“I can’t be a control freak anymore, now that Little Miss Lily is ruling the roost,” she said. “I try to tell her what to do and when, but does she listen? No! She’s nowhere near as good an employee as you, Emily.”
“I should hope not,” Emily said with a laugh, taking her own bite of cake. “But I think it’s good for you to let go of control, just a little. You’ve got people around you who can pick up the slack, even if my cake will never bequiteas good as yours.”
Sylvie grumbled and protested good-naturedly, and Chloe suddenly found herself with an armful of baby as Eula materialized seemingly from nowhere, pressing Lily’s bundled-up form into her arms.
“Here you go,” Eula said cheerfully, as Chloe blinked in surprise and just tried to concentrate on not dropping the baby.
She sank down carefully into a chair, clinging on to Lily for dear life. She didn’t have much experience with babies… but Sylvie’s laugh reassured her.
“I was the same when I first held her – I was sure I was going to drop her! But you’ll be fine. Just relax.”
Chloe wasn’t sure about that at all, but she forced herself to relax just atinybit.
She had to admit that Lilywasextremely cute, with her little scrunched-up nose, her round pink cheeks, and her wispy dark hair.
Probably she had been somewhat less cute during the two hours that Sylvie had spent trying to get her out of the house… but still pretty darn cute, Chloe was sure.
And after all, Chloe spent her days dealing with all the…interesting… substances that animals could produce, and she still loved them and thought they were the best thing ever.
She looked down at Lily thoughtfully, and Lily finally stirred in her sleep, blinking before staring back with big, green eyes.
“Hey there, sweetie,” Chloe whispered, smiling down at the little girl.
As utterly adorable as Lily was, Chloe wasn’t sure that parenthood was for her… or not yet, anyway. Who knew what the future would hold?
But she had to admit, shewasenjoying being an honorary auntie!
She reached down carefully to touch Lily’s face, marveling at how incredibly soft it was.
“Isn’t she amazing?” Sylvie said with a fond smile. “The best thing I ever made, and I didn’t even have to think about it! She just made herself that way. Why should I even bother trying to come up with new things, when the random luck of the universe can do a better job?”
“Well, I’d say that you hadsomethingto do with it,” Chloe said with a laugh, gently tickling Lily’s perfect pink cheek.
“Still,” Sylvie said. “Maybe it’s time to be a bit less…”
“Involved?” said Emily diplomatically.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Sylvie said, smiling. “Not that I’m going to stop completely, mind you… but I’ll try and be a bit more sane about it. The bakery is safe in your hands, Emily. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better.”
Emily grinned. “I already knew that.”
Shaking a finger jokingly, Sylvie added, “But you’d better believe that I’ll be coming back! You can’t keep me away from that place for too long.”
Chloe smiled, before looking up and seeing Kieran approaching.
“Your turn!” she said quickly, passing Lily off before he could protest. It had been fun to hold her, but she’d had enough of worrying about dropping her at any second!
Kieran blinked in confusion for a moment, the tiny baby almost disappearing in his enormous arms.
“Why, hello there,” he said to Lily. “Where did you come from?”
“I haven’t had the chance to say this until now, but thank you so much for putting together that changing table,” Sylvie said gratefully. “It had the two of us completely stumped. At leastIcould say that it was because of baby brain, but Gale had no excuse.”
“Oh, it was no problem,” Kieran said, making a face at Lily that had her gurgling in response. “And it wasn’t even me. I think about six of us came around in the end to wrestle it into submission.”
“Well, whoever it was, thank you.” Sylvie went to scoop up some more cake, looking disappointed to realize that it was now gone.
“Here,” Chloe said with a laugh, getting up and cutting off more slices for everyone. “You need it!”
