I sighed and decided this wasn’t helping take my mind off things, so I just started picking up ingredients and making it up as I went. It was the only way to put my mind in some sort of order and be functional for a few hours until Dare came back.
I didn’t manage to get very far when there was a knock on the door. I dropped the whisk and stilled myself as Lookah barked at the big evil door.
I tried to take deep breaths, but it was next to impossible when whoever was standing outside was sucking all the air in my lungs.
Before I gave myself another panic attack, I grabbed a kitchen knife and approached the door. I looked through the peephole and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw my neighbor, Teddy.
“Hey Teddy,” I said and hid the knife behind my back but not before he spotted it.
“Are you mad at me or something?” he asked, putting his hands up as if in surrender.
I shook my head and let him in. As with every guest, he spent some time down on his knees saying hi to the big furball before he settled down in the kitchen and I offered him coffee.
“What brings you here?” I asked.
Teddy raised an eyebrow and glared at me with a smirk before taking a sip.
“I wanted to check on my friend-slash-boss. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” I replied as I bit my lip.
Thanks to all the madness in my life, I’d completely forgotten about the madness in his.
“How are you doing? I’m so sorry about the truck,” I said and he wrinkled his brows at me.
“Why are you apologizing to me?” he asked.
“Well, you needed the job, and you lost that extra income overnight because of me.”
Teddy rolled his eyes and put his mug down.
“It wasn’t your fault and I’m not the affected party here. How areyou?” He pointed at me for extra emphasis and I dropped at the stool next to him.
“I’m…okay,” I said.
Teddy stared at me.
“That it? Okay? Really?”
I shrugged.
“What do you want me to say, Teddy? That I’m lost without my job? That I feel like driftwood in an ocean? That I’m scared life will never be the same again? That I might have to leave this place behind? Is that what you want?”
“Well…yeah,” he said and put his hand on my shoulder. “That’s a lot.”
I nodded.
“But what are you talking about? Leave this place, why?” he asked and looked around the house.
“No, not leave Dare’s farm. I mean not specifically. I mean leave Mayberry Holm.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?” I glared back at him, and he inhaled deeply.
“You’re not going anywhere. This place is your home,” he said.
“Not with Victor lurking around every corner it’s not.”
