17. Phoenix
CHAPTER 17
PHOENIX
Valentine’s day at the bakery was a madhouse.
We’d predicted the heightened volume and special orders after we had our grand re-opening, but by noon, I knew it would be the most successful holiday in years. I loved baking and sharing food with my customers, but special occasions were a rush from the time we opened until the end of the day, and the smiles and camaraderie made me grateful I was a part of this community.
The bestsellers were the heart-shaped red velvet macaroons, the brownie bites with the dark chocolate chunks dusted with red icing sugar, and the red velvet cakes with a white chocolate ganache and red glitter hearts for decoration.
I even made a special batch of chili chocolate croissants for Burton and a lemon tart for Luka after we decided we’d rather have a quiet date at home.
With a quick glance at the clock, I blew out a relieved breath as I checked on my last bake, the final products to replenish what we sold out of earlier in the day.
Days where I could experiment with design and taste while keeping the classics for returning customers, and holidays provided ample opportunity to spread my wings, were two of the many reasons I opened the bakery.
Charlotte was perfecting her chocolate creations; and, of course, they were gorgeous. Arthur, who also worked miracles on social media, featured her exquisite creations, which brought in even more business.
With the timer buzzing, I removed the last batch of molten chocolate lava cakes before setting them aside to cool. The decorations lay completed on the stainless steel counter.
Aware of the bakery phone ringing, I ignored it since it was late in the day. Arthur or another employee in the front would answer it. I disliked phone interactions as much as face-to-face ones, so I never answered.
I continued working, pouring heavy cream into the chilled, stand mixing bowl, adding both vanilla and lemon zest until my best friend’s worried face popped through the crack of the swinging door, a frown etched on his face, and my heart stopped.
“Is it Luka and Burton? Are they hurt?” I demanded.
He burst through the door with his hands up in a placating gesture as he nodded. “Whoa, yeah, no. It has nothing to do with your men, but Suzy is on the phone.”
My brows furrowed as I thought about who that might be; a potential new client, or a friend I couldn’t remember making, a bride who wanted to talk about her wedding cake? I don’t think I’ve met a Suzy before.
“Who?”
Arthur let out a short bark of laughter before shaking his head at me, as if I were a child.
“No, it’s the fucking piece of shit who I hope falls into a volcano and feels himself roast alive for several minutes before the inevitable happens and he screams while he dies… well, his wife wants to talk to you.”
I tilted my head as I interpreted everything he said, when my eyes widened and I choked out, “What?”
“Your fuck-of-a-father’s wife is on the phone. For you. And she wouldn’t tell me why she was calling, despite me asking her about a million-gazillion times.”
“And you wonder where I get all my verbal prowess from? Well, fuck! Might as well get this over with.”
In order to calm my nerves, I took one deep breath and let it out before I picked up the phone in the kitchen, knowing Arthur and whoever else was near the front counter would overhear the conversation I didn’t want to have.
“Hello?”
“Phoenix?”
“Yes, Suzy, it’s me. What do you need?”
There was a long pause and shuffling of something in the background before she cleared her throat. The wait seemed interminable as I held in a sigh, not speaking as she gathered her thoughts. Or at least I hope she would get to the point sooner rather than later.
“Your father is in the hospital.”
The bored, monotone way it which she relayed what she most likely suspected might be bad news for me led me to the conclusion that she was holding something back. If my father, who supported her through their entire marriage so she didn’t have to work a day in her life, was close to death’s door, she would be in hysterics.
The reason; there was no way Hale Aalto would leave his fortune to her. If there was any sympathy in my body for her or for my father, I would have conveyed my knowledge of what the man planned to do with his money. But since I didn’t, I hung up the phone and pulled my mobile from my pocket.
After fifteen minutes of searching, I found out the best hospital in the city that dealt with heart problems and was about to call when Luka and Burton burst through the kitchen doors, their frantic eyes searching my face.
I held up my hands and said, “She’s lying. There’s something going on and I’m about to find out what, but it’s not as serious as she made it seem.”
When I started working at Hale’s real estate company, the man listed me as his emergency contact despite being remarried for close to twelve years. I knew he hadn’t taken me off since the man burned bridges wherever he worked and despite our distance; I was still his son. Suzy calling me was a ploy, and since I hadn’t heard from a medical professional, it was all bullshit.
I dialed the main number for Massachusetts General. Two sets of arms wrapped around me and I chuckled, patting both of them on the arm.
“Yes, I’m Hale Aalto’s son, Phoenix Kavka-Horváth, and I’m checking on his condition.”
“One moment, please.”
