Chapter 12 #2
"No, Ma'am. We took it down.” He added, “Had to pry it off with a metal spatula and took the paint off with it.”
Lily threw her head back and laughed just like Grace did in the rare instances she laughed.
As he beat eggs fluffy in a bowl, he asked Lily, “What makes your mom laugh? Like really laugh hard?”
She thought for a moment. “My Auntie Rose brought over movies once to play on the TV, and Mommy laughed until she cried.”
Interesting.
"Can you make my omelet shaped like a heart?"
He frowned. "I’m not sure, but for you, I’ll try."
Lily beamed at him, and he felt about ten feet tall.
He cooked the omelet and then used a sharp knife to carve the folded omelet into a heart shape.
It came out lopsided and too fat. But Lily inspected the result on her plate and declared it perfect because hearts were never the same shape. She announced that he could make her an omelet like this every morning.
A sudden, and startling, urge to do it for her every morning for the foreseeable future shocked him into stillness. He almost burned the toast because he was so distracted by it.
He spread butter and jelly on a piece of toast and added it to her marginally heart-shaped omelet.
"Reno, are you going to be at the wedding?"
"What wedding?"
"The one Mommy’s baking a cake for. In June."
"I don't think so, Sweetheart. People have to be invited to a wedding to go to it, and nobody’s invited me to a June wedding, yet.”
"Mommy made little cakes for us to taste so we could pick out the flavor of the big cake. My favorites had raspberry filling and lemon curd. The big one is going to be raspberry."
"Sounds good."
"If you get invited, will you dance with Mommy at it?"
"Would she like that?"
"Mommy doesn't dance." Lily took a bite of her omelet. "But I think she could. Can you teach her?"
"Maybe," he said, after a moment. "We'll see."
"Okay." She took another bite. "This is good."
Boone was already at the auto shop when Reno pulled in after dropping off Lily at preschool. The Mustang was backed into the bay facing Main Street, hood propped up, the garage door rolled all the way up so the morning light streamed in.
Boone came out of the office. "You're later than yesterday."
"I had munchkin breakfast duty."
"How’d that go, Bachelor Man?”
“I figured out how to make a heart-shaped omelet,” he answered dryly.
“Make it regular and then cut it to shape?” Boone asked knowingly.
“Yep.”
“My five-year old Olive will eat anything heart shaped or unicorn shaped.”
Reno winced. “You’re a better man than me if you can make eggs look like a unicorn.”
“The trick is to use a sausage link for the horn. You can stick it on any blob of eggs and call it a unicorn.”
Reno grinned and Boone grinned back.
“You like being a dad?” Reno asked.
“It’s fantastic. I love Charlotte so much it hurts, but I swear, I love the twins more. “
Reno stuck his head under the hood and asked without looking over at Boone, “How did you know you were cut out to be a father?”
“I didn’t. But there’s this switch in your brain that flips on. Suddenly, you realize you’d do anything for these tiny humans, go to the ends of the earth for them, die for them without batting an eyelash. It’s wild.”
“How do you know when the switch is flipped?”
“Oh, you’ll know. Trust me. One day the kid’s a mildly entertaining nuisance, and the next, the kid’s yours. Like yours. And all you want to do is make them happy and keep them safe and make sure nothing bad ever happens to them.”
Boone handed him a cup. Reno took a sip and immediately recognized coffee from the bakery. He glanced at Boone, who shrugged.
"Charlotte brought me a thermos from Grace’s place."
"Charlotte's making my morning rounds for me, is she?"
"She’s doing what she always does, which is checking on all the people she loves whether they want her to or not. You want the news she picked up, or do you want to stick to small talk?"
"News, please."
Boone sat on the upside-down crate he kept in this bay for exactly this kind of conversation.
"Mary was at the bakery when Charlotte stopped in, and she cold tell something was upsetting Mary. Charlotte got it out of her in about ninety seconds. Mary's sister, Eileen, works the front counter at the new fancy bakery over in Apple Pie Creek. The owner, who doesn’t work in the bakery, she just owns it, had a fit Saturday afternoon. Threw a chair at the back wall of the kitchen. Apparently, it’s not the first time the owner threw a tantrum. "
Reno’s mental antennae went on full alert. Was the Apple Pie Creek bakery experiencing the same sort of harassment Buns ’N’ Roses was? Aloud, he asked, "Did Mary’s sister say what triggered the owner’s anger?"
"The McAllister wedding pictures made the Saturday edition of the Apple Pie Creek newspaper, and there was a big shot of Grace’s cake with a caption under it saying the guests raved that it was even more delicious than it looked.
