Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
DANIKA
“Ithink I might have gone a little overboard,” I mumbled as I looked at the table laden with sweet treats.
Tonight was the first game of the season for the high school’s baseball team, which meant it was also the night of the bake sale.
A huge part of me wanted to back out. I hadn’t seen Hardin in the two weeks that had passed since that run-in outside my parents’ house, and I didn’t want to risk him seeing me there and getting more upset than he already was.
The only reason I decided to go through with it was because I wanted to do my part and help him and his team raise the money they needed.
Sage plopped the container of coffee cake squares on the table and turned to me, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. “You think? I just helped you lug twenty boxes from the parking lot to here. I should’ve made you pay me for my help.”
The folding tables were set up in a cluster near the concession stand, and as I looked around, I noticed most of the people at the tables around me had stuck with one or two kinds of pastries.
I not only had the coffee cake squares but also chocolate chunk cookies, double fudge brownies, blondies, and—only because I knew they’d sell like hotcakes and make the baseball team a buttload of money—cronuts.
I looked down at my table, by bottom lip clamped between my teeth as I realized I’d baked so damn much, you could barely see the surface.
I was just starting to contemplate packing some of the stuff up and taking it back to the shop when I heard a boy shout, “No way! The Muffin Top lady has a table? Awesome!”
He and his friends came running up, and after that, there was a crush of people. The game hadn’t started yet, so everyone was gathered around the tables, buying treats before heading off to the bleachers.
I was in the zone, working alongside Sage and selling one individually wrapped item after another when I heard a familiar voice call out loudly.
“Dani!” I looked up and over, the smile on my face slowly bleeding away when my gaze collided with Leo’s.
I knew I was going to see him. Hell, I’d spent the whole day psyching myself up for it. I’d had myself convinced that I’d be just fine, but the idea of something was never the same as the reality.
He looked just as incredible as always. Even in faded jeans and a long-sleeved tee, he managed to take my breath away.
It didn’t matter what the man wore, hell, he could be marching around in a potato sack and he’d still be the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.
His dark hair, still in need of a cut, blew in the breeze and I was reminded of how soft those strands felt as they slid between my fingers.
I forced my gaze from its perusal and looked up to find him staring at me with a tender expression that hit me right in the chest.
Tearing my focus from him, I let it fall down to his girl as she came rushing to the table with a huge grin on her face.
“Hey, sweetie. How are you?”
“Great! Daddy said you’ve been real busy lately, but do you think we can have our next baking lesson soon?”
“Oh, um . . .”
God, that hurt. No. That killed. I’d had more fun during those hours we’d spent together than I’d had in all the years I’d baked in my kitchen at Muffin Top.
I loved my kitchen, but teaching her everything I knew, and watching as she did her best to soak up every single thing with such enthusiasm filled a place inside of me I hadn’t realized was empty.
“Honey, I’m not really sure—”
“It’s just that . . . éclairs are Hardin’s favorite, and his birthday’s coming up soon. He’s turning sixteen and I want to make some for him.”
There was no way I could possibly say no to that.
Her heart was so big and so full of kindness, of course she’d want to learn to do something strictly for her brother’s sake.
I knew from Leo’s schedule back when we were together that the kids were going back to their mom’s in a couple of days, so I offered, “Tell you what, sweetheart, I’ll talk to your dad, and we’ll figure out a time for another lesson the next time you’re with him. Sound good?”
“Perfect! Thanks, Dani.”
She skipped off after that, having spotted a bunch of friends.
Together, they headed for the bleachers.
I watched after her while keeping Leo in my periphery.
When I noticed him start in my direction, I quickly moved to another group of kids standing in front of the table and started helping them, hoping he’d get the message and walk away.
It had been weeks since our relationship ended, and while he’d texted and called, I hadn’t answered or called back, and every message was left sitting unopened in our text thread, every voicemail unheard.
After a minute, I chanced a peek. He was gone, but Hardin was there, almost right where his father had been standing, staring at me with an expression on his face I couldn’t get a read on.
He quickly glanced farther down the sidewalk, and I followed his gaze, spotting Leo’s back.