“ Dr. Bradeem ,” came an unfamiliar voice on the line.
“Yes, Dr. Bradeem, my name is Phoenix. My father is a patient at your hospital and I wanted to check his condition.”
“Ah, yes, Hale Aalto. Your father arrived and checked into the ER at a quarter till ten this morning with complaints of chest pains and numbness in his extremities. We monitored his condition for the next three hours and detected no anomalies in his EKG, blood pressure, or blood tests. After ruling out all possibilities, there is no diagnosis, and I found nothing physically wrong with your father. I wanted to discharge him to rest at home, but Mr. Aalto refuses. He’s insisting you will be there to discharge him and take him home to care for him.”
I inhaled a deep breath to hold in all my frustration at the situation, because the doctor wasn’t to blame, so I pinched my nose and reveled when both men tightened their hold on me.
“For clarification, Dr. Bradeem. There is nothing medically wrong with Hale, nor is there any reason he needs to be in the hospital. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And based on the tests you’ve run and the bloodwork that has come back, is Hale healthy and at this time in no danger of dying?”
I heard the smile in the doctor’s voice when he replied, “No, he is in perfect health and the tests do not show any characteristics of heart problems that would require him to be hospitalized. My professional opinion is that Mr. Hale Aalto is in good shape for a man of his age.”
With a determination that was becoming all too familiar, I said, “Well, Dr. Bradeem, I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today. I will not be making my way to your hospital and discharging Hale Aalto. He’s capable of making it home on his own. But a word of advice, I would get your billing department to charge him double for every single test you and your staff performed, account for all the equipment used, and hell, even bill him per hour for use of the bed he’s in right now because trust me he can afford it, and then kick him out. I’m sorry he wasted your time.”
“Well, that’s a first, but thank you for calling me and giving me the story. This was certainly entertaining.”
With a few more words exchanged, I hung up and sighed out in exasperation.
“Arthur?” I shouted.
I snagged a kiss from both of my men before I strode toward the refrigerator and removed the wrapped sandwiches we would have set out for the lunch rush. But since it was a romantic holiday, customers purchased sweets rather than savory dishes and we had leftovers, a lot of them.
“Yes,” my best friend elongated his answer as the swinging door creaked open.
“I’m making a platter for the staff in the emergency department at Massachusetts General. Can you send Matthew over with the delivery?”
He disappeared through the door and brought back a platter of brownies and the strawberry rhubarb jam filled cookies and started piling them on the tray next to the sandwiches since they were pre-wrapped.
“Oh, and two coffees?—”
“Already on it, boss,” Charlotte said as she set the two boxes filled with our house blend next to the platter.
Matthew, the man who was a ray of sunshine whenever he entered the room and made an out-of-this-world lemon drizzle cake to die for, beamed when he brought out the box of extra chips I’d put aside for staff whenever I fried up batches. “Anything else?”
“Oh, the donuts with the pastry cream and the fruit, please?”
As the group loaded the delivery into the back of Matthew’s hatchback, I jotted down a quick thank you to the doctor and his staff and invited him to the bakery for free food and coffee anytime they were in the area.
I handed the note over and asked, “Can you ask for Dr. Bradeem when you arrive at the emergency department and give him this note?”
Surprising me, Matthew wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, which I returned with a smile.
“Sure thing!” He said as he pulled back and skipped to the driver’s side door.
After my staff scattered, going back to work, Luka asked, “What did you write?”
With a smile on my face, I turned and launched myself at Luka, loving the fact he caught me with a little grunt, but held me against his chest despite wanting an answer to his question.
“It was an apology for my father and a short bit about the food. He and the nurses and other staff have been waiting on Hale and Suzy hand and foot as though the hospital was a fucking luxury hotel, so I thought they might want a treat for dealing with people like my father.”
“Why would he fake a heart attack? I mean, that is… sinister, isn’t it? Fuck, I’ve never liked that man,” Burton snarled.
Rather than disagreeing with him, I laughed and brought him in for a hug.
“I know, handsome, but have you noticed one thing about the situation?”
He shook his head, blowing out a frustrated breath.
“Well, he no longer has any effect on me or my mental health. Rather than panicking when Suzy called, I thought the situation through and listened to my instincts when I realized nothing was as it seemed. The doctor verified what I already knew, and now, I can sue him over the damage to the bakery and trying to ruin my reputation, not to mention his actions came after he told the entire neighborhood he had planned to destroy it. Even if there are no criminal charges against him, I was going to take him to civil court and have him pay where it hurts the most.”
