I winked and returned his smile. “I could never be upset with you, Able Baker Brady, but I would appreciate if you’d let a bitch have a little bit of mystery about her, eh?”
He snorted and saluted me, flour floating through the air from his fingers. “You got it, sarge.”
I laughed aloud and realized how long it had been since the bakery was filled with our laughter. That used to be the only sound you heard other than the drumming beat of the mixer or the timer going off on the oven. Now, there was a pervading silence to the place I worried we couldn’t fill. Taylor passed me on her way back to the front and patted my shoulder.
When I got to the office, I was surprised to see the disarray. “What’s going on here?” I asked Hay-Hay as I sat in the chair across from the desk, piled with papers.
“I thought about what you said last night, and you were right. I can’t just kick you out of here and expect you to be okay with that. What I can do is make this office functional, so you have a place to manage the business better. My crap is always strewn around here, which makes it hard for you to find anything. I have to do better.”
I motioned at the paperwork while I sipped at the coffee Taylor had brought for us. “Seeing this, I know you’re right. We do have some work to do if we want to get this place running smoothly again. It’s been neglected for too long. The majority of that is my fault.”
“No, you were just stretched too thin, and that’s on both of us. Should we have seen this sooner and done something about it? Yes. The problem is, we were both so damn busy doing our jobs that we didn’t have time to stop and think about how to make life easier.”
“You must have found the time somewhere.”
She shook her head and looked to the ceiling. “No, I was forced to see the light, too. I, um, had a scare,” she said, looking around me to check the doorway.
I leaned forward and stared at her under my eyebrows. “A scare?”
Her eyes rolled to break contact with mine. “A pregnancy scare,” she clarified.
I hopped once in my seat and squealed. “What? And you didn’t tell me?”
She held her finger to her lips. “Shh, geez. I said it was a scare, not that I was. I’m not, for the record.”
My shoulders slumped back into the seat. “I don’t know how to feel now. I can’t wait for you and Brady to have a little one!”
“And we will, when the time is right, and things here are in a better place.”
“But, the scare forced you to see the light?”
Her head nodded up and down in such an exaggerated manner it would have been funny if it weren’t for the fact it wasn’t. “I lost it, Amber,” she said, lowering her voice. “I was a week late, hadn’t even taken a test yet, and he found me sobbing in the bathroom. It all crashed down on me, I guess. After the test came back negative, and I could breathe again, he forced me to talk to him about my reaction. He knew it didn’t have anything to do with the idea of being pregnant, but rather the idea of being pregnant right now. It was at that moment I knew the business was running us instead of the other way around.”
I rubbed my forehead and agreed with a nod. “I came to the same conclusion last night at about three a.m. while staring at the ceiling. That’s why I’m here now. I decided you were right, to a degree, last night. I can’t keep going like this. So, I made some decisions.”
She leaned forward on the desk with her hands folded. “Okay, one of them better include having your leg looked at again, or we’re done here.”
I forced my eyes not to roll and tipped my shoulder up. “I’ll call later and see when I can get in. In the meantime, I’m going to start sorting out this,” I said, motioning around at the mess around me. “I can’t—” My voice broke, and I rubbed my temple, trying to swallow back the tears. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I can’t work out front for a few days. I hurt too much.” A tear ran down my cheek until I wiped it away.
She was around the desk and hugging me before my hand fell to my side. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to make it worse, but I’m desperately worried.”
I nodded over her shoulder. “Me, too. That’s why I’ve avoided the doctor. I can’t any longer, though. I’m in bad shape. I don’t want to make things harder for you, but I’m scared, Hay-Hay. My knee looks atrocious today. Last night, I could still walk with only a cane, but this morning, I can’t do anything without the crutches.”
She leaned back and motioned for me to show her. “I had to wear a dress because I couldn’t even get pants on.” I pulled the dress up, and her eyes widened.
“Brady!” she yelled in a voice that told me how scared she was.
“Don’t bother him,” I hissed. “There is absolutely nothing he can do.”
He skidded to a stop at the door and didn’t get to ask what she needed before his eyes landed on my knee. “God almighty, Amber.” He took a step in the door. “You have to see a doctor.”
“I will,” I promised, my head nodding. “It wasn’t like this last night, so something has changed.”
Haylee looked up at Brady. “Would you get some ice for it? She can ice it while she’s sitting here. It won’t help the underlying problem, but it might make it feel better.”
He promised he would and left the office, while she hugged me again, rubbing my back and rocking me gently. “You took care of
