“Where are your parents?” The dog whined.
Sighing, she got to her feet and opened the back door again. Getting in, she pulled out the bread and made another peanut butter sandwich. Taking out one of her bowls, Lani poured water in it. Then climbing back out, she placed it on the ground.
“Have at it, buddy, and then go and find your people, or some new ones.”
Getting back in the driver side, she then backed slowly out. The dog watched her. At the end of the track, she turned right and headed back into town.
The town of Lake Howling was cute, and with the exception of Noah, Lani was pretty sure she could pass a bit of time here happily exploring before moving on again.
Parking in front of Cribbins Cakery aka the Howlery, she climbed out after looking up and down the street. No sign of Noah, and if she was staying, she couldn’t worry about that, Lani reminded herself.
Stopping outside the window, she studied it. The yellow striped canopy overhead was pretty, but the display was all over the place. Color and clutter everywhere. Lani couldn’t see a theme, just a jumble of things. Pictures of cakes were stuck to the left side of the window, and beneath them a rolling pin. Beside that was a muffin pan and a potted plant. It should really be decorated for fall now, and Thanksgiving.
She’d seen some pretty cool-looking displays further up the street; maybe whoever did them hadn’t reached the Howlery yet.
Pushing open the door, she was greeted with a loud buzzing sound, and quickly realized that the window display had carried through to here. A higgledy-piggledy mess of things was placed everywhere. She saw a cabinet with cake displays that needed dusting, another with decorative supplies. There were cake boards, and posters on the walls, and other random things like two bright pink satin pillows fringed in green.
“Lani!” Mrs. Cribbins appeared. Still dressed in her orange exercise gear, she now wore a red apron with Santa on the front. But the really odd thing about her appearance, if she could point out just one, was that her face was coated white.
“Hello, Mrs. Cribbins.” She couldn’t stop staring; the woman looked like a ghost.
“I dropped a bag of flour. Now, are you here about the position or to torment me?”
“Ah… well—”
“You want me to beg, Lani?” The woman had her hands on her hips and didn’t look the begging type from where Lani was standing.
“No. And yes, I would like to apply, please. I’m not sure how long I’ll be here, but your notice said temporary.”
“Yes, we’ll just see how you go and take it from there.”
“Don’t you want to know about me? I mean, I could be a bad person or something.” Lani felt she needed to say that; the woman was far too trusting.
“Noah recommended you, so that’s good enough for me.”
“To be honest, he doesn’t really know me that well. I mean…. Well, the thing is, I spent a few hours with him in a bar one night talking, but that’s all.”
Mrs. Cribbins waved a hand about. “Will you rob me?”
“No!” Lani was horrified that she’d think that.
“Can you bake?”
Lani nodded. “And cake design is a hobby of mine.”
“Well, then. You’re hired.”
It was ridiculous, but she felt tears fill her eyes. Lani didn’t cry, she’d learned tears were useless for anything but tiring you out years ago. Looking over her shoulder she focused on the window display. “I could rearrange that too, if you like?”
“Noah said it looked like a yard sale.”
Lani had to agree with him.
“So if you can do better, I’d be grateful. We do decorative cakes, cupcakes, that kind of thing. My husband Hank does the deliveries most often, but I know you drive, so you could do some too.”
It all sounded very relaxed to Lani’s mind.
“Come out back and look at the kitchen.”
