Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Baisleigh’s House was like home to me. I was there dropping off a new cake at least once a week.
True to her word, she’d passed out my cards to her customers and was continuing to do so even months later.
Because of her, I’d gotten most of my clientele.
My bakery was ready for pickups, but I’d already scheduled the delivery for a customer who was having a birthday brunch at Baisleigh’s weeks in advance.
“Oh, this is nice.” She admired the two-tier gold cake with speckles of white. The simple design was so eye-catching.
“She’s going to love this.”
“What time is her brunch?”
“It’s in an hour. We’re about to close the section now and get the balloon arches brought out. What’s been going on with you this week?” Baisleigh was forever doing a wellness check, and I appreciated her for that.
“The bakery is ready. I’m not ready for a grand opening or anything, yet, but I can finally service customers in the shop and have them pickup if they’d like. I’m almost ready to hire a delivery driver, but I’m not quite there yet.”
“With the amount of brunches I have coming this fall you will be soon. People are going to be ready to come inside instead of being outside once that Channing cold hits.”
“With the Channing heat, I don’t understand how they’re outside anyway.”
“Me either,” she agreed.
“I have another brunch happening on the twenty-eighth of next month. She ordered the package that includes a cake, too. I haven’t gotten the details.”
Baisleigh was all about business and collaboration over competition.
She added a custom cake option to her brunch options that her customers could choose.
And for the ones who said they’d just get their own cake, she referred a cake lady who happened to be me.
Either way, it was me who was responsible for the cakes in the end. It was a win-win for me.
“When you get them, just let me know. I’m going to get out of your hair. I have some work to do.”
“Let me walk you out,” she insisted, coming from around her desk.
We both stepped out onto the main floor and headed for the door. The smell of freshly cooked bacon usually made my stomach growl, but I was trying my hardest not to barf. I rushed toward the exit so that I could free myself from the fumes, leaving Baisleigh in the dust.
“Call me!” I turned around and shouted as I opened the door. Before I could get the breath of fresh air I craved, I walked straight into someone’s chest.
“My bad, baby girl,” the familiar voice spoke.
I tried to place it but nothing came to me immediately. It wasn’t until I looked up and saw the dark line across his handsome face that I recognized Scar. It had been months since I’d seen him, but his voice was unforgettable. It was as dark and cold as he was.
“Ever?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Uh. Hi.”
“What’s good?”
“I’d love to stay and chat, but my flight leaves in an hour. It was nice seeing you, Scar.”
I didn’t stick around to listen to his reply.
Neither did I care to hear it. I was too focused on my visibly trembling body from the lie I’d just told and running into someone that was so well-connected to my past. He and Dewayne had always been thick as thieves, and at one point, they were thieves.
Scar had always shown me nothing but respect, even more than Dewayne, and he wasn’t the man I was in a relationship with.
Yet, that didn’t stop me from believing that within the next ten minutes, Dewayne would know my location.
That was the point of the lie I’d told, and I hoped it stuck with him.
Visiting Channing wouldn’t be unlikely for me in the event that Dewayne did hear that I was in town.
I just prayed that Scar didn’t leave out the little detail about my flight.
FUCK! I thought as I rushed through the sun’s heat to my Sprinter.
Baisleigh had finally gotten some trees on the edges of the parking lot.
It didn’t matter how far away they were, for once I was thankful for the walk.
With the parking lot being so big and full all the time, it made it hard to see exactly where I was headed.
That meant it was highly unlikely that Scar saw the van when I got inside.
Calm down, Ever. Calm down . Luca was the first person who came to mind, but before I called him, I wanted to make sure that I had a leveled head and my emotions were in check.
When I felt the fresh hot tears on my face, I knew it wasn’t smart to dial his number.
I would only scare him about something that was practically out of either of our control at this point. All we could do was wait it out.
You’re okay , I coached. Seeing just how shaken I was by encountering someone from my past let me know I wasn’t healing as well as I’d imagined.
I was living and thriving, which kept me from dealing with the trauma of my past instead of healing from it.
I felt like I was back at square one, only this time I wasn’t afraid.
This time, I had someone beside me who would make sure that I was safe at the end of the day.
Yet and still, I wanted to continue the peaceful run I’d been on for the last three and a half months.
My girls hadn’t heard an argument since the day I left their father.
The toxicity that he brought to their world ended when we made it to Channing.
They were living in peace and harmony. Dewayne would only fuck that up for us all.
As much as I wanted to act like he didn’t exist, he shared their blood.
I hated that for them and for me. He didn’t deserve such perfection.
Luca had loved those little girls enough for a lifetime in the short time he’d been in their lives.
He was their father. Not Dewayne. It didn’t matter what the DNA said.
I rubbed my sweaty palms against my black leggings, trying to find relief from the elevation of my body’s temperature. My world felt like it was spinning. Hyperventilating with tears running down my cheeks, I counted down from twenty.
Nineteen.
Eighteen.
Seventeen.
Sixteen.
Before I reached fifteen, my cell rang, scaring me to the point of leaping from my seat.
Boop!
My head hit the ceiling of the van and began throbbing immediately. Slightly confused, I removed my cell from my bag and checked the caller ID. Einsenberg’s Smiles was calling. I felt my mouth drain of all its fluids as I answered the call in haste.
