll say of it. Consider the subject closed.
” I knew better than to believe her. If the subject was closed, it was only closed for now.
She reached up and pulled my hair from where it had been tucked into my jacket, arranging it around my shoulders like she’d done since I was a little girl before placing a kiss on my cheek. “Now run those over and drive safe. I’ll see you soon, love.”
Before I knew it, I was all but shoved out of the house.
The door swung closed and I heard the click of the lock engaging.
Mom was getting her way simply by giving me no other choice.
Hell, she’d just locked me out of the damn house.
I guess I could’ve just taken the rest of the cream puffs home, but I had a sneaking suspicion that she was watching me just then to see if I climbed into my car instead of heading across the street, and she wouldn’t hesitate to call me out on it.
With a resigned sigh, I started down the walkway, struck with a sense of déjà vu.
I’d been to the Drake house plenty of times in the years since Jed’s stroke, but I hadn’t made this particular walk since I was thirteen years old.
I could still see fifteen-year-old Leo’s heartbroken face in my mind, clear as day.
I could still hear the ping of the bat against the tree and feel his pain as I got closer.
That magnolia tree, while still thriving and even bigger than it was back then, now had divots in the trunk.
But most of all, I still remembered exactly how I felt about him, even all these years later.
It was as if I was still that same, shy, lovestruck girl I’d been back then.
It was ridiculous how just the thought of seeing Leo made my hands tremble so badly I had to clutch the container tighter to keep from dropping it.
The sun had already begun its decent before I left my parents’ house, making the sky a dark purple as I took the steps up to the front door.
The porch light was on, casting everything in a warm, amber glow.
I lifted my hand to knock, hoping it was Jed who answered, but when the door swung open, I saw Whitney’s mini-clone standing in front of me with big, inquisitive blue eyes.
“Hi,” she chirped, her lips pulling into a beautiful grin.
“Hi,” I returned, feeling my own face mimic her infectious smile.
“You’re the lady who owns Muffin Top, right?”
“That’s right. I’m Danika. But everyone calls me Dani.”
“I’m Macie. Everyone just calls me Macie. I don’t have a cool nickname like you.”
My chest warmed as I looked at her. She was just the cutest! “Well, I happen to think your name’s really pretty. And it fits you perfectly.”
Her beam grew more pronounced, and I could see now just how hard Leo’s life was going to become as soon as his daughter reached dating age. “Your lemon raspberry bars are like, the best!” she said loudly, her enthusiasm making my smile grow even bigger.
“I’m glad you like them, sweetheart. I was having dinner with my folks across the street, and my mom asked me to drop these off for your grandpa.” I lifted the plastic container to eye level. “They’re my cream puffs. I always make way too many and she thought he’d like the extras.”
Her eyes grew round with excitement as she looked at the fat, puffy pastries in the Tupperware. “No way! Awesome!”
She took the container from my hands and held it up, staring with a look of awe on her face so extreme I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a bit of drool on her chin.
“I just wanted to drop those by. I’ll leave you guys to—”
“Baby girl, who’s at the door?” I heard a husky, masculine voice ask from deeper inside the house, before I could finish my sentence.
A second later Leo rounded the corner and came into sight, followed closely by his father and son, and just like that, the butterflies that had been lying dormant in my belly woke up.
“Dani, sweetheart!” Jed called out. “Twice in one night? How’d I get so lucky?” He came up beside his granddaughter, smiling like it had been months since he’d seen me, not just hours, and pulled me into a hug.
“She brought cream puffs,” Macie decreed, followed quickly by her brother’s, “Sweet.”
I pulled back, trying to tamp down the fire in my cheeks as I looked anywhere but at Leo. “Mom insisted,” I told Jed. “Said if she kept them in the house, she’d eat the rest of them herself. You take these off my hands, you’ll be doing her a favor.”
I felt a strange prickling sensation skate across my skin, forcing my gaze to the side where it slammed right into Leo’s. The corner of his mouth was hooked up ever so slightly in a smirk.
“Well, you’ll get no complaints from me, that’s for sure,” Jed said, and I quickly whipped my attention to him as he placed his hand on Macie’s shoulder. “Go plate those up for us, sugar.”
She quickly turned to scamper back toward the kitchen when her father spoke. “Get a plate for Danika too.”
My eyes went wide. “Oh, no. That’s not necessary,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to intrude. I was just dropping them off.”
“Stop speakin’ nonsense. You’re allowed at my table any time,” Jed insisted.
“No really, I couldn’t—”
“Then it’s settled,” Leo declared, his tone soft yet still somehow full of authority.
“Baby girl, an extra plate,” he repeated to his daughter.
“And I’ll start a pot of coffee.” Then he turned and followed his daughter into the house, leaving me wondering how the hell I’d just been roped into a second dessert with the Drake clan.