Standing By: A Knight's Tale #2 by Claudia Y. Burgoa Read Free Book Online Page A

you,” I offer.
    “Fuck, I need to wake up, I promised to help my little sister today before I leave for Seattle,” Parker says as he finishes pouring batter into the muffin baking trays and heads to the oven.
    “I don’t get the comment,” Hayley says and I agree.
    “Well, usually you’re not up to learning new tricks out of your sweet zone and the two of you are behaving… civilized, which means I must be dreaming.”
    “I’m taking chances, Parks,” Hayley says. “I’d rather learn a few new tricks than become Hayley Roth-Welsh, Attorney at Law; that’ll setback-kill the dream.”
    “Atta girl,” Parker says thrusting his chest out with pride, then he slumps while shrugging his shoulder. “If not, you can always move to Seattle and re-open Pieces of Heaven 2.0 . I’ll love having my little sister close by.”
    Hayley scrunches her nose and begins to hum “Old McDonald” as she turns back to chopping fruit. That’s one weird chick.
    *
    “I thought you said something about being busy at noon, unless you have trouble reading the clock… it’s past noon.” Hayley whispers the last words and then points at the circular clock on the wall doing a poor job of hiding the smirk on her face.
    “Ha, ha,” I ignore her and hand the credit card slip and a pen to the customer in front of me as Hayley cuts some ribbon and makes a pretty bow around the box. “You should have a sticker with your address and phone number or something for the boxes.”
    The customer thanks us, and waves before leaving. Finally, for the first time in two hours the store is empty.
    “It’s on my list,” Hayley pulls a notebook out of the drawer. “Next to renovating the store and right after kicking you out of said bakery.”
    Hayley Welsh wouldn’t be Hayley without those notebooks. She crosses the swinging doors to the kitchen and I decide to follow her. She goes through the motions of taking containers out of the refrigerator, pulling a bowl and mixing everything that she had in those containers in the bowl. That’s when I notice she also has a bottle of vinaigrette dressing next to the containers. Hayley pours some of it inside the bowl and uses tongs to mix it.
    “Lunch?” I ask as she takes the dirty containers to the industrial sink and grabs a fork from one of the top shelves that has cutlery.
    “Yes, want some?”
    Instead of accepting her offer, my curiosity makes me reach for the bowl to see what’s inside.
    “You had a salad last night; shouldn’t you be eating something with more substance?”
    “It’s the easiest thing to cook,” she claims her bowl back, pinches a leaf of baby greens with her fork and puts it in her mouth.
    “Dropping stuff inside a bowl isn’t cooking, you tossed a salad,” I can’t help but laugh at her constricted face. “Child, you’re funny. Now tell me, what’s today’s plan after we close the shop. Do you have time to go through your numbers; I’d like to increase your production and see if my restaurants can carry some of your decadent cupcakes.”
    “The ones you should stop eating?” Per her request, I stopped at number four. Why is she complaining?
    “That’s my cue to get back to work,” she points at the swinging doors and after setting her bowl on the counter, she heads to the front of the shop. Right, the damn bell. I follow behind but as I’m about to cross the doors I spot a guy with a half-smile looking at Hayley with devouring eyes. Instead of making myself visible, I watch.
    “I came earlier, but you weren’t around; did you hire a new guy or is he your boyfriend, Hayley?”
    “Huh?” I wish I could see her face because the little noise isn’t giving me a clue of what she’s thinking.
    “A tall guy, dark hair and—”
    “Ah, you’re talking about my brother.” Hayley interrupts. “What’s today’s craving?”
    “A date but if you’re planning on shutting me down again, let’s go for a double chocolate cupcake.”
    Hayley doesn’t