Page 90 of Falling for Her

“Oh. I don’t think you want me in the back, near an oven. I burned frozen pizza,” I tell her. “Then I remembered reading somewhere that you can microwave eggs, and well, news flash, you can’t. Or maybe you can, but you have to take off the shell.” I throw up my hands. “They should have put that warning on the carton. It took me two hours to get the smell out of the kitchen.”

“I promise you that you can do this,” she says. “Go and sit. I’ll bring out something to eat, and then we’ll get started.”

“Fine,” I give in, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I sit with the kids, and Everleigh comes out with some sandwiches for us. The kids eat as fast as they can, so we can get started on this baking adventure. I clean up the table and follow them to the back, where Everleigh has the long wooden table all set up for five bakers.

“Okay, first things first,” she starts, “wash your hands and put on a hairnet.”

“I can do that.” The kids and I wash our hands, and I help the boys with their hairnets before I put on my own. “Now you each get your own Maddie’s apron.” She hands us each a black apron with the shop’s logo on it. “Okay, aprons are on, now step in front of one of the big bowls.”

“Here we go.” I stand in front of a bowl and take a look at the smaller bowls surrounding it—the ingredients are practically already ready for me.

“This is called one-bowl chocolate cake.” Everleigh walks to her own spot and picks up one of the small bowls. “I need you guys to put the sugar in the big bowl. It’s the white one that looks like sand.” She looks at me and I snort. “Then the flour, also white but looks fluffier.” I watch Asa add his flour before adding mine. “Then the cocoa.” She puts it in the glass bowl in front of her. “Then you have this little guy.” She picks up a small stainless steel cup. “It has salt, baking powder, and baking soda.” She adds it to the bowl. “Now pick up your spoon.”

I’m following her directions like my life depends on it, focused so hard on my own bowl that I don’t even look over at Asa anymore. We add the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and boiling water—all measured by Everleigh—mix, and then pour the batter into small cake pans that are pre-greased, whatever that means. While the cakes bake in the oven, she has us make the frosting.

I’m amazed when, an hour later, the cakes are out of the oven and the frosting is ready to be placed on the cakes, after they cool on a wire rack for fifteen minutes.

I look over at her as I carefully frost my cake. “I can’t believe I did this,” I admit to her as she boxes Asa’s cake for him. “Like, never in a million years would I think I would be able to make this.” I point to the cake. “I not only made it, but it looks so good I’m going to actually eat this.”

She laughs at me.

When we get home, I place Asa’s cake in the fridge with mine next to his. The front door opens, and I peek up at the clock, noticing it’s just after three in the afternoon.

“Hey,” I hear Lincoln say, and my heart skips a beat. I try not to show how happy I am that he’s here.

“Dad!” Asa shouts and runs to the front door. “Dad, guess what?”

“What, buddy?”

I hear them both coming my way. I think I hold my breath while I wait for him to come into view. His eyes meet mine and then quickly shift back to Asa, without saying anything to me.

I get a sick feeling.

“We went riding today, and then we baked a cake,” Asa tells him.

Lincoln’s eyes dart to me and then to the stove.

“We didn’t do it here,” I tell him. “We took a class with Everleigh. So all parts of your kitchen are unscathed.” I’m joking, but he doesn’t laugh.

“It’s chocolate, and I tasted the icing, and it’s so good.” Asa jumps up and down. “Can I have a piece now?”

“No, I have to talk to Finley first, and then I’m going to start on dinner,” he says. “Why don’t you go play in the tree house, and I’ll call you when it’s ready?”

“Okay.”

Asa heads for the door, and I want to drag him back here and not let him leave the room. I know what that tone means. I can hear the words already in my head: It was a mistake. We have to forget what happened. Well, the joke is on him because there is no way I’ll ever be able to forget what happened.

Lincoln stands across from me, his hand on the island. Now that I’ve seen him naked, all I can do is picture him naked, which isn’t helping me right now. He waits for the door to close before he looks back at me. “I got some news today.”

My heartbeat echoes in my ears. He found out about Davis and now wants me to get the fuck away from him and his son. Who could blame him? Not me. “I can—” I stop talking when he walks around the island to me.

“Maggie called today. Her trip got cut short.”

“Oh no, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Tim fell and broke his leg.” My eyes widen. “So she’ll be back on Friday, and she wants Asa on Monday.”