“Hello?” I wiped the tears from my face as I tried focusing on what was being said to me on the call.
“Emorey had an accident on the playground. She scraped up her knee pretty badly, and we can’t get her to calm down. We thought maybe we should call you to come pick her up.”
“I’m on my way.”
Without hesitation, I started the engine of my Sprinter and pulled out of Baisleigh’s parking lot.
Of course, I was going to get my Emorey.
She needed me, and I definitely needed her.
I wished that Essence wasn’t at school because I’d be going to get her as well.
Though I didn’t want to overwhelm or scare the girls by projecting my fears onto them, I felt like I needed them more than ever at the moment.
The twenty-minute drive to Emorey’s school only took me fifteen minutes. I used that time to calm my nerves and try to piece myself back together. For five minutes, I’d fallen completely apart.
I’d barely parked the van when I pulled into the parking lot of Emorey’s school and jumped out.
I left the engine running because I wouldn’t be long.
The closer I got to Emorey, the better I felt.
I marched right past the receptionist’s desk and headed for her classroom.
When I entered and found over ten smiling faces and none of them belonging to my baby, panic set in.
“Where is she?”
“Her dad got her already.”
The blood drained from my body as the words left her teacher’s mouth. My chest tightened, and my legs weakened as I tried to form the correct words to convey my message. I couldn’t. The aching of my heart and losing my breath didn’t allow me to.
He’s here . My thoughts crippled me. As Dewayne’s face flashed before my eyes, I became immobile. I could not move and neither could I say a word. As much as I wanted to scream, I just couldn’t. Nothing would come out.
“Is everything OK?” Ms. Debra, her teacher, asked after I’d stared at her for a few seconds, trying to gather myself.
Trying to regain my composure. Trying to regain movement in my limbs.
Once I was able to, I sprinted out the door and headed to the van where my cell phone was.
I had a call to make and it was one I should’ve made the minute I saw Scar at Baisleigh’s, but I was too shaken up to do so.
I was out of the door and headed down the stairs with one person on my mind other than my Emorey.
But before I could make it to the truck to grab my phone and call him, I heard his voice in the distance.
There was no other explanation for his precision other than the fact that he was my soulmate.
I didn’t need to call him because he was already near.
“Ever!”
“LUCA!” I cried, turning away from the van and searching for him.
I could hear him calling my name, but I wasn’t sure where he was. When I closed the door, I finally saw him, and he wasn’t the only person I saw.
“Mommy,” Emorey’s little voice cracked as she ran toward me. “I hurt my weg.”
“Come here, baby,” I begged Emorey, kneeling with my arms stretched so that she could limp into them.
Seeing her immediately released me from the shackles.
Her daddy , I replayed her teacher’s words when I walked into the room and didn’t see her face on the carpet.
Luca. He hadn’t crossed my mind, but that should’ve been the first person I thought of.
Had it been any other day it would’ve been the case, but after seeing Scar, I wasn’t sure what to think about anything.
I wasn’t sure if Dewayne was somewhere lurking or if he was just in town himself.
“Ever,” Luca called out to me.
“What?” I snapped my neck in his direction, fuming.
“What you mean what?” he questioned, not understanding where the strife was coming from.
“Why would you take her from school without my permission?”
“I need your permission to take Emorey for ice cream to make her feel better? Since when?”
“At least you could’ve called and told me!”
“She was having a fit about her knee when I walked in to holler at my mother so I took her with me. I didn’t think it would be a big fucking deal.”
“Well, it is.”
“To who though?”
“To me!”
“Ever, you’ve got to figure your shit out. One minute you want me in their mix and the next you’re telling me I can’t take my baby to get ice cream to help her feel better? Come on, now. What sense are you making? This is me you’re talking to.”
“We’re leaving, Luca. Next time, ask before just taking off with her. I almost had a fucking heart attack when the teacher told me someone had taken her. You’ll never understand!”
I couldn’t control my emotions. My hormones were kicking my ass. Before I was able to close the door in Luca’s face, he caught it with his hand.
“Ayo, you need to chill the fuck out.”
“No, you chill the fuck out. You’re wrong. That’s the end of the story.”
“I ain’t even did shit, but aight. And get ready because I’m taking you to the fucking doctor tomorrow. The only reason I’m letting this shit slide is because this shit got to have something to do with pregnancy. ’Cause right now, you’re fucking tripping and I ain’t feeling it.”
“Let go of my door, Luca.”
“Don’t play with me, Ever. I’ll break this motherfucker and make you ride home with me until you cool the fuck down.”
“Goodbye!” I yelled in his direction.
The sadness in his eyes left my heart aching. When he slammed the door and walked toward his truck, I used the opportunity to get out of dodge. I didn’t want to chance him changing his mind and turning around.
Checking the clock on my phone, I noted the time. There were two more hours left before Essence would be let out of school, but I couldn’t wait that long. I needed her in my sight immediately. Waiting would only cause me more stress.
I headed to my bakery to switch vehicles.
Emorey and I made the exchange as quickly as possible.
She’d finished the cone just before we hopped in because she knew that there was no eating allowed.
I double-checked to make sure everything was locked up from the app.
There was not even a possibility that I’d be returning before the day ended.
I pulled off with Essence as my destination.