For a moment, I wonder if she’s going to complain to Sage about me being in his store, but she has the composure to keep walking out.
When she’s gone, Sage comes over.
“Hey, you okay? I’d have run interference, but by the time I saw her, she’d already made you.”
“Yeah, she doesn’t scare me anymore. Much,” I say and pull him in for a hug. “How are you doing, man? I know my daughter has basically moved in here, but I haven’t gotten the chance to come say hi.”
Sage laughs. “Ava is adorable. You sure she’s yours?”
I mock-punch him in the belly.
“Anyway, I’ll leave you to it,” he says, looking at me and then Arlo before he goes to another section of the store.
“I’m scared to ask…” Arlo says.
“Sorry you had to witness that,” I say to him. “I’ve come back to Stillwater after a few years away. I guess not everybody is ready to throw me a welcome party.”
“Yeah, Mrs. Martin isn’t exactly my biggest fan either,” he says, and I detect something in his voice. If the evil witch is hell-bent on running someone else out of this town, she has another think coming.
“What’s the story?” I ask.
Arlo lets out a long sigh. “I have to get back to work. Tell you another time?”
“Sure. I should head over to Lovely Buns before Ava convinces everyone in town that they should have their own set of ladybug wings.”
He laughs. “She’s a really cool kid.”
“That she is.”
When I walk into Lovely Buns, I’m immediately hit by the scent of freshly baked bread. It reminds me so much of home and growing up with our mom baking a fresh loaf every morning.
Liv is behind the counter, and when she sees me, she adopts a worried expression.
“What’s up? Where’s Ava?”
“She’s doing her homework in the back. I saw Mrs. Martin leave Birchcraft.”
She lets the statement hang. I know Liv has been worrying about me leaving again if I bump into my past, but it’s different now.
“You know she can’t hurt us again, right?” I say, trying to reassure her. “She only got away with it before because I was too young and scared to fight back.”
Liv lines up the bread rolls in the display cabinet, which I’m sure is a way to keep her hands busy. If she were in the kitchen, she’d be baking up a storm. I can feel it.
She’s so much like our mother.
“She’s the president of the chamber of commerce, Levi. If she decides to come for me, I could get closed down.”
Anger bubbles inside my chest. “You didn’t do anything to her. Neither did I, for that matter. Surely she doesn’t have the power to get you closed. What kind of bullshit world do we live in that she can do that?”
“Oh no, Daddy said a bad word.” Ava is by the door to the bakery kitchen with her workbook in her hands, still wearing the ladybug wings Arlo made for her. She’s covering up her mouth with the book, but I can tell she’s smiling. “I’ll get the jar.”
She disappears back into the kitchen, and I give Liv an apologetic look.
“I didn’t come back to start a war with the Martins. She was the one who came to me.”
“Yeah, but did you take the bait?”
“Yeah, I guess I did. I’m sorry, Liv. I promise to not let her get to me again, okay? In fact, I have no intention of bumping into her again. If I see her, I’ll cross the road to the other side. And we know she’ll never step foot into The Academy if I’m working there.”