When my attention returned to him, his eyes were back on me.
That pressure returned to my chest and with it, the overwhelming urge to cry, but I forced it down, giving Hardin a gentle smile before turning my focus to the people waiting in front of the table.
“Coast is clear,” Sage said few minutes later as I was counting the cash we’d made so far.
I twisted my neck in her direction, feeling my brows pull into a frown. “What?”
“Mini-Leo’s gone. You can stop pretending you’re so busy you can’t lift your head.”
“I wasn’t—”
“You were, honey,” she said softly. “And I can’t say I blame you. But I saw what just went down between the two of you.”
“Nothing went down between us,” I said as I stuffed the cash back into the money box and slammed the lid closed. The game was about to start, so most everyone was in their seats, with only a few stragglers left behind, not nearly enough to get me out of this conversation.
“Well I don’t know what you were seeing, but what I saw was a kid who sure the hell look like he regretted being mean to the sweet, shy, coffee lady.”
“And I think your head’s a bit cracked, because none of what you just described actually happened, weirdo.”
She shrugged and started for the other end of the table. “Whatever you say, but I’m a very intuitive person. So when it turns out I’m right, and it will, just a heads-up, I’m not one to take the high road. I’m throwing that crap right in your face.”
“Why are we friends again?” I asked, but I couldn’t hold down the bubble of laughter that came up with those words.
“Because I rolled into town in my sweet ride, and you instantly saw the cool that was me just like everyone else who crosses my path.”
I wadded up one of the little paper bags I’d brought along to stuff the treats in and threw it at her head, which she easily batted away.
We got hit with another crowd just then, so I got back to business, but I did it feeling the tiniest bit lighter.
I’d been doing my best to keep track of the game, catching bits and pieces when I could. It had been a serious nail-biter, at least for me, who wanted so desperately for Hardin’s team to win, so when the final score showed they’d won by four runs, I’d been over the moon.
Sage and I, along with the rest of the bake sale people had hung around until the very end so we’d be there for the after-game rush, and just as we’d hoped, they crowded the tables on the way out, hopped up on adrenaline after the win.
I was nearly out of everything, feeling proud that I’d cleared the table and helped raise money for the team when a voice spoke up and burst my little bubble.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve being here.”
My head whipped around at the malice dripping from those words, and when my eyes landed on Whitney standing just across the table from me, I got the sinking suspicion something bad was about to happen.
Her face was twisted with anger, her blue eyes throwing so much hate my way it felt like shards of ice pricking my skin.
“Excuse me?”
“Everyone in this town knows who you really are, Dani. They know you’re a slut and a homewrecker. I can’t believe you’d actually show your face here.”
Sage suddenly appeared beside me, her voice laced with anger as she warned, “I don’t know who you think you are, lady, but you need to walk away right now.”
Whitney turned her callous stare on my friend. “No one’s talking to you,” she shot back before returning her fury to me. “It’s bad enough you were screwing my husband, but now you come to my son’s baseball game? Why don’t you just stay the hell away from my family, huh?”
“Lower your voice,” I hissed, placing my palms on the table top and leaning forward.
“You need to turn around and walk away right now. There will never be a time or place for me and you to have any conversation, but especially not now. There are young children all around who don’t need to hear whatever garbage you’re geared up to say. ”
“You think I care about any of that?” she snapped, her voice rising with each word.
She’d had her little posse behind her since the start of this, the same girls who’d followed Whitney around like brainless lemmings all through high school, and even they were starting to look uncomfortable as a crowd began to form around us and people started whispering.
“Well I care,” a woman nearby declared. “Not only ’cause I don’t want my child hearin’ your trash mouth, but ’cause you’re full of it, calling Ms. Parrish names.”
Whitney pinned the woman with an icy glare before turning back to me. “You need to back off. Stay the hell away from my husband and kids.”
“Ain’t your husband anymore,” a man in the crowd stated. “And after this little scene, I can sure see why.”
“Mind your own business!” Whitney clipped at him.
“You made it our business when you started your little drama,” another woman said. “And just to say, poor taste, tryin’ to pick a fight at a high school baseball game.”