Apparently, the owner threw the newspaper at her head baker right before the chair went airborne. "
“Mm,” Reno replied, his thoughts racing.
"How's Eileen doing?"
"According to Mary, she’s pretty upset. But she’s got rent to make and is helping put her fiancé through nursing school.
She needs the paycheck and can’t quit the job.
She says the baker who runs the store day to day is great.
It’s just the owner who’s awful. But apparently, the owner’s not around much.
She’s rich and likes to tell her rich friends she owns a bougie, Parisian-style pastry shop but doesn’t like actually doing any work to run it. "
"Mary should tell her sister to keep her eyes open for anyone trying to vandalize the store or harass the employees."
Boone nodded. "Charlotte already told Mary that exact thing, and Mary said she’ll relay it to Eileen."
"Thanks."
“Any chance Charlotte asked Mary to keep her updated if Eileen does see anything weird around her shop?”
"She did. Charlotte looks out for her own, and she adores Grace. All the WoWS do. They worry about her, you know.”
Reno’s head jerked up, and he banged it painfully on the hood. Rubbing it, he straightened and looked at Boone. “Why are they worried about her?”
Boone shrugged. “She’s fragile. Tender-hearted. Charlotte says Grace is too good for this world. That she’s na?ve about there being anything or anyone bad and would be an easy mark if someone wanted to take advantage of her. And the ladies worry that something bad would break her.”
Huh. He commented to Reno, “She survived losing her husband tragically. And before that she survived him having a dangerous career. And weren’t she and Liam apart for a good chunk of his time in the Navy?”
“Yeah,” Boone said slowly. “But have you looked at her? A strong wind would blow her away. I get why the other ladies are protective of her and worry that she can’t take care of herself.”
And with that, Boone lay down on his back on a mechanic creeper and rolled himself under the pickup in the bay beside the mustang.
Reno pulled out his phone and texted Cooper and Wheeler the information about the Apple Pie Creek bakery.
He went back to work unbolting the water pump from the engine block so he could clean and replace it.
He had the water pump mostly reassembled an hour later when Hank strolled into the garage with a paper sack from Buns ’N’ Roses.
“Brought you guys glazed donuts, fresh out of the fryer. They’re still warm. ”
"Charlotte's running a thermos route. You're running a pastry route. What kind of operation is this?" Reno demanded.
Hank shrugged. "Tessa told Dillon to tell me to check on you. Gotta follow the WoWS chain of command, Dude."
He took one of the sticky, sweet donuts from Hank, bit into it, and groaned in delight. It tasted like sugary goodness and melted like air in his mouth.
Reno finished, licked his fingers, and said ruefully to his eldest brother, “What do you want?”
“Can’t a guy bring his brother and his buddy donuts?” Hank retorted.
Reno shrugged. “Sure. But you bringing sweets is Hank for, I’m about to ask you for something.”
“Shouldn’t you be sitting and not standing on your knee like that for long periods of time?” Hank asked in his mildly accusing doctor voice.
Reno sank down carefully onto the crate Boone had sat on earlier and made a mental note not to mention sanding and painting Grace’s dock or repainting her house’s trim.
Hank leaned against the Mustang’s front fender and gestured at the car. "You actually planning to make this thing run?"
"Eventually." Reno waited, silent for hank to spill the real reason he was here.
Hank exhaled hard. "The preliminary hearing in Bozemen went well. The judge gave Lorraine’s parents temporary custody of Madi pending a permanent custody hearing.”
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Reno asked.
“Yes.” A pause. “Madison's coming to visit me. Thursday."
"That’s great!" Reno exclaimed.
"She wants to see the house. Pick a bedroom. She wants to know if the bathroom upstairs is going to be done in time for her to bring her friend Eliza out to visit in August."
"It will."
"It might."
"It will,” Reno repeated firmly. “The three of us will do whatever it takes get it done." He heard the echo of Boone’s words from before about parents doing anything for their kids.
Hank nodded. Then he looked out at Main Street for longer than it usually took him to collect his thoughts and choose his words. Finally, he said quietly, "The Bozeman hearing is in a month."
"That’s pretty fast for a family court. I’m glad you don’t have to wait long to get Madi’s custody sorted out."
"Lorraine's been civil for two weeks. Claims to be off the pills and booze. She’s hired the same lawyer who handled the original custody arrangement and he was sharp then."
Ahh. He saw where this was going, now. Hank wanted him to recommend a really good family law attorney.
"Reno." Hank turned his head and looked at him directly. "I might need you there."