Crispin smiles. “It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it untilYou Know Whogets taken care of,” he says looking at Nate.
Nate nods as if he knows who he’s discussing. I have a feeling I do too.
“Make sure and keep your eye on Josie, Crispin” Nate says leaning down and giving Emma a quick kiss on top of her head and then me a matching one.
“Take care of my girls and make sure she gets all the cupcakes she wants.”
“You’ll change her diapers tonight,” I yell, as he walks out the door.
Nate holds the door open for Pearl as she walks into the bakery, and she turns back, spending a few seconds watching him leave. “That man. I don’t know how you are so lucky to end up with the backside that dude is sporting.”
The word dude coming from the older woman’s mouth is weird and off-putting, but then so are half the things Pearl says.
She sits down at her favorite table and Crispin raises his book, pretending to read again.
“Although if you had seen Roland in his younger days. Tsk tsk tsk. That man was a looker. We used to get it on three times a day.”
“Pearl!” Tabitha says.
Crispin lifts his book a little higher, and I swear his ear turns a shade of red.
Pearl rolls her eyes. “Don’t tell me you aren’t, ladies. If you aren’t, then you are not using your time effectively. You’re young right now. Don’t waste these years of flexibility.”
Anessa wipes her hands on her pink apron and brings over a teacup of water and tea bag for Pearl, setting them on her plate.
“Why don’t you set Emma down with me so she can eat that cupcake she’s staring at like it’s life’s answer to living.” Pearl pats the seat on the other side of her small round table.
I consider it for a second, but then I visualize Emma falling off the chair when she falls into a sugar coma and can’t sit still.
“Make the tough guy hold her,” Pearl says, using her thumb to point back at Crispin.
“Me?” he asks with a smidge of fear.
My eyes light up at the idea. He’d never let anything happen to Emma because Nate would have a fit. “Would you? Please?”
He sighs, resigned to his fate, and closes his book without even bothering to use a bookmark. Then he gets up and moves to the other side of Pearl’s table. I place Emma in his lap and the cupcake on the table and try to turn the other direction so I don’t witness the horror that’s about to happen. I’m not sure this is part of the job these tough guys signed up for when Ridge recruited them.
“Nate sure has taken to her. Hasn’t he?” Pearl asks, dropping her tea bag in the cup of water.
The kisses, baby talk, and the way he talks about Emma. The way she reaches for him when she cries, knowing Nate will give in to whatever her demands are at the time. All the memories bring a smile to my face as I think about how, yes, Natehastaken to her. And she to him.
“He’s been great.” And I think if he was doing it for my sake he would’ve cracked by now. He wouldn’t have gotten up with her multiple times in the middle of night when she was sick.
“What about her father? Is he in her life? Will that become an issue?” Pearl asks.
Tabitha shakes her head, going back behind the counter. “Pearl is not one to mince words,” she whispers before leaving me to the wolf.
“He sees her once a month, sometimes twice. Barry is a very busy with his new girlfriend. When we first split up, he saw her often but now that I’ve moved further away and his girlfriend becomes more demanding, he’s seeing her less and less.” Each visit he drops her off a little earlier on Sunday afternoon.
“I hate men like that,” Anessa says, pulling a knife high in the air. “I want to walk up and tell every single one of them off.” She stabs at the cake, sliding the knife all the way through to cut a piece for Pearl in one fluid motion. Remind me to never upset that woman.
“I can see that.” Tabitha removes the knife from Anessa’s hands, allowing her to put the piece of cake on a plate and walk it to Pearl. “No one give her sharp knives when she’s worked up.”
“Well, it is ridiculous. You meet a guy and give him so much of your life and what does he do?”
“Throws it away for bitches and drugs,” Tabitha hollers and then shrugs and we all look in her direction. “Hey, it happens. Happened to me.”
“Exactly who is your ex?” I ask Tabitha. She’s never given me the whole story.
