“I don’t care. He needs me!” My heart squeezed and my chest felt like a vise was around it. I wanted to go to him, soothe his hurts and apologize for being such an ass. Even though I still needed to get to the bottom of what had been happening between us, I should have given him the benefit of the doubt and let him explain why he kept disappearing on me when things got heated.
“Let me go first. I’ll cool him down, get him to see reason and talk him through his pain over Frank.” He gritted his teeth. “Frank’s a good man. Married, three kids all under the age of ten. Needs this job. Fuck, this has got to be hurting Ky. I’ll let you know when he’s calmer.”
Since I didn’t know Kyson’s moods just yet, I nodded. It was the only thing I could do.
Lincoln bolted out the door but not before grabbing Jasper’s hand and giving it a squeeze. That was sweet. I wanted that for my best friend. Then again, I wanted that for me, too.
“Izzy, this is not your fault. Heck, it’s my fault for attacking him the second he entered,” Jasper said with genuine sadness.
“No, you were just trying to protect me. I get it. I’d do the same. And we had no idea what he was dealing with. Now I just feel like a tool and I don’t know what to do or how to fix this. I mean, what if I’ve ruined everything between us by not trusting him to share whatever it is that was so important to him?”
Jasper wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me into the main room. The space was finally taking shape. All of the old bakery furniture and displays had been gutted and removed. Wiring hung from different spots in the ceiling that the guys had prepared before they plastered it and set the lighting. The walls had been stripped of the old siding and was now primed a pristine white.
“Let’s look at our samples again and put some on the wall to make a final decision. We can start painting tomorrow if we do.” He urged me toward the table that had all the paint chips and small sample paint cans sitting next to them.
For the next half hour we debated the merits of leaving the bakery white, versus painting it pink or peach. Eventually, we decided on peach walls we’d accent with words painted in gold to inspire patrons to eat our treats. Words like cupcake, cookie, donut, sprinkles, delicious, tasty and sweet.
We were cackling about the word titillating when the door behind us opened and a little brown-haired, blue-eyed girl of about five or six entered all alone.
Jasper and I looked at one another and then back at the girl.
“Are you the cookie lady?” she asked and smiled brightly. Her pigtails swayed as she looked at me with big eyes. She was quite possibly the cutest little girl I’d ever seen.
“Hi, sweetheart, where’s your mama?” I asked softly.
She pursed her lips then twirled in a perfect circle on her pink Converse and stopped as though she was winded. “I don’t have a mama. I have a daddy, a Pop, a Nana, an Uncle Vince, an Uncle Linc.” She grabbed one of her pigtails and spun it around her finger. “And a whole bunch of uncles at the bike house.” She beamed.
Uncle Vince. Uncle Linc.
“So are you?” she repeated.
“Am I what?” I walked over to her and crouched down to her level.
“The cookie lady. Daddy said that the prettiest woman with fire-red hair made cookies for me. I ate them all. Can you make me sugar cookies with frosting? Those are my very favorite.” She licked her lips as if she was imagining herself eating one right now.
“What’s your name, sweetie?” I asked again.
She smiled as the door opened behind her and Razor, Kyson’s dad, entered.
“Girl, I told you to slow down. Your pop can’t move that fast in his old age!” he teased. Razor picked the little girl up and put her on his hip as though he did it regularly, then tickled her belly.
She howled with glee. “Pop-Pop, is this the cookie lady?”
He nodded. “Yep, peanut, this is Isabeau. Daddy’s girlfriend,” he said as if it wasn’t the biggest freakin’ news of my entire life. Aside from finding out I did in fact have a mom, and two sisters and had inherited a fortune from a man I’d never met of course. So it wasn’t the biggest news exactly, but it was pretty freaking crazy.
I opened and shut my mouth but all that came out was, “Wha, wha, wha...”
“Hi, sweetheart. I’m Jasper.”
She waved at Jasper. “Hi, Jasper.” Then her eyes got big. “Ohhhhhh, you are the boy my uncle Linc likes!” She clapped her hands and grinned. “I heard my nana talking all about a boy that Uncle Linc looooveeeeesss and his name is Jasper,” she confided.
Jasper stepped closer. “Loves, huh? Tell me more, precious?”
“Jas,” I whispered, my heart pounding out of my chest.
“Izzy, honey, is Kyson or Lincoln here? Nana has a bad case of the flu. Came on after she picked up our peanut from kindergarten. By the time she got home she was sweatin’ and burning up with a fever. She called me to take care of my granddaughter but I’m working on a bike that has to be done by me and me alone. She doesn’t want her getting sick. You understand, yeah?”
I nodded numbly, my eyes glued to the little girl. Her eyes were the exact same shade as Kyson’s; her hair, too. She didn’t have the same nose or mouth, but the girl was definitely a Turner.
“Of course. No matter what, we can take care of her. Kyson and Lincoln are out back. One of their men got hurt...”
“Who?” he asked.
“Someone named Frank, but I don’t know him...” I let the words fall away as I continued to stare at the child. A marching band could have paraded down the street and my attention would not have been swayed from taking in the tiniest detail of the little girl and comparing it to her father.
“Shee-it. Frank’s one of my brothers. He okay? The club will want to know if they don’t already,” Razor grumbled and set the girl down.
I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Where’s the boys?” he demanded gruffly.
“Out back.” I hooked a thumb in the direction he needed to go.
He immediately addressed his granddaughter. “You be good for Izzy, okay, baby? Pop-Pop’s gonna go talk to Daddy and Uncle Linc, but I’ll make sure Daddy or Uncle Linc come and get you soon.”
She nodded then spun around in a circle, watching her yellow dress flutter out as she did so.
“You got her?” he asked.
“Yeah, definitely,” I answered on autopilot.
He beat feet to the back of the room where the kitchen was and disappeared.
Jasper’s eyes widened and he put a hand to his chest, his face set in shock.