CHAPTER SIX
I’ve just pulled three pumpkin chocolate chip loaves out of the oven when I hear Gwen and Evan’s voices in the café. I pop the loaves on a cooling rack, taking a moment to inhale the spice-scented steam before removing my oven mitts and leaving the kitchen.
“Hey!” Gwen says, her eyes wide and overbright. She tosses her purse on a chair at the table where Evan is sitting with a couple. The guy looks like a slightly older version of Evan, and the beautiful Black woman beside him is sporting a perfectly round baby bump, so I’m guessing they’re Evan’s brother and sister-in-law, Malcolm and Sherée.
I wave Gwen forward, and she scurries over without a backward glance. As she approaches, I watch the others; Evan is rolling his eyes while Sherée shakes her head at something Malcolm is saying.
“Trouble?” I ask when Gwen reaches the counter.
“You could say that. Is it a health violation for me to go into the kitchen to hide out for a minute?”
“That bad?” I ask, and she nods. “Come on back then.”
She shoots a glance over her shoulder at Evan. A silent conversation seems to pass between the pair, ending with him giving her a smile and tilt of the head, and her following me into the kitchen. I try to ignore the little tug in my heart that reminds me of how I long for a similar connection with someone.
“What’s with all the tension out there?” I ask, setting about making Gwen a French vanilla cappuccino.
“Where do I begin?” With a heavy sigh, she perches on a stool out of the way. “Malcolm is feeling guilty because he’s had to work a lot lately. He was supposed to take a few weeks off when the baby is born, but his company just got a new project or client or something, and he agreed to work remotely. Sherée is worried he’ll be as swamped working from home as he would be in the office.”
“What does he do?”
Gwen scrunches her nose. “Well…I’m not exactly sure?”
I laugh as I set a steaming mug in front of her. She’s peering at the cooling pumpkin bread, so I swerve away from the stool I was about to sit on and grab a plate instead. “How do you not know?” I ask over my shoulder as I slice into one of the loaves.
“You know how inFriendsnobody actually knew what Chandler did? They knew he had some fairly important job that required him to go into an office and wear a suit, but their knowledge ended there? Then in that trivia game when their apartment was on the line, Rachel blurted out that Chandler’s job was a ‘transponster’?”
I set the plate with the pumpkin loaf in front of her. “So Malcolm is a transponster?”
Gwen lets out a snorty little laugh that makes me grin. “I knew you’d get it. To be fair, Evan doesn’t know exactly what Malcolm does either. After all this time, we’re both too embarrassed to come right out and ask.”
“Gotcha. So what’s the problem? Malcolm and Sherée have been arguing a lot?”
“Yes and no. Therealissue is Jasper has been getting on Malcolm’s nerves all day, and Evan and I have been playing referee. Jasper and Sherée have really bonded since she announced the pregnancy. He’s excited to be an uncle for the first time and keeps saying how he’d love to help since, as the oldest of five kids, he’s had a lot of experience.”
Gwen pauses to blow on her drink and take a careful sip. Her eyes slip closed in pleasure, and I can’t help another grin. Seeing people enjoy my creations—even something as simple as a cappuccino—never gets old.
“So Malcolm is jealous?”
“That’s probably part of it, but not because he thinks anything is going on between Sherée and Jasper. I think it’s a combination of him feeling like Jasper is encroaching on their lives, along with his own guilt. We were in my office shortly before we came here and Jasper announced he’s taking some time off work. He wants to be around when the baby comes to help out if needed.”
As Gwen has been talking, I’ve been slicing the rest of the loaves and preparing cinnamon butter. Gwen holds up her empty plate with a hopeful expression, so I slather cinnamon butter on another slice and give it to her. “Doesn’t Jasper manage a bank? Can he just take time off like that with no notice?”
“The short answer is yes. The bank was just taken over by someone new and I think Jasper’s worried about his future there. When he got back to our place this morning, he was on the phone for ages. He didn’t give many details except to tell us he’d saved up most of his holidays and had decided to use them now so he’d be free for anything baby- or wedding-related in the coming weeks.”
“Wow.” When Jasper apologized for his perceived rudeness yesterday, he mentioned receiving ‘distressing news’ about work. I wanted to ask him about it, but didn’t want to appear nosy. Then when he surprised me by being more open than expected, I had forgotten about it. “Where’s Jasper now?”
“We ran into Hugh a while ago and he and Jasper got talking about business. Hugh offered to give him a tour of the offices and answer any questions he had. Malcolm looked like he was about to blow a gasket after Jasper announced he was taking time off, so I suggested Jasper go with Hugh and meet us here later.”
“At least they’re all leaving tomorrow so you won’t have to play referee much longer,” I say. “And Jasper’s going to Hugh and Ivy’s for the night still, right?”
“True,” Gwen says slowly. “I hate that Malcolm and Sherée will miss out on all the pre-wedding fun, but with the way Malcolm and Jasper tend to butt heads, it’s probably for the best.”
I glance at her as I transfer the loaf slices onto a platter that will go in the bakery case out front. Gwen is picking at the last of her bread, her eyes focused intently on me. I narrow my eyes and point at her. “You have your scheming face on, Gwendolyn.”
Her mouth pops open. “I don’tscheme. How dare you.” When I narrow my eyes further, she sighs and drops the last morsel of bread to the plate, rubbing her hands together to brush off the crumbs. “Okay, fine. I was thinking how Jasper would benefit from having a sense of purpose, you know? Something to keep him occupied. Or maybe someone.”
Ahh, so she’s in matchmaker mode. Do I give off some sort of‘I clearly need a man’vibes I was heretofore unaware of?
