“Can I help you?” Jack asks before I can.
“I was just hoping for a few words; I’m withVIP,” he says, flashing some sort of badge or identification.
“How about after?” Jack suggests.
The guy stares hard at Jack for just a moment and then softens back to the agreeable face he walked in here with. “Of course. I’ll catch you outside, then.”
I nod. My mind is a million other places, but I owe this crowd and Quinn a show. I’m not just some guy on stage. I’m Quinn’s brother, and I don’t want anyone to think I don’t deserve the stage.
So, I do what I have always done and bury myself in the music.
Chapter 14 – Baylor
Tangled Up in Blue – Bob Dylan
Halfwaythroughtheweekof Cas being back in LA, and I need some kind of plan to protect my heart for when he will return.
I don’t have one.
What I do have is years of missing Cas, so at least this feeling isn’t anything new.
I push through the bright glass door that leads to Sweetness, Theo’s bakery. This is my favorite part of Bear Valley. The part any visitor has been to. Right next to the lifts, past the ticket windows is Black Diamond, with Bish and Quinn’s place above it. At this end, farther from the lifts, is Sweetness. Between the two are all the things you can imagine. Retail spaces, or places like Maxine’s coffee shop, and ski-specific shops on the ground floor of each building with Mann properties condos above them.
Kids laugh as they play giant Jenga set up by one of the fire pits that are permanent features along the walkway. An oversized chess set is tucked into an alcove.
I forget sometimes that I live and work in a resort. Then, I come to this side of town and it all comes back to me.
Sweetnessis busy and cheerfully noisy when I enter and that shakes me from my spinning thoughts. Theo’s bakery is popular, almost always packed, and has even begun offering mobile orders to keep the lines down and has staff dedicated just to that.
Theo knows efficiency, though, and even on a busy morning, the line moves like he was trained by Chick-fil-a.
I’m not sure why Theo asked me to come by today, but finding no Theo out front, I wave to the workers and they gesture me to the back.
Theo’s kitchen is bright and airy, organized within an inch of its life. There is a table to the side though, that looks like it should be in someone’s home kitchen instead of a bakery. This is where Theo plans, designs, and consults with clients, but today his things are put away and Perrin, Bishop, and Theo sit there, all with coffee and a tray with a mix of Theo’s baking plated artfully in the center.
I stop short, watching them talk for a minute before I am seen from around the corner.
My brothers and I still do things with just each other. It never occurred to me that the significant others might also hang out together, just them, but clearly this is not a unique meeting of the group.
Perrin has his long frame stretched with feet under the table and an arm on the back of an empty nearby chair. He’s already in scrubs, which makes me think he will be working later, but not in surgery today.
Theo sits across from Perrin, next to Bishop. Theo’s small smile is wide as Bishop finishes a story. Bish is also dressed for work, dress slacks, a dress shirt with no tie, and a professor-looking Harris tweed hanging on the back of his chair.
Theo is dwarfed by Perrin and Bishop, even sitting down. He has a rockstar look that is rivaled by Cas himself. Leather bracelets wrap his wrist, a black shirt sits under his apron, and skinny jeans. It’s practically his uniform.
I shift into the light a bit more and I can see them lift their heads to acknowledge me.
“Come on in, Baylor,” Theo says, getting up to make me coffee.
Bishop and Perrin each give me a good morning and a plate, cutlery, and napkin find their way to my hands before I even sit down and Theo places the coffee in front of me.
I take my time with the pastry and muffins, sipping my coffee and joining in the conversation. I don’t think I am just being asked to grab breakfast, though, so I wait for the topic to move on from the gossip from around town to why I was invited to this little gathering.
“And how are you, Baylor?” Theo asks, his smile sweet and genuine. Theo could get away with murder and I’m sure we would all be asking what the victim did to deserve it.
Before I can even get out the obligatory, “I’m fine.” Perrin follows up with, “How is Cas? He is due back this week, right?”
“Yeah, I think they said Friday.”