Burton’s lips crashed down on mine and, for a long moment, I indulged in his taste, snagging one from Luka before I reveled in the noises both of my men made when they became intimate.
The door crashed opened and Arthur came through with an eye roll, but giving us the same wide smile whenever he saw us wrapped up in each other.
“Why don’t you take off for the night? Jude is coming soon to take me to dinner and Fergus was our last customer for the night.”
“Oh, what did he get for him and Gio?”
“He wanted the chocolate lava cakes, but I couldn’t help but sneak in those suggestive cookies we couldn’t keep stocked. I made up a couple for him and snuck them in before I taped up the box. They’ll thank me for them later,” Arthur winked.
I leaned forward and kissed my friend on the cheek, earning another growl from Luka, which turned me on to no end. I stripped out of my apron and headed for the front.
“Coming?” Giving both of them a cheeky smile before I sashayed out of the kitchen and past the counter.
When Luka swept me into his arms, I laughed with a lightness that I never found before I’d met these two. After living a life with a tension I carried like a weight around my neck, bogging down my happiness until I couldn’t breathe, I appreciated both men because they accepted me, flaws, quirks, and all.
Despite the cold front moving in the week before, the sun shone as we walked out of the bakery and I lifted my face, absorbing the warmth both inside and out.
“I think you carry me more than I walk on my own, and I’m okay with that.”
Luka jiggled me as he laughed and Burton gave me a tap on my butt, making me anticipate what was to come.
“Was that I groan I heard, Petal? Is spanking going to be on the list of many, many sexual things we have yet to experience?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Nah, spanking isn’t my thing, but you and Luka touching me anywhere and everywhere is an appealing thought. Do you think we’re going to last through dinner without rushing upstairs?”
“No, because I see you’re wearing something bright pink underneath your jeans there, Petal. And if I’m right, we won’t get past the foyer before you’re coming down my throat.”
A whine left my mouth. “But I wanted both of you inside me before I come.”
Luka’s laugh echoed around us as we reached the truck.
“You two do realize we are in public, right? We can’t be sporting boners, much less talk about blowjobs and anal sex.”
“But… bright pink panties, Luka!” Burton all but shouted.
Luka yanked open the passenger side door before sitting me in the center and belting me in. His movements were choppy, which meant he was getting turned on, and I didn’t help when I leaned closer to his ear and whispered, “Lacy, pink, boy panties, holding my throbbing?—”
He jerked back and straightened before he practically shouted, “Okay! If you’re both done tormenting me, why don’t we go home and I’ll show you both what I planned for our first Valentine’s day together.”
The man kissed me breathless, then turned to Burton and, without giving him time, cupped the back of the man’s head and devoured him as if Burton’s mouth was life, and Luka needed to be revived.
I slipped my phone from my pocket and snapped a picture.
“Home?” Luka said, his chest rising and falling with giant breaths.
“Yes, please,” Burton and I said at the same time.
“About time!”
Once Luka and Burton buckled in and we started home, I lay my head against Luka’s shoulder and sighed as Burton’s hand rubbed up and down my thigh.
It was then my cell started ringing with the obnoxious ringtone I assigned for my father’s number. Giving the device a smirk, I dismissed the call before I blocked him, then deleted his contact information.
“That was bold,” Burton sounded pleased.
“Yeah, but I’m done with him. I should’ve cut him out of my life when he went to your business and threatened both of you, but it took him trying to destroy my bakery before I made this decision. Mateo said the evidence is piling up against my father and when he spoke to people who’ve done business with Hale, most of them agreed to submit to a deposition where they’ll tell their experiences of Hale’s bullying business practices. But it’s the money trail that is going to be his downfall. He’s paid off the wrong people.”
“Who’s Mateo?” Burton asked.
“Detective Sandoval.”
“Oh, and you’re on a first name basis with the police detective?” Luka demanded.
“Yes. He’s been by the bakery a few times and despite Charlotte being oblivious to the Detective’s interest in her, I’ve gotten to know the man and like you said that night, we’ve become friends. His schedule hasn’t allowed him time to come over for dinner, but we talk.”
As we pulled into the garage and Luka shut off the engine, Burton leaned around me and laughed at Luka’s disgruntled expression. I swatted his stomach with the back of my hand and smiled when he grunted.
“What?”
I shook my head and leaned over to Luka, capturing his lips in a kiss that reassured, but turned into something deeper. When I pulled back and caught my breath, I cupped his face.
“You will never have to worry about me straying from you or Burton. I’d never jeopardize what we share, lover. I’m not wired that way. The moment you brought me home and accepted me and all my flaws was the day my heart secured you two inside, forever.”